The CBB :: View topic - Remember, Be Brave

#1: Remember, Be Brave Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 1:24 pm

I've been bitten by a small sparkling purple leaf again! I should warn you all that this could become quite upsetting Confused

, even though I don't know how it will finish exactly!

Fifteen year old Irma Ancockzy, her hand shaking, hurriedly scrawled her signature on to the bottom of the Chalet School peace league. She knew that she would be soon leaving her beloved school, she like all her other German and Austrian friends were dreading this. But they were powerless, if they did not conform to the Nazi’s then it would only mean trouble for them and their families.
Since the age of ten Irma had lived under Nazi rule in Hamburg. Her father, who doted on his four children, had resolved that his eldest daughter would not go to a Nazi school when one day she had brought home maths homework about how much it cost the state to keep mentally ill people in care. He had withdrawn her from her local school and friends and sent her to a English school in Austria he had heard of. It was too late to send her elder brothers to other schools but it was not to late for Irma or baby Lieserl he had declared. Irma had not wanted to go so far away but it did not take her long to settle down, make friends and become a naughty middle!
A few nights before Irma and all her German and Austrian friends went away from the Chalet School for good, Madame paid the school a visit. She spoke to each Austrian and German girl who was leaving, when she came to Irma she noticed the troubled expression in her eyes and realised that she knew just how ruthless the Nazi’s could be.
“Irma,” She said gently, “Don’t look so sad. I know you don’t want to go, and we don’t want you to go either but it is what must happen.”
“Madame, do you think there will be a war?” Irma said, startling both her-self and Madge with her question.
“I don’t know…” Madge said slowly remembering how Irma’s eldest brother had been conscripted into the German army.
“Papa says there will be one. The Nazi’s are breaking Versailles, he says and no one is stopping them. It will be too late when people do try.” Irma was scared, no where seemed to be safe anymore.
Madame troubled about what to say to this young girl, took her hands and said, “Now Irma, remember what I said at the beginning of this half term?”
“You said for us to be brave.”
“Yes, and that’s what we are going to have to be. We have to hope too that we will all meet again in the future and that we will all get through this time unhurt. But above all else we are going to have to remember to be brave.” Madge hugged Irma quickly before moving on to talk to Alixe Von Elsen.
Irma’s last day at the Chalet School was one of goodbyes. Goodbye’s to her friends, her Mistresses, her school, and to the countryside, which she loved.
“We will all keep in touch,” Her friend Biddy O’ Ryan had told her, “Those brutes can’t stop us writing to each other!”
Emmie Linders, a fellow German replied with, “Be careful with what you write then, my Father says that some mail is read by a censor.”
“Irma,” Mary Shaw had said slipping an arm around her waist, “Don’t look so glum we will write to all you, and you can meet up with Alixe and Emmie sometimes maybe?”
Irma nodded slowly, Alixe living in Cologne had come to stay with her before, and maybe she could visit again.
Madame came to see them off saying goodbye to each girl as they stepped on the coach, which would take them to the station. As Irma got on the coach she smiled gently at her and hugged her goodbye, whispering in her ear, “Remember, be brave.”

Last edited by Cazx on Wed Apr 21, 2004 4:09 pm; edited 1 time in total

#2: Author: caz, Location: Cambridge

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 1:38 pm

Beautifully written, Caz. We never hear about this departure in the books, but it would have been such a major thing for the school. And I love the care Madge is giving to the girls.

*reminds self this is fiction* *still feels weepy anyway*

#3: Author: Carolyn P, Location: Lancaster, England

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 3:29 pm

That was beautiful. Crying or Very sad

#4: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 3:40 pm

Thank you Caz.

Please let your bunny continue to bite you Wink

#5: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 3:49 pm

*grabs tissue box!!*
More please!!!!

#6: Author: Ellie, Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 3:54 pm

Very thoughtful, and until now a neglected story.
More pleaese.

#7: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 6:04 pm

Very, very moving. More soon please.

#8: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:35 pm

It's horrible to think about some of the littler Chaletians who got left in Germany and Austria.

*stockpiles tissues and waits for more*

#9: Author: Marianne, Location: Bournemouth

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:18 pm

sounds good, beautiful writing
thanks
more please

#10: Author: Ciorstaidh, Location: London

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:27 pm

Lovely, Caz!

more more more more more mroe more more more more more more more more more mroe more more more more more mroe more more

please!

*heads to the Tissue Box!*

#11: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 6:38 pm

Irma went to a day school in Hamburg now. It was a good school, despite the Nazi influence in the teaching curriculum. Her Literature teacher pushed Irma just as hard as she had been pushed when she was in the Chalet School. But not all of teachers pushed her as hard, they either shared the Nazi belief that all women should be was a wife and mother, or they were conforming to it. Irma had friends in her school, but they were not the same as Alixe, Biddy, Emmie and Mary. She was unsure about how much she could trust them. A few of the girls in her class would often make disparaging remarks about the Jews and they were all, including to her distress Irma, required to attend meetings of the League of German Maidens. Irma hated the days when she had to go there, when Alixe and Emmie visited her in the Summer the three friends discussed various ways in which they could get out of going.
Irma was in a way bitterly jealous of her two friends. She had no one to talk to about the old days in Tyrol, no one that is who understood. Emmie had her younger sister Joanna, who had also been a pupil at the school, whenever she was missing school she was bound to find sympathy with her. While Alixe had discovered on her first day of school in Cologne that also at her school was Suzu Haber, a girl who had been two years younger than them at the school. Alixe and Suzu quickly became good friends despite the age gap. Irma talked at times to her sister Lieserl but she was only ten and Irma could not tell her everything in case she told other people. But some of the Chalet School’s traditions did remain as Irma’s father made sure that she kept up with her French and English by speaking to her in them regularly while he also asked her to teach Lieserl the languages.
When the Nazi’s invaded the Sudatenland in Czechoslovakia Irma did not join the cheering crowds in the streets of Hamburg, instead she cried in her bedroom because the world was standing by and letting the Nazi’s grow stronger. Her brother’s at twenty and eighteen had been conscripted into the German army, even though conscription had been outlawed by Versailles. Her elder brother Ralf was extremely bitter about having to do as the Nazi’s said, but worryingly eighteen year old Hans showed signs at times that he had Nazi sympathies. Irma wished that she and her family could move to England, where they would be safe from Nazism. She realised though that they couldn’t and that all she could do was to wait and see what might happen.

#12: Author: Ellie, Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 6:48 pm

Oh, how horiible for Irma, for all of them in fact. It's also quite realistic that her brother would have some sympathy for the Nazi cause, but I do hope this doesn't cause a split in the family, or even worse, that he betrays the family for not agreeing with Nazism.

#13: Author: Kathye, Location: Laleham

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 6:57 pm

ooohhh this is great, why do I feel like my story line for Giovanna is slowly slipping away !!!

More please, this is the story I have always wanted written, what happened to those girls left under Nazi rule

yay for Cazx megaphone

#14: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 7:28 pm

More soon please Cazx.......

#15: Author: Shander, Location: Canada

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 8:14 pm

Great job cazx. This is a very powerful story.
I'm really looking forward to more, when you write it.

#16: Author: Carolyn P, Location: Lancaster, England

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 8:18 pm

This is good cazx, looking forward to more.

#17: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 8:25 pm

powerful, moving writing.

Looking forward to more.

#18: Author: Liss, Location: Harrow, London

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 8:36 pm

This is really interesting, Cazx. Hope to see more soon.

#19: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 9:06 pm

More please Caz, this is just wonderful.

#20: Author: Sugarplum, Location: second star to the right!

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 9:52 pm

This is lovely ...very moving *reaches for tissues*... please write some more. I really liked the care that Madame showed the German and Austrian girls as they left school.

#21: Author: caz, Location: Cambridge

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:30 pm

This is really good.

*hoping for more soon*

#22: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 12:34 am

This is really powerful stuff. I'm so afraid for poor Irma and her family, she's in an impossible situation really.

#23: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 6:03 am

Really, really moving. What a terrible thing to have to live through.

More soon please, Cazx.

#24: Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 10:38 am

Cazx this is really wonderful. It is the story that shoulad have been written but couldn't be written at the time.

Thank you.

Off to tisue box.

#25: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 6:54 pm

Irma witnessed the terrors of Kristallnacht full on. Living a few doors away on her street were a Jewish couple who owned a large grocers chain in Hamburg. During the days of violence and destruction their shop had been ransacked, the windows smashed, the stock plundered or thrown on the floor. Irma noticed that from that day on they became withdrawn into themselves, more so than they had done before. They would no longer drop by in the evening to talk to Irma’s parents, they were trying to distance themselves away from them because they realised that it was the Ancockzy’s own good, for their own safety.
“Did you see all the broken glass on the way into school today?” Heidi, a classmate of Irma’s asked after the first night of Kristallnacht.
“Yes, What happened?” Irma asked, not knowing the events.
“The SS and the crowd were attacking the Jews, destroying their property.” Heidi answered her somewhat soberly.
“That’s awful!” Irma exclaimed in horror, “That’s such a horrid thing to do.”
“Do you honestly think that?” Asked a girl named Gretchen, who had been listening to their conversation. “I think it was a good thing to do. The Jews deserve everything they get, they don’t even have the right to breathe the same air that we do.”
Irma opened her mouth to challenge Gretchen’s opinion, but then she remembered that Gretchen could easily inform someone that she had been defending the Jews. Irma knew that Gretchen would not hesitate to betray her if she believed it was for the greater good of the Reich. Irma hated feeling so helpless, she hated having to stand back and watch the evil that was being carried out knowing she could do nothing about it.
“Papa, what can we do about all the evil that is happening at the moment?” Irma asked one night.
Her Father sighed, how could he answer this question to his sensitive daughter? “Irma,” he begun, “The sad truth is that there is very little that we can do. We can try to be supportive to our friends who the Nazi’s are persecuting, but we cannot do anything that is prohibited, as then the Nazi’s will come after us. We have to remember that Germany has not always been like this, and that it won’t always will be. One day, hopefully sooner rather than later Germany will go back to, as it was, democratic and free. We are just going to have to remember that the Nazi propaganda is wrong and think for ourselves, instead of thinking in the way the state wants us to.”
Irma nodded, “It’s just so hard though.” She said, “You and Muti have not brought me up to hate people. It’s my natural instinct to defend people who others pick on; the Chalet School taught me the same message. Everything all goes back to the same thing though.”
“What’s that?” Her Father asked, he was a bit confused about what his daughter meant.
“What Madame said to us, she told us to be brave. That is all we can do, be brave and wait to see what happens.”
Her Father nodded, “Your Madame is right.” He told her. “The Nazi’s can try and scare us into submission but they won’t succeed if we remember to be brave.”

