Diary of Annie's War (20 page)

Country retreat in Bad Salzdetfurth

Home in Woltershausen

While I breathe, I hope

Today is the feast of St. Blaize and all the people go to church and get a special blessing for throat diseases. The church was full. I tried after church to get some sausage but there was none to be got. They will have some on Saturday but each person will get no more than half a pound. All meat is very scarce.

I feel so sorry for the children here as the shoes one sees are dreadful. These wooden shoes cannot be warm for they are all open at the back and
must
wear out their stockings. You see people with all kinds of things on their feet for warmth but all they say is: ‘We must bear it all for the sake of the Fatherland’.

Their patience is really incredible. Even when they can’t get butter and cheese etc. they only say: ‘We must hold out’.

I wonder if in England the people help the government so. I can scarcely think that they have such patience. Or they have altered greatly since I left.

No news of the damage in England only the remark that the brave flyers have given England something to think of. There is news of a flying raid over Paris and a deal of damage done also over Salonica and many English soldiers killed.

There is news of America but we have heard so much of that land. First over the
Lusitania
, which one reads in the reports and one wonders what it will lead to. Germany will not declare that her undersea boat war is illegal. Not even to suit America. She firmly believes that she is in the right and that God is with her and her alone.
America can try her bluff as long as she likes
.

I met yesterday Frau Voight and her sister Fraulein Shumaker. The husband of the former is in Ruhleben and was interviewed last February because they did not imprison them in India until February. Then Germany imprisoned also all her people who were born in India. Herr Voight was born in Calcutta. The brother of the two ladies, Herr Shumaker, is a painter and etcher and is doing a deal business in Ruhleben and is so busy that he cannot complete his orders. We had a long chat together and they seem very nice ladies.

No news in the paper today of America, but news of a Zeppelin being sunk at sea and all men lost. They also say that the Germans have sunk three large ships at the mouth of the Thames by undersea boats.

Steinoff writes me that our nut trees must be cut down and that all woollen woven goods (drawers and singlets etc.) are called up by the government. After they are supplied we get what is left for sale in the shops.

I feel a bit better and am able to sleep now for a few hours each night.

Alice Durselen says that she has had no word from England since she wrote of her mother’s death. Letters seem to go all wrong and there is news that the American mails have ceased for five days.

No news from the front but one thousand five hundred soldiers leave Hildesheim this week for France and Russia.

No news yet of America and most people think it will be settled all right. Germany does not want anymore enemies.

There is a great scarcity of food and stuffs that you cannot buy. If you go into a shop they dare not sell you six towels – only three. It is the same with sewing cotton etc. and of course all the fine stuffs that come from the outlands are not to be got and there is a great scarcity in cotton. Sugar is scarce and is now four pence a pound. Flour is also the same price and is not nice.

The Germans are very vexed at the treatment by the English captain of the people of the
Luftship L19
which was wrecked early this month. The captain of a fishing boat took nine men and promised to send help for the others. But bad weather came and all were drowned. Well, I think that he was right. If he had taken the lot (thirty in all) and his ship had only nine men and no arms or guns it would have been possible that they could have been overpowered by the Germans. That happened on the
Ancona
and of course the man must first protect himself. He saved what he could so he was not as heartless as they make out. One must remember what has happened in this war before one judges.

I feel better this past week and today we have tried again to get Arthur free for a week or so for there are many repairs to be done in Woltershausen and Steinoff and I do not understand them.

A young lady who came to visit me last Sunday says that her brother is a prisoner in England and his wife meets him every fourteen days. At Christmas she was invited to spend half a day with him and go to the concert given by the prisoners. I do think that it is hard here. If they can run the risk of spies in England why can’t they here? Arthur is now sixteen months a prisoner and I have not been able to see him once.

I have not heard from Arthur for over a fortnight and hope that he is not ill. I feel a little better myself, but only wish I could breathe better.

Things are very bad as regards food. Fat is really dreadful to get and one cannot manage on a quarter pound of butter or margarine a week. If only we had the nice peaceful days back again as now the finest present one can make you is a little flour or yeast. I received at Christmas three pounds of white flour and counted it my finest present. For even with money in your hand you cannot get more than three-and-a-half pounds per week.

My maid has just come in to tell me that she has no bread. I cannot get any for her. I have plenty of money but no more cards until Monday. She says that she will see her friend and borrow enough cards for one pound of bread and that she must divide it out.

We always cook vegetables for supper but the dark (rye) bread weighs very heavy when you buy it fresh. Three slices is the allowance for the day and the loaves are bigger than our two pound loaves at home. Three slices are half a pound and they only allow now six ounces per day. I tell my maid that she must put a mark for each day in the loaf when she gets it and then she must eat no more than her allowance.

