Second World War 2014 Arbete i engelska – skolår 9
Elever i skolår 9 Undervisande lärare: Lena Arrenius Björnekullaskolan Åstorp
19th January 1943
Update letter to Command Sergeant Wilhelm Braun. First Sergeant Albert Hoff updating Germany and our Führer. We have now initiated to fall back from Stalingrad. We are to poorly prepared, we can't fight the Russians in this condition, it’s too cold and our firearms won’t work. The Russians has immense benefits of fighting on their home ground. They are prepared which we weren't. There were around 270 000 German soldiers when we left Germany and faced 187 0000 bloody Russians at Stalingrad. Once we entered the city we all thought we could beat them since they were outnumbered.
Our goal was to gain Control over the oil-rich Caucasus and occupy the Volga River to freeze the Soviet shipments from Central Asia in order to demolish the Soviet’s economy. I've managed to seek protection inside of an abandoned bunker. The war seems to have come to an end. All that's left are two MGs and 100 bullets. 5 grenades. I haven't heard of any equipment shipment heading to our location in 4 days. I'm afraid that Germany has given up on us. Otherwise only hunger and tiredness is left for me and Lt Hirschmann. I don't think Hirschmann is going to make it out of this war alive. He has starting to hallucinate, he keeps on telling me that he during the war that he stopped over 40 tanks all by himself! I believe that my Lieutenant has gone mad. I will stay in this bunker with his madness until the war is over.
I fear that I have heard rumors about a super soldier named Vasilij Zajtsev. Rumors has been told that he killed about 225 German soldiers with his mosin-nagant rifle. I will not sacrifice myself for someone who clearly abandoned his own army, death to Hitler I say! I'm sorry I've failed to defend Germany. Please forgive me while I sit here in this miserable cold bunker.
An Italien In Greece April 27th, 1941 Athens
Hello My Dear Family I'm here in Greece right in the middle of the war trying to fight for my life. Italy is attacking Greece outside their walls and where I'm right now is definitly not good. Because I'm an Italien, I should be back home with my family and help them get to safety from the war.
The only reason I was going to Greece was to get enough of supplies for that house we talked about building one month ago. But now it seems like that plan has just blow away and I may never get home to you and my children. But if something happens to me you must remember what I always said you should do if were got in trouble. I think that time is now. Take the children and move to safety as quick as possible before anything happens in Italy.
Here in Athens The Nazis and The Italiens are attacking outside the walls and I'm scared for my life. I don't want to die, not today, I want see you and my children again. This is a really painful situation. Roberto,the man who was a good friend of mine got killed about one or two hours ago by The Nazis. I think about his wife and children back home that Roberto will never see them again and i hope that's not going to happen to me. There are people here that are running around and shouting for help. There are also some people here who are hiding in their houses while crying and being really scared. Greece is trying really hard to defend their gates from Italy, The Nazis and also Bulgaria.
The food is really bad here and there is not food to all of us. It's not like your wonderful pasta bolognese that i dream about every night. I really fell homesick every minute here. I miss you all so much and I hope you all gets safe. I hope I will be back soon after this war and we will be together again.
Auschwits, Poland – April 13th, 1943
To my beloved wife. The deathcamps has become more cruel, more deterrent. More and more people dies. It is truly shattering.
Disease & femine has taken over the people, maybe the whole world. No medicine exists, nor any health care. Inmates are like pigs: they come here to be slaughtered. For that is exactly what they get – slaughtered. This is no grace. No one is safe.
Everyone is hungry, sing & weak.
The people who come here, is going nowhere. There is nowhere to go. Each day I see women getting raped. Each day I see families get shot down by german soldiers, and I am one of them holding the gun.
I can’t remember what music sounds like, because all I can hear is the scream of innocent children when I’m pointing my MP40 against their head. I did not choose this. I want this to be over soon. All I want right now is to get home to you and lay in your arms.
I love you my princess, I’ll do everything to come home. Your husband
Berlin, August, 7th, 1945 Dear cousin. I really hope this is the end of the war. I’m so sick of being scared and terrified everywhere I am. The last battle in Berlin was horrible, the Red army was superior and we had no chance. The battle started January 12th and the war on the eastern front was basically over in May 2th. It’s the worst thing that I’ve ever been through and I’m so glad that you’re safe in Sweden.
When the war was fought I couldn’t sleep at all. My thoughts went to dad and I just couldn’t stop worrying about him when he was out in the war. I was scared that my brother would have to join the German army. People were fighting outside all the time, day and night. I could hear girls scream and I know it was the soviet soldiers. They raped every second girl at the age between eight to eighty and I’m glad that I wasn’t exposed. It wasn’t just rape, they tortured and burned them to death. In several days trucks with fixed rocket positions, was bombing Berlin and both soldiers and normal people were hiding in the subway to avoid the attacks.
