Briefe Weltkrieg II
Collected by Annemarie Kerz and Else Bügge
Wulfen/Fehmarn, Germany den 4.2.1946
My dear Annemarie!
By now you surely must have received my first letter. Today I want to tell you more in detail what happened to me at that time in May 1945, what I undertook and what happened to me.
On May 6th, 1945 when we received orders to leave our station in Bruch near Brüx in Czechoslovakia, and I took leave of you, I had no idea that I would leave my post so suddenly; after they had delivered us into another camp.- We had no idea where we were. It looked as if they had dropped us off into a factory, where we were to work alongside with other slave laborers. Most of the people that I saw there, standing in long food lines, looked like skeletons, half starved and with their heads shaved. All kinds of thoughts racing through my mind in sheer panic. I faked a toothache and asked permission to go to a dentist. I received permission and I asked to have Schnäpferl [Elisabeth Hirt from Rottweil in Alsace Lorraine] to accompany me. So we set out to find Oberleutensdorf, where we moved in with Mr. and Mrs. Schicker. They tried to convince us to hide out in the coalmines with them, - in case the Russians should come.
That night I dreamed about my family. In the morning we exchanged our dreams. Secretly I had already made up my mind to separate myself from the Schicker family; I had no intention to hide out in the mine shafts. -
Schnäpferl [Elisabeth Hirt, from Rottweil] and I had just started doing our laundry the next day, when Mr. Schicker came to us into the laundry room and gave us the latest radio announcements that had been broadcasted over the Brüx radio station:
1.) Waves of Russian tanks ‘Russische Panzerrudel’ have reached the ‘Erzgebirge’.
2.) They gave orders for all women with children to leave; taking two blankets and some food.
3.) Shortly afterwards we could hear the commotion over the radio that enemy forces had taken over the Brüx radio station, the German ‘Nachrichtenagentur’. The German radio announcers were thrown out of the windows, we could hear all the gun shots over the radio and the screams of the people.
4.) After that we packed our bags ‘Rucksack’. – Our laundry was still in the washing kettle. Mrs. Schicker gave us some sugar and rendered butter fat. She gave me an old, torn dress, but I kept wearing my uniform and overcoat. –
5.) We tried once more to return to the old camp: ‘Holtschitzer Stellung’, it was off limits. – In front of the mayor’s building ‘Gemeindehaus’ stood a German staff car, they took us all the way to Kaaden. Next day we landed in Karlsbad, where we waited for a train, that night we stayed in the railroad station; they told us that all trains stopped running. That’s when we started to march with all the other fleeing people; many a soldier was already lying in the ditches, heavily wounded and too exhausted to go on. At night we slept in the open fields when we got tired, pressing on toward the west, where the Americans were, ‘zum Amie’ they told us. All around us the horizon was filled with canon fire ‘Kanonenfeuer’ and the sound of the exploding bombs. I was cowering in my large air force overcoat ‘feldgrauen Flak-Mantel’ with my cap ‘Flakmütze’ pulled far over my ears, hiding my ears, eyes, and my bushy hair, I did not want to be known [as the 17 year old FLAK-girl], they all took me for a young boy FLAK helper ‘Flakhelfer’. My long hair were securely stashed away under the cap.
6.) Then I remember seeing the swarms of Russian tanks coming over the mountains; first it looked like a swarm of wild animals coming over the mountain range. We could not identify whether they were troops or tanks; until someone announced: ‘Those are the Russians’, they were forming a kettle with their tanks; I was beside myself in panic and grabbed the nearest German soldier next to me, he was severely wounded. In my rage my cap fell to the floor, my long hair fell over my shoulders. The soldier looked at me and realized that I was a girl. He took me into his arms and said: “My God Teddy, you are a girl, have no fear if the Russians get here first, I will shoot the two of us; for I still have my revolver in my pocket. – Then I got real calm and we both stayed together. He was from Magdeburg and could speak Low German, I trusted him, since I was from Fehmarn and also spoke Low German. At that time I started to bandage his wounds, he had already lost so much blood that his boots could not come off anymore because his legs had swollen, but he never complained.