#26: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 7:05 pm

Powerful stuff caz.

The thing about Gretchen informing - WOW.

I am in awe.

We need a 'not worthy' smiley.

#27: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 12:52 am

I am so beyond impressed with Irma. How she can stay strong and stay true to her Chalet School upbringing... this story continues to amaze and challenge me caz, thank you.

#28: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 12:54 am

Caz this is fabulous, more soon and please!!!!

#29: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 9:24 am

Thank you Caz, you are portraying this so realistically - there were any number of people, not evil in themselves, but unable to resist the Nazi message, who were responsible for informing on those thought not to be following the Nazi creed.

*So glad I've never had to face anything like that!*

More soon please.

#30: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 12:42 pm

This is so realistic that in one way I dread reading it because of the Nazi atrocities.

#31: Author: ali, Location: medway, kent

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 8:13 pm

I can't add anything to the other comments, they have said it very well. Feel as though you are the one being brave by writing this and hope I don't have to be too brave to read it.

#32: Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West Yorks

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 12:04 am

Cazx this is utterly realistic - the pressure that is on people to confirm with the Nazi beliefs and the fear of what will happen if they don't

Hope you don't mind the following being added:

"First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out -
because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out -
because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade
unionists and I did not speak out -
because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me -
and there was no one left
to speak out for me"

Pastor Niemoeller (victim of the Nazis)

#33: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 3:23 pm

That poem always has the power to move me. It's true, we don't speak out enough to defend other people.

#34: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 6:54 pm

This is really hard to write, it has taken me nearly fifty minutes to write this, if I'd have been writing Fleur then I could have written at least double in the same time.
Dawn, thanks for posting the poem, it was on the wall in my history A level class room and reminds me of college, when life was simple!

It was a warm late summer’s day. Irma had spent the summer with her family and her friend Heidi, who had confided in Irma that she too hated the Nazi’s as her best friend was Jewish and had been forced to emigrate by them. The two girls had a golden summer, ignoring the Nazi’s; neither had paid attention to the growing tension in the political climate. She had been unable to meet Emmie and Alixe this summer as all three of the girls parents were growing increasingly worried of the political situation and did not want their daughters travelling across Germany.
Irma had received a letter. She had recognised the writing immediately and rushed into the garden to read it. When the weather was fine she read all of her letter’s in the garden, lying in the shade of a big oak tree, it was somewhere where she knew no one else would be able to read what she was reading.
The letter was from Biddy.

Dear Irma, it began,
How are you? I, myself, am fine, so I hope you are too. I have great news to tell you, it’s so great that I am literally bursting to tell you! I am sure that you will be glad to hear it, if a little jealous at the same time. The Chalet School is starting up again, ‘tis very exciting news don’t you think? Madame and Jo have found an old house on Guernsey, which we are going to use. We are going to be awfully small after what we were in Tyrol but a fair number of old girls will be returning, including myself of course, and a few new ones! Most of the staff will be the same as well, the Abbess is still head and of course Bill will be there too. By the way Mademoiselle is in Paris, I don’t really know how well she is but as Madame says we can remember her in our prayers and by doing that we will be helping her.
I hope that you will be pleased for us that school has begun again. We all wish that you, Alixe and all the others could come too but we understand that you can’t. Hopefully one day in the not too distant future you will be able to come back to us. You know that there is not a single day when somebody mentions you all and we constantly remember about you. It will be strange for Mary, Kitty and I, without you, Alixe and Emmie, we six have always moved up the school together. Now you three won’t be there and I don’t even know if us three will even be in the same form.
I hope everybody is well with you and that nothing awful has happened. We all miss you and hope that everything will be fine,
Love your friend,
Biddy
P.S. Madame sends her your love.

Irma quickly folded the letter up and stuffed it back into its envelope. She was quite surprised that it had managed to pass through the Nazi checks, she hoped that it had not given them any information about her beloved school. She did wish that she could go back to the Chalet School, but at the same time she realised that that was an impossible thing to happen. Irma went into her house and made her way to her bedroom. There she went over to her desk, it used to be her Grandmother’s and had a secret compartment. She pushed open the secret compartment, inside it were a collection of letters from her friends from the Chalet School, both those living under Nazi rule and those living in freedom. She stuck the letter into the back of the compartment, checked that no one had seen what she had done, and went back outside to the garden.
Three days after Irma received Biddy’s letter Germany and Britain were at war with each other.

#35: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 7:04 pm

*sniffle*
Cazx, this is a real tearjerker!!!
I can imagine it being very difficult to write!

#36: Author: Rosie, Location: Huntingdonshire

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 7:27 pm

Awww. That was awesome Cazx. *bites lip really hard*

#37: Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West Yorks

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 1:06 am

Thank you Cazx for that & glad the poem helped

#38: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 1:20 am

Cazx, you are doing incredibly well writing a horribly difficult period. I found the last line of this post especially poignant.

#39: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 8:08 am

Cazx, this is really good, It brings out the horror of the situation, that a schoolgirl cannot receive a letter from a friend without having to worry about being betrayed.

#40: Author: Lisa, Location: South Coast of England

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 8:10 am

This is really beautiful, thank you. Crying or Very sad

#41: Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 2:44 pm

Cazx this is fantastic. The terror and fear really comes alive as you read it.

#42: Author: Marianne, Location: Bournemouth

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 4:01 pm

dawn - i haven't seen that poem for ages. there's so much truth in it as well.

#43: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 4:45 pm

Caz that was lovely, *stumbles off to search for a tissue*

#44: Author: Carolyn P, Location: Lancaster, England

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 5:25 pm

This is so moving. Calm, quiet and yet teaming with emotion.

#45: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 6:33 pm

Powerful writing - and such a poignant last line to the post.

#46: Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 8:07 am

Cazx this is as others have said so powerful. It really underlines what went on. You have caught the fear and awfulness of it all so well.

#47: Author: Ciorstaidh, Location: London

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:15 am

Cazx, I'm speechless. I can't fin enough superlatives. This is brilliant. MOOORE!

#48: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 7:03 pm

Needless to say Irma did not join in with the cheering crowds who erupted on to the streets of Hamburg to celebrate Germany going to war and winning back the land which had been taken away from them at the end of the previous one. Irma’s brother Hans was part of the Polish invasion force, while her elder brother Ralf was stationed in the Rhineland.
When war had been announced Irma had felt numb, when she began to feel things more acutely again she realised that she was in fact a tiny bit relieved. After all the sooner that Germany was defeated then the sooner she would be able to go back to school again. But Irma’s perspective of the war was shaken sharply when her Father told her that he believed that this war would go on for even longer than the previous one.
“Britain and France are unprepared,” he told her. “They have not been building up their armaments for as long or on the same scale that we, under those Nazi’s have been. It may even be the case that to begin with the war will go in the favour of those criminals. Britain will not give in though, and eventually we will be able to live freely again.”
Irma went back to school where nationalism was emphasised even more than ever. She and Heidi quickly got used to keeping their heads down and being wary around Gretchen and her gang of unambitious girls. Irma did not like talking to these girls, she was always nervous around them, either talking too much or not at all. Either way whatever she did around these girls attracted suspicion.
It only took three weeks for Poland to surrender and once again there was mass rejoicing and declarations that the Reich would soon control the whole of Europe. Hans wrote home a long letter describing his action in the campaign.
“They came out to meet us on horseback. It did not take us long at all to get past them. We were much more better equipped by them… The people here do not deserve some of the land they have, it should have German’s living on it not Slav’s but we have been told that this will be sorted out soon.”
Irma had never seen her Father cry before. When he read his sons letter though at the breakfast table one Saturday morning, he could not stop the tears from falling. He was crying for his son, crying because the politics that he hated had changed him from the gentle caring schoolboy he had used to be into a cruel, hating human being who was unrecognisable from what he had used to have been. Irma was shocked, shocked at what her brother had written, shocked to see her Father cry, shocked that anyone could be so mean. Her Mother had cried as well but Irma was used to her Mother crying, Lieserl had cried too but that was only because her Mother had done. As for Irma well she didn’t cry, she felt that she was too emotionally drained and anxious to be able to cry these days.

#49: Author: Sarah_L, Location: Redcar

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 7:08 pm

I really, really hope nothing bad happens to Irma. Is this the same Irma that Joey meets in Future?

#50: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 7:48 pm

*cries*

This takes my breath away every time I look at it. Today it claimed my tears as well.

#51: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 9:22 pm

The splits inside a family must have been so hard to bear and you capture that very well. I suppose though if he didn't feel like that then maybe he wouldn't have fought and would have been shot for desertion or something so there isn't really a happy ending.

Brilliant as ever Cazx

#52: Author: Ellie, Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:58 pm

I can think of nothing to add to the comments already made. You are handling this really difficult subject so well and so sensitively.

#53: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 12:32 am

Poor Irma!!!!!
Cazx, I hope you're working on more of this?

#54: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 5:54 am

Thank you Cazx, that is so sad. Crying or Very sad

#55: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 10:11 pm

An even shorter bit than usual tonight...

