Liebenau Internment Camp, Germany: Part 3

Picture 3
Red Cross parcels being unloaded and stored. Delivery erratic, but probably every 6-8 weeks with luck. The parcels were usually delivered in a large horse-drawn cart similar in size to the lorry above. It was tremendously unwieldy but several of the boys in the camp enjoyed releasing the braking system and manoeuvring the cart about the yard much against regulations. The guards appeared one evening when doing their rounds and caught my brother and me at it. We were promptly hauled behind the building and given a good hiding. We ran off howling much to the guards’ delight. My brother and I acted as delivery boys, he seated on his ‘Ruder-Renner’ (a small cart on wheels propelled by pulling a canvas cord between his front legs) and I pushing him behind a stack of parcels. Great fun but hot work.
The parcels contained cigarettes very transactable (!), tins of sweet condensed milk, which we scoffed secretly under our beds, and an assortment of other basic tinned foods, which were stored in a wicker basket beneath a bed. There was constant exchange of items among internees in adjoining rooms.
Rooms usually held three or four people. We, as a family of four, had a room to ourselves measuring about eight by six metres, and included a washbasin. It was a tight squeeze with a small table in the middle. This was our home for two and a half years. The two small barred windows were next to the church belfry and made conversation impossible on the hour 24 hours a day.

A communal washroom was situated at the end of the corridor. Since the camp consisted of approx. 600 women as well as children aged under 14, (boys over 14 were classified as adults and joined the men’s camp elsewhere). I, therefore, had to endure the novel sight of rows of stark naked women having their morning scrub down. My mother insisted I strip as well and the embarrassment was complete.

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