Wayne, Peter (Oral history)

German schoolchild living in Berlin, 1922-1939; educated in Switzerland, 1935-1936 and GB, 1936-1937; worked as clerk in Darlington, GB, 1937-1940; interned in Liverpool, GB, Douglas, Isle of Man and Canada, 1940; served as private in 251 and 93 Coys, Pioneer Corps in GB and North West Europe, 1941-1944; served as interpreter with 507 Military Government Detachment in Germany, 1945-1946

REEL 1 Recollections of background in Berlin, Germany, 1920-1935: family background including father's service in German Army, 1914-1918 and father's photographic studio; apartment accommodation; education; friendship with non-Jewish boy; Jewish family background; question of anti-Semitism and family attitude to Hitler; effects of Hitler's rise to power, 1933; opinion of headmaster with Nazi sympathies; question of signs of rising anti-Semitism, 1933-1935; sporting activities; Nazi organised boycott of Jewish shops, 4/1933; interest in music and learning piano. REEL 2 Continues: education at Lausanne, Switzerland, 1935-1936; decision to continue education in GB. Recollections of period as boarding pupil at Friends School, Great Ayton, 5/1936-7/1937: role of Quaker Society of Friends in assisting Jewish refugees; journey and reception; nature of school; home sickness; case of anti-Semitism; teachers status as former conscientious objector; problems in payment of school fees; question of academic progress and learning English; nickname; story of breaking out of school; origins of pupils; holidays in Darlington and Berlin; impact of Olympics on visible anti-Semitism in Berlin. 1936; passing matriculation, 7/1936; decision to pursue career as chartered accountant. Period as articled clerk for accountants in Darlington, 1937-1940: work auditing officers' mess accounts at Catterick Camp; range of experience; lodgings; newspaper reports of situation in Germany; closure of father's photographic studio after Kristalnacht, 8/1/1938; parents' attempts to emigrate to GB and mother's emigration to take up work as domestic servant. REEL 3 Continues: father's failure of emigrate prior to 9/1939; question of approach and outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; awareness of concentration camps; prior arrest of father, 1937; appearance in front of Aliens' Tribunal, 9/1939, including categorisation system and assessment as 'C'; story of prior aborted call up for German military service by German consulate in Liverpool, 5/1938; reporting to police station and confiscation of camera; arrest by police, 5/1940. Period at Huyton Internment Camp, Liverpool, 5/1940: accommodation in housing estate; attitude of British guards. Period at Central Promenade Internment Camp, Douglas, Isle of Man, 6/1940-7/1940: attitude of British guards during voyage out; torpedoing of Andorra Star; boarding house accommodation; camp organisation and lectures; reads address from Camp Commandant Colonel S. W. Slatter. REEL 4 Continues: complaints over lack of communication with family; initial lack of kosher food; attitude of British guards; situation of mother. Voyage aboard Ettrick to Quebec, Canada, 7/1940: segregation by age and fitness; thefts from possessions by British soldiers; inadequate officer in command; lack of escort; conditions including diarrhoea outbreak and superior treatment given to German POWs. Recollections of period at Camp L, Quebec, 7/1940-1/1941: search by French Canadian soldiers and thefts from possessions; hut accommodation; origins of internees; food; attitude of French Canadian guards and case if shooting of internee; story of Prince Frederich of Prussia obtaining sports equipment for internees; PT; work on canteen accounts; ability to purchase goods from mail order catalogue; camp organisation; camp concerts; reads order from Camp Commandant Major Donahue. REEL 5 Continues: reactions to visit from Home Office representative and volunteering to join Pioneer Corps, 9/1940; issue of cold weather clothing and continued treatment as POW. Unescorted voyage back to Liverpool, GB, 1/1941: conditions; personal morale. Period with Pioneer Corps Depot, Ilfracombe, 2/1941-3/1941: prior formal enlistment in Liverpool; kitting out; hut accommodation; relationship with British NCOs; drill; rifle and bayonet training; formation of 251 Coy, PC, 3/1941; relationship with ORs including Arthur Koestler and Robert Maxwell; speech by Lord Reading. Recollections of periods with 251 Coy, Pioneer Corps in GB, 3/1941-10/1943: working parties in Avonmouth docks; German 'alien' NCOs; weekend leave in London; German air raids on Bristol and close escape from bomb near Nissen hut; move to Cheltenham, 5/1941; construction of road blocks. REEL 6 Continues: hospitality of civilians; erecting Nissen huts and passing trade test as glazier; visits to cousin; detachment to forestry company at Lydbrook; move to Arncott Camp, Bicester, 7/1942; building huts; contacts with non-combatant Pioneer Corps personnel including conscientious objectors, mentally handicapped and story of British pioneer confessing to murdering wife; visits to Oxford; story of being charged with minor offence; move to Thane, 2/1943; relationship