Fresh meat is dreadfully scarce and most of the butchers are closed.

One of my enquarterings (soldiers) went on Thursday morning. He is such a nice fellow and an only child. His parents send him enough money, but though he had money he could not buy any butter or meat to pack up for himself. A servant girl spent over two hours searching the town to get him a quarter pound of butter and a little sausage. The poor fellow had only been gone a few hours to the front when a large parcel came from his mother. It had been delayed in the post. He has gone to France and had no desire to go there. He preferred Russia because their shooting is so good in France and so many fall there. I am so sorry for him. I wonder when the last one will go away. It will not be long before he follows his friend.

There is news of the sinking of a French ship, the Admiral something, with eight hundred men on board. She sank within two minutes and not one life was saved. There is great rejoicing here but we do not see any announcement from the French minister in Paris. It is dreadful to think of all those lives lost in two minutes.

Winnie’s birthday. I have sent Arthur a parcel for his birthday and hope that he gets it for the 18
^th
.

No news of the French ship but they think it is the
Saffron
and not the Admiral something, but one does not know what to believe. These German names for the foreign ships are so strange to read.

We read that no more prisoners are to be taken alive and that all must be shot. I wonder if this is true. On the 28
^th
a great sea battle is to take place, or commence, and all ships are to be sunk without warning – neutral or not.

I had good news today. The police sent me a notice that it would suit them if I only went once a week to announce instead of every day.
That’s very nice of them
. One of the officers met me on the staircase one day last week and said that he got a shock to see me. I looked so very ill. He is a nice fellow and said: ‘If you don’t pick up, your good man will not know you when he returns’.

The next day another officer asked me if any special day would suit me to announce myself. I asked him if he had a new order for prisoners of war (civil) and he said: ‘No, but we are going to make one for you’.

As a result a letter was sent to me yesterday and I went to thank them and arranged for Wednesday. Herr Rult remarked: ‘That is six times a week less for you to mount these stairs and I am glad for your sake’.

They are very kind to me and are only doing their duty. But one does as a rule think the police awfully officious.

This is Arthur’s second birthday in Ruhleben, and a rotten place to celebrate it in. I hope that he gets his parcel, I sent him a pudding.

Yesterday I had a visit from Frau Voight and her sister Fraulein Schumacher with little Thea Voight – such a charming little girl. Frau V. is so angry about her man being imprisoned. She tells me that they lived in Bremen and on December 2
^nd
a policeman came and said all Englanders must go out of the town in twenty-four hours and must get more inland. They had to close up their house and come here and live in a hotel.

They have relations in Hannover but were not allowed to go there. Her brother, who was naturalised in England and was in Ruhleben, had a flat locked up in Berlin so they asked for permission to go to live there. It was not allowed and of the places left open they chose Hildesheim. On February the 9
^th
her husband was imprisoned and they have lived here ever since. I asked her how it was her husband was free until then and that mine went in November. She said her husband was in India, naturalised, and that they did not imprison the Germans in India until February the 3
^rd
and then Germany did the same with the naturalised Indians here. Her husband was a trader in India but was educated at Rugby in England and has a great love for that land.

There is news of great unrest in Berlin but it is from a private source for nothing is in the papers. They say the people have demanded peace and bread and also that the same has happened in Hannover. That is too dreadful to believe and one wonders where it will all end.

We read in the papers that yesterday the fortress of Erzurum has been taken by the Russians from the Turks. We have noticed for a few days in the Russian reports that several forts had fallen but nothing was reported here. There is a very small account of the battle in our papers but reading the reports of France, Russia and England it seems a great victory.

There is also an account of the speeches of Prince Leopold von Bayern and I was surprised at his language. He spoke of his enemies as so: ‘God damn the Englander and God give bad luck to all the French’.

I forget the
prayer
for the Russian but it is scarcely to be believed that an educated man, yet alone a Prince, will so far forget himself as to use such language. This war has much to answer for.

Heard from Alice Graeinghoff today and she sent me Lena’s and Emily’s letters about their mother’s death. They have taken two weeks to come.

Food is very scarce here and the bread is awful to eat and potatoes are not to be got from the shops. You can get them from the Red Cross Society, but they are only sold in small quantities of five or ten pounds to each person. When you remember that there is only six ounces of bread per day to eat one must cook potatoes for dinner or suffer so. Of course many potatoes are required.

We got today a continental edition of the ‘Daily Mail’ and there is a very good article in it of the sinking of two German boats - we never heard of it here - The
Pommern
and
no. 126
. I wonder when it happened. There is also a very good article by a man who signs himself, ‘an Englishman called Pecknsniff of the war’. I am sorry I cannot keep the paper.