My Neighbor's Tale

[Panzermacher]

My Neighbor, a now elderly Lady from Berlin used to tell me some awesome stories of life as a child in the Reich. She remembers alot about what happened and the War at Home in Germany, and was kind enuff to relate some of these to me.
Thanks Christa......

The first story she told me that was amusing was the tale of Rationing. Each family got like a pound of "Oleo Margarine" she called it Synthetic butter, basically. She said it wasn't bad tasting and did the job as far as spreading it on bread or rolls. One day they stayed extra long in an Air raid bunker, due to an extended raid, they returned to their flat to find that their family dog had gotten into the ice box and ate the ENTIRE month's ration of the Oleo! She said her mom just wept...she had waited 2 hours in a Ration line to get that pound of Oleo and was just sickened the dog had ate it! But she went on to say in later days they all found it somewhat humorous and cracked joke about it (Typical Berliner Humor she called it, When the worst was thrown at you, make a joke...)

The second story I recall right now, was when her Mother and Father decided to evacuate her and her siblings to Bavaria. Her father could not leave Berlin, due to his war work....but her Mother and an Auntie rounded up all the kids and took then to a relative in Bavaria. Christa said on the way, the railways set up soup kitchens to feed soldiers and civilian travellers...(See cyberia's Reichsbahn thread in the Land Warfare Forum....He has some Nice pictures of just such kitchens) They had got in line for soup, when they were due to transfer trains, (She said she couldn't recall where, but it was close to where they were going) basically to get a bite before the final trainride. As they were standing in line, a gang of drunken SS men showed up track side. She said they were NOT the SS who fought in the field....but some kind of Train security SS group.(I am not sure what she meant here...she was just a 9 year old girl and really didnt understand the Armed forces. She just knew they were not the Waffen SS.) Well anyway this gang of men moved through the trackside, Harassing passengers and demanding papers. When they reached the soup kettles...they shoved the serving women out of the way, ate their fill, then kicked over the Kettles, spilling the soup all over the trackside! She said they laughed about it and wandered off. She still asks, to this day, 'Why would they do such a thing to their own people? We were all hungry and stayed hungry til we got to my Auntie's home. What they did was horrible!"

Another tale she told me was one that could have gotten her and her family into great trouble.....(Remember...at this time she was maybe 7 or 8 years old....she said she really didn't have a grasp on what was going on in her country, she admitted this herself.) IT was tradition in her neighborhood in Berlin, to go once a week to the Butcher to get the weekly meat rations. Her mother would never take her there, but one day she asked to accompany her to the Butcher's. Her mother said "Ok, you can go, but be sure that when we get there to say 'Heil Hitler' so we can get our extra meat." (At this point she went on to say, the Butcher was a party member of some rank, he would give extra tidbits to customers who called out a Heil Hitler upon entering the store.) They reached the Butcher's and entered where upon her mother gave the call.....but she didn't! The butcher eyed her and said "Well, what about you little one?" Where upon Christa answered in typical little girl style, "No! I am not goning to 'Heil' Him! I don't like him because he has an ugly Mustache!" Christa said her mother changed the whole spectrum of colors from Pale as death to turkey red! Her mother knew what the her daughter had just said could bring big problems on the family...if the butcher had wanted to press it....
The butcher then asked her...."You don't like our Fuhrer because he has an ugly Mustache?" Whereupon Christa replied, "Yes, I think it is ugly, and he should get rid of it....and I won't Heil him til he does!"

Ok I can imagine the tension her mother was feeling....and the fact that at this time in the Reich...these were treasonous words, and they stood to lose more than just meat rations.....But Christa said she dug in her heels and would not back down. After an eternity of silence...the butcher began to laugh. He then told Christa's mom, "Ok, I will talk to the Fuhrer and see if I can get him to get rid of the Ugly Mustache, and here is some extra rations for you."
And every time Christa went with her mom to the butcher...they got extra meat rations due to that conversation with the Party Butcher!

[lufttiger]

Those are so neat, i really enjoy listening to vets tell there stories, in her
case i guess an observer. They sure had it rough back then.

[Jim O]

Great stories. Not that it would have been great in Bavaria, but it would have been horrible for the women had they stayed and survived the Battle of Berlin.

[Panzermacher]

I think she told me her Mother went thru the Battle of Berlin....and was never the same person afterwards......

[Whiterook]

Amazing stuff...thanks for sharing that with us!!!

[Wustenfuchs]

An eldery German woman that attends my brother's church gave me this story.

She lived in a small village in eastern Germany when the Soviets were making major advances westward. The Germans were taking a lickin. An attachment from an SS Panzer Division was fighting a rear guard retreat and passed through their town on their way west. She figured they were doomed to a horrible fate. The Soviets took the town and things started going from bad to worse.

She prayed for relief, and it came. The commander of the SS troops decided they owed it to the civilians to try and save them and despite terrible odds they pulled off a surprise counter attack and retook the town.

She said it was a strange sight the following morning, trucks, halftracks and tanks covered with civilians rushing westward.

[krieg]

Originally Posted by Wustenfuchs

An eldery German woman that attends my brother's church gave me this story.

She lived in a small village in eastern Germany when the Soviets were making major advances westward. The Germans were taking a lickin. An attachment from an SS Panzer Division was fighting a rear guard retreat and passed through their town on their way west. She figured they were doomed to a horrible fate. The Soviets took the town and things started going from bad to worse.

She prayed for relief, and it came. The commander of the SS troops decided they owed it to the civilians to try and save them and despite terrible odds they pulled off a surprise counter attack and retook the town.

She said it was a strange sight the following morning, trucks, halftracks and tanks covered with civilians rushing westward.

a nice story there thankyou i like that
best krieg