Christmas was a very different Christmas to all the other Christmas’ Irma had experienced. Only Ralf was able to get leave to come home, he was quiet and subdued, no longer the laughing teasing elder brother he had always been. The war was affecting him strongly despite the fact that he had seen no action yet. He disliked the structure of army life, he wished he had more time to himself, time to think, time to escape from Nazism and go into a different world. Hans was still in Poland, enforcing Nazi domination, he did appear to regret not being able to come home but at the same time he excelled in the situation he was in.
Due to the rationing which had been enforced there was less food and presents than normal too. Irma received only one winter dress, and one woollen jumper, she normally received at least two of each and a new winter coat. Her Mother told her sadly that she’d have to make do with last year’s coat for another year. Irma did not mind, she understood that sacrifices did have to be made, but Lieserl didn’t. She had cried and shouted herself into a tantrum. She had only calmed down when Ralf had promised her that he would buy her a new doll, with what was left over from his pay.
New Years Eve was another difficult night. Irma, her parents and Ralf all wanted the New Year to bring with it peace, Lieserl was too young to understand the war and it did not effect her in the same way as the others. But they knew in their hearts that the only reason that would bring peace in 1940 was if Germany won the war, and that they did not want.

#56: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 10:56 pm

You know one of the worst things about this is how grown up Irma sounds when she's really still a child herself. It was particularly obvious when she was comparing her reaction to Christmas with Lieserl's.

You just get better and better Cazx

#57: Author: Ellie, Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 11:01 pm

Thank you Cazx, understandably shorter, this can't be easy to write.

#58: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 5:53 am

wow.

This is so detailed and well researched.

Wonderful

#59: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 8:03 am

Sarah L, I did mean to answer your question when I posted last night but forgot Embarassed

Anyway the answer is yes, this is the same Irma that appears in future.

#60: Author: Sarah_L, Location: Redcar

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 10:54 am

Thanks Cazx. Thankfully I can't remember if Irma mentioned anything about her family there, which means the outcome of this drabble wil remain a surprise.

#61: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 11:03 am

This really brings it home, Cazx. A family divided is a terrible thing.

#62: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 12:13 pm

*sniffling* Caz, please more of this soon, it's just marvellous.

#63: Author: Ciorstaidh, Location: London

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 2:37 pm

Sarah_L wrote:

Thanks Cazx. Thankfully I can't remember if Irma mentioned anything about her family there, which means the outcome of this drabble wil remain a surprise.

I *think* she just looks sad, and says something along the lines of "let's not talk about it now" - so completely open-ended!

Can't wait for the next installment!!!

#64: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 9:26 pm

More please Cazx, this is so heart-rending.

#65: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 10:10 pm

Tonights installment...

Irma had to leave school on her Seventeenth birthday. The outbreak of war had drawn even more men into the German army, and women were under pressure to go and fill the empty workspaces. Irma and Heidi talked about it as they walked home from school together one last time.
“It’s ironic isn’t it.” Said Heidi as she pulled on the woollen gloves Irma had made her for Christmas.
“What is?” Asked Irma, she was not happy to be leaving school, she had wanted to be a teacher but she did not want to teach children how to become Nazi’s.
“That now the Nazi’s can’t wait for us to leave school, so that we can go and work for the benefit of the economy and the four year plan. Of course they never wanted us to have much of a education but before the war they wanted us to leave so we could marry a SS officer and have lots of Aryan children.” Heidi had the looks of a traditional German, long blonde hair, pale skin, high cheekbones, and bright blue eyes. To her distress she received many admiring glances from the Nazi soldiers and party members.
“Think I’d rather work than have their children.” Irma said before adding, “Did you know that Gretchen is engaged to a SS officer? I saw her when I was picking up our rations yesterday and she couldn’t resist coming over to me and showing off her diamond ring. She’s working as a secretary for some Nazi official apparently, I think her Papa got her the job though.”
Heidi made a face, “She’ll be one of those who’ll be receiving a medal for having a load of children. Have her picture in the paper, be declared an assert to the Reich.”
Irma laughed, she could still laugh but laughing was becoming more and more uncommon for her.
“How are you looking forward to starting work anyway?” Heidi asked, she her-self had only an another three months left in school before she turned seventeen.
“Oh I don’t mind much,” Irma said, “Frau Eisner is a friend of Mutti’s so she won’t be a bad boss. I’ll be getting more clothes too, as it is a clothes shop. I’ll just be helping out generally, taking orders and arranging fittings I think.”
Irma still kept in touch with Emmie and Alixe but their letters to each other were more stilted and formal than ever. Each girl was scared that even the slightest hint of their old school would create trouble for them, Irma knew that Emmie’s parents had died and that Alixe’s Mother was slowly beginning to decline. Alixe’s Mother had been up on the Sonnalpe under observation when the Nazi’s had walked in and although the doctors had declared her well she had been advised to spend a few months of each year up in the mountains. She and Alixe had been unable to get away from Cologne since returning there and her health had begun to fail. Irma knew that Alixe was worried for her Mother and Irma was worried for Alixe, what would become of Alixe if her Mother died? She had no other close relatives. Irma wished to see her old friends again, she decided that she would save up her wages and try to visit them once the summer came.

#66: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 6:03 am

wow - I love the details about Alixe et al.

Wonderful, this is wonderful

#67: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 6:50 am

Another excellent post - thank you.

#68: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:39 am

This is bringing out the worsening atmosphere in a very vivid way. I love how you are creating the air of suspicion that hangs over everything.

#69: Author: Carolyn P, Location: Lancaster, England

Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 9:18 am

If Irma is writing to Emmie, I hope she doesn't get into trouble or fall under suspicion when Emmie escapes.

This is so evocative, and I think it is the way that there is always something under the surface but that you don't push it, an unstated horror almost and that makes it all the more tense and emotional. Brilliant.

#70: Author: Sugarplum, Location: second star to the right!

Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 9:42 pm

This is so evocative. You are writing all the underlying fear and emotion wonderfully.

#71: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:52 pm

Cazx, you have me sniffling away here......

#72: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 11:53 am

Yes, it's a real wrench to the emotions, isn't it? I'm glad that I didn't live through it.

#73: Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West Yorks

Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 1:59 pm

There must be so many families who did live through it and indeed are still living through similar things

thank you so much Cazx it's really put my worries/niggles/whinges into perspective for me

#74: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 4:58 pm

Before Irma could plan her trip to meet up with her friends once more there was a drastic change in the war. Apart from the rationing it had not seemed as if there was a war going on, as the fighting in Poland had quickly finished as the strength of the Nazi’s overcame the Polish army. This all changed in little more than a month when firstly the Nazi’s seized Denmark and Norway, then a month later in May Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France were all invaded. The defeat of the British at Dunkirk was declared a great triumph by the German media; it was widely believed that Britain would be the next country to succumb to Nazi military dominance. Ralf was part of the forces that invaded France, he did not like doing it but he knew that if he refused then he would be court marshalled. When he came back home on leave a few months later he actually admitted that the invasion was not as bad as he had thought it had been. None of the activities, which had occurred when Poland was invaded, happened in France, the civilian population was mainly left to themselves if they were respectful towards the Germans.
Irma worried about her brothers. She also worried about what might happen to her friends in Britain, especially Madame, if Germany did invade the island. She did not imagine that they would be treated well after everything, which had happened in Tyrol. She tried not to think about it, she knew it was the cowardly way out but it was better than getting upset and having suspicion fall on her.
Irma had written to Alixe telling her of how she wanted to meet up with her and Emmie. Alixe had written a reply, which was full of joy, telling her friend about how she to longed for the three of them to meet up. Alixe suggested that Irma and Emmie should come to Cologne, she could not leave her Mother for long and she worried about her when she was away. “Come to Cologne,” She had written, “It’ll be a reunion of sorts as there will be the three of us and Suzu to. I know we never had much to do with her in school but she is an angel, and her Mother is to. We can talk of the old days, re-enact baby Voodoo maybe. It won’t be the same obviously as Biddy, Mary and Kitty won’t be with us but it should still be fun!”
It was decided then that Irma should travel to Cologne with an old woman who lived down the street from the Ancockzy’s, who was going to visit her married daughter for ten days. Emmie would only be able to spend a week in Cologne and was going to arrive later than Irma. Frau Eisner gave Irma some new clothes from the shop especially for her visit, and Irma’s Mutti had made a delicious fruitcake for Irma to give to Frau Von Elsen. Irma excited at the prospect of seeing her two of her best friends in school for the first time in nearly two years very nearly forgot that the Nazi’s were in power and that Germany was at war.

#75: Author: caz, Location: Cambridge

Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 5:02 pm

Thank you, Cazx. Another excellent post. I'm torn between excitement that the girls are going to meet up and trepidation that something bad is going to happen.

#76: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 5:05 pm

Oh! PLEASE don't let anything very horrid happen to the girls!!!!!

#77: Author: Carolyn P, Location: Lancaster, England

Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 5:14 pm

Feeling very worried!!

#78: Author: Chelsea, Location: Your Imagination

Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 5:42 pm

*worried about something happening to Irma's family while she is away.

#79: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 8:45 pm

I don't know exactly what worried me most about that last bit. Irma travelling all that way, the fact that you didn't actually say Emmie was coming, Irma's brothers...

Perhaps I'll just worry about them all.

#80: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 9:18 pm

I'm hoping no-one talks too loudly (c.f. Exile)

*on edge of cliff*

#81: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 10:14 pm

Very worried about this reunion - we know that Emmie and Irma survive -but what about familes?

Really need to know more, please.

#82: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 12:58 pm

Please hurry to set our minds at rest.

#83: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 3:54 pm

*sits in the corner and wibbles*

#84: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 3:56 pm

*joins Vikki wibbling in the corner*

#85: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 4:12 pm

*offers Pim a cookie, filched from Jennie's restocked cupboards, over in 'More Shocks'!*

#86: Author: Abi, Location: Alton, Hants

Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 4:13 pm

Oooh, Cazx, I've just read this and it is so, so good. Poor Irma has had to grow up so quickly, and as others have said, you've put across the everyday fear that people had to live with so powerfully.

*hopes nothing awful happens to the girls*

#87: Author: Ellie, Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 4:36 pm

Also just caught up with the last tw parts, also very worried about what may happen while Irma is visiting Alixe.
It does make me realise how lucky I am to be living in England, in the present day.

#88: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 8:41 pm

I'm sorry to disappoint you but nothing awful is going to happen.... yet.
Here's tonights installment anyway.

