“During World War II I was a member of „Bund der Deutsche Mädels“ (The League of German Girls). I was stationed in Leipzig and had my training as a military spotlight performer. Though during my whole stay at the training camp we never used the spotlight because of the danger of being located and found by the enemy.
I was young, unexperienced and so excited as they called me to join the League. I was 14 and thought that was a great privilege and honor for me to be a part of it. We didn’t realise the troubles hiding behind this.
I did not stay there too long. Soon I was back home and faced a lot of problems in the town. We did not have enough food. I had to apply for a food ration card to get something to eat.
(photo from the family archive of Ehrentraud Peter)
“Our house was always full of people. My mother hosted three german refugees from Poland and we took care of them.Though we did not have enough food for ourselves, my mother managed so that everyone had enough to eat. From time to time russian soldiers appeared but we were afraid of them and kept our distance.
Once a russian soldier entered our house but my aunt Lotte did not let him in. He was drunk, so she chased him away. He went to our neighbour and raped her.
Sometimes french soldiers came to our town. They looked horrible, tortured. Those were years of suffering and this generation can not even imagine how we lived“
I was listening to the story of the 96 years old grandma Ehrentraud, and I had those pictures in front of my eyes. I could imagine and understand the fear from both sides. Ehrentraud was 14 years old when she joined the The League of German Girls. She did not know about the troubles which the war was going to bring to people’s lives.
As I asked her if she ever saw Hitler with her own eyes, she replied that she saw him only once, as he was in a boat on the river Elbe, heading towards the small town near Königstein.
Enrentraud showed me the old photos from her stay at the Spotlight training camp and also the ones after the war. She loved dancing and went to dance with her friends at the weekends.
“We went dancing and our partners came to pick us up with bouquets of flowers. My partner was a good looking man. I remember, I was in love with him but he was there only to dance with me. He was engaged to another woman who never appeared at the dance evenings. After the dance evening he brought me home and the funny thing was, that his younger brother was always with him, as if he was afraid of being alone with me”.
She kept on telling me about her youth and I had all those pictures flowing through my head, as if I had also been a part of that colourful story.
Text and Photos © by Margarita Zakaryan
Photos from the family archive of Ehrentraud Peter
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