Ariel was fast asleep in the bed they shared, but Adina knew that the sewing machine would not disturb her. It was a family joke that the other girl could sleep through anything. Even so, Adina wondered if her mother might let her use Dovid’s room. She hadn’t dared to ask her yet for fear of upsetting her, but it would certainly make sense. The room was so cold that Adina could see her breath hanging on the air in front of her, but even so she sat down at the machine and within minutes was busily treadling as she put the finishing touches to Beryl’s dress. It was a lovely shade of blue in a heavy satin, and Adina knew that Beryl had saved her clothing coupons for months to buy the material, so she wanted to make an especially good job of it.
At last she held it up to examine it and sighed with satisfaction. She was sure that Beryl would be pleased with it, and now at last she could wash and get ready for bed. It wasn’t until she was tucked in at the side of her sister that she recalled her encounter with Karl. He was a nice man, but she knew that it would be foolish to meet him, so, turning on her side, she snuggled deeper into the bed and tried to put all thoughts of him out of her mind.
Chapter Nine
On Sunday afternoon, Adina set off for a walk after dinner and before she knew it she was within sight of the gates of Astley Hall where she saw Karl waiting for her as he stamped his feet and blew into his hands to try and keep warm. She had no idea what had led her there, as she had promised herself that she wasn’t going to come. But she was here now and she knew that he had seen her, so she had no choice but to join him.
‘I wasn’t sure that you would come,’ he told her as she approached, and she bit her lip guiltily. She briefly wondered if perhaps he could read her mind and had realised that she had had no intention of keeping their date.
Taking her elbow, he led her away from the gates where some of the local girls were laughing and chatting with other men from the camp. Once more they strolled along Arbury Road before taking the lane that led down to Seeswood Pool. The sky overhead was a curious grey colour, and as they turned to walk around the edge of the lake the first flakes of snow began to fall.
‘Come on, we can shelter under those trees.’ Briskly, he led her towards them. Once there they settled down to sit on the carpet of fallen pine needles, and Adina wrapped her arms about her knees as she stared out across the vast expanse of water. It was so quiet that all that could be heard was the sound of the birds in the trees and she felt herself beginning to relax.
‘So tell me,’ she said after a while. ‘How did you come to be here?’
Karl sighed as memories flooded back.
‘When I was captured, to be truthful it was almost a relief. I never wanted to be part of this terrible war in the first place, but back in Bremen, I and other young men my age had no choice. When I was taken captive I was held at gunpoint whilst the injured were loaded into jeeps, and then I and the rest of the men were placed upon cross-country trucks. As we travelled through the villages people shouted obscenities at us and threw stones.’
Adina saw the frown on his forehead as he remembered but he seemed willing to continue so she let him go on.
‘GI’s in steel helmets and leather-padded vests walked in front of us and we just had to protect ourselves by ducking down in the trucks as best we could. Eventually we got to the coast near Dieppe. It was a terrible sight. Everything was flattened but soon I saw an enormous barbed-wire enclosure and I guessed that we must be nearing the camp. There was not a plant to be seen anywhere, the endless tramp of soldiers’ boots had turned the whole area into a sea of mud, and streams of prisoners were lined up outside. The noise of the nearby surf made it difficult to hear anything else and I couldn’t at that point envisage just how enormous the camp was. Later I was to discover that there were more than a hundred thousand prisoners of war already incarcerated there.’ He ran a hand across his eyes.
‘Once I got inside I saw that there were enormous tents full of straw erected on the side of the hillside. I was led to a separate area where tea was being made beneath a roughly constructed metal roof on open fires in huge tin kettles. We were each given a mug.’ He grimaced as he remembered. ‘It was very sweet and finished off with condensed milk, but we were all very thirsty so we drank it. Then we were given a white loaf of bread to share amongst four of us. There was a round tent with a pointed roof where the injured were treated. Prisoners with severe injuries were transported from there to military hospitals outside the camp. The rest of us bedded down in the ordinary tents and I remember wondering that first night if I would ever get away from there. It was a frightening experience . . .