“Irma! Over here Irma!” Shouted Alixe as she saw her friend step off the train.
Irma turned round to the direction where the voice was coming from. Scanning the crowd she did not recognise Alixe, there was one girl but she looked so grown up that it could not possibly be Alixe, could it? The girl caught Irma’s eye and smiled excitedly at her and gave her a little wave. Irma rushed over to her friend and hugged her, “It’s so good to see you again, I almost didn’t recognise you. You’re so grown up, you’re curls have been cut yes?” Irma gushed.
Alixe laughed and touched her hair self consciously, “No they’re just pinned up, I get taken more seriously this way. Anyway you say I’m grown up well what about you? Where did that serious expression come from?”
Irma laughed, “How can I not be serious in times like these, but I promise you that I shall not be serious for the whole time I’m here!”
Alixe grinned, “Good! Have you got everything? Yes, well come on lets get out of here and go home.”
Alixe lived in a prosperous suburb of Cologne, as Irma had not brought much with her the girls caught a bus there in order to save money. The houses were big and their gardens spacious. Alixe’s home was more modest but still had an air of elegance and prestige about it.
Irma had met Alixe’s Mother many times while she had been at school, and liked her. She was sweet and gentle different in many ways to her daughter who had always been in mischief at school. Alixe had however inherited her mother’s good looks, and the energy in Alixe’s face was just as if not more so attractive as her Mother’s calm stately expression. Irma however was surprised when she saw Frau Von Elsen again. She was pale and there were big bags under her eyes, she seemed to have no energy and was obviously not coping well away from the mountains.
“Irma it is so nice to see you again.” She said smiling at her, “It has been a long time since we have last met, Alixe has been so excited about seeing you and Emmie, when is she arriving here Alixe?”
“On Monday Mutti.” Alixe said patiently although she had told her Mother this many times before.
“Ah yes I remember you saying now.” She replied as she picked up her sewing and looked out of the window.
Irma met Suzu the next day, despite being two years younger than Irma and Alixe in some ways she seemed to be much older than them. She had a great sense of fun but at the same time she also seemed to have a greater understanding of the way Nazi Germany worked and was always able to keep her cool.
Emmie’s arrival on Monday was a joyful occasion; the three girls caught up on news, which they had been unable to write about. Emmie told them how unhappy she and her sister were. She had to work in a factory for the Nazi’s and if she did not work fast enough then her pay was docked. She told them of her brother Karl and how he hated having to bomb Britain and other allied countries for the Nazi’s. Irma told them of her brother’s experiences in the army, although she left out the fact that Hans seemed to be sympathetic towards the Nazi’s and believe in some of their ideals. Alixe told them about how she was dreading being sent out to work in a factory as she did not want to leave her Mother, at the moment she worked in a small food store ten minutes away from her home so if need be then she could always be on hand for her Mother.
On the last night of their visit all three girls and Frau Von Elsen were invited to Suzu’s for dinner. Suzu’s mother was an American originally and it was evident that Suzu was the image of what her Mother had been like at the same age. Suzu had a younger sister called Anne who seemed to be around the same age as Lieserl but she was so different from Lieserl. She understood the situation in Germany and knew that because of it she had had to grow up. Irma liked what she had seen of Suzu and her family, they seemed to feel the same way as her own family about the war and wished it to end.
“You see,” Suzu explained over dinner knowing she was with people she could trust, “we have friends in England, we saw them a few months before the war broke out and we do so want to see them all again.”
“I really want to see Faith, Catherine, and Annie.” Anne then said in a plaintive tone, “they’re my best friends and we used to write to each other all the time, only now we can’t.”
Alixe smiled at her encouragingly, “We all want to see our friends Anne, we just have to hope that one day we can see them.”
Frau Haber smiled at Alixe and mouthed “Thank you” to her. Then suddenly there was a loud bang from upstairs, which made everyone jump. Herr and Frau Haber exchanged quick glances with each other but before they could say anything, Suzu jumped up exclaiming “Oh bother I left the window open and the wind has probably blown something off my desk, excuse me for a moment.”
Frau Haber laughed in a rather strained manner before saying, “Suzu is so careless at times, she’s always forgetting to do something or other.”
The rest of the meal passed off uneventfully but Irma could not help but wonder that something was going on in the Haber’s big house.
The next day Alixe accompanied Emmie and Irma to the station. The Hamburg train would leave before Emmie’s and they had to rush to make sure they got there on time. As it was, all Irma could do to say goodbye was quickly hug her friends, thank Alixe for a wonderful time and promise to write. She waved at them from the train until she could no longer see them, not realising that the next time she saw them would not be for a very long time.

#89: Author: Ciorstaidh, Location: London

Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 8:50 pm

*picks up the huuuuuge hint and speculates...*

Are they harbouring Jews or others whom the Nazis hated?

This is fabulous... fabulous Very Happy

#90: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 8:54 pm

That was lovely, until I reached the last sentence.......... Sad

#91: Author: Guest,

Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 9:19 pm

Hmmm, nothing awful is going to happen - YET. That means something is going to happen, at some point. So I'll have to keep biting my nails until it does....

#92: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 9:30 pm

*goes off to wibble in the corner again*

#93: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 11:16 pm

Nothing awful happened just lots of foreshadowing which is worse in some ways because we know SOMETHING is going to happen and we just have to wait.

The Habers did sound nice until that bang... now I'm just wibbly.

#94: Author: Rosie, Location: Huntingdonshire

Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 12:09 am

*wibbles madly*
It's really horrible to think what daily life was like under the Nazis, for the ordinary German families, not just the victims of persecution whom we normally hear about (I'm not saying they didn't suffer, just that we hear about them!!).

#95: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 9:04 am

*Also feel the Habers are harbouring Jews or someone in their house.*

This continues to be outstanding, thank you!

#96: Author: *Aletea*, Location: Manchester

Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 4:23 pm

All I can say is EEEEEP!!!

Hope Suzu doesn't do anything to get the others int rouble...

#97: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 8:07 pm

Wibbling, eebling and running away.

#98: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 10:51 pm

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

Wonderful, gripping writing.

::not worthy::

#99: Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West Yorks

Posted: Tue May 04, 2004 1:19 pm

Cazx this just gets better and better - you manage to draw us all in and we are all so involved and thinking about what changes it would make to our lives to be in that situation

#100: Author: PatMac, Location: Yorkshire England

Posted: Tue May 04, 2004 2:50 pm

superb Cazx! the mood you are creating is really strong and captures the reality so well. It's almost worse knowing that you are writing what thousands of real people went through - not just fictional characters, even though we get caught up in worrying about them.

#101: Author: ali, Location: medway, kent

Posted: Tue May 04, 2004 3:21 pm

This is so realistic and makes me realise how lucky I am in my secure happy life. It also makes me want to go and hunt up Anne Franks diary again - did it inspire you in any way?

#102: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Tue May 04, 2004 10:48 pm

Ali, Anne Franks diary did inspire me in a way. Anyway here's tonights posting.

Britain did not succumb to the German bombing raid which the Nazi’s had expected her to do. Britain stood alone, receiving no help, in fighting a much stronger country that controlled nearly all of Western Europe. The Nazi’s could not quite come to terms with this fact; they had been confidant that they would be able to defeat Britain just as easily as they had defeated France. The plan for bringing fascism to Britain had to be put back.
Just before Christmas 1940 Irma received a letter telling her she was required to leave her job and go and work in an armaments factory. She was to leave her job at the start of the New Year. Irma was dreading having to go and work for the Nazi’s, she also hated the fact that they were forcing her to go and work for them, making her do something which she did not want to do. Her only consolation was that Heidi had also received the same summons and the pair would be together once again. Alixe had also been told that she had to go and work in a factory, although she did not mention anything in her letters Irma realised that Alixe hated this even more than she did. After all Alixe was her Mother’s sole carer and worried about her when she was away from her. What the girls did not know was that they were being sent to these factories because Germany was preparing to launch a massive attack on the eastern states and the Soviet Union. An attack which would change the war.
Ralf managed to get some leave over Christmas; he brought a friend home with him, Franzchen Von Rothenfels. He had no immediate surviving family, having been an only child; his parents had died just before the start of the war in a car accident. He had just been about to begin his second year in university when war had been declared, then he had been called up into the army. He like Ralf did not wish to fight in the war but was glad that he was on the western front away from the horrors of the east. Irma was shy around him, never having had much to do with any young men other than her two brothers. She like the rest of her family made him feel welcome and he was touched by the hospitable air of the family.
A few days after Christmas Irma went to go and visit Heidi. Franzchen asked her if she would mind if he walked with her, he had liked what he had seen of Irma, she was not like many of the German girls full of the Nazi ideology they had been taught in school. Irma did not mind if he came with her, although she did not know what she would talk to him about.
“What were you studying in university Mr Von Rothenfels?” Irma said bravely, feeling that she had to say something.
“Please call me Franz.” He said laughing, “There’s not that big an age gap between us for you to call me Mr Von Rothenfels. Unless you want me to call you Miss Ancockzy.”
Irma blushing furiously stammered, “No, of course I don’t want you to call me that!”
Franz taking pity on her answered her question; “I was studying engineering in university.”
“Are you going to go back after the war?”
“Yes, that is I hope so.”
“When do you think that will be?” Irma whispered checking to see that there was no one close by, they were walking along one of Hamburg’s many canals no one was in sight.
Franz frowned, “I don’t know.” He said at last, “It depends on what happens. If Germany continues in the way we are then soon but hopefully the tide will soon change and Britain will get the support it needs.”
“But where will that support come from?” Irma asked anxiously.
“I don’t know America or the Russians maybe, I know we have a pact with the Russians but the Nazi’s hate Communists, they’ll never stick to it!”
Irma nodded, there was more hope then than there had seemed to be.

Last edited by Cazx on Tue May 18, 2004 1:34 pm; edited 1 time in total

#103: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Tue May 04, 2004 11:08 pm

OOOh - Rothenfels - this sounds familiar....

*grins*

Wonderful as ever.