Recently I read that the US had released an atomic bomb over Japan yesterday, maybe it’s a good thing, I mean we have no chance to win the war. The German population is very small and Hitler is not a leader anymore since he took his life May 2th, which is a big relief! At present, the food we eat is perfectly okay. Often it’s vegetables, which we grow in our own little garden. We eat a lot of cheesecake and apples. The classic name of German right now is “German Empire” or the “Third Reich” as German has expanded to Greater Germany. I hope that as soon as everything has calmed down we can come to Sweden and visit you, maybe we can move there too. It’s so much easier to think about that and that everything will be okay soon. For so many years we’ve been wondering if we’ll make it through the war. I want to be happy about the fact that the war is over but it’s scary though. After all we’ve seen I don’t think anything will be normal again. I mean you see all the terrible stuff during daytime and then you dream about everything in the night.
But well, I miss you and I hope I see you soon! // Your cousin from Berlin.
London August, 20th , 1940
Dear mother, I work as a dog watcher for Winston Churchill. He has 2 dogs, Michelle and Rocky. Winston like his dogs like his children. Yesterday when I left the dogs after a one- hour walk in Hyde Park. I saw Winston smoking his cigar like always. I hear him talking on the phone with some important person. I think it was someone from France, whom I thought was named Maurice Gamelin and was a Supreme Commander in France but Churchill can`t speak French so well so they continued to speak in English. Churchill visited Paris in May shortly after the French were attacked by the Germans. I think Churchill was talking about co-operating with France since the German attacked London without warning yesterday. The whole London was badly damaged. RAF, the royal air force, fought bravely but more than 500 pilots died and over 1500 airplanes were destroyed.
Later on that day Churchill gave a speech to the whole nation where he encouraged the people to stand up for each other and fight for their country. He thanked all the pilots who sacrificed themselves.
It is very interesting to work for the Prime Minister and I am very curious to see how the situation is going to be solved. I pray to God that he is going to help us and our country because the opposite would be a catastrophe for the whole world.
I hope I can meet you next month when I am free I am looking forward to coming back to Oxford and meet the whole family. Your son Michel
Cluj-Napoca March 8, 1945
Hello my brother, My family and I are doing well but this year has been a horrible year in Romania. The red army took over Romania and installed a prosovietian Govermentship. I heard that it were a lot of fighting near the Romanian and Sovietian border only a few weeks ago and that Soviet have defeated Germany. Could it be true? well I don’t know. All I know is that it’s dangerous for my family and me to live in our house so we fled to a village next to Cluj-Napoca. The village is deserted so it’s easy to hide. We found a stable where we can hide and we have stored away lots of conservative food that will feed my family for a long time.
I will continue to fight for my family and try to survive this damned war. I think that I will survive no matter that we gipsies are persecuted. I feel there is hope of a beautiful future but I will never forget what happened to me and I’m never going to stop think of the time I were in Belzec. A horrible place there 600 000 Jews and 15 000 gipsies were executed. Only two persons made out alive from Belzec, the Jew Timon and me. I wonder if Timon is still alive because it’s because of him that I’m still alive or could my escape be a gift from god, maybe a chance to start over. You have to visit me my brother and see everything, since you left Romania have I build up a new house and I have 4 children that can’t wait to meet you. I think that the war is almost over. I heard rumors that say that Germany lost against Russia, but could it be true or is it just rumors. A half year ago was it said that Hitler’s troops are destroying everything in its way. I heard that Kiev was lost and that Moscow will be the next target. So you maybe think what to believe any more, but it is true. Hitler lost because of the winter, many died because of the winter, tanks and cars couldn’t start. I actually didn’t believe that It were true until two days ago when the red army took control over Romania and installed a prosovietian govermentship. I hope for the best , your dear brother.
Copenhagen 9april – 1940
Hi, my lovely family. This might be the last letter I send you or maybe not.
I have missed you guys really much. I guess that someone did explain that Denmark were neutral in 1939, but that did not help at all, because the German troops are already here. I will do my best to survive this war and come back home to see you and your grandparents, because I really love you guys. I do not think that the Danish people will accept that the Germans attacked us, I guess that they will do a protest. I do not think that this will end well if the Danish protest against the Germans. The Germans will fight back. The Danish Jews successfully saved 7000 people over the Öresund, I am very happy for that. I hope that this will end well as soon as possible, because I do not think that this will end well if the German continue to think that they can do whatever they want in here. I heard from some friends that if the Danish people will protest against the Germans then they will fight us even more. I really hope that’s not true. I hope that I am still alive when this war is over, because I really want to go back home to you guys and to my parents, I will really do my best to survive this war. I want you my lovely wife to tell the children something. I want you to tell them that I really love them with all of my heart, and I would do everything to see them grow up and become a beautiful parents just like us and their grandparents. I did not choose this but I do it for u and for all the people that I love with all of my heart, because I want them to live in beautiful country and it is Denmark. I am also doing this because I want to proof the Germans wrong. Wish me the best of luck darling.
