if they were going off to a carefree summer camp of games and campfires with the Scouts and Guides. Once the task was explained to them, they had divided their group into sections, each assigned to a different item from the packages, stacking cigarettes, dried fruit, then chocolates, passing the boxes along to each other.
‘They were amazing. They formed a production line,’ Sally said. ‘When I praised one of the older boys, because he organised his area so quickly and neatly, he cheerfully said it was, Wie in der Fabrik, fünf Jahre.’
‘Like working in the factory for five years,’ murmured Eva. ‘But they were only children when they were sent to work there. They had no schooling, no playtime and very little food. The conditions were appalling. How could the Germans have subjected them to that?’
‘Maybe there’ll still be some time for another childhood when they get back home.’
‘I hope the Russians don’t take away what’s left,’ said Eva. ‘They say the big bad bear is coming to get them.’
Sally put her arm round Eva. ‘We’ve done what we can, you know. We can’t stop them leaving and anyway, look at them: they’re all so happy to be going back to their home country.’ And they watched the joyous procession of families board the train and stayed watching as it curved around the track, the men hanging onto the sides of the cars, waving their flags and kerchiefs, until it was finally out of sight.
‘Come on,’ Sally said, tugging at Eva’s arm, ‘we’ve only another ten thousand or so Poles to send home and then the job will be done.’ The girls laughed as they ran to the lorries, heading back to the camp and the many refugees still waiting to learn whether they would be the lucky ones heading for a new life in America or the unlucky, returning to their old homes with uncertainty and fear.
In the weeks and months to come there was joy for some when they heard their visa applications had been granted. But even for these there was sometimes bitter disappointment, when a family member failed a last-minute health check. ‘I can’t bear it,’ Eva told Sally, after a family had failed their check. ‘They almost managed to leave, they had a new life within their grasp. And now the youngest child has developed TB. They’ll never have a chance now. So near and yet so far.’
‘I know. It’s Sod’s law.’ Sally sighed. ‘They’re paying a terrible price for their years of suffering, but at least they’re alive. And if they can’t emigrate or go home, they can end up staying here. Well, not in the camp perhaps, but they can still make a decent life for themselves in Germany. Look at the ones who’ve already decided to stay, rebuilding the old houses and cultivating land. We saw them in the village the other week, growing beetroots, onions and potatoes. They’re eating well and they’re safe. It’s a life of sorts, not the inevitable death they’d feared. And the locals are gradually getting used to them.’
And Eva thought of the emaciated prisoners she had seen being interrogated in Bad Nenndorf, not for war crimes, but for their political leanings. ‘There may well be persecution for many of them if they return to their homeland. But at least they’re free here.’
54
Eva, 7 January 1947
Off-Piste
She remembered Ken’s words afterwards, about when the snow thaws in spring and how many bodies would be found once winter was over. In her first year at Wildflecken Ken had joked about the score-settling vigilantes, laughing about their unregulated form of justice, but now she too had added to the body count.
It was so stupid of me, she cursed herself. So stupid. I should never have gone out with him. Trying to help people integrate, trying to pretend we could all be civilised again. What on earth was I thinking?
It was her second winter in Wildflecken and crisp snow had covered the hills all around the camp and the surrounding forests for weeks. The air was dry and cold and when the sun shone from an icy-blue sky, Eva longed to be outside, away from her desk, away from the form-filling and the hopeful faces. Staff were only given leave for two half-days and one whole day a month and during the summer, she had walked the green meadows and cycled the local roads to discover Gemünden and the surrounding villages. At first the local people had been distant and suspicious,