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Post by gumby on May 23, 2012 23:07:04 GMT -5
I had a dream the other night where I was standing in the kitchen of Grandmother's house in my past life as Katie. The floor in the kitchen was made of wide wood planks and was dull. there were cabinets up high on the walls. There was a small table and chairs, an old fashion ice box, and also this white porcelain stove. I am sure that it was a gas stove, and I remember my grandmother and mother cooking over the stove preparing large meals. This was such a good, warm memory of my past life as Katie. I am in the kitchen helping my mother and grandmother with the cooking. There was also a deep sink to one side where we washed dishes. I think that there was running water to that sink. The stove looked like this: www.constructionjunction.org/files/image/products/1212866098-1930s%2520tappan%2520porcelain%2520enamel%2520gas%2520range%2520$375.JPGI did have one other dream about that kitchen about a year ago. It was near the end of the war or after the war was over, and I went into the kitchen alone one morning. I opened all of the cabinet doors, and the shelves were all empty. I found a jar of ersatz coffee ( imatation coffee made in Germany during the war because there was no real coffee available ) I knew that the coffee was my grandfather's, but this made me sad because he had died recently. Bare shelves, and my life felt the same way, devoid of anything at this point, complete despair. Post: after I wrote this I googled German kitchens of 1930's and found this picture, which supports my memories, especially the stove and sink with running water, my grandmother's house was more "upscale" though www.ipernity.com/doc/57114/8423582
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Post by Laurasia on May 25, 2012 16:12:37 GMT -5
Hi Gumby.
Very interesting dream. I have also had recollections of some of Hans' old furniture & things of that nature & have found them oddly heart-warming as well...even though they were in his living quarters at the camp. It's always interesting how we can connect to mundane things like furniture in such a way.
Sincerely, Laurasia
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Post by gumby on May 27, 2012 10:17:07 GMT -5
This is so true Laurasia. I think that furnishings and familiar objects make an impression on the inner being which brings us within close proximity towards our past life experiences. When I focus on this dream of the kitchen in my grandparents house, I begin to recall even the scents there, like apples and spices which were in abundance in my grandmother's kitchen. I remember that grandfather had apple trees in the yard, and I was the one who went out to pick them, placing them into a large handled basket - fresh apples to eat and for grandmother to make into pies and tarts.
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Post by Miss Bothmann on Jul 19, 2012 14:27:22 GMT -5
Oh gosh, yes! When I remember all the furniture that Anna had in the house, I could almost smell the wood..feel the textures. They just don't make fniture like they used to..LOL
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Post by gumby on Jul 21, 2012 13:22:49 GMT -5
I think that these kinds of memories can be the most pleasant to have. In my dreams I have seen many of the rooms in the old house which I lived in when I was Katie. In particular I remember a dining room in the large old house which was in central Stuttgart. We lived there when I was a little girl. It had hardwood floors, and we had a huge long wooden table in the center of the dining room, it was bare ( no tablecloth ) and a medium wood tone color. We only put a fancy tablecloth on it when we had company or on a holiday. There was also a fine wood hutch to one side, very tall with windows,where my mother had all her fine dinnerware. The old house was divided into apartments, so we were on the top floor. The dining room was in the center of the apartment. and a wide door opened to a sitting room with upholstered couches and chairs, and beyond this, there were paneled doors with windows that swug open to a porch, where we could sit in the hot summer afternoons after our main meal. Yes, Miss Bothmann, everything was so old and yet then, it was new. Big heavy well-built furniture which seemed indestructable! How we ever got it up there I'll never be able to guess, because there was an indoor staircase which led up to our apartment. ( the only way was if it was raised up with a lift and brought through the front porch doors ) I think that this furniture smelled so wonderful because it was genuine wood, oak, cherry, mahogany. It is funny how the dining room and sitting rooms were so spacious, yet the kitchen at the other end of the dining room was so narrow and cramped. But it was a nice house to live and grow up in, I have many good memories of it.
