more oral history: german memories of the second world war.
"The school has already been closed. One scarcely dared to go out to the street let alone go out of the village. We children therefore hung around the village. An aircraft crashed here; a man lay with a striped suit, shot beside the railway embankment; and the tension of the adults very likely rubbed off onto us."
"The time starting in 1933 was a bad time. Suddenly there were "races", Aryan and non-Aryan. Mixture was at least frowned upon even if not prohibited. During the war it was especially difficult for the Jews, Poles, and gypsies. They were not allowed in public baths, parks, theatres, and so on. Nordic was trump card: blond, blue-eyed, tall, slim, with a narrow skull. Roundheaded perons wer tolerated if need be,if they could prove their aryan descent till the crusaders."
Posted by flambingo at October 30, 2003 12:40 PM