with British and German 'alien' officers; MT and military training; relationship with US soldiers; detachment laying railway sleepers in Egham area. REEL 7 Continues: conversion to British Pioneer Coy, ca 7/1943; transfer of personnel; background to rejecting transfer to Commandos. Recollections of period with 93 Coy, PC in Southampton and Portsmouth area, 10/1943-7/1944: state of unit; opinion of officers including Second Lieutenant Geoffrey Perry; working parties in docks; weapons training including Sten gun; background to changing name to Peter Wayne; move to Portsmouth area, 6/1944; increased level of training; V1 attacks; reaction to news of D-Day. 6/6/1944; secrecy. Recollections of operations in France and Belgium, 7/1944-11/1944: Channel crossing, 18/7/1944-19/7/1944; situation and personal morale; landing at Port en Bessen, Normandy; bivouacs; rum ration; compo food rations and cigarette rations; relationship with French civilians including use of cigarettes as currency. REEL 8 Continues; minimal duties; assisting Royal Engineers with road repairs during advance, 8/1944; move to Dieppe, 9/1944; school billet; dock clearance to reopen harbour; relationship with French civilians; loading munitions trains. Period at Interpreters School, Brussels, 3/1945-4/1945: reorganisation of 92 Coy, PC for intelligence role; training as interpreter and on loudspeaker broadcasts; importance of non-fraternisation with Germans. Period on detachment to assist in re-establishment of civilian government at Roubaix, France, 11/1944-3/1945: situation; story of carrying out orders to close brothels; role interpreting role; leave. REEL 9 Continues; visits to Brussels. Period at Interpreters' School, 21st Army Group, Brussels, 3/1945-4/1945: training for attachment to British Military Government in Germany; situation; learning to ride motorcycle. Period as interpreter with 507 Military Government Detachment, Barkhausen, Minden, Germany, 4/1945-10/1946: prior promotion to corporal; lorry journey; composition of unit; hotel billets; accompanying Colonel Usher on reconnaissance missions to determine situation in Minden; method of appointing local government officials; opinion of Colonel Usher; promotion to sergeant; accompanying medical officer and treatment of abandoned cows; condition of slave labourers in displaced persons camps; role monitoring German civilians reaction to film showing Belsen Concentration Camp; question of German support for Nazi regime; story of being shot at by German 'Werewolf' female partisan and her subsequent release, 8/5/1945; surrender of Tiger tanks, 8/5/1945; VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945, including stories of drink rations and dance with Jewish Hungarian woman working in munitions factory and subsequently selected to act as interpreter. REEL 10 Continues: GB leave including damage caused by V1 and V2 in London and rations; accommodation and staff at administrative office at Minden; acting as interpreter at military courts in Minden area including nature of judicial procedure, and difficulty in translating statements of German civilian lawyers; question of non-fraternisation with German civilians and children; nature of military court cases and death sentences; visit to Nuremburg trials; question of demobilisation; role of control commission officer; German 'alien' interpreters on promotion to staff sergeant; story of accidental death of drunk sergeant major; search for prominent Nazis including story of investigation into wealthy Oetker family in Bielfield and requisition of their luxury car; story of leave visiting aunt in US Zone, Berlin, 12/1945, including attitude of Soviet soldiers while passing through Soviet Zone, war damage and shortages of food. REEL 11 Continues: story of leave visiting aunt in US Zone, Berlin, 12/1945, including food taken for aunt; stories of German soldiers hung by Nazis, 5/1945; story of Jewish burgomaster concerned over his personal safety; nature of de-Nazification process including questionnaires, interviews, identification of Nazis and question of re-education; relationship with Germans as German 'alien'; Soviet military visit to identify displaced persons originating in Soviet Union including reaction to those identified, meal with Soviet officers and question of subsequent fate of those returned to Soviet Union; role assisting financial officer Major Steadman investigating German financial institutions for suspicious financial transaction; awareness of black market; illustrations of use of cigarettes as currency; arrest of possible German concentration camp guard trying to sell dental gold; story of reaction of badly wounded german soldier to flag ceremony. REEL 12 Return to GB and demobilisation, 10/1946. Post-war career: living with mother in Notting Hill Gate, London; naturalisation as British citizen, 1946; work as audit clerk prior to passing final examinations to qualify as chartered accountant, 1950; successful career as chartered accountant and finance director; attitude to Germans including reactions to death of family in concentration camps, marriage of German woman, attitude of children and visits to Germany.