‘The next morning we were led to a deep trench that an American construction crew had dug out with a large bulldozer. This too was covered by a corrugated roof, and this was to be our latrine. All along the side of it were sacks full of chlorinated lime that would be thrown into the trench to cover the contents and mask the smell – not that it was too successful. We were then led to yet another shed where we were all treated with DDT powder for vermin. Infection was rife.’
Karl glanced at Adina, suddenly embarrassed to have mentioned such things in front of a lady, but Adina was a good listener and didn’t appear to have taken offence so he went on, ‘Our main diet consisted of pea soup cooked in jerry cans with bits of bacon floating in it, although we also sometimes got milk soup made from condensed milk, oatmeal, and for a real treat a handful of raisins. Within weeks of being there, the death count had reached four hundred, and many more were fatally ill. It was whilst I was there that I met Hans, a former schoolfriend of mine from Bremen who had been called up after me, and it was he who was able to tell me that my grandparents had been killed and almost the whole of the residential area of Bremen had been flattened during a raid.’
Here Karl paused and bowed his head. He took a shuddering breath before continuing. ‘The worst thing I remember about that camp was the cold. It seemed to seep into your bones, and the sound of the waves pounding on the beach day and night became like a torture. Even so, things could have been worse and the guards were decent to us. In fact, many of the prisoners soon realised that gold wedding bands could be exchanged for treats . . . cigarettes and such, and they took full advantage of the fact. Within a few months, I and some other camp inmates were selected for transportation to England and within twenty-four hours we were taken to Dieppe Harbour and loaded into a boat. We set sail for Folkestone and I don’t mind admitting I was sick all the way.’ He grinned at her ruefully. ‘Once there we travelled in a passenger train to the stadium at Wimbledon where we were again deloused and given a medical. We were then each assigned a registration number and everything of our own that we had managed to hang on to was confiscated. I was told that I was to go to POW Camp 196 in Nuneaton. Next they herded us all into lorries and we were taken to an area where military personnel were waiting for us. They demanded our pay books and identity discs, and officials filled in extensive forms on our behalf before searching us to make sure that we had given up all our personal possessions, although I was allowed to keep my wallet containing my family photos.’
‘Oh, Karl,’ Adina interrupted with tears in her eyes. ‘It must have been so awful for you.’
‘No more so than for anyone else,’ he answered stoically. ‘Do you want me to go on?’
She nodded numbly and so he continued. ‘Next we were sent across a large sports field to a barracks where we were issued with two sets of underwear, socks and an English military uniform which was covered with brightly coloured patches. We also got a German military coat and a duffel bag each, but we were not allowed to keep any of our own clothes apart from our shoes. Finally we were given a toothbrush, a clothes brush and a piece of soap and a towel. Before we knew it we were then placed on another train with a British officer in charge who had a list of prisoners he was responsible for during the journey. Everything had happened so fast that I barely had time to take it all in. We travelled through the night with the officer continually doing a head
-count to make sure that none of us had escaped, although where he thought we might go, I have no idea.’
Karl grinned at her. ‘Once we arrived in Nuneaton we were shepherded onto a coach and soon I got my first glimpse of Astley Hall. I saw that we were in what appeared to be a large park, with Nissen huts dotted all about. Later, I was to find that there are at least two thousand five hundred prisoners stationed there at any one time. The British Commandant and his staff stay in the Hall itself along with a number of American officers, but you probably already know that?’
