Resistance

Past

Sigrid helped the younger girls to get ready in the morning, and generally she did as much as she could. She learned quickly that the older women who were supposed to take care of all of them were a lot nicer to her when she just did what was asked of her without questions. After a few weeks, she started to wonder what was happening outside the walls of the house. Sometimes a soldier came into the children’s home when they found another child who was wandering the streets alone. They did not speak German.

When she heard the other language which she could only place as Russian she knew that the Familie Stuhrmann must have left Latvia. All Germans probably left. Since she was little everyone kept talking and whispering about the threat which were the Russians. She remembered the illustrations in the German newspapers which tried to depict how horrible the Soviet Union was and how great Germany is. Sigrid asked herself if Germany really was all that great.

Of course, a German family took her in and taught her their language, and they kept her safe. But will she ever forget that night when she hid in the cupboard and the distinctly German-speaking soldiers took her parents away? Apart from that thought she knew that she has never heard a positive thing about the country which seems to have pushed Germany out of Latvia.

A couple of weeks later one of the older women made the children learn Russian. Sigrid did not want to learn another language. In particular not a language which belongs to a country which has done absolutely nothing good for her home. If they had not invaded her country she might already be able to live back in her house. She came up with excuses, e.g. that she had to clean a room or that she needed to take care of the youngest children. They let her be because they needed the help. Though, slowly it became obvious that they were not happy about her not learning Russian.

They started telling her that she needed to learn it to survive, but she only thought that if she learned that language too she would completely give up her culture and everything that is important to her. She kept thinking that Latvian was the only thing that helped her through the days.

Outside it was getting colder again and snow was falling. She knew that that meant that it would be her birthday soon. In the lunchroom hung a calendar she always wanted to check the date since she kind of lost track of time. That easily happened because every day was the same. When she served the food to the younger children she saw that her birthday was only a week away. At first, she got excited, but then she remembered that there was not anyone who would celebrate her new year with her.

Sigrid did not know that that birthday would throw her life upside down another time.