#104: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Tue May 04, 2004 11:24 pm

Do I spy a budding romance? It's nice to see Irma with somebody in the middle of such a horrible situation.

Thanks Cazx.

#105: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Wed May 05, 2004 10:14 am

Clever! Hadn't thought before - but of course it's possible that Irma met her hubby during the war.

Thank you.

#106: Author: Ellie, Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Wed May 05, 2004 5:26 pm

Lovely, and it's nice to be reminded that occasionally, nice things still happened in the midst of all the horror.

#107: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Wed May 05, 2004 7:35 pm

*casting hopeful glances at Cazx......*
(any more yet? Wink

)

#108: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Wed May 05, 2004 8:14 pm

I second that. An engineer makes a nice change from a doctor.

#109: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Wed May 05, 2004 10:46 pm

I had the inspiration to write more tonight but instead I've worked all evening, sorry! Hopefully I'll have time to write more tomorrow...

#110: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Wed May 05, 2004 10:51 pm

Cazx wrote:

I had the inspiration to write more tonight but instead I've worked all evening, sorry! Hopefully I'll have time to write more tomorrow...

argh

and here was i hotly anticipating more drabble...

#111: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Wed May 05, 2004 11:13 pm

Poor Cazx, working all evening can't ahve been fun. Sad

#112: Author: Ciorstaidh, Location: London

Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 12:12 am

That can't have been fun, working all evening! *Have some fun tomorrow - write drabble instead!!! Very Happy

*

Love the completely natural way you brought Franz into it! It was only two paragraphs later that I went "Rothenfels"? But...? And went back to check Embarassed

That's how well-done it is. *Chants for more*

#113: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 8:32 pm

Here's tonight's piece, um I should warn you guys that the second half is not that pleasant... sorry Sad

Irma and Heidi began working for the Nazi’s. They made weapons for the war, if they failed to meet their quota then they had to deal with the repercussions. Both girls hated the work they had to do; they were contributing to a war, which they did not believe in. They had to work long hours, leaving home early in the morning and not coming back until just before dinnertime. Irma was always tired now and on the weekends she would frequently sleep late, something she had never done before. The other girls who she worked with were spilt into two camps, the larger group was the one who supported the Nazi’s, while the group Irma belonged to was smaller and quietly resented the Nazi’s.
“Heidi,” Irma asked one day as they travelled home from work, “Do you think it would be ok if I wrote to Franz? He has no relatives you see, and does not get much post.”
Heidi smiled she had heard a lot about Franz from Irma, “I think it would be fine if you did that. After all we are told to support the army, I know we don’t really want to conform to Nazi propaganda but in this case I think it would be the right thing to do. Besides its not as if you hardly know him, he spent Christmas with you.”
So Irma began to write to Franz, he wrote back and each of his letters was a welcome escape for Irma from the world of working long hours in a hot, smelly factory. Franz was touched that Irma had written to him and had realised how brave she must have been to decide to. The two kept in regular contact, each in an unspoken way supporting the other through the horrors of the war.
The Eastern front opened up further in the middle of the summer heat. The Communist army was pushed back and the Nazi’s made out that they were liberating the eastern states from Communist rule. Hans was slightly injured during the fighting and was able to come home for a few weeks. He was changed, no longer so full of the Nazi ideology as he had previously been. Irma saw that her Father was merely glad of this and that he had not asked himself why Hans had changed. Irma wondered, the last time had been home he had had a firm belief that the Nazi’s were right. His letters home had been full of how great the Nazi’s were, although they had been somewhat subdued of late.
One evening Irma took a plunge and asked Hans why he had changed his attitude.
Hans frowned; he did not want to burden his sister who had already had to sacrifice some of the best years of her life. “I don’t want to say.” He answered her at last.
“Hans,” Irma pleaded, “I can see that you are miserable, it would be good for you to share your troubles with someone.”
“I don’t want to share this with anyone Irma.” Hans said defensively, although half of him wished to be able to say what was wrong.
“Please Hans, I can see something is bothering you and I want to help you.”
Hans realising that his sister would not stop unless she found out what was the matter said quietly, “Horrible things are happening out there Irma, things which you wouldn’t believe possible.”
Irma felt her stomach turn cold as she stretched out her hand and whispered hoarsely, “What sort of things?”
“The SS are killing people, Jews mainly, herding them all together and shooting them.”
Irma put her hand to her mouth feeling sick, “Why doesn’t anyone stop it?”
“There’s no one to stop the SS, they’re the ones with the power, they’re acting on Hitler and co.’s orders.” Hans’ voice was dull and there was pathetic look in his eyes, which Irma had never seen before. He felt so helpless not being able to do anything to stop the killings.
Irma did not say anything she just put her hands around her brother and held him. She realised that at times like these there was nothing she could say to make the situation better.

#114: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 9:01 pm

wow.

just

wow

#115: Author: Nicci, Location: UK

Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 9:18 pm

cazx, this is powerful and moving, please post some more soon.

#116: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 9:36 pm

Thank you Cazx! It must be hard to write this!

#117: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 9:51 pm

Thank you Caz, this is simply wonderful.

#118: Author: PatMac, Location: Yorkshire England

Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 10:13 pm

Thank you Cazx, this NEEDS writing and you are doing it so well!

Thank you

#119: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 11:37 pm

Thank you Cazx.

I can't imagine how hard this must be to write but you're doing a fantastic job. It's strange in a way seeing the people behind the news, seeing Hans and how the SS affected his views.

#120: Author: Ellie, Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 11:46 pm

For me, this is really bringing this period alive, and making it so much more real than any amount of factual accounts have succeeded in doing.
Thank you Cazx.

#121: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 9:12 am

Thanks for all the support, I wasn't sure how people would react to this as it is quite harrowing...
I'm going away for the weekend so I'm afraid that there won't be anymore drabble until Monday at the earliest!

#122: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 1:41 pm

I think harrowing is the right word to describe this.

#123: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 6:47 pm

How long is it til Monday?

#124: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 8:31 pm

Thank you for the last post Cazx. You probably need the break from this - it must be difficult to write.

#125: Author: Ciorstaidh, Location: London

Posted: Sun May 09, 2004 8:42 pm

*Hopes Caz had a decent weekend break - don't want you to be overburdened with this - it must be really tough to write! Hats off to you, girl!*

#126: Author: Chloë, Location: London: when away from home planet!

Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 6:07 pm

Caz i only just found this it is wonderful so moving Smile

#127: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 9:33 pm

Autumn on the eastern front brought with it rain and mud. The Nazi campaign began to falter, being unused to the Russian weather. As winter drew closer it began to snow and the temperature dropped, the Nazi tanks broke down and the supply lines became stretched. The Russians as had happened in 1812 worked their alien weather conditions to their advantage.
Irma began to believe again that one day Nazism would be defeated. The casualty lists from the front grew increasingly longer, longer than they had ever been in the war so far. Hans once he was recovered from his injury was urgently summoned back to the horrors of the east. He did not want to go back but he like everyone else in his family realised that you had to do as the Nazi’s ordered or face the consequences. Irma realised that the end was still going to be a long way off but there was hope now that there would be an end.
Franz was given some leave in at the beginning of November and as he did not have anyone to spend it with he was invited by the Ancockzy’s to spend it with them in Hamburg. Irma found that she was nervous around him, and talked a good deal of random rubbish to him. He did not seem to mind though, and teased her in a friendly flirtatious manner when she said something stupid. His leave did not last long and when he went back Irma discovered that she now missed him dreadfully and would spend hours crying into her pillow at night, worrying about him and whether he would be ok, wondering if there was even a possibility that he felt the same way about her as she felt about him.
It was just before Christmas when tragedy struck. Irma’s father received a telegram, informing him that Hans had been killed in action. The letter, which followed a few weeks later, told them that he had been shot in the failed attempt to push forward and capture Moscow. Irma’s parents were naturally devastated, her Father seemed to have become an old man over night, while her Mother became ill with grief and stayed in bed for weeks. The community rallied around Irma and her family, offering kind words and cooking meals for the family to eat. Irma felt guilty though, she was upset about Hans but at the same time she was thankful that he had died. Her reasoning for this was that she could not have imagined how he would cope in the future with the knowledge that there had been nothing that he could have done to help the Jews who he had witnessed being killed in the east.

Last edited by Cazx on Tue May 11, 2004 9:12 am; edited 1 time in total

#128: Author: Sarah_L, Location: Redcar

Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 9:35 pm

That must be so hard for Irma. And for you to write it Cazx.

#129: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 9:55 pm

Wow.

It's the last line that did for me there.

Just

*sniffles*

#130: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 9:58 pm

Another post which reveals the real horrors of WW2.

#131: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 12:42 am

Oh gosh. *sniffles* Thanks Caz.

#132: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 1:51 am

Thank you Cazx!
*blows nose loudly*

#133: Author: Chelsea, Location: Your Imagination

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 2:09 am

That was beautiful. You've captured a lot of feelings and emoitions.

One question (and I'm not being pedantic) but did you mean to compare it to 1912 - rather than 1812. Or was there a German/Russian War in 1812? My knowledge of European history is nill. There was a war over here in 1812.

#134: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 7:25 am

1812 was Napoleon screwing up in trying to take Moscow.

Think 1812 Overture (written in 1814)

#135: Author: Kathryn, Location: Melbourne/Hamilton until 11 September

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 10:11 am

angel wrote:

1812 was Napoleon screwing up in trying to take Moscow.

Nicely put! Pity Hitler didn't know his history.

#136: Author: Chelsea, Location: Your Imagination

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 12:09 pm

angel wrote:

1812 was Napoleon screwing up in trying to take Moscow.

Think 1812 Overture (written in 1814)

So the overture wasn't written about our War of 1812? Have no idea what I was thinking but I always thought it was (when I thought about it - which is almost never). In hindsight, my theory is rather nonsensical.

#137: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 2:43 pm

Quote:

So the overture wasn't written about our War of 1812?

