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E S S E N 1 9 4 8
People were very anti-German
In 1948 I wanted to return to Germany, to Essen. I wanted to see it one more time. I was running a course for English students as a representative of Cambridge University. They were supposed to be meeting with German students to teach them about democracy.
The first night I was terribly afraid. I was in a sort of delusion: nothing’s changed! Then I saw policemen in shabby uniforms and they had long hair. We searched for our old house in Essen. A bomb had exploded right in front of the house and the whole house had collapsed. The wallpaper of my parents’ bedroom was flapping in the wind.
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Charles Hannam with his parents Max and Gertrud Hirschland and his sister Margot on holiday
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