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Post by Leutnantzursee on Jul 27, 2012 17:56:21 GMT -5
Yes, it is funny how furniture features so much in these PL memories - as you know from my own thread, I could see so much detail about the apartment we lived in, and yes it was heavy old furniture, people seemed to have lots of 'niknaks' back then too, lots of framed photos and ornaments! Gumby - it sounds like you lived in a lovely home when you were Katy, what a nice image - the family sitting out on the porch during the hot afternoons, such a sedate life back then with more time for talking and thinking, without all the technology we have today!
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Post by gumby on Jul 28, 2012 22:39:29 GMT -5
Yes lizzie, it was a wonderful time, to sit out on the porch on the upper level of the house, it was like being on top of the world there, to watch the people below and wave as they passed by. It was all so peaceful and wonderful, especially to the eyes of a young girl in awe of all the wide world panorama. And to think that I did not even suspect at that impressional age that all was about to be turned upside down by the madness of world war, green grass and birds chirping in the trees would fade away, replaced by the whistling of bombs, loud explosions, fires, and people running in panic for their lives. There was so little time, yet as a young girl I could not have ever guessed that all this innocence would be blown away in a flash.
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Post by Leutnantzursee on Jul 29, 2012 22:05:38 GMT -5
Oh gosh Gumby, you express so well the terrible experiences of those civilians left behind in the cities to sometimes fend for themselves. I know from what my mum has told me about her early life during the war here in England, although she didn't have to endure the air-raids, she was evacuated and quite tramatised by being taken from her family. She says to this day, that the sound of WW2 sirens makes her shiver :-( Why did Katy stay behind out of interest Gumby, was she not able to go somewhere safe out in the country? Did German kids not get evacuated too? Or were you perhaps more in your later teens when the war began? I'm so sorry you had to go through all that, the war really did come into Germany's backyard in the end, I know there are some terrible stories about revenge exacted on German women when the Russians invaded. I often wonder how life must have been for Lisi and Auntie Ruth, I'm sure Emil must have worried about them while he was away in service and they too, were left to worry if I was dead or alive I'm sure, so much sadness for us all, I suppose. :-(
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Post by gumby on Aug 1, 2012 18:24:56 GMT -5
In some German cities which had been hit particularly hard, like Hamburg and Frankfurt, there were some evacuations. Yet even in Berlin, which was hit the hardest towards the end of the war, many families stayed in their homes. They basically "layed low" when the armies of foreign nations came marching into their neighborhoods - fearing for their lives amidst all the chaos. Yes, I stayed put even to the end of the war. The central district of Stuttgart was gutted, yet most of the houses stood unscathed, families within shaken to their core, not knowing where to turn, and of course trusting no one. I was abducted by soldiers and taken to their army camps ( see my earlier post in this thread, on page 6 ) This was a time of intense terror and I was essentially in shock Yet after I was held captive by the soldiers for almost 6 weeks, I came back to my home once I was released from the hospital. It was my Grandparents house, because our apartment in the central district had sustained heavy damage. We pulled together to survive, and we had to work hard for our every day sustenance. I have written about this in my memoirs:
I finally arrived home after a long stay in the hospital. But this was not the end of tribulation.
Nothing was ever quite the same. Both of my grandparents had been injured during the attack and utter chaos when the soldiers entered our home. They never seemed to recover from these injuries, they became distant and seemed to give up on life. The soldiers had ransacked the house and stolen whatever valuable items they could lay their hands on. By the time I got home, the house had been repaired, but the damage caused to us could never be repaired. We were devastated, as were thousands of other families in this bombed out, looted city.
I fell into a deep depression at this time, and lived a life of a hermit. I would not venture out of the house for fear of the soldiers that passed near our residence in their army vehicles. This went on for several months, It was difficult to reassemble the broken pieces of one's life in this atmosphere of fear and mistrust.
