Dorn / Friesen I was a Wolf Kid from Königsberg

Biographical novel
2. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-3-7494-1597-7
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 132 Seiten

Der biographische Roman von Ursula Dorn "Ich war ein Wolfskind aus Königsberg" beschreibt die Erlebnisse des Kindes in Königsberg, dem heutigen Kaliningrad (Russland), während der Endphase des Zweiten Weltkrieges und die Hungersnot der Nachkriegeszeit.

Frau Ursula Dorn wurde 1935 iin Königsberg, dem heutigen Kaliningrad/Russland geboren. Die Erlebnisse des Kindes aus der Endphase des Zweiten Weltkrieges und der ersten Nachkriegeszeit hat sie in ihrem autobiographischen Roman "Ich war ein Wolfskind aus Königsberg" beschrieben.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dorn, Ursula

Friesen, Walther

Leseproben

Small Getaways
Sometimes, when it was quiet in the streets, I ran then quickly to my aunt Agnes who lived only a few blocks further away; she was my mother’s older sister. I always felt very comfortable there. It was always so cozy there. We had then a nice breakfast with her daughter Karin who was 16 years old, and some stories were told us; I had never experienced it with my mother. I don’t know why, but she never did anything like that with us kids. I also watched how Agnes sewed with the sewing machine when she tailored something for her daughter. I took a great interest in all that. What became too small for Karin was then given to me and my little sister. It was then changed by Aunt Agnes. We were happy about those beautiful things. At home, it didn’t look so rosy, that’s to say. My mother was also a strong smoker, and even our butter ration stamps were exchanged to get some smoking material. Since I was the older daughter, I always had to go to the neighbours and exchange the stamps. Thus, the children were also deprived of what they really deserved. That’s why Aunt Agnes and my mother often had clashes. She couldn’t understand it at all. She then also got to know a woman friend called Sahm; and then they often went away and so we stayed during the air attacks under difficult conditions in the basement or remained in our apartment. I always had to take care of children, because I was the older one, but I also was terribly afraid that something could happen to us. Then my mother met a soldier. He and others had been deployed as a unit on the grounds of our community garden. We had a beautiful large summerhouse; before the air raids we had been often staying there in summer to enjoy the weekends. But then it wasn’t possible anymore. If it was stilly over the city, we dared to get out, but that was rarely the case. Only my mother went quite often there, now because of her boyfriend. My little stepbrother Max was born from this relationship. For my father, who hadn’t been home for a long time and one day came on vacation, probably the whole world collapsed when he saw the child. I remember exactly the look on his face. This was followed by a terrible marriage crash between father and mother; we couldn’t understand at all what was going on and had to witness everything, full of great fear. We all cried terribly, and then my father went away and didn’t come back for a few days, even though we didn’t stop asking, “Where’s our dad?” But he didn’t come home. Then suddenly he stood before us. We all hung on dad. Everyone had the right to sit with him on his lap and caress him. I think he also enjoyed being hugged by all his children. Only for the youngest there was no feeling. He wasn’t even really taken care of, but we kids all loved and spoiled him. Our father stayed a few more days with us, but then he had to leave again. We were all very sad about it and would have liked to have him with us. Now my father was transferred to Russia with his unit, and no one knew for how long. How could it have been between my parents? Goodbye! We couldn’t realize it to the full extent, after all the disappointment our father had. In The War
Our games on the road were getting more and more dangerous for us, from day to day. Yet, we managed sometimes to get to the community garden of our grandma Irma and then slept there, when it was too dangerous for us to go back home. And the trams didn’t run regularly already because of the airstrikes. Somehow, we always managed to get back and forth. Many sailors coming from the central railway station passed almost daily by Kontiner Weg, where Grandma had a garden; they went to the Schichau shipyard at the port, where they had to report for duty on warships. Then we had fun asking them if we could carry their belongings along for a little while. They usually laughed at us and gave us something to carry. For that we also got some money or candies, and we were beaming with joy. Because soldiers were well provided with everything. But we always had to watch out because of the Russians’ low-flying aircrafts. Once we had to stay with grandma and did not manage to get to the air shelter bunker that was very close to the garden. My brother Herbert as well as my brother Hans, Grandma and I had to lie on the floor, which we had previously laid out with some blankets. We were