Lots of love, Gunder
Dear Magdalena Hello my name is Elisabeth and I´m 20 years old. And live in Vichy area which lays in south France. I want to write this to my wonderful cousin, Magdalena. My dear cousin, you know the French cops have begun to work with SS about us Jewish people. They have begun to do new law for Jewish people, so now Jews can get a job, I get fired because I was a Jew, and I cannot live where I live. And now I live on a farm with other Jewish people. But yesterday they made peace for some days, and the German people in to Paris.
I want you to know, I will always love you, I wish we could meet some day. You don´t know I´m your cousin because is too bad there are very many Nazis here, but it feels like I have known you my whole life, if I survive this I hope we can meet a day.
Best wishes Elisabeth.
Berlin, July,24th, 1944
Dear mother in law. Hey! I hope you are okay! It has been a while since we wrote! I was tired of tasting Hitler’s food. I’m so glad everything is over with the tasting because Hitler was a vegetarian and so we only ate food with vegetables, sauces, food with noodles and exotic fruits. The food was tasting very good but we didn’t really have a chance to enjoy it. I was not the only one who tasted the food because there was 14 other women as well. The funny part is that Hitler said that he was Healthy but late at night he want up and ate unhealthy food. One of the things he ate was Führer cake. The cake contains of Apple, different berries and raisins. The taste of the cake is very good. It’s like a sugarbomb, but still good.
On the winter in 1941, I was finally free. I succeed to escape from the bombed Berlin and decided to try to get home to you. When I was on my way then I stopped and saw Hitler’s important Headquarters less than three kilometers away on the eastern front. The headquarters was called the ‘’ Wolf lair’’. When I started to walk again I saw someone in front of me, it was an SS soldier and he required that I were going to follow them, so I did.
And there I was, tasting the food again. This time they took us to barracks close to Krausendorf. Me and the other 14 young girls spent three years there, until the 20th of July 1944 when three was a huge explosion at the Wolf lair. And then there it came: the words that no one would expect. Hitler is dead!, someone screamed. Unfortunately he survived the bomb and after that the security got even harder and safer. Shortly thereafter, the worst day of my life came, I got raped by an SS-officer. When the Red Army got closer there was another officer who saved me and put me on a train to Berlin. One year later, I got to meet your son, my beloved man, that I miss so much and who has been in a Russian captivity for years. I was so happy that I finally got to meet him after all those years, there was so many emotions at the same time. After the end of the war I met the officer who saved me and I told him how thankful I was for saving me when he could get in trouble himself. We talked for a while and he told me that the other girls got shot by the Red Army after I left and they could not be saved. He also told me that all of the girls got raped as well before they got killed. I got really upset and kept thanking him for saving my life and asked him how I ever could pay him back, but he did not want me to do anything.
I’m now living in London with my wonderful husband. I still don’t understand how I could be the only one who survived. I’m still thinking of everything Hitler has done to people I love and I’m having a child. It’s going to be a boy. I can’t wait to meet you. I’ll come and visit as soon as possible, I promise. We love so much, see you soon.
Your daughter in law.
Budapest, 21 January 1945 Hello mother! I hope everything is alright with you. I’m fine but I’m worried about my boss, Raoul Wallenberg. He went to meet the Red army on the 17th and I have not heard from him since then. He was going to ask them if they could help us to protect the Budapest ghetto and the other Jews in Budapest because the Germans would soon be here. They have already brought 435000 Hungarian Jews to concentration camps since they first went into Hungary in March. Raoul’s boss Koloman Lauer is worried too. He thinks something is wrong because Raoul usually calls Koloman after an important meeting. But no one has heard from him or his driver. It is just like they have disappeared! I am terrified. Not only because Raoul is missing but I really hope the Red army gets here before the Germans. It feels like I am not safe here and I just want to escape. But there is no place to escape to and that freaks me out! I just want the war to be over so I can go home and meet you and the rest of the family. I miss you so much! I do not know what to do if the Red army doesn’t help us to protect the Jews. I overheard Raoul once when he was talking about the concentration camps and I still have nightmares. I never thought someone could be that cruel to innocent people. And it is not only men and women but also children. It was the worst thing I have ever heard! I would never even wish that for my biggest enemy. I hope you are safe back home. I have not heard from you in a while. I talked to my sister last month and she said that she was fine but really scared. I wish that I could come home and as soon as the war is over, will I come home. I will send a letter when I know what has happened to Raoul. Pray for the best! From your daughter Sophia!
Hiroshima, Japan Nanami Akimitsu May, 3th, 1993 Hello my dear Nanami!