This was a trying time for me emotionally I cried a lot always in private in my room. I felt scared that soldiers would return to our house and hurt us. Everytime I heard a truck or motorcycle come near our residence, my heart pounded in anxiety. It took a long time for me to return to a semblance of my former seif.
Grandfather wasted away and he died in 1946. He had suffered so much during the War. He had lost his store during the bombing raids, a business that had been passed down for generations. And then the onslaught of the invaders, taking away everything that we held so dear - our independence, our spirit, our optimism.
We had been well to do before the war. Now we were reduced to foraging for every meal. Finally, I had to gather my strenght as best I could and go out to tend the garden and vines, apple trees and hen house. My mother came to help me, and I was able to bond once again with her.
I tried my best to be strong to hold our family together, especially after Grandfather died. When he was gone, I tried to fill his shoes, and do everything that he did to provide for the family - gardening, tending the grape vines and apple trees, managing the household.. It was best to keep busy in order to forget old scars, but there were still those times when life began to feel futile.
It did take a long time to rebuild our lives. We did not really feel secure with foreigners running our affairs, and we had to adjust to this as well as to all of the other hardships. Yes there were a lot of tears shed, many lives torn apart, much like a town wiped out by a hurricane, earthquake, or tornado. But like other people facing adversity, we put the past behind us, and rebuilt our existence.
Barter --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Life was very difficult for everyone in the shattered cities of Germany. We had to become self sufficient. We were fortunate in that we could produce our own food on our property, thanks to Grandfather's great wisdom of planting apple trees and grapes years earlier. We had to take our apples and grapes to an open air market on the edge of the city. This was the only place where people in our city could get scarce food items. There were no markets left in the central district. These open air markets now became the mainstay of necessity in the war torn city.
We would go there, pushing our apples and grapes in a wooden cart, and barter these items for staples like milk, butter, or perhaps a side of ham. If you wanted to get bread and butter, you had to trade for it, because the money was worthless. Barter. This is how we survived that first year after the war. Many people were less fortunate than us, and they had to do without.
Once our apples and grapes ran out, we had to resort to trading our possessions, like chairs, or whatever we could find out in Grandfather's tool shed. Nails and boards, or a hand saw and hammer, would bring us some of the items that we craved. It was an all day chore to carry these things in hand carts to the market. But if you wanted these premium items, you had to work hard and just hope that you had some things available that were in demand at the outdoor market.
Going to the open market was an all day affair, so by the time we got home we were exhausted. If we were lucky, we would come home with the precious items that we sought after most - milk, bread and butter, flour, and a side of ham or bacon. Other food we could raise on our own, like potatoes, lettuce, and carrots in our garden, eggs from our hen house, and occasionally we might eat a hen.
We pulled through the difficult times. Of course, everyday was a challenge.
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Post by gumby on Sept 11, 2012 23:23:14 GMT -5
I was a civilian but certainly a Nazi as all citizens of Germany in the Third Reich were required to be Nazis. We had to enter the HJ at age 10, the BDM, and we were expected to serve with dignity and full cooperation. We did learn many skills in the organization, and also helped to promote the arts, dance, and music. In the early years everything seemed like fun and games, then our call to action to support our troops in Vienna. We gave all that we had to support the soldiers, if even at times that meant a hotel room with a soldier about to be sent to the front lines. That's the way it played out much of the time, some girls would have more than one encounter with a soldier friend. I only loved one, I could only give my heart to one man, and this was true for many other BDM girls. But yes we helped our troops, we lifted their morale. We were all trapped in this Nazi frenzy which swept the nation, we were young and full of energy, eager to sacrifice for our country.
