by Annie Droege
I had a postcard from Emily today, it has been five days coming, and she hopes to sail on Saturday the 16th for home.
Tuesday 19th January.
Belle sent a parcel to Arthur today and he writes me there are several things they are not allowed to have now. Chocolate, cakes jams etc. They are getting scarce. We have now been warned for a long time about the white flour.
There came a sudden order today for Russia. Over a thousand soldiers left here at five o’clock and they had no idea, at noon, they were to go. The organisation of the men is really marvellous. This is the first time for many weeks that they have been told where they are to go.
I was at the baths yesterday and saw the people fetching their coke. There were six or eight women pulling a cart that ought to have a horse. The cart contained twenty or thirty bags of coke on it and at the back were a dozen women pushing.
So many poor people with baby carts are getting a hundred weight or so of coke. There are no men to hawk the coke and no horses to take it in the streets. The people must get it themselves. Now and then I would pass a handcart being pushed by a soldier. Very likely the house he was lodging at had no fire.
What struck me most was the silence of them. Not a word was spoken as the procession of little and big carts passed up the street. The cokes are only given or sold at a certain hour and the streets are full for a time. Even in the cases where six or eight girls or boys were with a cart there was no noise. Everyone here seems full of grim sorrow but they are confident of victory. Even in the churches. When the Bishop’s letter was read for New Year he asked us all not to be too proud of when the news of the victory came and the Germans were the noble conquerors.
Thursday 21st January.
We read of the airship being over Yarmouth and Cromer. They say here that over two hundred are killed and many wounded. They are very delighted about the damage to a military school and stocks.
Friday 22nd January.
We have no news at all only a lot about the Yarmouth damage. But there is something in the papers over Romania and Italy which does not seem to please them.
I am very anxious over Emily and the children and expect a card each post.
The papers today tell us that the result of collecting old woollens from house to house, to make up for the soldiers, has proved to be very successful. They are now going to have a collection from house to house of old metal of any kind. So if we have any old silver or bronze ornaments etc. we must give them up. There was an advertisment in the papers a few weeks ago telling you where to take all old silver and it would be bought from you. Candlesticks, spoons, jewellery etc., anything at all out of silver. Now it is all kinds of metals.
Saturday 23rd January 1915.
Today they tell us in the papers that all pigs must be killed off because the food is scarce. The flesh must be made into sausages or be put in tins for future use. There is not enough food for the animals so they are killing off all they can. Especially all those we can cure and keep. So many things are scarce. One has a fear for a famine.
A number of soldiers go away again today. It really is a wonder where all the men come from but this lot are particulary sad. They are the men who are home after being wounded and were in the surrounding villages getting stronger – mostly with their parents and wives. They had been told they could rest until Easter but they got twenty-four hours notice to go to the Doctor. Then they were off to the front. I felt so sorry for them for it was to Russia they went. It’s so very cold there besides the food being scarce.
We hear in the papers that after the next term the Turkish language is to be taught in the German schools instead of English. The hatred is dreadful and we must not speak a word of English in the streets. Two ladies in Hannover were mobbed because they were heard to speak English. We saw a motto in a window last week - ‘God punish the Englishman’. That is the universal greeting instead of – ‘Good day’. These are dreadful days to live through. I did not think that human beings could live and show so much hate.
Sunday 24th January.
The papers are full of the scarcity of food today and tell us we shall have to eat bread made of barley. They must have the oats for the horses.
We have had a slight frost for four days and I could think that the forest looks lovely. But I am not allowed to go so far. I am only allowed just over two miles and the finest parts are quite three miles distant. I am sure that the trees covered with the hoar frost are beautiful.
It is quite confirmed today that we are prepared for a scarcity of food and other supplies. Fresh meat is getting scarcer but the price remains the same as before. Cocoa, tea, chocolate, flour, oil candles, leather, meal and rubber have been scarce for some time.
It was announced in church today that on the Kaiser’s birthday next Wednesday that there will be High Mass also. The collections on Wednesday and next Sunday are for a birthday offering for the Kaiser to use as he thinks fit.
Monday 25th January.
We hear today of the whole coast of England being surrounded by undersea boats and nothing can come in or out. Also that the cruiser Blücher has been sunk in a battle at sea. Herr Roeder’s brother was an officer on that and there is great distress in the hotel today. He was here for Christmas. We hear also that a large English ship has been sunk by a German mine but I have not heard the name of it.
Today I had a call from Frau Baroni and she tells me she had seventeen relatives in the war. Two are dead; three are prisoners, and the others still in the war. So she has anxiety. Her only son is in training for an officer. She asked me to go and live with her.
