Anni Maria Bielefeld

The following story was taken from an interview conducted by Miss Sandra Walker, a student at Ordean Middle School and granddaughter of Ms. Bielefeld.

The narrative tells the story of a young woman experiencing World War II as a German civilian."At the beginning of the war in 1939 I was 14. We (her family) lived in a town called Greven, in Northern Germany. We didn't really have a choice but to support the war. We couldn't say anything against the war or about what we were feeling because we were afraid we would be arrested.

During the air raids you were always wondering, 'will it hit us this time?' We were always scared and all we could do was sit, hope and pray that the plane will go by."

Sandra asked, "How did the war affect your everyday life?"

Ms. Bielefeld then replied, "The young men were all drafted, so there weren't many men around. We had no appliances and not many cars running. We all used bicycles...but by the end of the war the tires on our bikes were worn out, but there wasn't any rubber to get new tires. Everything was rationed, food, clothes, shoes, thread. You just lived from day to day. You had to forget things just so you could go on."

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