When Adina nodded he resumed, ‘We were issued with a palliasse and two blankets and then I was installed in one of the Nissen huts. They are incredibly ugly buildings that sleep up to twenty-four men, but after being used to sleeping in a tent it felt quite luxurious. We were allowed to fill the palliasses with wheat straw and then we had to choose our beds. Two rows of bunk beds are set against the walls on either side of the hut, and it made sense for the taller of the men to take the top ones. Before we retired for our first night here we were then each given a tin bowl full of strong milk soup from the camp kitchen. When we had finished that we were served with strong sweet tea from the same bowl and I was so hungry by then that I don’t think a meal has ever tasted so good. It revived our flagging spirits and now we were ready to settle down for our first night’s sleep in our new home. In the middle of each hut is a small cast-iron stove; its vent leads vertically out through the roof. Of course, we are only allowed enough coal to use it when it is very cold, so the rest of the time we rely on wood we can find lying about. The only other furniture in each hut, apart from the bunk beds, is two small tables and some long benches. I slept like a log the first night here, completely exhausted from my long journey but the next morning when I emerged from the hut I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in beautifully maintained gardens. We have contests amongst ourselves to see which group can keep the area around their hut the tidiest.’
‘And who does your laundry?’ Adina asked.
He chuckled. ‘We have washing rooms with cold running water in long half-cylindrical channels. We wash our socks and our second set of underwear there once a week and we can boil our linen in our jerry cans on the cylindrical stove in the huts. Mind you, with twenty-four of us queuing up to do it, that doesn’t get to happen too often.’
Adina wrinkled her nose in distaste. She had thought she was hard done by, having to leave her beautiful home back in Cologne, but compared to what Karl was forced to endure, her living quarters at the back of the little shop in Edmund Street suddenly seemed quite luxurious.
‘There’s also a larger barracks in the grounds that serves as a medical station and a church,’ he went on, aware that Adina was listening to him raptly. ‘And opposite the main camp entrance is the kitchen hut and this is manned purely by prisoners of war. Every six months a British military dentist visits us, and if anyone needs a tooth removing he will pull it out, outside in the open. Thankfully, I have not needed that service yet and pray that I never will.’ There was a twinkle in his eye and Adina found herself smiling with him.
‘We have a weekly roll call in front of our respective barracks, so that the British officers can check to see that we are all still present and correct. If the weather is bad we each have to stand beside our bed whilst he does the head-count.
‘No later than twilight each evening, a trumpet call will finish the day, and then a British Corporal checks whether all the lights have been switched off. In the morning at seven o’clock the trumpeter blows the Reveille signal again.’
Adina sighed at the picture he had conjured up. She had been so intent on listening to him that she was shocked to see that the field in front of them was slowly turning white and the snow was coming down faster than ever.
‘Goodness, I could listen to you all day, but I think we ought to be heading back,’ she said.
He nodded in agreement as he rose and held his hand out to her. She took it and he helped her to her feet but then he stood aside and did not offer to touch her again as they made their way across the field.
‘Everywhere looks so pretty with the snow coming down, doesn’t it?’ she commented.
‘It does . . . but not as pretty as you.’ Karl immediately looked as if he could have bitten his tongue off when Adina became embarrassed. ‘I’m so sorry, I should not have said that,’ he apologised.
By the time they reached the gates to the Hall, the pavements were white over.
‘Will you be all right walking home alone?’ Karl asked considerately. ‘I would be quite happy to accompany you.’
‘You’d better not,’ Adina answered, and again he looked uncomfortable. She was a Jewish girl and he could just imagine the gossip that would be spread if she were to be seen walking with him.
‘I er . . . I’ve enjoyed talking to you very much,’ she told him shyly, and he clicked his heels together and bowed from the waist.
‘The pleasure has been all mine, I assure you, Fräulein,’ he answered. ‘Perhaps we could do the same again. Shall we say at the same time next week?’
Uncertainly flitted across her face. ‘I’m not sure – but if I can make it I will.’
And with that she turned and walked sedately away as Karl watched her go with a troubled look on his face.
Chapter Ten
‘Ah, bubbeleh, here you are,’ Freyde said as Adina entered the kitchen some time later. ‘Wherever have you been in such weather? Look at you, you are covered with snow and no doubt will have caught a chill.’
‘I’m fine, I just fancied a walk,’ Adina replied guiltily as she took off her coat and hung it on a clothes-horse to dry.
‘Well, come and sit by the fire and let me get you some hot soup,’ her mother fussed.
