Diary of Annie's War

by Annie Droege

  Arthur came home and we talked the matter over. I suggested we telephoned for the police officer at Lamspringe to come at once and hear the details of the case. I felt afraid when I knew we were taken for spies. Among such people, and in war time, it was not a very nice position. Also we must remember that the nearest police station was four-and-a-half miles away and the house stands alone.

  The principal thing was that these people who had made the accusation were workers at the Kali mines and were in a position to get explosives. I told Arthur there was nothing to prevent them getting what they wanted and then putting the articles in our house. It would be serious if they were found.

  Arthur telephoned the police and a very smart officer was with us in half an hour. He was so very thoughtful and kind. He remarked that it was his duty to protect us and we could rely on him doing his best, but he had a deal to do. He had heard we had many Socialists in our village and at once put it down to them - which proved true.

  He got at the man who had spoken to Arthur and it appeared the same man had been called up that morning to his military and that had not pleased him. The officer went into various pubs in the village and said if we had any annoyance he would make the parties pay for it. I do not think it made any impression. At six o’clock Louise the cook went home to sleep, but Johanna decided to sleep in her own room. We were not a very happy household that night.

  Thursday 6th August.

  We were up very early for Arthur had to take ‘Moor’ to Alfeld and he was to take George with him. I might say I was not pleased at the prospect of being alone in the place without a man. We had heard the previous evening that the people had said they would stone us the first time they met us in the streets.

  I also remembered that the people knew that Arthur was going to Alfeld, for several others from the village had to go also. I did not feel any better when Arthur came into the room and remarked: ‘They have cut the telephone wire in the night and we cannot telephone’.

  That showed, I thought, that they were not going to be afraid of the police. We scarcely knew what to do. Arthur and George had to go away early. Emily, I and the children would have felt a little more secure knowing we could telephone to the police. However, Steinoff came in from the fields before Arthur went away and he went up to the public house in the village. He telephoned from there to the general post of in Lamspringe and told them of what had happened.

  It proved to be a great blessing in disguise. In about half an hour an official from the post office came and he raved and stormed all over the place. I heard that in the village he had quite frightened the people by telling them what lay in wait for the people who had done it. After him came the police officer. He went to the mayor and written notices were issued asking the people to give all information. The telephone was not ‘Herr Dröege’s’ but it was ‘The Kaiser’s’ and the man who had cut it was an enemy of the government. The telephone official had remarked in the village that the man who had done it would be shot at once. No one told us who it was. The police officer remarked that now that had happened he would have to come each night and walk for so long round the house.

  Arthur came home about half past five and all was in order. He had had a talk with the magistrate in Alfeld and he said he should send a notice to six villages around Woltershausen warning the people not to molest us as we were peaceful. We were told that the telephone would be on night and day for us and we felt a little more secure. George also went into the village in the evening and said the talk had stopped.

  Friday 7th August.

  Many of the men went away. Among them the man Rutt who had charged us with having bombs.

  We got a postcard from James Walmsley saying they had not got away. In fact the boat that had set out on the Saturday before war was declared on the Tuesday had been turned back and they were still in Hamburg.

  The succeeding days brought us no peace as everything in the papers was against the English, and the talk was awful. We had to keep the children in the garden and did not often go out ourselves. George offered himself for the war, he had the age to go in October, and there was not much work for him with the horse gone.

  We were very glad of news. We only saw one paper and it did not give us consolation.

  On the following Sunday we walked to church and found that Pastor Gatsemire had returned. He was on holiday when the war broke out. He was in Spain when the news reached him. A ship at once set out for Hamburg and he said if they had been four hours later it would have been too late to get away. They passed a ship that had struck a mine that same morning - the first sea loss we read of. They had to have a special pilot who knew where the mines were laid. He had a very exciting twenty-four hours on the sea and we were very glad to have him back.

  After a week or so we got a train, put on early in the morning, but the service was dreadful. The telephone and telegraph also were held up so many hours a day. Each day we got a postcard from James telling us of how he was fixed. We mentioned his case to the police official but he said not to send for him to stay at Woltershausen. Arthur telephoned to Hildesheim and told the head waiter at Weiner Hof that he had advised James to come there. The head waiter replied that it was not safe as they had a deal of trouble with two Americans who were there. The people were suspicious and the police had been to see them. He strongly advised James to stay in a large town. Arthur wrote to that effect.

  It was a difficult matter writing to James for we did not want to tell him too much of our unpleasantness. At last he wrote us he had got decent lodgings and he was staying in Hamburg. At this time James’ postcards were all we lived on for we had no other news. Each day brought us anxiety and so we went on for a couple of weeks.

  Monday 10th August.

  James’ postcards to his father and to Fr. Blundell were returned. He had sent them on Sunday the 2nd. I received also a letter back sent to Mrs. Hopkins also posted on the 2nd. The one written to father and one to Mrs. Ralphs never returned. I often wonder if they got them.