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Post by gumby on Nov 7, 2012 23:08:50 GMT -5
I have been having more dreams about Goebbels. In this dream I was in the kitchen of a house that was unfamiliar to me, and I was walking towards a refrigerator to get something to eat. Suddenly I was pushed down to the floor by someone from behind. I got up and saw a man, and he was Goebbels, he is staring straight ahead with an icy stare. I tell him, "When I get to heaven I will tell God about what you just did!" His eyes darted towards me, and he scoffed, and he replied "You do that, I don't care" I got the impression that he did not fear God in any way, his cold calculated nature was almost unbearable to watch. The man totally disgusted me, I wanted to run away and hide.
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Post by gumby on Nov 10, 2012 23:47:19 GMT -5
Here is Goebbels at a Christmas function, notice that he does the Nazi salute the proper, formal way, with his arm straight forward and palm down. This is the way I learned to do the Nazi salute in BDM training. We always did the formal salute at BDM meetings and when attending Nazi rallies. ( also see next photo below ) I attended a Nazi rally where Goebbels spoke, and I remember it clearly. I have found this picture of a rally and this is Goebbels at the podium. I have boxed in a girl in the audience, I think that this may be me as Katie, because in my memory I was sitting in this exact location listening to Goebbels, and everything looked like this place. I am not sure where this is, however my BDM unit went there to attend the Nazi rally. (Does anyone recognize this Hall and where it is located? Please let me know it you recognize it, I can't seem to find its location or name of the hall)
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Post by gumby on Nov 12, 2012 23:14:31 GMT -5
After doing an exhausting search, I think that I have finally found the location of that theater in the picture above, where I attended Goebbles speech in 1943. It was the chemnitz opernhaus. Here is the history of the theater: Variety theatre, built 1901-1902 by W. Lossow and H. Viehweger. Opened 6 Dec 1902. 2000 seats. Destroyed by bombs in 1945. Remains later demolished. ( quote from Theaters on Postcards web site )
I remember this theater clearly in a vision I had about 6 months ago, Goebbels was speaking and I was seated in the exact spot where I have marked on the photo. I don't know why I would have been in Chemnitz at that time, but I spent much of the war in Vienna, so I may have traveled to Chemnitz in order to attend the events there. I think that after this speech I changed my views about the Nazis, I began to feel uneasy about the war and question Nazi policy. Of course I did this privately, I was not voice these sentiments publicly. I think that many Germans had a "bad sense" of forboding after this time, because of the defeat in Russia.
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Post by Demi on Nov 13, 2012 22:25:06 GMT -5
Post: after I wrote this I googled German kitchens of 1930's and found this picture, which supports my memories, especially the stove and sink with running water, my grandmother's house was more "upscale" though www.ipernity.com/doc/57114/8423582That's a wood stove... the most funny thing is the comment underneath the pic... 'A shocking photograph - however did they manage to cook in such conditions? Why, I can't even see a food processor!' ;D That is one of the best stoves to cook with... fire makes food delicious & warmth in the room & hot water if you got a coil pipe in there, AND you can run it through the space heaters all thorough your house. The railings are great for drying towels... And the exercise chopping the wood. Recently I saw a movie about 20's Berlin... it looks so much like a modern European city. Sometimes I just don't know what is past lives and what is last week.... Got heavy furniture (from my grandfather) and drinking some kind of ersatz coffee sometimes, tho' I clearly prefer the real thing. ;D Anyway, I want to say that all that 'old fashioned' stuff often was better and worked better than lots of the junk we got now. All the best, Demi
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Post by Leutnantzursee on Nov 14, 2012 19:37:03 GMT -5
Wow Gumby, those are startling images there. I'm surprised actually that Goebbels was so rude to a little girl, considering his large family and the air of being a 'family man' that he at least exuded as a public persona. How sweet of you though, to put him in his place like that, he certainly deserved it! That hall too is sort of familiar, is it in Austria? maybe it's just because I recall some of the rallies, it sort of reminded me of feeling a bit bored and yawning, as speeches doubtless went on and on! Thanks for sharing those images and your memories Gumby, you do find some wonderful old photos to upload and they do bring back so many memories for many of us I'm sure :-)
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