Nuremberg, 1945 – Karin’s Story

Five-year old Karin clung to her mother. For warmth and for security. They had slept in their clothes every night and kept a bag packed. They’d already made this run to the bomb shelter 20-30 other times when the sirens went off starting in 1944, and knew they had ten minutes from the time of the siren to get to the shelter. But tonight was different. There would be no returning to their apartment.

The bombings in Nuremberg started on January 2, 1945, and lasted for three days. During that time, Karin and her mother remained hunkered down in their tiny space in an alcove built into the walls of the watchtower which was their shelter. The watchtowers were built with three-foot concrete walls and could withstand the bombings.

“We were lucky as we had a cot to share, but when the bombs went off, the tower would sway,” Karin told me. Every day, Karin’s mother would sneak out and look for food and water for the two of them. When they finally emerged, they discovered that 90% of the old city had been destroyed, including their apartment. Immediately, Karin and her mother boarded a train for the 125-mile ride to the home of Karin’s great-grandparents in the country who had a garden house where they stayed.

In late April, 1945, Karin’s mother received a notice. They had two weeks to return to Nuremberg if they wanted to live there. Unfortunately, the trains had been destroyed by this time so they walked. For ten days, mother and daughter walked the 125 miles through war-torn Germany back to Nuremberg to start their life again.

With assistance, they settled into an apartment outside the old city. “We were so poor but I didn’t know it. We had an outhouse and only a bucket of water for the kitchen. My mother and I would have to carry buckets of coal for the stove.”

Karin had a younger brother who had been sent to live with other relatives in the country as a toddler prior to the bombing, then stayed with their grandparents, and didn’t return until the 5^th grade. She never knew her father as he died in the war.

Whenever I travel, I try to find a person who can give me a story beyond what the slick brochures and marketing materials tell me. On the first night of a recent river cruise that started in Nuremberg, Germany, I met Wilhelmine Gertraud Karin, known as Karin, who was born in Nuremberg in 1939.  Karin was traveling with her daughter, Christie, and we enjoyed their company every evening at dinner. As I listened and pieced her story together, I had to learn more so she let me interview her.

By the time she was born, her father was already in the army. Just weeks later at the end of 1939, her grandfather and his two brothers were overheard in a neighborhood bar talking about their concerns with the direction Hitler was leading their country. Before they could leave the bar, the Gestapo came in and they were immediately sent to Dachau which was used for political prisoners in addition to a concentration camp. Her grandfather was sent to the Russian front to fight, and returned three years later. His two brothers were never seen or heard from again.    

As an infant, her mother had to leave her at home alone in a bassinette and go to work in a nearby doctor’s office. He allowed her to go home every two hours to check on her.

I asked if she had pleasant memories of her childhood and her face lit up with a big smile. As life returned to normal, when her brother returned, the two of them would take the streetcar every Friday to spend the night with their grandparents. “We would listen to the Top 10 German songs on the radio, then play the board game, Aggravation. Every Friday night. The next morning, our grandfather gave each of us money for the movie and ride back home.”

By the time she finished 8^th grade, she entered a vocational program in accounting and sales, eventually working in a department store, but soon after, her mother married an American GI and the family relocated to Ft. Monroe, Virginia when she was 19. Her first job in her new land was as an operating room technician. “The Director of Nursing was a WAC and she spoke German. That’s partly how I learned the new language. But I had a one-hour bus ride to and from work and I’d read True Romance. At first, I could read about every fifth word, but it got easier and that helped me.”   

Eventually, she married and had three children who gave her six grandchildren, and she enjoyed a successful career in real estate, working until she was 83. She was an active tennis player, then pickleball, and now enjoys cards, including bridge and poker. She has traveled extensively and this trip with her daughter was special as she showed Christie the street where she grew up and gave her an insight into her childhood. It was evident the two enjoy a very tender and loving bond.  In December, she is returning to Germany, taking her three granddaughters with her. It’s hard to imagine a more energetic 86-year-old.

Did she ever hold any resentment toward the US?  “No, but the older Germans did. And when my mother was dating an American, she was called awful names as was I, as her daughter.”

So what message would she like to give others? She didn’t hesitate. “You can go through anything and accomplish whatever you want to do.”   She considers herself driven, resilient, independent and optimistic.

I challenge all of us to consider these attributes when we need a little boost of our own. And imagine if we’d have the fortitude Karin, her mother, and others had to survive the brutalities of the war.