I can’t describe how happy I am to have found you after all these years! I still remember every detail from August 6th in 1945 when the American airplanes dropped the atomic bomb. So many died, I think that it was over 60000 people who died directly and I lost my whole family. I lost my brother three years after the attack, he had been exposed to radiation damage. I graved him for years, but I realized that I needed to move on after a while.
When I heard about the second atomic bomb over Nagasaki only three days later, I couldn’t believe it. Hadn’t we suffered enough? I just wanted it to end and when I got to know about our country’s capitulation August 14th I was so relieved. I was all alone, I thought that I had lost everyone that I loved. But then, I found my brother. He was just wandering around on what remained of the streets. Almost all the houses were totally destroyed, but when I understood that it was my brother I was looking at I realized that none of it mattered. I have never felt such happiness in my entire life! But then I lost him again… I miss him so much, but I know that he’s in a better place now. I decided to go and look if something was left of our old house, but there wasn’t. My family had lived in that house for generations and now there was nothing left… I remember how angry I got, I couldn’t understand how somebody could do this! I survived the bomb because I was in a friend’s basement, she had just walked up from the stairs when the bomb was dropped… I didn’t dare walk up those stairs until the day after. My brother can’t remember how he survived, he just woke up under a lot of lumber. He was bleeding from the back of his head and he was the only one who survived. He looked for other survivors for hours but he couldn’t find anyone. Then he just wandered around for hours until he saw me. I would really like to hear about your story. I don’t know how you feel about sharing your story but I think that it is important to maintain our memories about all of this, so we can avoid that it will happen again.
I hope to see you soon! Love Miya.
th
Los Alamos, May 23 , 1945
Hello Mr. President! We have got a long way since we started with this project. You know that we started with this project called ‘’The Manhattan Project’’ in 1943, well really it all started in September, 1942. When you got me the mission to build a weapon of mass destruction. Remember? Yeah well we have got far in the building of this weapon of mass destruction! We have build a prototype that we have determined to test at the 16th of July. It will be interesting to see the results of this kind of weapon. What do you think will be the result of this new kind of weapon? Maybe it will be a small blast right at the place where it’s dropped or it will blow up the whole place? Well just wait and see what will happen. I will write back to you after the test! Or maybe you want to see it live? Well then come here at the 16th. You are really welcome!
We would be more then happy to see you here. Oh and maybe you want to know what this bomb is made of. We built three bombs. The test bomb is called ‘’Trinity’’ and the two other bombs which is going to bomb Japan (Am I right?) is called ‘’Fat Man’’ and ‘’Little Boy’’. I’ll send a picture of ‘’Fat Man’’ in this letter. Maybe you already saw it? Then good, now you know which one of the bombs it is. Oh and I must tell you what the bomb is made of, but I don’t got time for that right now so I’ll tell you when you are here or in the other letter.
I hope you are proud of our work Mr President.
I am looking forward to meeting you, J Robert Oppenheimer.
Engelska- Tysk soldat
In the battlefield
June 25th 1941
My dear wife, I miss being home with you and the children. It's like hell out here, we lost a lot of men during the winter but the roads have become better and we can move faster and easier. We have made great progress and are getting closer to Stalingrad every day! I'm a bit worried about the lack of Soviet attacks, they are probably planning something big. I hope we can get far enough before the winger or we might not make it. I hope this will all end soon so i can return home. I will write to you again as soon as I can.
-Adam
November 30th 1941 My dear wife, we are stuck with no winter equipment, people are dying because of the cold and our weapons barely work. We have been pushed back by the Soviet army. If we don't get the things we need soon I'm afraid this might be my last to you. But if we make it through the winter we will hopefully be able to push forward towards Stalingrad again, but as it is now we are not getting anywhere. I will write to you again when I can.
-Adam
April 17th 1942 I'm sorry for not writing more often, we have been very busy, but now that it's getting warmer and the roads gets better we are on our way to a place called Kaukasus said to be rich with oil. but after that we will probably be heading for Stalingrad again. There's not much I can tell you except that we lost more men this winter, some of my very good friends. But I can feel that the luck is on our side now, we have hade very good weather for a while now, I hope it stays that way. I hope this will all be over soon, I'm getting tired of all this. I will write more often if I can.