Oddly enough, I thought the same! For some reason, it's always played at 4th of July concerts, before (or during) the fireworks, so it's filed in my mind with the patriotic song collection. Napoleon, on the other hand, is associated primarily with juvenile literature (including CS, thanks to Joey) and palindromes (Able was I ere I saw Elba). I think the only time he made it into school lessons had to do with the invention of canning.... So educational, this site Smile

#138: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 3:02 pm

Thank you Caz, very moving.

The tragic thing about learning from history is that everyone does it in hindsight

*Ashamed to say I know nothing about any war in Canada/USA in 1812!*

#139: Author: Chloë, Location: London: when away from home planet!

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 3:19 pm

Wonderful Caz more soon i hope Very Happy

Lesley wrote:

*Ashamed to say I know nothing about any war in Canada/USA in 1812!*

I didn't know anything about it either Lesley

#140: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 3:19 pm

That would be because:
A. You don’t have an unsingable national anthem written during said war.
B. The evil British lost (according to primary school teachers) or were too busy dealing with the French to bother with North America (according to recent discussion on genealogical mailing list)
C. More than one of the above
D. Some other reason entirely

And thanks again, Cazx, for handling an incredibly difficult topic so well in this drabble.

#141: Author: Chelsea, Location: Your Imagination

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 3:26 pm

Kathy_S wrote:

I love how the winner of the war depends on which country you went to school in. Technically is was a US vs Britian war (since Canada wasn't Canada yet) and we were just the closest British soil. It was the last time that Canada has been invaded. Which made Bush et al's comments about how the US always came to the defence of Canada when Canada was attacked really funny (the only country to attack Canada was the US!)

#142: Author: Abi, Location: Alton, Hants

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 3:31 pm

Caz, this is fantabulous, it's so moving and brings the whole period alive. Thank you again.

#143: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 3:32 pm

So Kathy - what have American primary school teachers got against us then? Laughing

#144: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 3:50 pm

Something to do with burning the White House, not to mention those warships bombing Baltimore Confused

. (These were Maryland primary school teachers, remember!)

But Chelsea's also right -- though I doubt GWB’s mind could even dredge up such high points as Dolley Madison escaping the evil British with George Washington’s portrait, let alone not-overwhelmingly-successful attempts to take the war into the enemy's camp.

#145: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 8:54 pm

Chelsea and Kathy thanks for informing us on North American history, I know so little about it (apart from the obvious of course like the war of independence and the civil war, oh and the American West as we studied that at GCSE!) which is very embrassing seeing as I'm a history student Embarassed

Alixe and Emmie both wrote to Irma offering sympathy about Hans’ death. Emmie’s letter touched Irma’s more than Alixe’s, it was not that Alixe was not sympathetic she just did not understand the pain of loosing a sibling, what with her being a only child. On the other hand Emmie’s brother, Karl, had been declared missing during the battle of Britain, all they could do was hope that he was still alive and a prisoner of war in Britain.
Slowly but surely life began to go back to what it had been before Hans’ death for Irma and her family. Her Father was angrier than ever with the Nazi’s, he blamed himself for remaining in Germany and not seeking Asylum elsewhere. Irma’s Mutti tried to make him stop blaming himself, but she had difficulty in doing so. Lieserl for perhaps the first time in her short life began to understand the true consequences and threats of the war; she also began to see through the Nazi propaganda that was pumped into her at school. Ralf was deeply upset at his brother’s death, when he came home two months after the news first came through his face showed how those two months without his brother in the same world as him had meant to him.
Ralf had come home because he was being posted out of Western Europe and into northern Africa. He did not know about the killings in the east but did not seem that surprised about them when Irma informed him of what Hans had told her.
“The Jews are treated dreadfully where ever the Nazi’s go.” He told Irma, “They have nearly every restriction imaginable put on to them, there is even talk that they will be sent to live in the east on work camps. There is nothing one can do to try and make life easier for them.”
Irma realised that Ralf felt just as useless as Hans had done, although the situation Hans had been in had been far worse.
“Do you mind about being sent to fight in Africa?” Irma asked her brother.
“No,” He said simply, “It’s hard to explain, but in France I’m just there to stop the local population from rebelling, and I don’t want to do that. In Africa I will be part of an actual fighting army, of course I’d prefer it if I wasn’t, I’ll be up against people who’ll want to kill me. The men I’ll be with too won’t go about spouting Nazism all the time, simply because out there, there will be more important things going on than Nazi ideology.”
Irma understood what her brother was saying but part of her still wished that he would be remaining in France, it was so much safer there. Franz was going to be remaining in Europe so Irma was safe in the knowledge that at least he would be all right for the time being.
Irma herself felt far more older than her actual eighteen years. Where had the last three nearly four years gone? It seemed that she had changed overnight from a normal chatty bubbly school girl into a nearly nineteen year old who was missing out on all the fun that she should be having at this stage of life. She was far more serious now than what she had been like in all her years at school. She realised the fact that the person she was now was barely recognisable from the person she had been four years ago. The supposed golden years of youth were slipping through Irma’s fingers, the Nazi’s and their war were preventing her and thousands of others of having the right to live, dream and have fun. Irma was occasionally resentful over this but she realised that she was not the first person who had had their life controlled by war, nor would she be the last.

#146: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 8:56 pm

Powerful, stunning stuff.

*sniffles*

*sobs*

#147: Author: Chloë, Location: London: when away from home planet!

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 10:20 pm

Wow Caz thats so well written so griping more soon i hope Smile

#148: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 10:56 pm

*sniffles into tissue* This is so good Caz, more soon please Smile

#149: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 5:47 am

Thank you Caz.

#150: Author: Abi, Location: Alton, Hants

Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 1:37 pm

Thank you Caz.

*feeling weepy*

#151: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 2:37 pm

Caz... you've yet again rendered me speechless in admiration.

Or not quite speechless, close, Ralf's speech about why he'd prefer to be in Africa, I don't know how you can think of that stuff. When I read it it sounds so real and true. *shivers*

#152: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 7:14 pm

Caz, aoll I can say is 'WOW!'

#153: Author: Annie,

Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 8:15 pm

I absolutely DO NOT know what to say except
wow
sob
sniffle
wow
Are you sure you're not copying this from a book??? Sure???

#154: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 8:58 pm

*gets in early, in anticipation of more drabble.*

#155: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 9:33 pm

Sorry that I'm making you all cry, but this isn't the happiest of drabbles.
Here's some more...

Working in the factory became more stressful during 1942; more armaments were needed for the campaign in the East. The Nazi’s were determined to defeat the Soviet Union, they saw their people as inferior beings and were ashamed not to have forced them to surrender already. Irma found it difficult to work as fast as they wanted her to, she was often shouted at for being to slow and had had her pay docked on occasions. Heidi was in a similar position to Irma only she minded about missing her pay as she and her Mother relied on the money she made.
Irma felt the year pass by quickly, one moment it had been winter and she and the rest of her family were recovering from the shock of Hans’ death, the next it was the middle of summer. Summer doing hot tiring work in a factory for a cause which she did not believe in was not fun. Irma remembered the summer’s she had spent at school, bathing in the lake and drinking ice cold lemonade, then she had never imagined that her summers would be spent in the way they now were.
Then one day in late summer Irma received a letter, which for some reason made her feel uneasy, she could not exactly say why it made her feel uneasy, it just did.
“Dearest Irma,
I hope everything is well with you. Everything is fine with me, I’m still working in the factory, like I told you before and Joanna is now working in a shop. I remember how you liked working in a shop and Joanna seems to enjoy it to!
I was thinking the other day about how you, Alixe and I have been friends for nearly eight years, that is such a long time especially when recent events are taken into consideration. Our friendship has meant a lot to me over the past few years, I know we haven’t been able to meet as often as we would have wished to have but we have always been there for one another, haven’t we? And I for one will always be here if you need me in the future. I’ll never forget the kindness you have given me in the years we have known each other and I will always be thankful for it!
I know this is quite a strange letter but I am in quite a philosophical mood at the moment. Take care Irma and write to me soon,
Love your friend Emmie xxx”
It seemed to Irma that Emmie sensed that something was going to happen, what Irma did not know, but she was worried for her friend’s safety. Was she about to be seized by the Gestapo? Irma’s worries increased when she received no reply to the answer she sent to Emmie, usually Emmie wrote back immediately, when she wrote again thinking that maybe her letter had been lost in the post and there was still no answer then Irma really began to panic and wonder. She wrote cautiously to Alixe asking her if she had heard recently from Emmie, Alixe’s reply was negative and said that the last she had heard from Emmie had been over a month ago when she had been told about how good a friend she had been over the years. Despite the caution with which Alixe had wrote Irma could tell that Alixe was every bit as worried about Emmie as she was. As the weeks past by Irma stopped eagerly checking the post to see if there was a letter from Emmie. She had grown resigned to the fact that something must have happened to stop Emmie from writing to her. But what had happened, and had Emmie known that something was going to happen? Was Emmie safe and well, or was she ill or even dead? Irma did not want to think that her friend was dead but she also did not want to think that she was being imprisoned by the Gestapo. Irma wished that there was some other explanation for her friend’s disappearance but what that explanation could be she did not know. Irma thought and prayed for Emmie every day, she did not forget her friend, she just wished she knew the truth of what had happened to her.

#156: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 9:35 pm

oooh, less of the tears and more of the tension this time.

*perches on edge of seat in anticipation*

I never thought about what it must have been like for everyone else when the Linders disappeared...

#157: Author: Carolyn P, Location: Lancaster, England

Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 10:28 pm

Even though we know what has happened to her the tension comes over so well.

#158: Author: Catherine_B, Location: Oxford, UK

Posted: Thu May 13, 2004 1:20 am

Kathy_S wrote:

Quote:

So the overture wasn't written about our War of 1812?

Oddly enough, I thought the same! For some reason, it's always played at 4th of July concerts, before (or during) the fireworks, so it's filed in my mind with the patriotic song collection.

The climax of the Overture has Russian church bells drowning out the Marseillaise (French national anthem). Oh, and it was written by Tchaikowsky... Very Happy

A good site which describes the main themes of the work is here http://www.ku.edu/~russcult/culture/handouts/chaikovskii.html

#159: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Thu May 13, 2004 6:18 am

Thanks, Cathy!

