Diary of Annie's War

by Annie Droege

  Two motor cars went from this hotel on the morning of the 23rd to the Russian field. They were a sight to see. Everywhere was fur. Shoes, cap, cover, jacket, gloves all were fur and the motors were the latest in comfort. They were for service. But they also took packets of cigars etc. to the soldiers from their friends.

  Saturday 21st November.

  Belle got a letter from the police so she went to see them. But on saying that her husband had done his military service they decided that she was a German. You take your husband’s nationality here. We were thankful to hear it.

  At this time it was reported that the women were to be imprisoned. I went to the bank one day and saw the manager. He told me to prepare as he was afraid it would come to me. I was not at all upset. I began to think that it would not be so lonely with someone to speak English to. Then we heard that two neutral gentlemen were to go to England and see how the people were treated there and to see if the women and children were imprisoned in England. There were some awful stories told of the cruelty of the English and the things said in the papers were dreadful.

  Everything was the English. They spoke of the poor Russian, the gallant Frenchman, but it was the beast of the Englishman. One day a man turned to me, after reading something in the paper to the detriment of the English and said: ‘Your husband is an Englander is he not?’

  I said: ‘He is just the same as your Kaiser - a German father and an English mother’.

  He walked off. In such times I wonder where my adaptability has gone to. Some of the people were kind and others not. The bitterness was terrible.

  In the schools the children asked not to have English lessons. The people who could speak English remarked they would try to forget it and would never speak it again. These were the better classes and middle aged people. You can imagine the outspoken feelings of the commoner classes. The Kaiser himself, in addressing the troops, said only the Bayerns were fit to meet the English in war as they were so cruel. In them the English would meet their masters.

  There was a great talk of the dum-dum bullet being used by the English (these were soft point bullets that expanded on impact causing bigger wounds. In 1898 the German government had successfully campaigned for them to be banned for violating the laws of war). In fact it said in the paper that English soldiers had been taken prisoners with the bullets on them. If it is true then England deserves to lose. For that is not warfare.

  Sunday 22nd November.

  There was a great deal of talk about the women being taken prisoners. I thought I had better make enquiries. I asked first at the police and they said it all depended on England. If they found, after the visit of the two neutral men, that women were imprisoned in England then we should be also in Germany. I went down to the bank on this information and asked Herr Mejerhof what he thought of it. His advice was to get everything ready as he thought it very likely that the German women in England had been ordered to leave the principal towns and ports. I got several things together and bought some thick clothing.

  However there was a very good report from England and for a time we are at rest.

  Thursday 26th November.

  We had a telephone message from Steinoff. All well at the Gut but he reported that George Machareensuar, the coachman, had been killed in France. I was sorry for we were fond of him. He had been three years at Woltershausen with us. So many young men fell about this time. Kort v.d. Busch was killed on the 28th of October and was buried on the 9th November in Hannover. His father was fighting in the same district and was able to put his son’s body in a coffin and send it to his mother for burial. He was eighteen years of age.

  Tuesday 1st December.

  There is a notice in the paper to be very careful with flour and not to buy sweet cakes and fine bread. We are to buy brown bread and then the flour will last longer.

  I wrote to Arthur today and Belle copied it in German for I have been told I was not allowed English.

  I often wish for a line from England as we get no news whatsoever. Emily said, when here, that she had a letter from her sister Lena and things were very bad in England. I can think they are for in business centres here all is at a standstill. In Arthur’s last postcard he wrote me he has written to Herr M. Mourrough in Lincoln, and also to my brother-in-law Bob Whittaker. He had asked the latter to send him his birth certificate and our marriage lines. I hope the postcards arrive safely.

  I sent a postcard to my brother on the 2nd of November but I doubt if it got to Holland. The post officials are getting much stricter.

  Friday 4th December.

  We hear that Belgrade has fallen. With what losses we have not yet heard.

  I sent a postcard to Arthur and a letter to Emily. Belle also wrote to Arthur. I got a postcard by the evening post from Arthur. It had been posted on the 28th of November and he seems well.

  Today I met Stoffegan in the street and I hope to go to Woltershausen next week.

  Belle has written me a note to the General Commander.

  Saturday 5th December.

  Sent a parcel to Arthur and had a visit from Miss Dora Marhgraf who promised to come and have a chat tomorrow. I also wrote to Emily.

  Monday 7th December.

  I had a long talk with Miss Marhgraf yesterday. She has just come from India and was in London on the 8th of November. She promised to visit the Plunketts for me. They are some Irish people I heard of who are in difficulties - a couple with a little child. I would go and visit them but I am not allowed out of Hildesheim.

  I sent today a big box of cakes to Arthur from ‘Lehans’.

  Today they announce the fall of Lódz and the capture of two thousand Russians.

  During the month of November the Germans took captive of eighty-five thousand Russians.