  We were very glad during those days that we had the children and Emily though we spent all our time in the garden having no trains to go anywhere and the horse gone away. We had to walk to Mass each Sunday for we could not borrow an animal. All had gone to the war with the exception of very old working horses.

  Thursday 20th August.

  We got a letter from Herr Steffen in Limburg to say there was no business doing and that if he could get a train he should come to stay with us and so fulfil a long promised visit. It was almost two weeks before he could travel. We had several letters and telegrams announcing his arrival and then - ‘No Trains Tomorrow’.

  Wednesday 26th August.

  Arthur went to Hildesheim for a train went through our station in the morning. He scarcely knew when he would return but he said: ‘Surely before dark’. We went down the road at eight o’clock and waited almost an hour. Then we returned home. Emily and I were very nervous but still hoped that nothing had happened. Arthur came home a little after twelve o’clock and he had to cycle from Hildesheim. I resolved to go with him next time. The journey was better than the anxiety at home.

  Tuesday 1st September 1914.

  The cook left us. Emily and I were kept busy in the kitchen for some weeks after this. George the coachman had gone into the army on the 26th of August so we were a little less in the house. Johanna was a great help and we could get a woman from the village when necessary. We managed very well. I think Emily and I were pleased to have something to do. We had less time to worry.

  Sunday 5th September.

  Herr Steffen came, and we were glad to see him. He said he had come for a long stay as the war had stopped their trade. I was glad for Arthur’s sake.

  We had a card from James and he had a plan for getting away. We had heard that the route through Holland was opened so we wished him luck. The next morning there came a paper cutting from Mrs. Durselen saying that a number of English people had been arrested on the borders of Holland. The
y were trying to get away and had been imprisoned. We were very anxious over James for a few days. But at last came a card from Holland and we felt surer of him then getting home.

  Things were getting quieter in our village but we heard rumours of a deal of talk against the English in the other villages. Each night we took more care of the doors. Emily and the children slept on the third floor and constantly said that they saw lights and heard people in the garden.

  Herr Steffen also said that he heard people at his end of the house once or twice, but we never did. Several times Emily came downstairs and said there were people in the shrubbery, but we never saw them. However on the night of the 9th of September, the Wednesday after Herr Steffen came, I was fast asleep also Arthur. I heard a knock at our room door. I heard Emily saying: ‘Get up at once. There are people smashing windows and bursting in doors’.

  Arthur was up in a minute and we went to the door of Herr Steffen’s room. He was asleep. Though we could hear the glass crashing and the banging of the door, he never heard it. He at once jumped up and we all made our way into Arthur’s room. The people were in front of the house and we could hear their voices. Herr Steffen asked Arthur if his gun was loaded. Arthur said, ‘only his revolver’.

  We were in the dark for we did not want the people to locate the room we were in. In fact, I do not think they had any idea we were up. Now, from the time of the telephone affair, we had been given permission to shoot any one who came on our premises to annoy us.

  In fact it was given out at church that if Herr Droege had been annoyed then he must shoot anyone who came in his grounds for an unlawful purpose. It was just a month that night since the telephone was cut. Herr Steffen made no bother over shooting anyone. He just took up the revolver and saw that the six chambers were full. He then opened the window and asked: ‘What are you doing there?’

  The reply came: ‘Come out and we will kill you’.

  ‘Oh yes’, said Herr Steffen and fired at once. They could not see exactly where he was for there are fifteen windows on that side of the house and we had no lights on in the place. He fired five times and then Arthur told him to keep one bullet in readiness. We waited, but no more noises were heard.

  Arthur opened a window in his room and we could see the Steinoffs were up. So I called to them. They were afraid at first for they thought that the shots came from the garden but they felt safer when they knew they were from the house. We then had a good look around but could not see anyone. Emily, I and the children were in Arthur’s room and the men went round the gardens and grounds. About a quarter of an hour later Steinoff’s servant said she could hear men talking on the Harlainsen road. We came to the conclusion that they had gone there.

  We telephoned the police and a reply came that the officer would come up in a short time. It was just a quarter to two when Emily awoke us and the officer got there at three. We were very disappointed to find it was a stranger. The officer we had over the telephone affair was a far smarter man.

  The new officer heard our tale and said that he would cycle around and come again early in the daylight. He had the impression that it had been a few men out of the village. It was the reason that the dogs did not bark. That was a strange affair. I cannot yet understand it. Arthur had bought an English Retriever, a very well bred animal, and he was asleep in Arthur’s room. In the farmyard was Dolar, a very good watchdog of Steinoff’s, and by our door was Valder in his kennel. Not one of our animals had barked. It was only when the noise was over that we thought of them. They had to be brought out of their kennels. Lord, in the house, quietly walked about but never seemed to really waken up. It was a thing that surprised us all.

