Bullenhuser Damm School - Place of Execution E-Book

Jurgen Ehlers

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 19

Beschreibung

WARNING This is not a children's book. Even though children are central to the story. In April 1945, 20 children were hanged at Bullenhuser Damm School in Hamburg. Who could do such a thing?

Leseprobe

Bullenhuser Damm School - Place of Execution

Bullenhuser Damm School - Place of ExecutionCopyright

Bullenhuser Damm School - Place of Execution

There it was. The school. It still looked just the way he had remembered it. The sturdy building had survived the British air raids on Hamburg almost unscathed. Unlike the surrounding area. The districts of Rothenburgsort, Hammerbrook and Billbrook had been razed to the ground. When there was no longer need for a school, the SS had requisitioned the building. The last time Alfred Trzebinski had been here was in April 1945. So much had happened since then. The war was over. And now, five months later, life was almost back to normal.

Most of the time, Alfred did not think about what had happened here. The school stood empty. No one had repaired the damaged roof, but someone would surely do that soon. The sun was shining. And there was no trace of what had happened here in the spring. Still, Alfred hated the building. It looked like a barracks.

Alfred dismissed the thought. It was just a normal school. Like any other school. It was he who wasn’t normal. No, that was stupid. He shouldn’t have come here.

He was about to leave when he spotted the relief on the side of the annexe. Playing children, young boys and girls, and the girl on the left looked just like Maria.

No, this was too much. He couldn’t bear it. He picked up a stone and hurled it at the girl but missed. His second throw also went wide. The third stone crashed through the adjacent window.

“Oi, what do you think you’re doing?” It was the caretaker.

“You can’t throw stones here! This is a school, a public building! Go on, clear off!”

Alfred did not move. He recognised the man. It was still the same caretaker. “I broke the window,” he said.

The caretaker put on his glasses. Now he recognised Alfred. “Oh, it’s you, the doctor!”

“Sorry about the window.”

The man shook his head.

Alfred told him he had aimed at the relief. “The girl,” he said. “She looks just like ...”

The caretaker interrupted him. “Let bygones be bygones,” he said. “We had orders, and they had to be followed. You can’t change what happened. And it won’t help if you keep on ruminating on it. I don’t think about that day anymore either.”

“You weren’t there,” said Alfred.