World War II

A CHILDHOOD IN NAZI GERMANY

BRIGITTE SCHREIBER WAS BORN IN 1927 and grew up in Nazi Germany, living in the city of Paderborn with her parents and three siblings until late in the war. Life during the war, she learned, required constantly mastering new skills, including learning to not speak your mind, keeping watch for low-flying Spitfires, and whipping up breakfast for hungry American tankers. After the war, Brigitte met and married a British soldier, Jack Hayward, himself a veteran of Dunkirk and D-Day, and moved to England. Now 91, she lives in Maidstone, Kent.

Was there talk about politics at home when you were a child?

No, not very much. My father was a furniture maker and worked for a firm in Paderborn, but when that went bust

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