-Adam
September 2th 1940 Dachau, Germany Hello my friend. I have some horrible thing to tell you. A few weeks ago me and my family split. They took my brother and mother to a concentrations camp. And I, I’m in a working camp here in Dachau. The camp is monitored by armed Guards, servicemen and cops. Our working labor is a connection to a concentration camp. We don’t get any food here, some people here look like walking skeletons and you can see their ribs. It’s horrible! The work here is so inhumanly hard that nobody can imagine! I don’t want to be here anymore. We do all kinds of work, forestry work, road facilities, factory work, weapons manufacturing and make clothes in a factory. We are so many people here and here is a big yard and around us it’s barbed wire so we can’t get out of here. The activity is called slavery or jail. The difference between concentration camp and normal working camp is that the strategy isn’t to make us people die. I miss my family, I don’t know anyone here. In some corpses, they have certainly died of starvation. Here behind me a woman is sitting, the soldier had taken her baby away from her. She has been crying for three days now. It hurt in my heart to see her without the baby and crying without stopping. This working camp is the first camp in Germany. It’s called Dachau and it’s about 15 kilometers away from Mûnchen. It started in 1933. The Germans chase only Jews, disabilities, romanis and homosexuals. Is’t terrible! In our camp they split us in to different categories like Political prisoner, Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witness, criminals and antisocials. If you don’t know what antisocial is I can explain. It’s people who don’t like to talk or don’t want to be with other people. I have heard that the forced labor in Nazi Germany is notorious! That scares me! Now you know where I’m. Best wishes Elina
To Grandpa mr. Stark Normandy June 6th 1944
Hey grandpa, I´ve just arrived at Normandy. Earlier today my commaner gave me a call and said that my division, the 101st airborne division were going to follow his order to fire up the engines of our B29´s and set course for the beaches of Normandy. As we closed in on Normandy my pulse rate was sky high, but I did as I was told and parachuted onto the beach. As I landed my vision was blurry but as I regained eye sight I noticed the vast amount of injured allies, fighting to stay alive rather than fighting for their country. I was frightened but I had a firm grip around my M1 garand, even though that wasn´t important it gave me the confidence and comfort I was in need of to locate and regroup with my squad. My squad was about 200meters north of me. As I tried to make my way there bombs were falling from the sky, some hit allies and some hit the German bunkers. In the skies brutal dogfighting took place. Upon regrouping with my squad we decided to push upwards, the push was successful and before we knew it we had reached the Seine river. Shortly afterwards we liberated France. After liberating France our commander, mr. Honululu told us that the Normandy landings had turned the war around and that they had served a crucial part in liberating Europe. Our squad was given the instructions to go east and eliminate the Germans from behind. As we pushed eastwards we had to go through mud, rain and snow, the march was not the hardest part of the journey though, it was the constant attacks by the Germans which served as a problem. We were constantly under enemy fire and as of such we feared for our lives. Strangely enough the soldiers seemed to get younger and younger and less trained, this was a positive thing, not in the way that we killed young human beings but due to the fact that they simply were not fit for combat and therefor our chances of survival increased drastically. Every night we sat down at our campfire and blessed our enemies, because of whom we have killed. We thought of our enemies as simple human beings, just like ourselves. This helped us through the war as it made sure we didn´t lose our mental stability. We arrived in the east after a long long march, upon arriving we instantly came under enemy fire, machine gunners were emptying their magazines as they fired on us, most likely due to fear and a lack of confidence.
To Grandpa mr. Stark Normandy June 6th 1944
We took them out one by one and we all cried as we did so, the US was about to end this war once and for all!
I´ll be home soon, sincerely Stark.JR.
Hello my dear friend, Alice!
I have missed you so much since you’ve moved last year. So tell me, how is your life out there in Berlin? I just have much to tell you since you were the closest friend that I had and the most trustful. I feel quite lonely now, and I really need someone to clean my thoughts to, so I figured out that I just could write you a letter. So I have been living in this quite big house with my sister Eva and her lover Hitler the past few months. And I can see how my sister is trying to get Hitler’s attention, but it’s like talking or dealing with a wall. He can be really aggressive as well, but at the same time I actually can see fear in his eyes. And it’s not really surprising given that he actually was irresponsible enough to declare war against the Soviet Union in the 22th of June, this year, concerning the Molotov – Ribbentrop agreement he made with rd
Stalin on 23 of August 1939, where they promised not to declare war on each other. And for what it looks like, it’s probably just a matter of time before he loses the war. I have to admit that it was quite a smart way to attack the Soviet Union by letting the German troops attack the Soviet airfield at first so that they could destroy their airplanes before they could lift to fight back the Germans. Hitler is now nearly to achieve his first goal – to conquer Moscow, Leningrad and also Ukraine. But the winter is nearly coming and it’s said that it has already become cold now in the Soviet Union. And you can tell by Hitler’s behave that he is bloody nervous about that. He didn’t obviously see that coming. Hitler thought that the war was going to end long way before the winter, and the Soviet Union was going to be all his. But it didn’t go as planned; concerning to the fact that he has planned this attack a year ago, which had the code name Operation Barbarossa, he completely wasn’t prepared for something like this to happen, and his troops didn’t even have any winter gear at all.
Hitler knew very well that he was going to lose the war, but he would never admit it. And just imagine having the whole Soviet Union against you instead of with you. It was like a time in hell for Hitler. He was just so frustrated that after he came home every night from his work, he wouldn’t even look at my sister, or even talk to her. And not even his lovely German Shepherd Blondie could cheer him up, which otherwise usually works. He would just go and lock himself in his own workroom where not a single fly was allowed to enter. Since he started to act like that, we just kept our mouths shut, because there is honestly nothing we can do about it. We will just have to see where this will lead to.