7.) Soon we came into the American camp and were taken prisoners of war. Two days we stayed in that kettle with their tanks surrounding us. We got no food and no drink. The German soldiers had surrendered and laid down all their weapons. There were big stacks of German weapons. We were mostly quiet because we did escape becoming prisoners to the Russians. Slowly we realized that some of the prisoners had already escaped during the night and so did we. We marched toward Königsberg on the river Eger. Here we were separated, Americans, with heavy automatic guns stopped each one, when they found that I could speak English they thought I was a spy. The American soldier forced me to follow him into a Villa, where they forced me to wash up. The soldiers stood around and stared at me, like apes. Then they took me in the basement where all the belongings of the German family, people who had lived there before and had stuffed all their belongings into boxes. I was to pick anything I wanted so I didn’t look like a German soldier anymore. I kept all my own things but took one white Jacket that just fit me. One American soldier who spoke perfect German, warned me to surrender totally to them and follow their directions, if I refused they would all gang rape me. The soldier that had taken me prisoner jumped up and grabbed me to take me upstairs in a room where he tried to rape me, he had the smell of Whiskey on him and showed me his revolver with the picture of his sister on it. He laid it on the nightstand but he had no idea that my eyes were fixed on the gun; in the battle with this drunken soldier I grabbed his pistol and aimed it at him, all of a sudden he realized I would have rather killed him and myself, before I would give in to him. The pistol was not loaded - otherwise I know we both would have died. At that time he sobered up and maybe realized some things. From that moment on he guarded me almost with a jealous hate toward the other soldiers. He would not allow any of the other soldiers to talk to me, after what happened he did not even try to rape me anymore; instead he guarded me all night. In the early morning I asked to go to the bathroom from where I could escape through the window and so free myself from that horror.
8.) I got into a refugee camp. - With the help of a local priest I went back into the American headquarters, [the German Villa] and demanded my things. The American soldier said to me, oh, I thought you would like to be my Fräulein. I only received my pass all my other belongings, plus my money the soldier [AMY] kept. - With 70 persons (refugees) we shared one room in the building. A tin of watery soup we received as daily ration, this cost us 1.- Reichsmark and I had no money. The misery forced me to flee again. On the 25th of May during the night I and a young widow lady from Upper Silesia by the name of Frau Martha Nehring, left the camp in Königsberg along the Eger river in Czechoslovakia, we marched toward Franzensbad, we only used the field ways, as to avoid running into Czech totalitarians. In the evening around 7:30 we crossed the border into Wildstein. That night we stayed in a small hut, where they used to put prisoners. In spite of the many fleas and bed bugs we slept good; now we were in Germany. Next morning we got a ride all the way to Aadorf/Voigtland we were 10 km. away from the next refugee camp in Oelsnitz, we kept on marching. After arriving in the refugee camp in Oelsnitz we received a meal, rice with a few vegetables. - Lying like animals clustered together on straw. The building had been a school previously. The whole property was fenced in with tall barbed wire, we were glad we had come this far and walked around in the town to find a way to plan a route out of that town. In the evening, 5 minutes past 9 [curfew for the Germans], we were arrested and put into jail by American MP. Next morning we were allowed to walk around in the jail yard. There was a woman who was the wife of a high ranking German general, they were from Lübeck, belonging to the Niederegger family. She told me that she had to watch how they tortured him to death. He was not allowed to use the bathroom and had to empty his bowels on his uniform. All the other things were too horrible to put on paper. Martha and I were released the same day. We returned to the refugee camp. Many women with their children were lying sick on cots, starving or dying of typhoid fever, cholera or the lack of food. An American who stood guard behind the barbed wire fence, with a rifle over his shoulder would through some candy over the fence. He wanted to make friends with me and he soon noticed that I spoke English. Next day I also got sick, Martha told the soldier that I was sick and he actually sneaked in some food for me. We befriended him and his name was “Bill Ferrara from New Jersey”. He really had a soft heart and although they were not allowed to speak to us, there were many Americans that didn’t like to look at the misery of death and suffering in that camp. “Bill Ferrara” and another soldier by the name of “Manley”, they decided to help us and told us, that they had to move their troops back and give that territory to the Russians. They told us to get out as soon as we could. When you get sick like I did you have a constant urge to go to the bathroom and all I passed was blood. This would let up and then come back.