And please continue soon, Cazx.
HelpMe

#160: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Thu May 13, 2004 8:53 am

Please let us have some more of this very soon, Cazx.

#161: Author: lizzieb, Location: Ireland/France

Posted: Thu May 13, 2004 6:52 pm

this is so good, i'm only catching up on it now. more soon please! Smile

#162: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Thu May 13, 2004 8:30 pm

Wonderful Caz - like others it never occurred to me that those left behind in Germany when the Linders fled would have no news and would worry.

Inspired writing.

#163: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Fri May 14, 2004 9:15 pm

Life continued for Irma in the same way as it had done for the previous few years. She kept her head down and tried not to be noticed by the Nazi’s. The war during the winter of 1942/43 took a turn for the worse for Hitler. The German army were crushed in a humiliating defeat at Stalingrad and were beginning to be pushed back by the Soviet army. There were also worries that Italy was going to be invaded by the allies, hastily more Germans were moved into Italy.
Franz was one of the German soldiers who was to go to Italy. Just before he went though he managed to get two days leave and came to see Irma. He had not mentioned he was coming and the family had been pleasantly surprised to see him, they all liked him and did not mind the fact that he had given them no notice of his visit.
On the afternoon before he was supposed to go back he took Irma on a walk along one of Hamburg’s many canals. He was not all that talkative and Irma was wondering if she had done anything to annoy him. They sat down on a bench next to the canal and still there was that dreadful silence.
“Franz,” Irma said at last feeling that she could not bear the silence to last any longer, “What is it? Why won’t you talk? Is it something I’ve done?”
Franz sitting up sharply said, “No, of course you haven’t done anything! I was just thinking that’s all…”
“What about?” Irma asked half fearfully thinking of the conversation she had with Hans nearly two years ago, had Franz stumbled across more Nazi horrors?
“You.”
“Me?” Irma said incredulously, she had not expected the answer to be that.
“Yes you!” Franz said laughing at the surprised expression on Irma’s face. “Why don’t you want me to think of you?”
Irma blushing stammered, “Well no….no I mean yes… Oh I can’t get my words out.”
Franz smiled at her, she was very pretty with her blushing cheeks, dark neatly styled hair and confused expression on her face.
Taking pity on her he said, “I was just thinking about how I’ve fallen in love with you…”
Irma’s heart missed a beat, she could not speak, these were the words she had been longing to hear.
Franz taking Irma’s lack of response in the wrong way quickly said, “I know I’m being unfair on you telling you this when we are at war and when you haven’t been able to meet as many other men as you would have under peace time… but I had to tell you, if I hadn’t then I would have regretted it.”
Irma looked into Franz’s eyes and said, “You’re not being unfair, I’ve wanted to say the same words to you but I didn’t know if you wanted to hear them.”
“Oh I want to hear them!” Franz exclaimed, his face now beaming.
“I, Irma Ancockzy, have fallen in love with you, Franz Von Rothenfels.”
Franz slipped his arm around Irma’s thin shoulders and planted a kiss on top of her head, he wanted to kiss her properly but that would have to wait until they were alone and out of the public eye.
“Will you marry me, Irma?” Franz said after they had been sitting there for a period of time.
“Yes.” Irma whispered, trying to blink back the tears of happiness, how could this wonderfully happy moment happen at a time of such suffering and uncertainty?
Irma knew they would have to wait until after the war had ended and Franz had gone back to university but she did not mind she did not want to be a young war bride. She and Franz, after the war, would be part of the new Germany, embodied in the spirit of democracy and freedom.
They took their time on the walk back to Irma’s house, discussing their love for each other and their plans for the future. Irma knew her parents would be pleased for her and that they would not voice any objections over the engagement as they both liked Franz. She guessed that Lieserl would be wildly excited about being a bridesmaid although it would probably not be for many years before the actual wedding took place.
Irma’s home was silent when her and Franz walked in. Irma’s joyous heart sank when she felt it; it was the same silence that had hung in the air when Hans had been killed. On the hall table there was a telegram, which had hastily been thrust out of sight, Irma unfolded it with shaking hands and read the first few words, “We regret to inform you that your son Ralf Ancockzy was killed…”.
Irma buried her head into Franz’s shoulder and began to cry bitterly, for her dead brothers, for the spoiling of what had been a perfect day. Franz held Irma close to him, stroking her hair mechanically. Ralf had been his best friend his pain was almost as great as Irma’s was.

#164: Author: Sarah_L, Location: Redcar

Posted: Fri May 14, 2004 9:40 pm

I don't know whether to be happy or sad for Irma. Why did they have to get that news on the day she gets engaged. Well done for writing this Caz.

#165: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Fri May 14, 2004 9:49 pm

Thanks Caz. *sniffles and wants to hug everybody*

#166: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Fri May 14, 2004 9:59 pm

*reaches for the tissues again!*

#167: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Fri May 14, 2004 11:28 pm

*moves tissues to this thread*

*hands out chocolate/baileys/comfort foods of choice*

#168: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Sat May 15, 2004 6:38 am

Oh how dreadful. Irma will forever associate the day she and Franz declared their love with her brother's death! Crying or Very sad

#169: Author: Annie,

Posted: Sat May 15, 2004 8:29 am

Oh gosh! What writing! I repeat- Are you sure you haven't copied this from a book?
Don't know whther to laugh or cry- *sob sob* - I think

#170: Author: caz, Location: Cambridge

Posted: Sat May 15, 2004 10:19 am

*gulps*

Cazx, this is amazing writing. Must be really hard to write.

#171: Author: Chloë, Location: London: when away from home planet!

Posted: Sat May 15, 2004 10:59 am

*wibble* So happy yet sooo sad! More soon please Smile

#172: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Sat May 15, 2004 9:15 pm

I'm glad Irma and Franz had each other to help at that moment but... Crying or Very sad

What a memory to associate with your engagement.

#173: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Sat May 15, 2004 10:14 pm

I feel really mean about the last post, the pb made me do it Crying or Very sad

Here's tonight's installment...

Irma was glad that Franz was there to comfort and help her. If he hadn’t been there then it would have fallen on her to rally round and comfort her family. Franz made sure though that she had time to grieve. True he was only able to stay for a few extra days but he did provide her with someone to cling to and to offer her support. Irma’s Papa spent the first few days alone in his study, not wanting to talk to anyone; he blamed himself for the deaths of his two sons. Irma’s Mutti became ill with grief, Ralf had been her first born and favourite, she wanted Irma and Lieserl to be by her side constantly. Lieserl lost all her youthful naïveté overnight; she withdrew into her self and did not talk as much as she had previously done. Franz helped Irma around the house, it fell on her shoulders at this time to run the household and make sure that everybody ate. The support that Franz gave Irma over the few days that he was there with her made her love grow stronger than she ever believed it could do for him.
Eventually Irma’s family began to go about their normal everyday pursuits. Her Mutti saw how hard Irma was working to help everyone and realised that she should begin to make an effort to help her daughter. Her Papa began to go back to work but he was an even older man now and had noticeably grown frailer. Lieserl went back to school and it was her who was the first to laugh again, but there was now something in her laugh which had been missing before.
A few months after Ralf’s death Irma received a letter from a clearly broken Alixe that her Mother died. Irma wished that she could go and see her friend but it was impossible for her to leave both her family and work. Alixe had written that she was glad her Mother’s suffering was over but Irma saw through her friends brave face, she knew that Alixe felt alone and vulnerable at this time. Irma was worried about what was going to happen to Alixe now, she had a half plan, half dream to get her parents to invite Alixe to live with them. But before Irma could even speak to her parents about this she heard again from Alixe, she was going to go and live in Suzu’s big house as one of the family. Irma was glad that the Haber’s had stepped in for Alixe, they were a nice welcoming family and would not make her feel like an intruder.
One day when she was shopping in the centre of Hamburg Irma bumped into Gretchen. She was dressed in some of the most elegant clothes that Irma had seen in years and with her blonde baby was a living example of the Nazi’s perfect German wife and Mother.
“Irma,” She had said, “Why I haven’t seen you in years! How are you?”
“I’m fine thanks.” Irma said awkwardly, not wanting to have a conversation with her but not wanting to seem rude either.
“I saw about your brothers on the paper.” Gretchen said, “I’m sorry they died Irma, my brother died too, in Stalingrad. There’s nothing we can do to bring them back, and nothing makes the pain lessen but telling myself that Otto died for the Reich makes me proud.”
Irma felt sick, she knew Gretchen was trying to help but she could never agree with her thoughts. Muttering goodbye Irma slipped away into the crowd to get on with her shopping and eventually to go back home.

#174: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Sat May 15, 2004 10:18 pm

Every time I read this, I think 'she can't do it again'

And you do. I feel so much in this story, it stretches my emotional imagination more than I thought possible in any literature.

Thank you.

#175: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Sat May 15, 2004 11:54 pm

Poor Irma,and poor Alixe Crying or Very sad

Definitely think there is a secret at the Haber household too.

More please.

#176: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 2:54 am

Poor everybody!

I ask myself how much worse it can get -- but realize that it could and did get much much worse in RL.

You are really bringing this to life, Cazx.

(Thank goodness for Franz.)

#177: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 9:56 am

Thanks Caz. Feeling very sorry for everybody Crying or Very sad

#178: Author: caz, Location: Cambridge

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 10:43 am

*gulp* This is brilliantly evocative of how awful life must have been in Germany under the Nazis. Makes me very grateful for the freedom we have now.

#179: Author: keren as guest,

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 10:48 am

Chelsea wrote:

angel wrote:

1812 was Napoleon screwing up in trying to take Moscow.

Think 1812 Overture (written in 1814)

So what war did "you" have in 1812?

(site educational, GO and EBD are too)

#180: Author: keren as guest,

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 10:55 am

As I have said before: theree are some REALLY talented people on this board.

but now for my stupid question,
the names are really familiar, but can you remind mein which CS books before and after the war:
Irma Ancockzy and Irma Von Rothenfels. turn up?

thanks

soryy

#181: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 1:24 pm

This is really good, Cazx, It must be difficult to write.

