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days_unfoldingI asked my dad how his family went all the way from Lithuania to Bavaria in Germany during World War II. He's telling me the story in installments. I thought that some of you might find this story interesting. Here's part 3.
I don't know how much time was spent in the Czech camp or traveling by intermittent train. But anyway, we arrived in Berlin after dark. The train stopped in a big railroad yard and we were told that we couldn't leave until morning. This was worrisome because the British carried out nightly air raids and railroad yards were a priority target. So the men on the train fanned out and covered every light they could see in the yard. I don't know if because of that or other factors, the British raid came but they clobbered a part of the city near the yard with no damage to the yard itself.
Our next destination was Munich, the largest city in Bavaria. By the time we got there it was the start of winter. I don't know how she did it but my mom found an old german farmer and offered to do all his food preparation and cleaning in return for food and board.. The farmer was a veteran of World War I with only one eye. His other eye socket was empty. I'm afraid I couldn't help staring at him because it was the first empty eye socket I had seen. My mom made me pitch in with the work. I was responsible for grinding up meat for putting into sausages. This was something I could handle but it was very boring. Occasionally there would be some gristle or a piece of bone in the meat which would cause the meat grinder to jam so that I could hang on the handle with my whole weight and not be able to budge it. We stayed with the farmer through the winter until we were placed in another refugee camp in early 1945, the subject of the next installment.
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Date: 2022-03-10 07:41 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2022-03-10 03:08 pm (UTC)Fascinating stuff!
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Date: 2022-03-11 06:33 pm (UTC)