[QUOTE=Friedrich-Berthold
My first memory of West Germany when I got there at the end of the 1960s was how many amputees were on the streets, in numbers I had never seen before.
Yes agree I had the same experience In the beginning of the 60, s
[QUOTE=Friedrich-Berthold
My first memory of West Germany when I got there at the end of the 1960s was how many amputees were on the streets, in numbers I had never seen before.
Yes agree I had the same experience In the beginning of the 60, s
Friedrich-Berthold: My first memory of West Germany, when I got there at the end of the 1960s was how many amputees were on the streets, in numbers I had never seen before. And bomb damage, though mostly gone, was still visible on many buildings in most cities, that is, it was fairly plentiful.
My first visit to Germany was already in about 1948 or maybe 1949, when visiting relatives in the Düsseldorf area.
I stayed in the Hilden-area for four weeks. I was shocked by the many war disabled, the many women (not much men),
the enormous damages at buildings and in stationa-reas and piles of debris.
Near the house where I stayed was a big complex where a factory was in ruins. Adults and children were digging out
smaller pieces of metals, which they gathered in buckets and sold to get an extra Mark. This amazed me the most.
My thoughts then, as a quite young kid, were: "are they so poor"? Life was tough so early after the war.
What I also remember was the intensive controlling of passports and documents at Kaldenkirchen station and the fact
I was quite scared about the - I think - unfriendly English soldiers. They did not check my small trunk, where 1 kilo of
coffee was hidden in my cloths!
Last edited by Wilhelm Saris; 07-07-2015 at 12:09 PM.
I bought two books on this subject a few weeks ago: Bouchal, Robert and La Speranza, Marcello. Wien. Die letzten Spuren des Krieges. Relikte & Entdeckungen. Pichler: o.O., o. J.by Friedrich-Berthold
and: Bouchal, Robert and La Speranza, Marcello. Stumme Zeugen. Auf den Spuren des Krieges in Wien und Umgebung. Pichler: o. O., o. J.
Bouchal and Speranza have homepages with links to youtube videos on the subject. There is, even 70 years after the war, a lot left, if you know where to look for it. The more obvious traces are, however, gone. Many monuments were destroyed voluntarily like Platterhof and other remains at Obersalzberg - as if one wished to wipe out the past instead of leaving these witnesses of a criminal regime as memorial for coming generations. Texts and photos are O.K., but nothing can replace the "hands-on" experience, an experice which enables everyone to make his own conclusions more or less free of the in many ways manipulative side of texts.
Which one of us would prefer a photo of his caps to the caps? Or Hempe's manual to the realisation of what he describes?
SS Kleiderkasse trunks
And now the rest of the items....
Heeres Kleiderkasse
#
The above document from 1943 is more than revealing, especially as it contains the "aw sh!t" that even simple items of use are no longer to be hand.
Moreover, even a handkerchief takes a bite out of the clothing ration. A good document for those who cannot conceive of scarcity or how dear textiles
became as the war dragged on. And by August of 1943, the air war had inflicted its toll on Berlin.
Thanks.
I should lend you some of my things to photograph with your nice trunks and boxes.
Where all the goodies in the catalogs were found:
“Show me the regulation, and I’ll show you the exception.”
Your picture is the branch of same in Paris. Does someone have an image of the Budapesterstrasse locale?
- - ------- - -
...in Berlin.
Last edited by Friedrich-Berthold; 05-02-2016 at 03:56 PM.
It is a miracle. I have been by here two hundred times, but it does not look like it did in January 1939....
Last edited by Friedrich-Berthold; 05-02-2016 at 12:50 PM.
nowadays, no army clothes for sale.
This part of Berlin is being rebuilt and gussied up but good.
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