Helga Marsch

“In 1944, there were already clear signs that Germany would lose the war. The German troops were on the retreat from Russia and Poland and it was evident that Hitler would soon be finished. Therefore, my dad decided to make sure the family is safe. In January 1945, we packed our belongings on a car and left our home. In the meantime, a lot of fugitives have already passed our house – all of them heading westward. So me, my sisters, my mom and my dad (my brother was in the war – he had been conscripted) set out on a journey to the west. We drove via Küstrin to the Elbe River and then to Lanz bei Lenzen. That’s the region of Wittenberge on the Elbe River. That’s how far the Americans have already advanced by then. At that time, we still had our horse and we would let it graze on the meadows of the Elbe. Sometimes, the American soldiers would entertain themselves by shooting in our direction. A lot of German soldiers arrived in Lanz and they wanted to cross the border across the Elbe River into American captivity. The German propaganda was very successful in spreading terrifying rumors about Russian captivity and therefore everybody wanted to the Americans, British or the French. Nobody wanted to end up in Russian prison camps.”

“Shortly after the war had ended, my dad decided that we would go back to Hopfenbruch. The driving force of this decision was the mother of my father, whose husband – my grandfather – had been buried at a graveyard in Hopfenbruch. My grandmother insisted that she would like to die at home, as well. So we went back home and on the way, we saw quite a few things. The Russians have plundered our car and stolen our things. But the worst thing was that when we finally arrived in Hopfenbruch, our beautiful house was not there anymore as it had been burned down in our absence. We had to stay at the neighbors house all of us in one room. My mother and my older sister had to work and us. We were small kids so we would play anyway.”