Diary of Annie's War (13 page)

The last few lots to go were all over forty-years-old and so many of them had bad eyesight and weak hearts. They have to be very ill when they are passed over now.

Herr Grebe told me of a friend of his who was sent to the front after being shot in the lungs. He has spit blood ever since and was spitting it when he went away.

The doctor said: ‘The good weather is coming and you will pick up’

We are getting dark bread now at two pence per pound and white bread at four-and-a-half pence per pound. I wonder if they are paying nine pence for a two pound loaf in England.

Herr Stoffregan went to a sale of a farm in Adenstedt and the dried beans for cattle fetched thirty-six shillings per hundredweight. The usual price is fourteen shillings. Everything is dearer now and it is impossible to buy bread without a card from the magistrate and your allowance is only one third of a pound per day. The difference must be made up of soup or potatoes.

Everywhere there is a shortage of men. If you go in a shop it is all young men, or women, who serve you. They never complain. Such unity surprises me. With just one half to put up with the English man would grumble for hours. There is always the firm belief of the winning and always the same talk. England is always to blame for all this war and bloodshed.

I paid a visit yesterday to Dean Heiser and we of course talked about the war. He is confident of Germany winning and he does not think the war will last long. The Dardanelles are impossible to take he says and the English are as usual too stupid to know that they are wasting lives and ammunition on a false hope. He has a firm belief in England’s ignorance of warfare and feels sorry for her soldiers under such fools of officers and ministers.

We hear today of a great battle by Ypres in Flanders. A great victory for Germany and there are many thousands of French and English prisoners and dead. Also they have captured thirty large English cannons. The Germans have made a great forward march. It does not state that they have yet got Ypres.

There is a good account in the papers of many bank officials being let out of Ruhleben. It was very amusing to read of their journey from Berlin to Hamburg. The person who wrote the account for the papers had a full share of hate for the English. He complained bitterly of the Germans having to stand up on a crowded train while Englishmen sat at their ease in first class carriages and in the dining car. You could hear the pop of champagne corks. It was dreadful. There were the poor Germans full of troubles and thinking of their people on the battlefield and too sad to smile. And there were the cheeky English, in an enemy’s land, feeding and drinking. So said the correspondent!

The papers report a great progress in Flanders. Over three thousand five hundred prisoners and many killed. There is no report of any losses.

Belle told me that she made a visit to the Bishop and was surprised to hear him say that, with the exception of one here and one there, that the English were very unsatisfactory as a nation and that the politics were very rotten in that land. In fact there is nothing good about the general crowd if only one or two stand out alone. This is from an educated man who has never been to England. It is astonishing that they give their opinions.

I heard from Arthur and cannot send him anymore tobacco or cigars.

The Germans are making a great way in Flanders but it is not announced that Ypres is in their hands.

I had a visit from Miss Marhgraf today and she had an American friend with her, a Californian, and she has had a
bad
time here.

Today we had two flying machines over the town. This was great excitement for one was supposed to be an enemy ship. The Germans all have the iron cross painted on them but this one was plain and did not drop the usual flag over the town. These things are common here and we often see a Zeppelin labelled ‘
For London
‘. It is very weird to hear them fly over a town at night. You are in your bed and you hear the great motors whizzing and wonder if it is an enemy and if a bomb can fall. It is not pleasant. At night they fly so low and you can hear them plainly. Then another night many autos will race through the town at great speed and you wonder if Paris has fallen or what on earth is the matter. It is a time of great excitement and I shall be thankful when it is all over. The wonder is that so many people can live through it for so many are ill.

Still great progress is reported by Ypres and it makes one hope that the end is not far off.

I saw a lot of soldiers selling their bicycles today. I suppose it’s their last week here. There were so many and they were standing outside the shop - each with his bike.

Hermenia tells me that all the potatoes are gone from Woltershausen and at a good price. Fancy - pigs are fifty-eight shillings a cut alive. That is a price.

The people are very angry with America deciding to supply England with ammunition and say that she does not think of lives – just dollars.

Flying machines go over here every day and are almost as common as the birds in the air.

I went today to see a man just out of Ruhleben. He has got leave for two months because he is ill and he gave me a lot of interesting news. He says it will be all right in summer but in the winter it was so cold. Arthur eats in the canteen and can draw the amount of ten shillings a week from his money. It’s not so bad if you have cash to buy what you fancy though there is not too great a choice. It’s awful if you have no money at all. He had a model of the place and had written some poetry on it. He has also made some funny sketches and we did laugh over them. He thinks the war will not last two months longer as it is being felt in all places of business and is easily seen.

Steinoff and Stoffregan came to see me and I do not know what to do about the garden for no labour can be got.

No further news of the big battle in Flanders but we hear of the terrible Canadian losses. Even here they speak of their bravery. And that is something.

I asked today how it was that the soldiers did not sing any more. I was told that many people who had lost relatives in the war had asked the military not to allow it in the streets. They could not bear to hear it after their losses of sons and husbands.

There is great rejoicing today. The Russians have been driven out of the Carpathians and the Germans and Austrians claim a great victory. Over a hundred thousand guns, sixty eight thousand men and four hundred officers, prisoners and the war material would fill a newspaper column with all kinds of food and goods and ammunition. The flags are flying and for the first time the Turkish and German and Austrian are flying together so I suppose that the Turks have helped a great deal.

