Description
Object description
German civilian in Berlin, Germany, 1933-1948
Content description
REEL 1 Recollection of period as child living in Magdeburg, Oranienburg and Berlin, Germany, 1925-1933: family background; education; memories of economic crisis in Charlottenburg, Berlin, 1929-1932; sight of Communist Party of Germany demonstration in Oranienburg. Recollections of period as schoolchild in Berlin, Germany, 1933-1939: family reaction to Nazi Party coming to power, 30/1/1933; joining League of German Girls, 1935; activities with League of German Girls; how her changing social and political views led her to neglect League of German Girls; attitude of family to disappearance of Jewish civilians; fear of being denounced to Gestapo; emigration of Jewish family doctor to Palestine; parents wartime listening to British Broadcasting Corporation radio broadcasts.
REEL 2 Continues: father's later attitude to outcome of Second World War; father reporting of Kristallnacht, 9/11/1938-10/11/1938; attitude of older Germans to outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939; reaction to outbreak of Second World War, 1/9/1939; changes in Germany 1933-1939 including disappearance of unemployed, rise in status of blue collar workers and education. Recollections of period as civilian in Berlin, Germany, 1939-1945: initial effects of war; use of cellars for air raid shelters; use of ration coupons; availability of alcohol; attitude to ban on dancing; period with Women's Labour Service, 1943 including dress and accommodation, Nazi Party orders not to communicate with French prisoners of wars, trouble she got into over defeatist remark and how her father rescued her.
REEL 3 Continues: period as laboratory worker with Institute for Tropical Hygiene, University of Berlin, winter 1943-1944; war work in kitchens of ambulance factory, summer 1944; relations with Displaced Persons working in kitchens; university semester, 4/1944; death of fiancée in Allied air raid, 1944; start of air raid false alarms; sheltering from Allied air raids; reaction to seeing aircrew bodies hanging from trees after air raids; changing attitude towards Allies; close proximity of bomb explosions; effect of increasing bombing intensity; effect of bombing on morale; reaction to approaching Soviet forces, 3/1945-4/1945; graffiti left by prisoners in air raid shelter.
REEL 4 Continues: Aspects of Soviet occupation of Berlin, Germany, 4/1945-7/1945: arrival of Soviet Army troops in her cellar; confiscation of civilians' watches by Soviet Army troops; treatment of German civilians by Soviet Army troops; Soviet Army soldier's protection of civilians from molestation; lighter moments with Soviet Army troops; attitude to arrival of United States Army troops. Recollections of period as civilian in Berlin, Germany, 1945-1948: bartering for goods; need to walk everywhere; payment in fruit for gardening work; employment obtained in United States Army Military Police Corps mess, 1945-1946 and payment in food; problems surviving winter 1945-1946; return of former German Army soldiers to city; becoming servant to British ladies.
REEL 5 Continues: meeting husband who worked for British Control Commission; reaction to settling down to life in GB, 1952; prior recollection of mistreatment of friends at hands of Soviet Army, 5/1945.