all scared. Then later we fell asleep from fatigue. In doing so, we didn’t notice at all that the left ear of my brother Hans had been gnawed at away durung the night. In the morning he was lying there wholly smeared in blood and no one knew what it was. Then my grandma said that it might have been a rat, and all of us got suddenly really scared. Wood and coal were also getting scarcer, and then we went to the goods train station, adjacent to our community garden, where coal wagons were stationed sometimes. We got covertly some pieces of coal out of the wagons down, but that had to go lightning fast, because there were always railway watchmen running around. But we were quite smart in organizing it and always had luck. Sometimes we also played on the rails between the wagons. It was very dangerous, but we had great fun. An uncle of mine sailed always his boat to the Schichau shipyards to fish out with a hand net some pieces of coal from the harbour basin. Now and then I also went with. Then we got a share of it. And so we were keeping ourselves above water. Then my grandma Irma moved into the apartment of her daughter Agnes, because the airstrikes became stronger and stronger now, and she couldn’t stay alone in the community garden. We had already had a great attack behind us and, I guess so, those had been the Englishmen. Within two hours they had managed to reduce the whole city center to rubble; the bombing was started at about two o’clock at night. It was terrible. The sirens went off; everyone was torn out of sleep. Everyone milled around in the streets. There was no order at all. People looked up to the bright sky; it glittered all up in the air because of tinfoil pieces, which had been previously thrown from the aircrafts. They had formed a huge cross that spread in the air across the city center, and we all ran for our lives. We managed only just in time to get to the air raid shelter at Oberhaberberg (Central railway station). I’ll never forget it. Because of the high pressure wave from the bomb blast, all the people in the bunker fell over. I broke outright down with fear and thought, we were all dead now. There followed a series of strikes without end, and the whole city was on fire. But no one could help. The bombardment had eased by morning, and some brave people began slowly to leave the bunker. We were still full of fear in the body and didn’t dare to come out. Also, for the simple reason that the all-clear signal hadn’t been given yet. Then suddenly we saw our aunt Agnes with her daughter Karin and Grandma, all chalk white in the face out of sheer fear. They were totally weirded out to see us here. They had come in at the other end of the bunker, and since everything was dark, we couldn’t see each other before. Now we made the decision and, like all other people, took ourselves outside. It was terrible, everything was burning, and everyone was groping his way in the streets as far as it was possible. We were incredibly lucky. The house we lived in had remained safe. Aunt Agnes was very much excited; we had to go with her and see, if her apartment in the Knochenstraße had been left intact. But we saw from a distance that all the houses were in rubble and ashes. We all broke into tears and clamped together with despair. Now the three didn’t have their home anymore. Everything was gone; they had only their bare lives. They stayed with us for the first time, until everything more or less calmed down. Aunt Agnes then tried to find another apartment, and it didn’t take long, then one in Unterhaberberg was assigned to her. They were extremely happy about it, because it was too much for us with so many people in our not-too-large apartment and then mostly together in the air-raid shelter. The relatives gathered up everything what was left to make it somewhat homely for them. Life in the dark
From then on, it was even difficult to walk around the streets. The shelling from the planes with on-board weapons occurred now many times a day and that was always in low-level flights. People always ran close to the walls of houses. If I wanted to go to the bakery over the way, then I had to watch out all along not to be hit by a shot. There was no escape from them anywhere in the city now. Our living played out almost exclusively in the air-raid shelter, because the sirens didn’t manage any longer to warn the people. Once we were up in the apartment (4th floor), as my mother eventually wanted to try to cook a decent lunch for all of us. She had managed to get something from the butcher the day before. There had to be goulash, and we were very much looking forward to it. By the time we were up in our apartment, we heard a terrible bang, and we all fell down onto the floor. It was a Stalin’s organ that had hit the house next to us. Our house had also got a part of it, all the windows were broken, doors flew up, and some pieces of furniture turned over. We all lay on the floor frightened to death, and no longer dared to get up. My mother cried out then loud “All get up and quickly off to the cellar!”. We all raced down to the stairwell. There were shards all over. As we got down, all other housemates sat...