Diary of Annie's War (26 page)

We have news that our baker is to close. He has done something that is forbidden so his place is closed for an uncertain time. He has been given six days to bake up all his flour and then lock up. It is announced in the papers that it is because he is not dependable. A butcher opposite was done the same about three months ago and is to be allowed to re-open next week. He told a woman that he had no meat and she had a card and money. After that she saw another woman go in and get a parcel. She reported the fact and his punishment for not serving the one that came in first was three months closed shop – rather stiff.

Got permission to visit Arthur on the 22
^nd
September so I will be in Berlin from the 18
^th
or 19
^th
. It is a pleasure to look forward to. One gets so few of these in war time.

No further news of the exchange of prisoners or the confiscation of goods.

This week we are told that no more sugar is to be obtained until the end of October and one has not been able to save much out of half a pound per person per week. We are allowed (on cards of course) a small packet of saccharine every two weeks – twenty small tablets per person.

We read that all church bells in Vienna are to be melted down for bullets. It will come here soon.

We expect to hear everyday of the arrival of the
Deutschland
, the marvellous underwater boat that got to America. The
Bremen
, the second one, has not yet been announced as arrived and all the people are anxious about it.

The harvest promises to be good but the weather on this date is very cold. Many towns are worse than Hildesheim as regards food, and some a bit better. So we now hear that a set rule is to be made direct from the government and that every town and village is to be served alike.

We read that in England white bread is nine pence for a four pound loaf. That is the price for a dark loaf here and white bread costs one shilling and three pence for four pounds.

Here bacon is six shillings and sixpence a pound when you can get it. One man offered ten shillings a pound for a ham and was refused because it had fat. It was fourteen pounds in weight so you can reckon what that ham would cost. Sugar is four-and-a- half pence a pound, meat is three shillings a pound (with bone) and steak is three shillings and four pence, potatoes are one-and-a-half pence a pound and a cabbage for five people is five pence. Soap is three shillings and three pence and soft soap is three shillings and no more will be made (government orders). We are told that next month is to be the worst during the war for the scarcity of food.

Great celebrations today for it is announced that the
Deutschland
, the wonderful undersea boat, has returned to Germany. No more does Britain rule the waves as she has nothing to come up to that.

I have no great war news other than the usual German announcement that the enemy is sent back on all fronts and of the usual English and Russian advance made on the frontier. One does not understand half of what is in the papers.

I intend getting a rabbit for a pet so have spoken for one. I hope that I can keep it alive. I have been told that two is far better than one.

I have been to the estate today and had trouble about my potatoes. I do hope that Arthur lets the place before next year as it will be better for all.

We have been told that we must take a census of all our stock and must announce everything we have in the house above one pound weight in the eating line so that they will have an idea of how long this stock will last us. The census is to take place on the 1
^st
of September and anyone falsifying will get one year imprisonment and a fine of twenty pounds. I think very few people have a stock of anything.

There is a deal in the papers about this exchange of prisoners over forty-five-years-old and Herr Voight has written to his wife that they expect that Herr Dröege will be exchanged. If so it will be soon so one does not know how long this uncertainty will last. Perhaps I shall be amongst my own before Christmas.

They are all concerned about this food census, because the rain has increased these last few days and it is bad for the harvest.

We are told also that during the month of September we are to receive papers to fill up stating how much money each person has invested in foreign countries. It is not for taxation but to get at the amount of German money there is in foreign lands. I told Belle that I thought it a sign of peace much more eloquent than lectures. But one must wait and see.

I got news of likelihood to clear out and Mrs. Voight is thinking of taking an etage (a floor) as she is sick of hotel life. I shall be glad to hear of what Arthur thinks about it all.

We are all earnestly requested to take all our old gold ornaments to the town hall and we shall be given the market price for it. A lady of my acquaintance took a lot of old family jewellery, gold watches, chains, broaches and got sixteen pounds for them. She was very pleased at the price besides feeling that she was helping the Fatherland.

The children are to go from house to house and beg old bottles, jars, rags, paper or anything at all in the lumber line and for a certain monies worth, gathered by one school, will get a free holiday for a whole day. Every child has been gathering cherry, plum, apricot and peach stones for they contain oil. When the children gather a certain weight they are taken to the school and prizes or a holiday given. They have it so finely reckoned that every twenty-eight cherry stones give half a tea spoonful of oil (pure). You can imagine the amount of stones gathered.

A friend of ours has had her son missing for a long time but has now heard that he is in Siberia. He has now written home for a grammar book as he is learning Russian and Polish.

Another friend, Frau Pestorrous, got a parcel yesterday and on opening it out fell her only son’s watch, scapular and rosary. In the next post she got a letter to announce his death and one also from Luni (her son). He was just one day at the front when shot in the head.

One ceases to wonder at the sad things we hear daily and only wonders how the relatives manage to live through it all. I know numerous families personally who have lost every male member of the entire family. Five or six cousins of the one name fell in a month. The family completely died out for not one had married.

We read startling news today. Italy declares war on Germany and Romania declares war on Austria. Everyone is astonished. The news from Romania was so favourable last week. We had a telegram last night that the first Romanian prisoners had been taken. I wonder if it will prolong or end the war.

The weather has been very wet and cold this past two weeks and it is bad for the potatoes and most of the corn is ripe.

Had a letter from Arthur to say that he is full of hope that he is to be released and that he has to go to England. I expect that he will write instructions to me. I do not know how to arrange it and would like someone to speak to about it. Perhaps the exchange will not take place before my visit of the 22
^nd
of September.

