Sitting with an ancient and tiny Russian lady...She is quite blind, and wears big, cushiony slippers on her feet. She talks about the war, all the while smoothing a paper tissue onto the head of her walking stick. I wish I could remember every word she said, and how she said it.

- Tell us, Mama, is it true? her kids would ask, after watching some war movie on TV...Is it true, what they say about the war?

- It is true! she said, nodding her head. - It makes me so mad, she says to me.....when Australians complain. We are so lucky in this country! I say to them, you are so lucky. You have never been hungry! When I walked with my kids, and I saw bread that someone had thrown on the ground, I would say: If you ever see bread that someone has thrown away, pick it up and bring it home. No, you don't have to eat it, but you can bring it home, cut it up into little squares, and put it out for the birds to eat...So they did that...

I was only seventeen. My Mama would look out the window, and I would ask, What is it, Mama? She would say: I cannot tell you now, but I will tell you soon, when you are old enough...One day soon. Because she knew what was coming.

- What was it like when they dropped the bombs, my kids would ask...

-They would fly over, they would circle, and they would look at their maps, then they would open up underneath the plane, and they would drop the bombs, just like that. I would get the people in my building down into the shelter. First, I would go to the fourth floor. It was hard. They were old, and it was dark. They had to feel their way. When I got them all own there, they would ask me: Will we be okay? I would tell them, We will be okay! but what did I know? I was only seventeen. Then Hitler sent all of the young people to Germany, and he sent the German young people to Russia. I did not want to go. I knew if I went, I would never see my mother and father again...

- Did you see your mother and father again?

This time she whispers...- No, I never saw my mother and father again.

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3Hilda Berg and 2 others

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