Chiltern Welcomes

Anneliese's Story

Upper Silesia

Anneliese was born 1935 in Upper Silesia, then part of Germany but later part of Poland. She was one of 4 siblings. In January 1945, they fled their home as the Russian army were approaching Germany. They went by train to Breslow, leaving almost all their possessions at home. They were taken to a small mountain village in the back of an open food lorry. With temperatures down to -20 degrees, they nearly froze to death.

They stayed 3 weeks in a farmer’s house. The following month, as they were travelling by train from the village, hundreds of planes flew overhead, endlessly dropping bombs on Dresden. A plane machine-gunned the train, killing the driver. The children hid under the seats and they waited hours for a new engine.

Bohemia

When they arrived in Bohemia, nobody wanted to host their family with 5 children. Her distraught mother was given one room with no heating, and one double bed. Amazingly, the family’s paternal grandfather lived nearby. Anneliese's brother sent a card which arrived the same day as her father, having fled from defending their home. To their surprise, her father walked to where they were staying.

They moved into another small flat, but when the Czechs came, the Germans were expelled. They were forced into a local camp. At Christmas, they were given hardly anything to eat. Anneliese remembers begging at a restaurant on Christmas day and being given a small container of soup that the whole family shared.

The following summer, the Czechs prepared a train to send those in the camp out of the region to what later became East Germany. They were made to shower and be disinfected so they didn’t bring any diseases to Germany. The family were reunited with their father who had a flat and worked as an engineer.

In the late 50s Anneliese’s brother-in-law was forced to spy for the state by the Gestapo. Anneliese was a teacher, and was forced to teach Marxism and Leninism, including that there is no God. As a Christian, this was problematic for her.

West Germany

In 1960, Anneliese’s family prepared to leave East Germany even though it was forbidden. They defied close monitoring to escape to Hanover, sending their possessions to friends and family through different post offices and travelling separately to reduce suspicion.

England

Anneliese met her future husband, a British man called John, at a teachers’ conference in 1964. Annelise and John got married in Germany and moved to England the following year. They bought their first flat in Bushey Heath using refugee funds the West German government gave Anneliese’s family. This was to compensate them for having been forced to flee their homes twice.

Annelise and John finally settled in Amersham in 1970 after spending some years abroad due to John’s work. Amersham has been her home ever since.