THEA REMEMBERS

By now it was April 18 and the Americans were on the Rhine, the Russians came closer and closer and the English were fighting in Northern Germany. We could hear the canons and planes and the earth shook. Even though I felt somewhat better, but was still ill, we had to press on and so we drove to Buchloe where a kind family took us in. Next day on to Durach where the city fathers put us all up in a school. Not too bad, but it was so cold there and I with my fever. We found a family who helped us and let us stay for while and brewed tea and gave me medicine and cured my ailment. I wish I would have the names of all these people and could properly thank them.

You probably wonder why we did not sleep in the Van, at least we would have had a roof over our head. That Van was a very small photo lab and for the five or six of us to fit in , we had to sit on the floor. I made the trip sitting on the extra tire and the one seat we had was reserved and each girl was using it in rotation. It was the most uncomfortable way to travel. We also carried all the very expensive photo equipment and to this day I wonder what became of it. Did they trade it in for gasoline??? How did we get gasoline??? Did the General tell the driver where to tank up??

On April 22 we were on the road again. On to Bad Reichenhall, another very old city.. We could not find a place to stay and who knows where we put our heads to rest.  Early next morning we started toward the Chiemsee in Bavaria, near Munich. It is such a lovely place. But we were not looking for a place to stay we went on to Seehound and slept in some ones cow barn. In the middle of night I woke up and it felt so nice and warm and then I looked up right into a cows face who was blowing all the nice warm air right onto me. Another night I remember. I woke up and felt the earth shaking and vibrating and there were no planes over us or in the vicinity. Later I was told that there had been a bombing of Pilsen in Bohemia and the vibrations had come all the way to our place. It gave me a very eery feeling – sensation. Next morning we went to Bad Reichenhall, the fancy Bath where people of means went for the CURE or lived it up or spent a vacation. Bad Reichenhall is another medieval city, which lies on the old Salt Road. In the mountains are enormous salt mines. Salt was a fine trading product years ago and made a wealthy City out of Bad Reichenhall. There we were just in time for another bombing.. The only shelter was by running into the salt mine shafts for protection. One had to go far into it and there it was icy. Bombs were falling but we did not hear anything, just saw the destruction later. We must have stayed for a couple of days in Bad Reichenhall or the vicinity. On the 28th of April we drove to Inzell on the Koenigs See. It is such a beautiful vacation spot where I had spent a lovely vacation years ago. The mountains so beautiful and since it was Spring, the meadows were a colorful ray of flowers, like blue enzian, white edelweiss and daisies and all the mountain wildflowers. It smelled soooo good.  Buschmuehle was close and we looked that little village over and returned to Bad Reichenhall.

Mai 1st, 1945 We were on the way to the small village of Tenglin which is close to the city of Brannenburg, a more important little city with a train station. In Tenglin were thousands of refugees, Germans who had run away from the Russians and were taken in by the Tengliners. We looked, asked, begged for a roof over our head, all people were so nice and friendly, but had absolutely no room left. After Elli and I had made the round through the  place we found one place we thought we had not visited before. We had, but we now had come the back way and everything looked so different. There was not a soul in the house. The kitchen was so nice and warm and we sat down and fell asleep. When the family came back from church, they found us and felt so sad and let us stay. They gave us the left-over meal and told us they had one place for us., but were not sure that we wanted it. In every Bavarian House there is a Toten Kammer (death chamber) with Barre/plane of wood on horses, where the dead body is layed out. There was one small bed/cod and the Barre. Elli would not even think to lay on that thing. I did not mind. I remembered my mother saying:’Ein reines Gewissen, ist ein gutes Ruhekissen’. Which means ‘a clean concience makes a good bed pillow’. I slept real well on that hard ‘bed’ and remember looking out of that little carved hole/window without glass and formed as a cross, wondering how many souls had flown out of it. The purpose of that window is to release the soul of the departed. . But one fine thing was there. We were under the roof.  You could see the shingles. The  clay shingles kept the house nice and cool in summer and that is also where they had long tables with fruit, mostly apples and pears. We looked around and found a couple that were rotting away. We ate the good part of the apples and aligned the others real fine and nobody knew how we enjoyed the apples. –