Liebenau Internment Camp, Germany: Part 5

Picture 5
There were only a handful of children in the camp. Most of them are depicted here. Back row left to right if I can remember their names correctly: Henry Juviler, aged about 10 and a nasty bully; Viersheck Tias (phonetic spelling!), a young polish boy aged about 10 and a friend of mine. Myself aged 9. Middle row from left my brother, Peter, aged 8; Wolfgang Hornung aged 8 together with his sister, Helga Hornung at his feet and aged 6 and his bigger sister, Renate Hornung about 10 years of age to his left. I never understood why they were there at all since they were all fluent German speakers and came from Hamburg. Their mother was a big noisome woman given to a lot of shouting. The biggest kick we got was playing ‘Uncle Doctor’ together and baring our bums to delighted screams. The boy in the middle is unknown to me, but to his left was Brigitte Rosenblum, a redheaded Jewish girl and a constant playmate. She lived with her mother, a little frail Jewess, in a shared room with two other occupants along the same corridor. We enjoyed countless children’s games, which we were given by the guards such as spillikins, draughts and snakes and ladders. A lot of them were homemade. I myself particularly enjoyed fretsaw work and designing cable cars stretching from the window to my bed. Red cross parcels provided a fund of initiatives for stitching and creating string items. Next to Brigitte is Susan Hunter, a middle-class English girl of about 11 to whom I was very attracted. Next to her is Peter Levitt, an 8-year-old English boy of unpredictable tantrums. Seated in the middle is probably my sister aged 5 and Sarah, the youngest internee, aged 2.

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