#182: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 1:33 pm

Keren, Irma Ancockzy doesn't really make many appearances before the war she is one of the middles involved in Baby Voodoo in New House and is mentioned in some of the other books. She reappears in Future as Irma Von Rothenfels and meets Jo. To add to the confusion in a very EBD way there is also a character in the Tyrol books called Irma Von Rothenfels, who is Marie's cousin and Paula's sister. Rolling Eyes

Thanks for all the support! Very Happy

#183: Author: Kat, Location: Swansea

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 3:50 pm

More as soon as you can Cazx! This is so powerful and moving - i've just read it through and it is so good. You should be proud of yourself Smile

#184: Author: Carolyn P, Location: Lancaster, England

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 6:17 pm

This is excellent Cazx. I think a lot of it is the horror that comes across in understatement...you don't dwell on any one nasty bit, but leave it as a menace that is there, as one event out of many, as a overwhelming horror that is simply there. Hope that makes sense, trying to seee what it is in the way you write that makes it so tense.

#185: Author: Chloë, Location: London: when away from home planet!

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 8:16 pm

Cazx this always leaves me wanting more something i hope you will provide soon Smile

#186: Author: keren,

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 9:45 pm

Cazx wrote:

Thanks for all the support! Very Happy

thanks
since I have a transcript, I searched it and found the relevant passages very easily.
Is the 1812 war , the one with Robert Clive?

#187: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 9:49 pm

Food was becoming more and more scarce. Rationing had been in place since the beginning of the war, but as the conflict increased luxury foods were becoming harder and harder to find.
“It’s so long ago that I had a decent meal…” Irma said mournfully one day to Heidi. “I can’t remember the last time I had meat, which was not fatty and tough.”
“I know.” Heidi answered her, “The likes of us, the normal everyday German gets the worst food of all to eat. It’s only the chiefs and their cronies who get the good food.”
“Before the war all the food we had both at home and at school was so nice and filling, now I’m never full.”
Heidi nodded, “Have you heard the latest rumours?”
“No.” Irma said wondering what Heidi was going to say next.
“They are saying now that the butchers are going out at night and trying to capture cats and dogs.”
“Heidi!” Irma exclaimed, “Is that true?”
“I don’t know, it’s just what I heard, it could well be! Who knows what half the stuff we’re eating really is, this time next year we’ll probably be on a diet of cardboard and rats.”
Irma could not help but laugh at Heidi’s prediction, though it was true that they had little idea of what they were eating half of the time. The ministry of food had issued a booklet of suggested meals to be made from the weekly rations, which were rich in energy, but they usually tasted strange and had weird ingredients in them.
“Mutti wants us to go and live with her sister.” Heidi said suddenly.
“Oh. Where would that be?” Irma asked fearfully hoping that it would not be to far away.
“In Bavaria.” Heidi said, “She lives on a farm just outside a small town, her husband died a few months ago and she’s lonely. Mutti was from the country and has never liked Hamburg; it’s too big and oppressive for her. If we do go to Bavaria then we’ll have plenty of food and it will probably be safer there from Gestapo spies.”
“I don’t want you to go…” Irma said in a small voice knowing that she was being selfish saying this.
“I don’t really want to go either.” Heidi admitted. “I’ve lived in Hamburg all my life and I find the country dull, I’m a city girl at heart. I like Hamburg and the friends I have here, I doubt I’d find friends like you in the countryside of Bavaria.”
One night in the middle of the summer Irma woke up and could not get back to sleep again. Going downstairs to get a glass of water she heard a low muffled noise coming from her Father’s study. She cautiously opened the door, not knowing what she would discover inside. Her Father was sitting on his desk with his ear right up to the radio speaker. A look of panic momentarily came over his face before he realised that it was only Irma who had come in.
“Shush,” He told her putting his fingers on his lips before gesturing for her to sit down.
“What are you doing?” Irma asked in the low tones she had learnt to speak in during the dead of night as a naughty middle in Tyrol.
He motioned for her to put her ear up to the speaker. For the first few seconds Irma could not understand what was being said, then suddenly her brain clicked into place and she recognised English being spoken.
“This is the BBC, the news at midnight is that the Allies have successfully landed their armies in Scilly, this is the first step in the liberation of the people on the continent from Nazi rule.”
“But Papa,” Irma said slowly as he turned the radio off, “It was said on the news tonight that it was only a small landing party who landed in Scilly and they had been swiftly dealt with. How do we know who is telling us the truth?”
“We can’t know. Both sides will be manipulating the reports to suit them best but I believe the words of the British more than I do the Nazi’s.”
Irma nodded but she was worried now, Franz was in Italy supposing something happened to him.
Leopold Ancockzy seeing the worry in his daughters eyes pulled her close to him, “Franz is safe for the time being,” he told her, “and besides I think that this family has had quite enough bad luck for the time being. Now go on it’s late, you should be bed, you’ve work tomorrow remember.”
Irma finding comfort in her Father’s words nodded and slipped out of the room and back to bed.

Last edited by Cazx on Mon May 17, 2004 12:56 pm; edited 1 time in total

#188: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 9:55 pm

*grins*

I like the black humour in that episode - sharply done, and very realistic, even if bleak as well.

#189: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 10:39 pm

Thank you Cazx.

#190: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 11:03 pm

Thanks Caz. Erk, I hope Franz is okay, please he will be won't he?

#191: Author: Vikki, Location: Possibly in hell! It's certainly hot enough.......

Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 2:32 am

Thank you Cazx, but more, please?

#192: Author: caz, Location: Cambridge

Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 10:17 am

Thank you, Cazx. At least we know Franz must survive, because we know Irma marries him. *sigh of relief*

#193: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 3:49 pm

Heavens, I'm finding this really traumatic to read, so what it must take to write it, I can only imagine.

#194: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 5:12 pm

I like the way it took a moment for Irma to realise that was English she was hearing (a mirror to Robin recognising Gertrud's German accent in Exile) I hope Franz is safe, I suppsoe we have a fairly tight guarentee he'll get through but not that he won't be injured.
Thank you once again Cazx.

#195: Author: Kat, Location: Swansea

Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 5:44 pm

Wow Cazx - this is so brilliant, more as soon as you can please Smile

#196: Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol

Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 10:47 pm

Another weepy post tonight, I'm afraid Crying or Very sad

A few weeks after Irma listened to the BBC with her Father Hamburg was badly bombed. Her area was relatively unaffected by the bombing but some residential areas along with the city centre and the docks were reduced to rubble. The factory where Irma had been working had also been bombed, she had not been working there at the time, those who had had safely got into the air raid shelter and did not emerge until the bombardment had stopped. The bombings terrified Heidi’s Mutti and strengthened her resolve that she and her daughter should move back to the safety of her native Bavaria. Heidi still did not particularly want to go but she could see her Mother’s point of view and agreed that she would go to as long as she could go back to Hamburg once the war was over. Irma was upset that she was going to be loosing Heidi, she made her laugh at times when she believed it impossible to do so and was everything she could ask for in a friend, never growing bored of all her news about Franz. Heidi and her Mother left Hamburg at the end of August, leaving their home as it was, they had taken what valuables they could and had left the rest in Irma and her families safe keeping. Irma missed Heidi just as much as she had missed Alixe and Emmie, although not as much as she missed Franz. Alixe had sympathised with her about Heidi’s moving, and had told her that despite living with the Haber’s now she sometimes felt that she saw even less of Suzu than she had previously done. Irma found herself spending more time with Lieserl, and discovering that her sister was more mature than she had previously believed, she was no longer the spoilt child of the pre war days. Even though Lieserl was fifteen, the same age she had been when it had all started and she had had to leave the Chalet School, Irma still thought her sister to be younger.
One day in late September Irma’s Papa got caught in the rain on his way home from work, the transport system had grown increasingly more unreliable as the war had progressed, and he had decided he would be better off walking home instead of waiting for bus which might take hours to turn up. He had been soaked when he had got home, he was made to sit in front of the fire and given hot soup and coffee but would still not stop shivering. By the next morning he had developed a high fever and a doctor had to be sent for. The doctor’s diagnosis was not encouraging, he declared that Leopold Ancockzy had pneumonia. If this had occurred two years or even a year ago then Irma would have been worried but sure that her Father would pull through. Now however she was not so sure, the death of Ralf on top of Hans had affected her Father’s health badly. He no longer had the strength he used to have, and had lost his old jovial spirit. Irma did not have to work in the factory at the moment because of the bombing, so took it in turns with her Mutti to sit with her Papa. She did not like seeing him loose his grip on life a little more as each day passed and would try to encourage him to get better soon, when that did not work she would implore to him with tears in her eyes to try to fight to get well.
“I am trying.” He said weakly, “But it seems that my body has become old and does not want to work properly.”
“Make it work then,” Irma demanded, “Please don’t give up now, you are all we have left.”
“I’m not all you have left, you have Franz.”
“I know, but you are the only relation we have. And besides think of Mutti and Lieserl they need you.” Irma tried with all her might to raise her Father out of his stupor
“Irma, they have you though. You will always look after them, won’t you? Promise me.”
Irma with bright tears in her eyes nodded and said, “Of course I will.”
Taking his daughters hand in his he said, “I’m proud of you Irma, I just want you to know that, and I love you dearly.”
“I love you to Papa.” Irma said through the tears, she bent down to kiss his forehead before going to get her Mutti, thinking her parents should be alone together before the end.

#197: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 11:00 pm

*sobs*
Oh Cazx you just keep making me cry harder and harder.
Irma is such a wonderful daughter and so caring for her whole family and I really want to take her away from it all. Reading about any of the CS girls in hard situations is strange but this is just so hard. I'm glad she's still safe and healthy even if her father is fading.

*runs off to gather tissues for the thread*

#198: Author: Lesley, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 11:01 pm

Poor Irma. Crying or Very sad

Thank you Cazx

#199: Author: Angel, Location: London, England

Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 11:02 pm

*weepy*

#200: Author: caz, Location: Cambridge

Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 11:10 pm