Fred Kendal - May 25, 1983
Life at the Start of the War
When the war began and the Germans came in um, was there any, was there any talk about it happening before, before it actually occurred?
Uh, that the fears that they will...
Yeah. Was there a fear that they were going to invade or was there any...
Uh, I guess we didn't know--as far as I know, I don't think--maybe some people knew. As far as--I don't remember a talk of that nature, you know. The only thing I do remember is that--what stands out in, in--as a child, we never--I never saw airplane. And when the Germans invaded and it was the first time um, we saw airplanes and, and it was just fascinating to see those airplanes flying over, over the town. Yeah, that--and it's just--okay, go ahead.
When um, you said you decided to go to the farm--to your uncle's--to your grandfather's farm...
The family somehow--now my grandfather, you have to understand was--or maybe it was the European way of--but the grandfather--well my grandfather he was like the greatest person in the world and when he said something, I mean, people listened, okay. And I guess--I don't know whose idea it was and I wanted to say that was his idea but I don't know, you know, but I--knowing my grandfather, it was probably his idea. He thought it would be safer to have the family at the farm. So, no matter where they lived, they assemble to grandpa's farm, you know and so, my aunts that were living away in different cities and ourselves and uncles, we all assembled into ??? was the name of the town--of the farm. It was--I remember it was one long street and there were farmer--farm house or something on either side. Well, it wasn't like--it was like a one long street--all it was, yeah.
When the Germans came in, did you leave before they came to ??? Or they...
I would want to say yes. I would want to say they will because I think we left when we heard that the war broke out between the Germans and the Russians because when the Russians started retreating, we were already in ??? we were already in the farm...
Okay
...you see. We saw the Russians retreat and either a day or two later, the German trucks started coming through. So yes, we were already there.
Okay. So you're--did you have any, any types or school or anything when you're on the farm? Was there any?
Nope.
Okay.
No, not, not there.
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