Well, it feels really good to have gotten out all this things that have been spinning around my head. I hope we’ll see each other someday. Love, Sara
Hamburg, January, 16th, 1941 Dear mother This may be my last letter to you. And I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry I promised you that I would come back home. I really miss London, I hope you’re doing fine. The last time I saw London it wasn’t in the best moment. The Germans attacked us with their air force. But I’m proud of that we won. I maybe should start in the beginning, how I am here in this bloody hell hole. Excuse me for my language mother, but the whole country probably thinks the same. It started after the Germans occupied more land. And then it was the thing with France, but they lost. And you know mother how the Germans did then. They tried to force England to give up and make peace, while they bombed. Winston continued the battle. And when the Germans attacked with the air force, we fought back against with the Luftwaffe. The Blitz continued. And then it was my turn, to try and make a change. I am, or I was, in the Royal Air Force. I fought the hardest I could, but it was a foggy day. I think I was somewhere over the North Sea. I took down so many Germans I could, but the luck has to stop somewhere. Somebody shot my left engine, and I was down. I had some time left before I hit the water. But then I saw the ground. I knew it was the wrong territory. But I wanted to live, so I took my chance. I didn’t remember much mother, because I fainted. I bloody fainted! Can you believe that? I, Jack EdSmith fainted. I know it`s hard to believe. But when I woke up I was in a truck, with several of other people. Everybody looked dirty, hungry but most of all, they looked tired. And I was one of them, captured by the Germans. I asked a middle-aged man where we were going. He answered that they were taking us somewhere outside the German city, Hamburg. And I thought I was flying over the North Sea, look how wrong I was mother. Now I know that they took us to a concentration camp called Neuengamme. I don’t know how I am going to last here. They barely give us food, the work us to death! You see the Germans shooting a man or a woman, without reason. I don’t want to frighten you mother, but this is the truth. Everyday we hear rumors. How Hitler is soon going to lose. But I don’t believe them, they never come true. I don’t want false hope. The last rumor I heard was that Hitler had plans for another country after England. Do you think that it may be the truth? Well, I have to stop now. I must go back to “work”. I hope you’re doing fine mom, at least better than me. May Hitler burn in hell! Good bye mother, your beloved son!
Auschwitz May, 22, 1943
Hello! My name is Vladmir Pizscek and I’m from Poland. I live here with my family, or more correctly, I used to live here before the bloody German Nazi soldiers came. In Poland I had a life, a job, a family, but now, I have nothing, and they treat me like a dog here… What a life…
In 1939 I lived in the Warsaw ghetto; this was before they took us to Auschwitz. They removed us to small ghettos, ooouuuff, it was disgusting. I saw small children lying on the streets, dead. It was a normal thing to see for us now. All that I could think of was where their parents where? I wonder how it feels to starve to death…
Well well, the day came. The day that they took us all to the main train station. We had to stand in the train boxes like circus animals for days, and think about the smell, people had to poop so they did it of course. There is nobody that can hold themselves for days. At this point I was still with my family and that was the only thing that mattered and the only thing that I cared about.
Several days later the train stopped, it actually felt really good when they threw us out from the trains. The cold, fresh air that hit my face…, it was a pleasure. But soon they made us stand in separate lines, women and children in one and men in the other one. The Nazi soldiers took some of the men and women who could work and sent them away to the camp and the rest which didn’t got picked out got sent another away, probably to their death.
After two months I’ve get used to the system here in Auschwitz. A typical day is like this. We get up from our so called “beds” from the shouts and barks from the Nazis and their dogs, after that we have to go to work for several hours and then before we go to sleep we might get a piece of bread to eat, if we are lucky.
The sleeping and the hunger parts are the worst of everything here. Because of the small amounts of food that we get, people have diarrhea constantly and we only have one occasion to visit bathroom. The bathroom is built like it was for animals. It is a 30 meter board with 60 holes on it and under the holes there was a 0, 5 meter deep hole where the shit is. The thing is that we only have 30 seconds on us to do our needing’s. So people have to poop in bed and imagine how big a king’s bed is, now imagine 10 grown men in one, one made of cemetery and someone has to poop.
Outside our rooms there is a big yard of mud so even that makes us look more disgusting and more like animals so the Germans can kill us easier.
On the edge of Auschwitz there is a fence to stop us from escaping. The first fence is only made by wires and it is approximating one meter high, it is like a warning sign. And three meters behind that one there is a four meter fence, one meter below the ground and three meters above the air, that one has electricity in it, which can kill us.