  I visited the Police President and asked permission to go to Woltershausen. Rosie v.d. Busch went with me. We had a chat together and she said that there were over eight thousand soldiers yet in Hildesheim. Over forty-six thousand men have gone from here as soldiers. That means, of course, the men who have passed through the barracks.

  There is a very fine regiment here – the 79 (Gibraltar) and it consists of twelve hundred men besides officers. These are regular men. The conscripts who have only served two years are not counted as regular soldiers. This fine regiment left here the first day of mobilisation and on the 1st of November. Three months after the war was declared. Not one man of that regiment who went out was still in the field. All were killed or wounded. Of course the regiment is constantly filled up by conscripts and they are all fine and willing. It is dreadful to think of it.

  Tuesday 8th December.

  I have just got permission to go to Woltershausen for a day.

  Had a postcard direct from England from L. Lloyd and it has come right through and is stamped “Prisoner of War”.

  I also received a long letter from Emily Durselen and she speaks of taking the children to England in January. I feel nervous over their safety but they say the crossing is safe enough. A lot can happen before January.

  I had a chat with a young lady today. She had a letter from the field from her brother and she read it to me. It was too sad. Of the three thousand men who went into battle the day Lódz fell only six hundred came back. The most of them were from here.

  It is very distressing to go now in the streets and see the wounded. I cry every time I go out.

  Every place is a lazarett - churches, picture galleries, dancing rooms, all big rooms in the hotels - and every hospital is cram full.

  It is really dreadful to meet young men without both legs. Some have both eyes shot out and others have wounds innumerable. But the worst of all is the people who go mad. Some men go mad after being in battle and some wives go mad when they hear their husband has been killed. The asylum here is full up. Two came in last week, not at all wounded; only gone mad with what they had seen. What must it be like in the towns nearer the front? We are right inland and the worst cases cannot travel this far.

&
nbsp; Wednesday 9th December.

  I have been to see the children and poor people at the Krankenhaus. The children are fed each day at noon for a halfpenny each and the men and women for one penny. It is a splendid work. I got some books of tickets and they will be given to the poor children. People buy these tickets in books and give them to deserving cases. They are fed by the Nuns and it is splendid work.

  We read today that the people say that the prisoners in Ruhleben are all well treated and they get plenty to eat and are comfortable. But they get no luxuries. I wonder what Arthur’s opinion is.

  Friday11thDecember.

  Been today to the Gut at Woltershausen and every thing is well. Belle and I had a miserable walk but it cleared up after nine o’clock. Hermenia came to the station.

  We heard that the Germans had lost four ships. We very seldom hear of a reverse so it rather astonished us.

  Saturday 12th December.

  I had a bad bout of neuralgia but sent the last box to Arthur. He had written during the week thanking me for the parcel from Belle. He never noticed it was from her and I am afraid he has got me into trouble with the police. All parcels from me must go through them. They will think I have sent one unknown to them.

  Dr. Kahn also called and he says he has an allowance to go and visit Arthur. So in that case he goes to Berlin next week. I heard a lot today of the deceitful chatter in Woltershausen.

  Sunday 13th December.

  Been today to dinner with the Peligeaus and afterwards for coffee at Carole Osthaus’. We drew linen for the soldiers because wadding is scarce. The town is very full because people are here from the land to visit their men in the army. Two thousand more are to go away next week into Russia.

  The Landstorm was called up last Thursday. Those born in 1876 and those being up to nineteen years old in that year must present themselves for military duty.

  Wednesday 16th December.

  I had a letter from Arthur thanking me for parcels.

  Herr Pastor Gatsemire called this morning and I asked him to say two Masses for George (the coachman). It was so sad for he told me the account of his death after only eight days in the field.

  Frau Gatsemire also came from Woltershausen and I had a long talk to her. She informed me that England had to answer for every drop of blood lost in this dreadful war.

  Arthur writes me he has had a postcard from Belle and that his papers have left England.

  We have had quite lovely spring weather. Until this day it has rained every day.

  Today a lot of young men came in to commence their training. I met an officer this morning, a friend of v.d. Busch’s and he is just recovering from shock. It’s too sad to see him. He is a fine handsome officer of thirty-six-years-old and now he is just like a child in intellect. He was with eight officers, in a group, when the shot came and they all lay in pieces around him. He is not at all injured but keeps looking for his friends. I see him often as he passes here many times a day with his wife, mother and sister. His home is here.

  The Hildesheim regiment 79 has had a deal of losses.

  The news is very quiet this past eight days so I expect Germany is losing. Nothing is in the papers, only hate for England. I did hear that the Serbians had retaken Belgrade but it was not in the papers. Also that England has promised a lot of money to Portugal if she will go to war with Turkey. One has a deal to stand these days.

  Thursday 17th December.

