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As yet untitled - updated 16/09
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1317
Author:  RroseSelavy [ Thu Sep 14, 2006 2:48 pm ]
Post subject:  As yet untitled - updated 16/09
Not quite sure where this is going yet, but I always wanted to know what happened to this character. Suggestions for a title will be very gratefully received!

When I saw my mother for the first time in so many long months, I was shocked to see how frail she had become. Conditions at home had been bad enough when I left, but they must have become so much worse in the time I had been away. I realised, as I hugged her and felt her bones dig into me, that I must look after her. I blamed myself, though I knew deep down that whatever I had done, she would have suffered. And I was glad I had failed at my task - my stomach turned whenever I thought what might have happened to those few names I had managed to gather had I passed them on.

I was deeply ashamed of myself, for I was no Nazi now, and it would be years before I allowed myself to realise that I was a child and I had been used. How many other girls and boys had been warped as I had? How many had been gently indoctrinated during the healthy hikes and jolly campfires of the Hitler Youth? And how many would get the chance to step aside and see the New Germany from a a different angle as I had?

I nursemaided my mother as best I could once we had arrived in Glasgow and were settled in our small house. Food was rationed, of course, but compared with conditions at home it seemed plentiful and mother responded well to the improved diet. After a few months, she insisted that I return to school, as she was well enough to manage most things by herself.
Author:  kimothy [ Thu Sep 14, 2006 5:04 pm ]
Post subject: 
thanks! i take it this is gertrude?
She must have suffered terribly from her experience. Glad to see her reuntied with her mother though
Author:  Mia [ Thu Sep 14, 2006 5:06 pm ]
Post subject: 
Oh is it Gertrude? I was thinking it was Thekla for some reason. Duhr!

Thanks Rrose, it looks really interesting.
Author:  LizB [ Thu Sep 14, 2006 11:34 pm ]
Post subject: 
Poor girl :(

Thanks, Rrose
Author:  Lesley [ Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:50 pm ]
Post subject: 
Poor Gertrude - hope her mum will be OK.


Thanks Rose.
Author:  Elle [ Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:54 pm ]
Post subject: 
This looks interesting.


Thank you.
Author:  Alice [ Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:20 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thanks Rrose, looking forward to more of this.
Author:  Aquabird [ Sat Sep 16, 2006 2:07 pm ]
Post subject: 
This looks good. Thanks, Rrose.
Author:  RroseSelavy [ Sat Sep 16, 2006 6:16 pm ]
Post subject: 
Yes, it's Gertrude. Thanks for the comments - here's a bit more!

My first few weeks at the High went well. Being in class, just a normal pupil without the worry of mother's wellbeing or the arrival of those wretched envelopes, felt wonderful. I made friends with two or three of the girls in my form - they knew I was German, I didn't see any point in trying to keep it a secret, but they assumed that as all German and Austrian nationals in Britain had to be cleared by a security tribunal, we were "safe". I rather think that as they knew my father was dead, they had decided that he had been in trouble with the Nazi authorities and we had had to flee.

Mother and I decided to build on this assumption by pretending that my father had been Swiss. If anyone asked about him, we would tell them he had grown up in Geneva and moved to Germany as an adult. It was easy to drop the odd comment into conversation, and that helped to neutralise us in other people's eyes. Unfortunately, as the months went on the tide began to turn. It seemd that every edition of the Daily Mail carried more attacks on us "enemy aliens," apparently designed to increase fear of us. "In Britain you have to realize every German is an Agent. All of them have both the duty and the means to communicate information to Berlin."

It started gradually - whispered conversations behind me in class, sharp glances from the elderly ladies in the queue at the butcher's. Mother told me how, when she had gone to spend her clothes coupons, the woman at the counter had replied to her halting English with a cold refusal to serve "her sort." I started to realise, then, the true weight of what was happening - not just in Germany and Austria now, but Poland, Denmark, Finland, Norway... the list just kept growing.
Author:  Lesley [ Sat Sep 16, 2006 6:41 pm ]
Post subject: 
Very irresponsible of the newspaper - but then what do you expect?

Very worrying for Gertrude and her mother.

Thanks Rrose
Author:  Tara [ Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:41 pm ]
Post subject: 
The treatment of Germans living here wasn't one of our finest moments. Easy to be critical when we've never been in that situation, of course, but it's also easy to imagine the tabloid-led hysteria.
Author:  Cath V-P [ Sun Sep 17, 2006 6:00 am ]
Post subject: 
Extremely easy...and very unpleasant.
Author:  LizB [ Sun Sep 17, 2006 11:53 am ]
Post subject: 
Poor Gertrude and mother :(

Thanks, Rrose
Author:  Josie [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:56 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thanks Rrose. This is great.

Poor Gertrude and her mother.

I see the Daily Mail hasn't changed much! :wink:
Author:  Ruth B [ Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:12 pm ]
Post subject: 
So typical of the Daily Mail! :roll: :roll:

Is this before or after the internments?
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