by Jacqueline Ashland, Westring 48, 63691 Ranstadt, Germany

     My memories of World War II are both a combination of sadness, and of bitter sweet memories of our struggles for survival and ultimate peace. On September 1939, Hitler declared war on France.  The city that I was born and lived in for all of my life, was now under siege.  

Strasbourg, which lies on the French side of the Rhein River, bordering Germany, was a strategic gateway to the South for Hitler's Third Reich expansion plans.

 

    Before the Germans arrived, we were evacuated to central France.  Some of us went to Bordeaux, others to the Loire Valley.  Most of the people of Strasbourg went to Chateauraix.  I was thirteen-years old and went to school in this non-industrial city.  In 1940, on a beautiful Summer day, I passed my final exam.  The tranquility and safety that we felt was soon disrupted, as strafing low flying airplanes and bombs destroyed the town's railroad station.  The enemy was searching for the airport and missed its target. On this day, without any forewarning, more than 100 innocent victims were killed. All were buried in a common grave and at 14:00, the Mayor solemnly hung the white flag on the top roof of the railroad station.  At this site, workers were waiting to catch the region train on a Friday afternoon to return to their families in the country.  They never saw their loved ones again.

    As Hitler's troops continued Southward, Chateauraix capitulated.  The bombing stopped and two days later the streets were quiet, almost as if the city had never existed.  While most families hid inside their homes, my mother who spoke fluent German and understood the German customs, decided to go out and confront the occupying forces.  It was then that a soldier passing by greeted her in German.  She responded and a few hours later, he returned with an assortment of food and beverages to combat our hunger.  

    Since Paris was surrounded, we were ready to go back to our homeland - Alsace.  The city officials of Chateauraix called the Alsatians together and transported us in cattle trains back to Strasbourg.  Before the train departed, stones were thrown against the trains, because some of the Alsatian women became too close to the German soldiers. Those who had affairs with the enemies had their hair shaved  and considered traitors to France -  a stigma which would remain with them long after the war was over. As we entered Strasbourg, the city was a ghost town and we were welcomed with with abandoned buildings and empty stores.

    Germany occupied France until 1944.  Because my two brothers refused to conscripted in the German Army, they escaped before they would be forced to fight against their countrymen.  My oldest brother, who later became the Chief Editor of Le Monde in Paris, went in exile to Switzerland.  From there he traveled to England and assisted De Gaulle build the Liberation Army or the Resistance Movement.  My other brother, who changed his name, went to work in Marseilles, where he started a new life and eventually after the war introduced one of the most successful Import/Export distributions.  The Gestapo interrogated my mother on my brothers whereabouts, but she refused to let out any information, which surely would have jeopardized their existence.  My Aunt in Switzerland (Zurich) wrote us that the "surgery" (secret code) of my brothers were successful, so we knew that they were safe.  

     My father was less fortunate, as he was taken Prison of War for 13 months at the Stuthof Concentration Camp in Alsace.  

    As the war continued and the French Resistance grew stronger, French nationalism strengthened.  German collaborators were shot by the Resistance.  Since I spoke English fluently in German-occupied Alsace, I was forced to work in the Perdrix Werke, the German Telephone factory. As the Americans liberated Alsace, bombs were dropped on the factory and we hid in the bunker in the basement.  A water pipe broke and we were lucky not to have drowned.  Others were not as lucky, as my sister-in-law lost both of her parents who sought shelter, which was bombed and all were killed.

    How did we survive the Nazi tyranny?  We survived through perseverance that one day the Liberators and the Allies would save us and that peace would prevail. These are just a few of my experiences and memories of a past, which I pray is never repeated.  

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