Sometimes the German bastards enjoy themselves by forcing us to touch the second fence, and if we don’t do it they will shoot us. In 1940 when I first got to Auschwitz we only worked here, there was not a massive slaughter (like it is now in 1943) but instead people starved to death. The absolute worst thing here is that I can’t find my family. I think that they gassed my wife some months ago but my son…, I know that he is alive, I can feel it.
I hope that this letter reaches to you and that you take time to read it, I have only two things to tell and the first thing is that you must try to live a happy life and the second thing is that you have to hide better, only for some months, I’ve heard from some guards that the Alaians are very close now.
Your dearest Vladmir Pizscek
Mora,Dalarna 7th december 1939
My dear American friend Rosemary.
I want to thank you best wishes in this state of time. It has been a week since my husband left me to join the army. The army is going to protect the Swedish border to Finland. I still can’t believe the Soviet Union decided to invade Finland, this is going to cause so many problems for Scandinavia. What if the Soviet Union decided to invade all of the Scandinavian countries aswell? That’s what I fear the most, especially if they invade Sweden. I am absolutely terrified over that, and I know that I’m not the only one in this country who feels this way. It’s hard to let go of the thought about the horror that’s going to occur, but I’m trying to take one day at a time.
But to the answer of your question about what’s going to happen with me now when I’m alone. Well, I’ve just applied for a job down town at a fabric store. To my surprise the factories are hiring women more than ever. My plan at first was to stay at home and take care of the house and my husband. But now when this news came and I’m alone I can’t afford to do that anymore. I have to have a job to be able to provide for myself, so the fabric store will do even if the salary is very low. It’s the first time I’m going to have a job (if I get it) so I’m nervous but still excited to finally be able to take care of myself and get some real responsibilities. But even if I would start working my thoughts for my husband would never leave. I will always worry for him, and every day since he left I fear for his life. The thought of never seeing him again is like a nightmare, a nightmare I never want to experience.
Moscow, Russia, May 7th , 1945
My dear friend Hello my friend, it has been a long time since we met and I have not heard from you. There is so much that has happened that I really want to tell you about. I do not know if you had heard, but I was called up to the war and had to fight with the Red Army and the war has finally come to an end. Everyone can finally find some peace an do not have to worry anymore. This was the last big fight on the east front and it was we, the Red Army, against the Germans and it was the people who had nothing else to lose who was a part of the very hard fight. The German soldiers were very young children and very old men, because all the German soldiers that had fought in the others fights had not survived, so they needed people and too every single person they could find no matter what age they had. The Germans had no chance against us at all. I actually think that it is sick that the children had to be a part of this dangerous war. I mean, they are only children and should definitely not be helping or be in a war at all, and they are pretty much useless because they do not really know what they are going to do and they did not have any experience of war.
During the communist occupation of Berlin there were Soviet soldiers that basically raped every second girl, it is sick that people can do that kind of thing to women and I am really disgusted by it. On January 12th, there were about two and a half million Soviet soldiers over the whole east front and that led to the fact that we took the rest of Poland. In a few weeks we also had Hungary’s capital Budapest and almost the whole Baltics area and more. The attack against Berlin started on April 16th and was the biggest attack in the war. The Russians put on over two and a half million soldiers against it for this and we had put much effort when we were going to attack them, we used about 7500 airplanes, 6000 tanks and over 3000 ramps to Katyusha rockets, The Germans only had around a million men but most of them were not soldiers but members in a militia and young minors who were forced to join. There were a lot of both our men and the Germans who died.
Between April 20th and April 27th there was a so called ring round Berlin and they were subjected to a huge bombardment with artillery shells and bomb planes. If I am right, we would have been letting down two million grenades over Berlin. Our plane to take the Germans knew that we actually managed to do that. After the big attack, when the Germans knew that they had no chance against us, Hitler committed suicide together with his wife with was in April 30th 1945. I can’t believe that I’m telling you all this in a letter, but it was a long time ago since I talked to you and I wanted to tell you this. I hope we can catch up real soon, I bet you want it too. I miss you and I hope to hear from you soon.