I went this morning to help with the hot milk for the poor Catholic children at the folk school or board school. We gave about one and a half gills of hot milk to each child and they brought their own bread and lard. I was very astonished to find the one hundred and sixty children were all boys. Of course I asked where the girls were. The answer was: ‘We must look after our boys first. They are our future soldiers’.
I asked: “And aren’t your girls the future mothers of soldiers?”
But there was no reply. If that is not enough to breed a German Mrs. Pankhurst I don’t know what is. Being in a strange land I did not say much. I felt very indignant for I think the idea is to breed selfishness in the men. The German man is selfish enough.
Tuesday 26th January.
Today I went to Woltershausen with Herr Mumers. I only wanted seven hours leave from Hildesheim and had to wait six days to obtain it. We got our papers all right and the day was beautiful. I could not say how very beautiful the place was. Herr Mumers says it is much more beautiful in the winter than the summer. Everything was covered with three or four inches of snow and it really was a picture. Our house looked lovely. All the trees round it were thickly covered with snow and the bushes were quite as big again. The pond was frozen over and it looked so very nice. We had a treat of a day.
Steinoff tells us that he has received notice to kill or sell so many pigs. He has to give up to the government all food stuffs – grain, potatoes, straw, hay – being only allowed to keep fifty pounds of wheat for each person in the household and food for a few pigs. The others must be killed to save food. Also no bakehouse dare bake white bread of any kind and no household must do ditto. Everyone is liable to a severe penalty. So much barley or potato must be put with it. The soldiers’ bread is all rye flour.
The Germans ridicule the idea that Germany lost The Blucher and England no boat. They say they distinctly saw one go down but could not see her name. They say that the reports extracted from the English papers say that the English did not lose any. The German papers question it.
Wednesday 27th January.
It is the Kaiser’s birthday and there is great rejoicing here. All the flags are out in all the churches and it is a general holiday. The poor boys only got their milk.
Thursday 28th January.
We hear of a German victory over the French with a number of French and English killed and wou
nded.
I was speaking this morning to a schoolmaster. His son is at home for a few days, not being well. He was by Arras and has told his father that the orders these past few weeks were to show no mercy to the English. This was because the latter on one occasion had shown the white flag. When the Germans went towards them they fired on them. So since then no mercy is to be shown to the English.
We have, every Sunday, lectures on the English and it closes with songs and recitations on the hatred of England. I remarked last week that they should change The Lord’s Prayer at once and pray ‘Forgive us our trespasses but punish all who trespass against us’. The hatred is unbelievable. I shall be afraid to be here if such a thing happened that England won a battle.
They say here that it was a mere nothing on Sunday last but the quotations from English papers read different. We cannot get to know the name of the English ship that is supposed to be lost.
Friday 29th January.
We read today that the boat lost last Sunday was the Lion. They do not say how many lives were lost. They also remark that two torpedo boats of the English were sunk.
There is announced today the loss of an airship (Zeppelin) in Russia. The men were saved but imprisoned. We also hear that the Germans have made headway in France.
I went to see Grebe the agent for the estate today. He says the war will last another twelve months.
Saturday 30th January.
No news today, only that of the seven flyers (French) three were shot down by the Germans and a famous flyer was killed.
I went a little way on my own today in the forest for it was so very beautiful. We have had this frost nearly a week and everything is lightly covered with snow. They are tobogganing on Galgen (gallows) Hill and it is a lovely sight. The trees have a covering of ice on all the branches and just look like huge glass chandeliers with the sun shining through them. Some of the icicles hanging down from the trees are half a yard long. When a slight wind comes they ring as they touch one another and then fall to the ground. I have never seen anything like it. Not even on the stage.
I stood half an hour watching the young people with their sledges. The view was magnificent off the hill and for miles and miles nothing but snow. Then I saw a long black line just like a snake. It was the soldiers going to the shooting range and the others coming back. In the distance there was the constant shooting where the men were learning to shoot human beings. Perhaps some of them, before two days older, would be dead themselves. To my back was the lovely forest and over all there was such a beautiful blue sky and brilliant sunshine. One could not believe that a war was raging and that a thousand of these soldiers are going away tonight.
Sunday 31st January.
We hear today of ten thousand Russians being captured. It’s a very large amount. This week they have given the amount of prisoners they have in Germany. It is enormous.
Russian officers 3,575 – men 506,294 – Generals 18.
French officers 3,459 – men 215,905 – Generals 7.
Belgian officers 612 - men 36, 825.
English officers 492 - men 18,824.
Rye bread has risen in price and is two pence a pound. When one remembers it is not as nutritious as white bread you think it dear. White bread is sold by the small dinner cob, not by weight at all.
Steinoff writes me he has sold the fowls. He could not buy food for them.
Monday 1st February 1915.
