Cotching Up with Uwe Timm: Recollections of a Wartime Child
"Subsequently, the military personnel arrived and tapped on the entrance"
Uwe Timm, renowned author and eyewitness to history, shares his memories of World War II as a youngster in Hamburg. In an exclusive interview with ntv.de, the 85-year-old delves into the shocking experiences of the war's finale and the arrival of the Yanks.
Scorched Earth Memories
"One of my earliest vivid recollections is being three years old, bundled in wet cloth, pushed through the Osterstraße," memories Timm. "Trees burned on both sides, and there were little flames everywhere. People were terrified, and death was everywhere."
The family's apartment was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1943. Luckily, Timm's father, who was with the air force, was not home. "He could estimate from the radio news that it was a big attack. He got everyone out of the apartments early. A firebomb fell on our house and burned immediately. People grabbed whatever they could before it was incinerated." A saved table and some porcelain figures from the wreckage can still be found in Timm's home.
Like Swords to Plowshares
The end of the war found Timm and his family in Coburg, where they were evacuated. "American soldiers were initially a terror to us," confesses Timm. "We'd been told horrible things about them, and we didn't understand their language. But they behaved correctly, never taking it out on the locals."
Timm remembers as a child feeling both relief and trepidation as the invading forces stormed his town. "The GIs came jumping out of their tanks, and we thought they'd kill us all. But they simply swept aside the barricades and found no resistance."
Wary of Veitmeier
The local Nazi leader, Veitmeier, was the source of particular fear during the occupation. "Veitmeier was a feared man before the Americans arrived," Timm recalls. "He remained in the streets, cowering when the Americans drove by, even in the rain." The proud Nazi was reduced to street sweeping and was openly mocked by the victorious GIs.
A New Dawn
Timm believes that Germany was not truly liberated until the arrival of the Americans. "The Nazis had been glossing over their atrocities, even after the war ended. People still had Nazis as teachers who denied the horrors of the Holocaust. The day the Americans came was a relief, a liberation."
Fifteen years after the end of the war, the author was horrified to discover that former judges who had handed down death sentences during the Nazi regime were once again in power. "It was unbelievable that people could go back to their old ways, glossing over the war crimes committed during the Nazi era."
Once again, the tragic irony of history has come to light, as Germany, once a symbol of the Axis powers, now finds itself a divided nation once more, torn between old and new alliances. As Timm reflects on the past, he ponders the future of the country he calls home.
Volker Petersen interviewed Uwe Timm
Topics: World War II, History, Germany, Liberation, American Forces, Nazis
Insights:
- Uwe Timm, a five-year-old boy during World War II, had vivid memories of bombing raids and the arrival of American troops in Coburg, Germany, in 1945.
- Arriving American soldiers brought a mix of feelings - relief, fear, and confusion - as people were left to pick up the pieces after the war's end.
- The local Nazi leader, Veitmeier, was reduced to street sweeping and was mockingly if unintentionally chastised by the victorious American forces.
- Timm believes that the true end of the Nazi era did not come until the arrival of American troops, who marked the beginning of the occupation and transition for German citizens.
- Former judges who handed down death sentences during the Nazi regime reemerged in power just fifteen years after the war, a tragic reminder that the memory of atrocities committed during the Nazi era was suppressed in post-war Germany.
- The European Union, echoing the divided nation of post-war Germany, finds itself once more a split entity, as it navigates old and new alliances.
- In the bustling streets of Coburg, a street sweeper named Veitmeier, once a feared local Nazi leader, cowered in the rain as the victorious American forces passed by, a stark change from his former glory.
- Amidst the ruins of his family's apartment, Timm, then a young boy, cherished the remains of a table and some porcelain figures, symbols of a life pre-war and a time he wished he could return to.
- The European Parliament, much like German citizens in the era of Uwe Timm, experienced a sense of relief and relief as the era of a glossed-over war history began to unravel, revealing the grotesque truths of the past.