No news of the Dardanelles but a very strange article about the Kaiser’s brother, Prince Henri of Prussia, is in the papers. They say he is Admiral of the Fleet but he refuses to have anything to do with this war and people are asking questions.

I wrote a long letter to Arthur today and had coffee with Herr Mummers and his cousin on the Steinberg. It was a perfect day and the view was lovely. It was the last walk Arthur, Belle and I took the evening before he went away.

On our return we read extra telegrams saying a further increase of prisoners and another victory in Russia and it gives thirty thousand prisoners and a lot more ammunition and guns etc.

Herr Mummer’s cousin told me that everything in the food lines was just double the price with the exception of coffee and sugar. Coffee is a little dearer but sugar is at the old price yet. Green vegetables are an awful price and a cabbage costs eighty-two pfennigs or ten pence halfpenny.

Today we read that the victory report last night was false. Someone has forged the name of ‘
WOLF
’. This is the only telegram we can rely on (it is supposed to be better than Reuters) and it said that the flags must all be put away.

A great many soldiers go away today. Half go to Russia and half go to France. Now there is a great deal of difference between the men and those before Christmas. These men are so sad. I heard one man remark: ‘This war is lasting too long’.

It is telling on the businesses and you scarcely see anyone in the banks.

Had a postcard from Arthur today and he says he is trying to get an allowance to visit for two weeks. I hope that he gets it if only to put things in order here.

For a few weeks now we have had soldiers guarding the flour mill here. We have a very large flour mill called ‘The Bishop’s Mill’ as it formerly belonged to the Prince Bishop of Hildesheim. Now it belongs to the town though still bearing the name of the Bishop. All during the war it has been as usual but since April it has been guarded by soldiers doing sentry duty.

There is great uneasiness over Italy.
Of course,
England is at the bottom of it.

We had great trouble yesterday. A cousin of Arthur and Belle was buried. He was only fifteen-years-old and we are afraid he has committed suicide. He was such a bright noble looking boy and so tall. We met him last Thursday by the river and this Thursday he is buried. We can get to know nothing of his death and suicides are not put in the paper here. We shall hear in time from the family.

The schools have a holiday to celebrate the Russians being sent out of the Carpathians.

There is an announcement of many English prisoners being taken in Flanders and great unrest over Italy. There is also an announcement that all Germans must clear out of Italy and that all Italians are being called up. They will not find Germany unprepared as they have expected Italy to be deceitful.

We hear today with great grief of the sinking of the
Lusitania
. It is a terrible thing. Here, of course, it is looked on as a great and skilful piece of work and never a pitiful word for the lives lost. The Germans say that the boat was armed and that they are quite within their rights. They talk of it as a great deed done.

There are special telegrams issued today about the way the news was received in America and of the disturbance there. It appears that the German Ambassador was very badly handled. Well, so were people here in the excitement of the war but no one remembers that now.

They say that King George has sent a telegram of congratulations to the Dardanelles and they say that the English are easily pleased with a victory. It has only been the gaining of about two miles of land.

George von Brounswigh, the young cousin who died, had suddenly gone out of his mind with a rush of blood to the head. He travelled from here to Magdeburg and bought a wreath. He put it on his father’s grave and then shot himself. He was alive and losing blood when found and he came to his senses. They sent for his mother but he was dead when she got there. I have such sorrow for her for he was a fine boy and only fifteen-years-old. He inherited a large estate two years ago from an uncle and now there is no one to take it of that name. It is a great pity.

I have sent for Father Gatsemire to call on me to get some Masses said for mother and grandmother and I hope that he comes today. It was mother’s anniversary last week.

I saw crowds of children on Saturday outside the soldier’s barracks trying to buy bread from them. The soldiers get so much per week and it is very good bread. With these bread tickets people with a family do not get enough. Children eat more than six ounces per day so they try to buy from the soldiers. It was so funny to see the soldiers plaguing them.

There is a lot in the paper about the sinking of the
Lusitania
. Germany has warned America that if they let any more ships go to England after their refusal to stop supplying ammunition that they, the Germans, should sink all ships. America and England only laughed so now they see that the Germans are as good as their word. They maintain here that the Lusitania was fitted up as a battleship and had five big guns and a quantity of ammunition. They say that they were within their rights to sink her and seem surprised that there should be any fuss over it. Some of the more feeling people express sorrow that it has been done. Still it is owing to England that it has been done at all.

It is a blessing that Italy at present is receiving a little hatred and England is a little forgotten. It’s dreadful to hear the sermons about the falseness of Italy and what should be done to the Italians here. I should hate any Englishman who so far forgot himself as to express the hatred you hear of here in Germany.

All the papers ridicule the fact that anyone makes any progress only the Germans. Yet if the others are losing at all places why are they, the Italians, going to join the losing side?

Of course there is no freedom of the press here. Everything seems to be controlled. Just fancy this – a youth here, seventeen-years-old and an only son of a lawyer wanted to go free willing into the army. His father told him that after he had done his examinations and finished his studies he could go, very likely this autumn, and then he would have lost no time with his studies. The authorities got to know about this at the school and one day last week the father received a letter. It told him that if he did not let his son go at once then he would not be allowed to sit the exam in the autumn.

People tell of one another here. If you do or say anything that shows that anything else comes before the Fatherland then the police always get to know. I often wondered why people whispered when they mentioned some things. To an English person this is dreadful.