They make light here of the two new war declarations, but thoughtful people say that there are many people with money in Romania and it will be serious from that point of view. It will also be serious in the fact of food buying. Some even say that Germany had no need to declare war on them at all.

Every day we are having rain and I think that it will be bad for the potatoes for the earth is so very cold and wet for August.

We have had many surprises last month and I wonder if this month will bring the same amount. The people say that Greece and Denmark are very unsettled.

I went to Hannover yesterday having got police permission. In one shop a man came in and after asking for several things which he was not able to obtain. He remarked: ‘Now all our prayers must be that Holland and the Swiss remain neutral or we shall be in a fix. In fact I think it is over with us’.

Different people have different ideas but most are very downhearted about Romania. Another remarked: ‘I wish they would end the war by coming in. And I don’t care which way at all’.

Frau Voight says that her husband has written to her and says that the exchange of prisoners has already commenced and that Arthur is writing instructions to me. I do hope all is in order for his exchange. I still hope he will be there for me to see on the 22
^nd
. I wonder if they would allow that I visited earlier if it should be by chance that he goes home.

Things look very bad for the winter.

Arthur says that he has every hope of exchanges and wants to wait in Holland for me to join him. That’s awkward as I have much to arrange first. I go to Berlin on the 20
^th
so it is not too long to wait now.

The fifth war loan is in force and they say it is not going very well.

I had a letter from Willie and it was written on April 1
^st
so it had taken five months and ten days to come here. It came from America and all were well when it was written and it is my latest news from home.

Soldiers go away each day and there is a big talk of a great offensive to be made on the English in Flanders. Hindenburg has been made General Field Marshal and has gone to France.

The people here talk a lot of a new forced war loan. It appears that this 5
^th
war loan is not going so well. So they say. After it is closed up there will come the forced loan and everyone must pay into it. You will be forced to do so. I myself cannot see it, but am told it is to be so.

Great scandal is talked here about Romania. It appears that a great deal of fodder for the cattle was bought there a few days before the declaration of war and it has all been found to be poisoned. Cattle are dying off and it is also said that a box of pudding powders was also poisoned. I can only think that it is gossip. It is very dangerous talk and the people are so very angry about it. What a dreadful thing it will be if it is all lies for I can scarcely credit it being true.

One gets such dreadful things in the papers these days and this last visit of the Zeppelins to England has been terrible according to our papers. I wonder if they have really done such damage.

We read also that in England boys of seventeen-years-old are not called up into the military service and also those over forty years of age. It makes me wonder so much about them all at home as news is so very scarce.

The Romanian poisoning is found now not to be true. Perhaps it was put in the papers to give the people something to talk about.

Arthur has written and given me an address to stay at in Berlin. I will go there on Wednesday the 20
^th
and visit him on Friday afternoon. I have such a lot to tell him and two hours is not half long enough for me.

We had news from the Kaiser today and he himself has telegraphed that the Romanians have had a dreadful beating though it has resulted in the loss of Prince Frederick William of Hesse. The people here are so very hard of belief now and they say that this telegram has been published to let the people have more faith in the news. It is because they do not believe the official notes. Also it is a lift to the new war loan for it is not being paid up as it should be. The people are more interested in the food question because the weather is so bad for the harvest. The potatoes up to now are not good and we have not heard the result of the corn harvest.

It has been publicly announced that all people must have electric light in their houses for there will be no oil this year. Electric or gas must be put in so we must put the Steinoffs a light in the place. In most villages there is electric power for threshing, so now the people must have the light in their houses and barns. That is where this land has an advantage as they do not need coal for gas and power.

Most of the electric works are driven by the water power, so it is a very great saving of coal and Germany has not so many gas works as England. Germany has gone straight from petroleum lamps to electric light. Here in Hildesheim there are few homes with gas and all are lamps or electric. People cook, iron and wash all with electric.

The new time is to be changed on the 1st of October because now it is not so light in the mornings and it is too cold for the children to go to school at seven o’clock when it is really only six o’clock. These past few weeks it has been cold and wet and is real autumn weather.

It is announced today that next week we get tickets, on application from the town hall, for sugar for preserving and we are to have a pound a head. We can’t do much with that. It is impossible to buy a pound of jam at present and the last that was sold was all sorts mixed up together. It was half turnips and now I cannot even get that. Fruit is there in plenty, but no sugar. Plums are plentiful so we eat stewed fruit. I did buy the saccharine but it was dreadful to use and tastes awful. We are told that there are three hundred chickens to be sold today at one-and-a-half pounds weight and are to cost five shillings and sixpence each and are sold by the government. Eggs are four pence each and you get two per week and most always I eat my half a quarter of butter in two days so I am five days without. It is not at all pleasant.

I have had nice fruit from the estate this week and have got permission from the government to have my potatoes from the estate also. That is a blessing.

I travelled to Berlin on the 20
^th
of this month and saw Arthur in Ruhleben on the 22
^nd
. We had only a short stay but pleasant. We came home on the 23
^rd
. I found him looking very well but he has not much faith in the exchange of prisoners. He believes there will be no exchange now until all are exchanged. If he is sent home then I shall have to go also. The uncertainty is awfully unpleasant. The visit did not make such a bad impression this time as I knew what to expect, so it was not so bad. Arthur gave me some butter and soap and I was very thankful for it. I wonder why they do not send him some from home.