I hear this morning that the German undersea boats have sunk three steamers. Two near Liverpool and one near Le Havre but the men were saved. They were trading vessels taking food into England.
Went to the bank and sent the money to Königswinter and to Lamspringe but find I have other rates to attend to.
I hear that Herr Allorn who was in Ruhleben with Arthur has gone to the mad house. He first went to Hannover to go in the army but his complaint grew much worse and he is now put away. I thought him queer when I last visited him.
Tuesday & Wednesday 2nd& 3rd February.
There is nothing to report. The Kaiser has gone to Poland. The Russians have been making headway. The Germans are glad one of the boats sank because it had so much food on it and because it was going to Belgium.
I went out to tea today and we talked of the shortage of supplies. They fear a famine and we are told that there will be a shortage of meat after this week.
A letter has been received from a doctor from this town who is in Russia. He must be out of the regular track of the war as he asks for supplies. He says he is in a dreadful fix and has to take the shirts off the men to tear into bandages. They have no beds or necessaries and he must put the men, partly naked, in straw on the floor and the men are constantly dying off. His letter was very dreadful to read. I did thank God that none of mine were in the war in Russia.
Wichman, the electrician from Lamspringe, came to see me today. He is an under officer here and trains the men. He tells me this last lot are all Landstorm and many are forty-two and forty-five years old. Some of them have never been in the army before. They were not accepted because of their eyes or other ailments. Now all must go up and it’s so very difficult to drill them. Many often have five and six children and some of them have sons in the army. He says the work is hard.
Women are now to do men’s work and they have women as porters, signalmen, ticket collectors etc. They also work in the post office and in the town as snow shifters. There is no one else to do it.
During February and after there is to be no more white bread. War bread is to be baked made from oats, rye, potatoes and barley and all people must eat it. If a baker is caught baking any white bread, even for his own family, he is subject to a severe penalty.
Most of the Schnapps breweries have been closed for some time for they dare not buy potatoes or corn for the schnapps. In fact all luxuries are forbidden. Of course we can do without drink if we could get the food. The beer is still there but the breweries are short of men. The hotels are feeling the shortage of food and I cannot buy many little things myself. People are not allowed to buy large quantities of food as it all must be evenly distributed.
Hermenia came from Woltershausen and she says all is well there. Several men have returned cripples and one will not get better. She says all the corn and potatoes have gone to the army. The farmer is only allowed enough to seed his land and fifty pounds for each person in his house. So regards horses this is bad as he is only allowed to feed them with two pounds of corn a day. The rest must be straw or chaffs. No horse can work on that. Our ‘Moor’ used to get fourteen pounds a day and all other horses got ten to twelve pounds. I feel so sorry for them.
We read of the coal strike in England and it gives the Germans great pleasure. They say that the English people are quite sick of English laws and that they do not know how to govern workers.
Belle has told me of the intention of Germany to block all the neutral waters and shipping. They say here that the neutral lands are sick and tired of being dictated to by England, who rules the waves, and are glad another power has stepped in to show her her place. I myself cannot see the neutral lands quietly sitting down to that. We are told that after this blockade begins on the 18th of February the war is only a very short time to the finish. I wonder what England thinks of it.
There is a very strange article in the papers. I believe it is to the effect that England has decided to fly neutral flags on all her ships to repay Germany for what she intends doing regarding the blockade. The papers here say that it is the Admiralty’s orders. I flatly said I did not believe that. For if it was so, and allowed, then why had not Germany or England done it before. Also that this was not allowed at sea and I did not think that even if England could see herself being beaten she would play a false game. She was too sportsmanlike for that.
We hear nothing from anywhere only from the German bureau and no news of the enemy. Only that each day they are sent further back. Where to? They do not say. It’s my opinion these things are only put in the papers to take
the people’s thoughts off the war because there is no definite news
Yesterday there was the weekly lecture on the war and the hatred of England. The people were told that it is not German man against English man but also German woman against English woman. The women of Germany must remember that. I wonder if ever there will be a revolution here and the people will use these words again. It is not a pleasant time to live in. Thank God there are a few of nature’s women left but yet there are so very few. In some things one hears you can fancy you are among people of the early ages. Perhaps these are reborn again and are from the time of the Barbarians. Surely never before in the age of Christianity have the people said such things that we hear today.
Sunday 7th February.
A great day all over Europe for peace – in the Catholic churches of course. I do not hear much of the Protestant.
I hear today from a lady that she had a letter from a nephew in England, a German, and he says that only two thirds of the Germans are prisoners and that the remainder are free. I wonder if this is true. At the time of Arthur’s arrest the papers here said that even people up to sixty years of age were imprisoned in England and that their wives and children were in dreadful poverty.