  Hermenia came to see me and had dinner. We heard that the Germans had bombarded England, Scarborough and Hartlepool, with a loss of life of over one hundred killed and three hundred injured. Also that they have sunk two English undersea boats and that the flags are flying for the victory of Poland. It is reported that Poland is quite taken by the Germans and that the battle is a historical one with such a wonderful piece of generalship.

  The school children have a holiday to celebrate the bombardment of England.

  Sunday 20th December.

  We heard of a great loss of English soldiers at Nieuport. Over six hundred lay dead in the field and one-thousand eight-hundred taken prisoner. The Germans report no losses.

  The people are very busy getting ready for Christmas for the government has asked the people to make it as like Christmas as they can for the children. The shops are lovely. On Sunday they are opened from twelve o’clock in the morning until eight o’clock at night. So many people are here from the land and it is amusing, as well as sad, to see the people drive in. Many of them have a couple of milk cows instead of a horse. They collect their parcels and then drive off. Quite a lot of wagons were in the street and the cows were mooing all together.

  Every house has sorrow. One girl I met today was going to visit her uncle for Christmas. He has had three sons killed in one week in France. Another was on a ship sent out to South Africa in October and never heard of since. All four sons are gone and all were between the age of twenty and twenty-eight.

  I asked at the bank over the transfer of money to Holland for the children and Emily to get back to England. I was told the transfer is very high – ten for a hundred. I had better trust to changing little there.

  I have been to pay a few calls but I am better at home. The people are so bitter against us.

  Thursday 24th December.

  I was able to go to confession. Belle knew a Dean of the Cathedral who could speak English and it was arranged for me to visit him.

  We sent a parcel to the Plunketts in Hannover and one to Arthur in Ruhleben. Belle and I were very busy until quite late. I got an allowance from the police to stay out a little later than eight o’clock but I was not allowed to travel past the limit.

  Christmas Day 1914.

  I spent with Belle and Fraulein Vich. We had dinner and a cup of tea at the Marienhaus then went to see Fraulein Osthaus for supper.

  Saturday 26th December.

  Fraulein Osthaus, Belle and Fraulein Vich came to me for dinner and on Sunday Belle and I went to Frau v. Bruchausen to dinner. She had her daughter on a visit from Dresden and her husband has been in the field since the first week of the war. In the evening we went to Fraulein Vich and had some nice music.

  Monday 28th December.

  I received a letter from Hannover saying Mrs. Plunkett was going to England but not the Captain. Also one from California from Frank and he seems to have no idea of what the war means to us.

  Wednesday 30th December.

  I received a postcard from Arthur asking for a few things. I have sent twenty-five pounds to Emily for her journey and expect to hear she leaves today for England.

  New Year’s Eve.

  We spent it as usual. Belle and I went for a walk in the morning - after my early visit to the police. We got a paper from America, which was just a month old, and it was a great pleasure. We went to the Dom for evening service and it was a very fine service. After church Carole Osthaus, Belle and I went to Marienhaus and had a glass of wine and a cake. I was home for ten o’clock.

  New Year’s Day 1915.

  I dined at Peligeaus and we had a nice quiet time. I thank God that the holidays are over and I dare not even think of former Christmases and New Years.

  Saturday 2nd January.

  Belle and I heard of an English ship being wrecked, the Formidable, but the reports were confusing. One said a mine and one an undersea boat. Both stated that seven hundred lives were lost.

  Belle wrote to Arthur and I went to the bank. They told me there that they had written to Herr Unquhart on November 26th telling him that there was no exchange of money between the two countries. Therefore he could have no cash sent to California until peace was declared.

  Sunday 3rd January.

  I had a visit from a Frau Gube. She is the daughter of an English professor and married to a German. Therefore she is not English. Her brother is in Ruhleben but he is to come home next week and go in the army having become naturalised.

  I had notice today to get my photo ready for the 6th to take to the police as all mus
t have them ready for the passports. The police have decided that we must each have one at once. I do not know for what reason.

  We heard today that if the war lasts two months longer we shall have a famine.

  I wonder why they do not write to me from home?

  Monday 4th January.

  I had a postcard from Emily saying herself and the children were in Köln on Saturday. Something over the passports to England I expect.

  I also got a postcard from Arthur and he remarked that Herr Allorn was free (having naturalised) and he expected he had been to see me. And that I had received his message. Herr Allorn had not called here so Belle and I went to seek him. We never had such a cool reception. He told us nothing and said Arthur had only sent me greetings. He could not give us any idea of any further comforts we could send him and he never answered our questions ever. It is my opinion he has been jolly well frightened. Belle was very much astonished at our result. He goes directly into the army.

  I had a visit from a lady here who is expecting her brother to become free. He goes directly into the army as soon as he is naturalised. He is thirty-four-years-old. She wishes he had stayed in Ruhleben. I am not sorry that Arthur is there now.