Part 51: A School Year Full Of Experiences I made good progress in class, but sometimes I had trouble with math. If I didn’t understand something, I ran to the dormitory with my classmates and did my homework there. In the community, I was able to close the gaps in my knowledge.
Part 50: A Daring Operation And A Brush With Death A few days later, when I came home from school, there was great excitement in the house. Änne lay in bed burning with fever. The children were crying and standing helplessly in front of their mother’s bedside. I suspected what had happened. Hilde had performed an abortion despite the considerable risk. Probably the fetus had …
Part 49: A Lesson In Unexpected Hunger Aunt Else finally moved from the city to our village. Her husband had returned home shortly after the war emaciated and terminally ill, only to die after a few weeks.
Part 48: Battling The Elements For Education As announced in the timetable, the bulging subject matter fell mercilessly upon me. After a brief time, it became clear that I was one of the weakest students.
Part 47: A New School Experience The school building radiated a pleasant atmosphere. My class was furnished with three rows of folding benches and a locker, as was common. The large, multi-level blackboard covered the entire front wall.
Part 46: A Nature Walk On The Way To School In late summer, right in the first days of September, I set out for my first day of school. When I left the house early in the morning, swallows were already gathering in long rows, chirping excitedly on the power lines.
Part 45: Restless In The Village In this daily village monotony, most residents paid no attention to the profound changes currently taking place in postwar Germany. The three western occupation zones carried out the currency reform with the approval of the Allies.
Part 44: A Summer Of Exploration After the exciting entrance exam, I put on my wooden shoes again the other day and reported back to the cherry orchard. Until school started in the fall, there was a summer’s worth of time to do all the things I felt responsible for since Father was gone.
Part 43: Unexpectedly Facing The Entrance Exam I had left school behind me. There was no lack of work but finding an apprenticeship in a car repair shop according to my secret wishes was virtually hopeless. There were not enough cars in the vicinity and consequently no workshops.
Part 42: Cigarettes And Clandestine Business The old plant where father worked again was now called ‘Soviet Joint Stock Company.’ The synthetic raw rubber and all other products went to the Soviet Union mainly as reparations.