- On the 14th of June I was well enough to go on and we continued our trip. We got all the way to Stassfurt with a truck. Then we got to Magdeburg on June 15th, next day we were in Braunschweig. Here I could not go any further, my stomach cramps were so severe. On the 19th of June we continued our trip, over Ueltzen, Soltau, I believe there we slept in a salt mine. Then we traveled toward Hamburg, we were not allowed to cross the Elbe river but the people that we traveled with, did hide us underneath their musical instruments, that’s how we got into Hamburg where we stayed during the night. This was the Villa of “Christina Soederbaum, the famous German movie star”. The furniture had been totally demolished, but we were glad to hide out in the wreck. Then we went on to Luebeck and Neustadt in Holstein with the truck that belonged to the musicians. This was the last stop for them and we had to separate from our kind friends. They were supposed to entertain the people in a polish refugee camp. Those men were all musicians who had been in German slave labor camps, only one man was a “NAZI”, another man was a blond, blue eyed mulatto negro, who was released out of a concentration camp, when the war ended.-
9.) How everything had suddenly changed in Germany, it was unbelievable. – I met Jewish people who told some of the worse stories, unbelievable stories, about how they were living in camps and doing forced labor living in concentration camps and lived to talk about it. Who were the people, German born, had to suffer such agony by the hands of the NAZI cruelty and they survived the years of the war. The German populations were now informed about what really went on in all of Europe. Stories you had never ever read in any newspaper before, we learned on the streets.
10.) In Neustadt we were taken in by a very friendly family, they gave us some food. We were allowed to sit down in the living room on a chair and sleeping during the night. We were ever so grateful. They told us the whole story about the last battle between the British and the German fleet, the sunken ships were still to be seen as grim reminders. The city of Neustadt, in Holstein, now under British rule had given permission to the survivors to plunder the private homes. Some ships had naked prisoners on board that looked like skeletons. They came into the homes and took what they wanted. It was terrible what had happened to them, but yet it made some sense that they got permission to plunder. We marched on toward the island Fehmarn, passing Oldenburg all the way to Großenbrode. There were British troops, they would not allow anybody to cross over to the island. The troops told me that the island was a prison camp for German sailors. When I spoke English with them they became friendly and offered us a ride in a German hovering marine boat.
11.) We walked on foot along the old rail road tracks, where I used to ride the elegant train. Everything was stopped and no train would run. At that time I was so exhausted from shock and disappointment that I passed out. When I regained consciousness, there were two German sailors standing at our side trying to help us. Yes, said the two sailors, we know a Mrs. Bügge in Wulfen, she cooks a kettle of soup every day for us halve starved sailors. She will surely help you. Oh, I wondered if that would be my mother? Now we arrived in Wulfen and knocking on the front door, my sister Emmi [Schütze] answered and opened the door, she screamed: “It is Else!” Then followed a crying and a hugging. My family had received the terrible news from our government that I was missing in action, in duty for the fatherland in the area of Czechoslovakia.
12.) It was June the 21st 1945, when I finally could be united with my family. Our home was filled with refugees, I looked and felt like a lost gypsy girl. Martha Nehring was also given a welcome home by my parents. – Now I have recovered very well, but I have not found any employment. I study English every day. A young professor from Bamberg comes to our house and gives me private lessons.
Friendly regards your friend Else Bügge
eb-wood@netwalk.com