Ariel was sitting cross-legged on the hearthrug with her nose stuck in a book, and she was so engrossed in it that she didn’t even appear to have noticed that Adina had come into the room. Miss Millington had allowed her to bring it home from school and they had barely heard a peep out of her all weekend. The book was Heidi, and Adina could understand why she loved it so much as it had been one of her own particular favourites when she was a child.
Her father, as was usual for this time of day, was reading the newspaper, and as she sat down he glanced at her across the top of his glasses and commented, ‘The RAF made their first bombing raid on Berlin today.’ He shook his head in disgust. ‘The Germans are evil, the whole lot of them, and one day, God willing, they will get their comeuppance – each and every last one of them.’
Adina felt colour seep into her cheeks as she thought of Karl. ‘Papa, like our boys, many of them may not even want to be in the war,’ she said quietly.
‘Huh! I doubt that very much.’ His hatred of the enemy was loud in his voice. ‘They are a wicked race and nothing you say could convince me otherwise.’
Realising that it would be pointless to try and persuade him otherwise, Adina took the cup of soup her mother held out to her and sipped it in silence.
That night as she lay in bed listening to the sounds of her parents’ snores coming through the thin wall, Adina’s mind was in turmoil. Since living in England she had been asked out by quite a few English boys. It had been easy to refuse them as none of them had particularly appealed to her. Adina knew that her parents would never accept her marrying someone of another faith. But there was something about Karl . . . she tried to put her finger on exactly what it was but could come up with no answer. He was ridiculously good-looking, of course, but it was something more than that which attracted her to him. He seemed like a very kind and caring person and had behaved like a perfect gentleman whenever she was in his presence. It appeared that he had been forced to join the war and hated what was happening as much as she did. So why should he be pilloried for being born in Germany? He had lost his grandparents, just as they had lost their Zayda and Bubba, and the pain in his expression when he spoke to her about them had been plain to see.
Even now,
her mother was hounding the Red Cross to try and find what had become of her son. Freyde flatly refused to believe that he was dead, preferring to hope that he was in a prisoner of war camp somewhere, and Adina prayed daily that she was right, although as time went on her hopes were dying.
Snuggling further down into her blankets she tried to empty her mind and lay there waiting for sleep to claim her.
‘Tye has proposed?’ Adina said in astonishment the next evening as she sat with Beryl in the girl’s bedroom.
‘Yep!’ Beryl looked like the cat that had got the cream. ‘He asked me last night when he dropped me off. I can hardly believe it an’ next weekend he’s takin’ me shoppin’ to buy me a ring.’
‘Why, that’s wonderful. I’m really happy for you, but I have to say it’s unexpected.’
Beryl giggled. ‘Well, let’s just say Tye is a redblooded man and I made it clear that if he wants any hanky-panky he has to put a ring on me finger first, know what I mean?’
Adina gulped. ‘Yes, I think I do, but where will you live when you get married?’
‘To tell the truth we ain’t talked about that yet, but no doubt I’ll go back to America with him when this bloody war is finally over.’
‘Oh.’ Adina lowered her eyes. She was happy for her friend but knew that she would miss her when she left.
‘Don’t look like that,’ Beryl said with a bright smile. ‘You’ll be able to come an’ see us. We won’t lose touch, I promise.’
‘And what do your parents think about it?’
‘I ain’t actually got round to tellin’ ’em yet,’ Beryl admitted. ‘But I reckon they’ll be pleased. If truth be told, they’ll most likely be glad to see the back o’ me.’
‘And are you going to have an engagement party?’ Adina now asked.
Beryl shook her head. ‘I very much doubt it. As Tye pointed out, wi’ rationin’ the way it is I doubt we’d be able to get our hands on enough food. Me mam queued up for two hours yesterday for a bit o’ beef, an’ when she finally got served it were scarcely big enough to make one good meal for us all. An’ she was one o’ the lucky ones! Not long after she’d been served they ran out o’ meat altogether an’ a lot o’ people went away empty-handed. I tell you, it’s goin’ from bad to worse, though Tye keeps us supplied wi’ sugar an’ coffee.’
A Band of Steel Page 8
