Spare time, school & work

I’ll tell you what happened when we were allowed to play outside. We’d play for example soccer between the barracks or sometimes chess. When we were outside the orphanage we like to keep everything as normal – as if everything was still OK. I would go to the school every day which had  a normal timetable. But that achieved nothing. I learned nothing there. Children of all ages sat in the same class. The school is easy to describe; a simple barrack with a blackboard in the centre of the room, no chairs – we all had to sit on the floorboards. The school hours varied. Teachers came & went due to deportation to the East. Sometimes we had to work. i.e.  at potato harvests. We were fed – but it was never sufficient. We were always hungry. Some children knew where the kitchen was – to steal food from.  The favourite was chicken. Naturally chicken was not intended for us but for the guards.

Children on their way from the orphange to school
(B1)