  When we were quiet enough for a talk it seemed that both Emily and Marjorie had seen the men come in the garden. Emily said she had been awakened by a loud crash. She got up and went to the window to look out. She saw two or three men by the private gate and when they found it locked they went to the gate leading into the farmyard. This they placed open and then went to the little garden gate leading to our house from the farmyard. We had put a spring on this door so it would close. They then carefully unhooked the spring. One went to the door and commenced to bang on it and the two others commenced to throw stones at the windows.

  We gathered over sixty stones the next morning and a few had gone through the window into the room where they first attacked. They had not cared to face the revolver and had soon cleared off. It was strange, but I had never really felt afraid. I think it is only when you are not sure of danger that you get nervous. I had felt much more nervous on the Wednesday when war was declared than I did when the men were smashing the windows. I knew this night what we had to face. I felt there was danger unknown.

  As soon as the firing and stone throwing ceased I laughed to myself. It was the picture we made. Emily, the children and I were all standing in Arthur’s room in our nightgowns and bare feet. Johanna ditto but she had put a dress on. Arthur and Herr Steffen had been in nightshirts and socks when running about with a gun and a revolver. It was a little funny to me. But no one else saw that side of the picture. I do not mean the occasion was a thing to laugh at. It was the figures we cut that made me laugh.

  The children were terrified and it was a long time before they forgot it. One day they presented us with a piece of poetry they had written about the night. I am sorry it was put on the fire.

  The police never found the men but I do not think it is any one out of our village. We heard afterwards that the same thing happened the first week of the war to a couple living in Bad Salzdetfurth. The shock had killed the wife of the man. They were French people but he had been naturalised a German and had been in the employ of the railway for over seventeen years. All their windows were broken in the night but the police never found the persons. And that house stood on a street. We came to the conclusion that the people came either from Sehlem or Salzdetfurth, two villages four and six miles away, but it is only our opinion. We never went to bed without the men having loaded guns.

  After this we were very quiet and very busy for the fruit was ripe. We could not hire help to get it in.

  Herr Steffen’s niece came the Monday following and stayed two weeks so we were very merry once more. The three young people in the house kept us alive.

  The three children did a deal of work in the garden gathering (and eating) fruit. For three or four weeks Arthur and ‘Uncle George’, as we all called Herr Steffen, were very busy. Once in this time Arthur and Emily and again, Arthur and Herr Steffen and I, went into Hildesheim but it took us four and a half hours to get home. We were not anxious to go often. Theresa Steffen was with us for two weeks and then she returned to her grandmother in Hildesheim to await Herr Steffen going home.

  About the middle of September we found there would be no going home this side of Christmas. It was decided to send the children to school. Many had remarked over their not going to school in the village and a child is not allowed to reside in a place more than six weeks without schooling. We wrote to Mrs. Graeinghoff and asked her to find a school for the children. Arthur and I thought of a boarding school but it was not possible. After a lot of trouble on the part of Mrs. Graeinghoff it was decided to send them to a private school and let Emily stay with them in a pension. It was very good of Emily to offer to do so. She could have gone to stay with her cousins in Elberfeldt – but she thought of the children.

  Wednesday 23rd September.

  We heard of the three English boats being sunk, the Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy. It was reported here that though it only happened at seven o’clock most of the men saved had only their night clothes on, and were asleep at the time. We said it was strange for men to be asleep at seven o’clock during war time.

  Sunday 27th September.

  We heard that a German flyer had thrown a bomb at the Eiffel Tower. We also heard of all the German victories in Belgium.

  We got a letter from Johanna Pulmann (a cousin of Arthur) asking us if we had any news of England. She
was very upset over her married daughter in London. She also wrote us that cousin Franceska, who we had visited in Brussels last November, has had to flee from her home. They had received no news of Franceska or her daughter-in-law for two weeks and then heard they had arrived in Holland.

  Both their homes had been destroyed. Cousin Franceska’s three sons were in the war for Germany and had been called up a week before the entry of Brussels. I suppose this fact had annoyed the Belgians. We were very thankful to find they were safe for we had often thought of them.

  During the month of October we lived very quietly at Woltershausen. ‘Uncle George’ and Arthur were very busy with the garden and fruit. I had enough to do with the cook being away.

  We heard of many German victories also of the English ship ‘The Hawk‘ sinking a German boat.

  Tuesday 29th September.

  Arthur and I went with the children to Hildesheim on a very early train, a quarter to six, and we had coffee in Hildesheim. We walked round and did some shopping for the children and paid a visit to Frau v.d. Busch. After dinner we saw the children and Emily on a train for Elberfeldt where they were to stay the night and then they were to go on to Königswinter. We saw a lot of soldiers going off to France and many fine horses. The men were very lively and sang their songs all the time they were in the station. We caught a train half an hour after them but it took us almost four hours to get home.