Whit kind regards, Your Friend
Okinawa, April, 12th, 1945 Dear Brother! The Battle has begun. It’s been 12 days since the battle started. The Americans are coming up from the shore. We´ve prepared by building low and tight shrubbery to take cover behind and shoot down at the Americans on the shore. The Operation Ten-go has failed and Yamato has been destroyed. Yamato was our largest battleship and was supposed to stop the Americans to reach the shore. Our largest hope is to stop the Americans to get any further into Okinawa. If we can’t stop them to get any further we´re probably doomed. Many of us are getting very desperate. Some of us even took our own lives, because they didn’t want the Americans to get them alive. They would rather die here in the honor of the emperor than being the Americans prisoners. Many people have been killed in the battle as well. Both Japanese and American soldiers have been killed in the battle, but worst of all, many civilians have been killed as well. That’s why we have to stop the Americans to get control of Okinawa, so they can’t reach the main islands and kill more civilians. Even though if it looks dark we have managed to build up a strong defense along the shore. So far the Americans haven’t been able to break our defense but we fear they’ll attack with a strong force soon. With the help of kamikaze pilots we have been able to buy enough time to build up a strong defense and we plan to use the kamikaze pilots again when the Americans attack. Even though it’s terrible to use kamikaze pilots, but just in this case the kamikaze planes are actually doing a lot of damage to the US army. Our odds are definitely not looking good. We’re outnumbered and have limited supply. But there is still hope to win the battle. We’ve actually done massive damage to the US army and so far our defense has been looking good, so let’s not lose our hopes yet. I’ll do the best to win the battle and to stay alive. I hope we’ll see each other again when all this is over. Best regards /Alexander
Okinawa, June, 1st, 1945
Hi Mom, how are you doing? Hope it’s good because I am not feeling so good down here. We have fought against the Japanese for 2 months. I’ve seen many men die, some were my friends but I’m still alive. It seems to be coming to an end, we have lost about 13000 men but they have lost many more. I heard something about that the USA was going to use a new kind of bomb to win the war but I am not sure if it will work.
The Islands around here are really beautiful and they make me think of home The last two days have been very quiet so we don’t have much to do except play cards. I hope the war will end soon because I miss you and dad so much, and how is he doing by the way? The Japanese don’t seem to give up any time soon so I hope the bomb will change their mind. The general said that the bomb will come in two or three Months. So the only thing we can do is to wait and see. About three days ago we were in the edge of Okinawa when the Japanese soldiers came and captured my friend James, I got away but he didn't. I'm really sad about that but there was nothing I could do! cause we were fluing over the Ilsand Okinawa when there came a few planes behind us. they they shot him down while I got away. I was really sad when I came back and I haven't been able to eat until now. I just wish that the Japanese could surrender, but they will not because they will fight until they die. I hope that James will be able to escape from the Japanes because one of us got captured when the war started and he managed to escape. He told us what they did to him and what they were going to do, they tortured him and going to kill him and some others by digging a small tunnel and put everyone in there and burn them to death. The General told me that I'm going out in the field now so I got to finish now. Hope i will be back home soon, your loved son- André
Stalingrad, December 17th, 1994
Dear Father It’s freezing cold here. It’s snowing very much here. We’re soon going to cross the Volga river and capture a small village, I forgot the name of the village. But I am scared, we’re outnumbered and we don’t have very much supply. How is mother doing? Does she still got those heart problems? And how about you’re legs? They’re still hurting from the explosion? I miss you all very much. I wonder how long it will take before we can see each other. I also heard that soon the Nazis are going to put in all of their forces in Stalingrad! But no one knows when. I guess it will be a very blood and big fight… There will be so many casualties. And when we’re going to cross the Volga river there will also be a lot of dead people! I am so sick of it. All the killing, it feels so unnecessary. And It’s so cold that we’re putting straws in our boots, Because we want to keep our feet warm! But It’s hard to keep our feet’s warm because, Its -30 to 40 degreases. I lost many of my friends also. Well I have to leave now. I hope to see you all very soon! Your Lovely son Vladimir.
Sweden, April 9th, 1940
Dear Mom I hope you guys are okay, how do you feel? I wanted to tell you that I am alright and no one has been injured so far either. We arrived to our spot where we were supposed to guard yesterday. When we came here we discovered that the Germans already had occupied Norway. We got to know why the Germans took Norway and it was because the fact that they would need the Norwegian ports as submarine bases if they were going to attack the United Kingdom. They also occupied Denmark to secure the transport routes just because the fact that they wanted to be sure that they had control over the ore shipments. Today, April 9th, we are still at the border to Norway and we can see how the German troop moves in there. We can also see paratroopers landing in Oslo to take over and get control. I have heard that the king and the queen fled the country to London earlier this day to get protection from the war. I am so happy that we, Sweden, are neutral and don't have to get involved in this ridiculous war that is going on. I wanted to tell you that you all are safer than the people in the south because there ain't any defense there, all forces is in the north where I hope you still are. The German troops wouldn't plan to attack us either because if they did, then the ore fields would get destroyed and the exports had ceased and they need it so they don't really have a choice. There are people who come here to tell us what is going on and they told us that there are a lot of trains going through Sweden with soldiers and weapons every day. There are also many men who prepare if anything goes wrong and we have gotten some bad news too which is that the Swedish merchant who imports oil, coal and corn against ore, paper and bearings might have been exploded and some men are dead because of detonating mines.
We actually had plans that as soon as the German troops are out of Norway, we will go in and help them with medical help and more. I still don't know when I am coming home but I hope I will come home soon. I miss you guys so much and when I am coming home I will hug you guys so hard, I love you. Tell the others I said hi. Hug and kisses, Your son!