Patrizia Schween interviews her 85 – year – old grandfather

P.:  Where and how did you spend your childhood? Tell us about a normal day.

G.: I grew up in a well-ordered household together with my parents and my two sisters up to the beginning of World War II. We usually had to get up at 6.30 a.m., school started at 8:00 und finished at 1:30 p.m. Then I went home for lunch. Our father arrived later – he was a miner. After the meal, we did our homework. During spring and summer, the children had to help in the garden with orchards and potatoes and then our day was almost over. We sometimes had time to play football in the school yard.

At that time we all thought to have too little leisure time, but today I would say that there was an equilibrium between free time and duties.

P.: Do you have other memories of your childhood?

G.: I have several good and some bad ones. First the good ones: I grew up with parents who appreciated us children und who educated us well. As a bad memory I recall the fact that our house was situated between two schools and that is why I could constantly be supervised.

P.: If you compare your free time as a youth and that of the young today.

G.: Well, TV, which is very important today, did not exist. Our parents had a radio and that was all; radio was the only source of entertainment. Apart from that we played games or we children did sports.

P.: Do you see a difference in the way of children’s education then and now?

G.: It seems to me that nowadays children are educated more freely. We in our childhood would not have noticed this because it was normal for children to obey adults and follow our parents who were in control. We had to fulfil our duties without questioning them. We followed a common pattern and thus never judged our education in a negative way.

P.: Give an example of such ‘duties’ or of your parents’ expectations.

G.: I was expected to hand in good school reports. Our written papers had to be signed by them. Above all, I had to be an applicant scholar. After the first four years at primary school I attended a Grammar school for the following 9 years, from Sexta, Quinta, Quarta to Oberprima and then did my A- Levels, which we call ‘Abitur’.

P.: Did you like school?

G.: I took a great pleasure in attending school. This was, of course, due to my good results.

I assume there was more discipline than there is today, not only at school but in society as a whole. Youth respected their elders – respect was taken for granted. This is an important difference to today.

P.: Was your ‘social status’ at school important?

G.: Yes, I wanted to be accepted by my classmates. So I tried to be good at sports.

P.: What about teachers then and now?

G.: I can only refer to my own experiences: We always had excellent teachers who tried hard to give their best, who helped us in difficult situations and who were fair to each of their students. This was the more important as part of my years at school took part during WW II, a time when learning had become difficult. Air raids often interrupted our school day and at home we often had to seek refuge in sheltered rooms.

P.: Let us approach the topic of gender roles then and do you realize a different role of  men and women?

G.: Yes, the role of the sexes has become different. Nowadays many women have got jobs, which in the past was a rare exception. Women used to be the guardian of the house. They worked in the garden and were responsible for the education of the children. Take, for example, the laundry for a family of five persons. This was hard work as there were no washing machines. The laundry was done every 5 to 6 weeks and by then there were piles of it. Tumble driers did not exist either.

 I remember that it was out of the question to bring a girl-or a boyfriend home, which seems to have become normal today.

P.: Do you think that people were more helpful in your youth than they are today?

G.:  I would answer in a positive way. This was in particular due to the war situation: bombardment of towns, destroyed houses and thus lack of accommodation, difficulties in providing oneself with sufficient food – all this made people more willing to help one another.

P.: What was it like for you to go to war?

G.: In the beginning, we young ones were enthusiastic. It was just like that. As boys we had been drilled in the ‘Hitler Youth’ organization and had been influenced by Nazi ideology.

So we did not think of war as negative. My father’s opinion though was quite the opposite. He as an anti-Nazi was often threatened to be imprisoned.

I can never forget the time of war, especially the bombardments and the hardship we had to endure. Like all other youth of my age, I was drafted in 1943 and had to join an anti aircraft unit. Our school had already been evacuated to a town in the East because of air raids in the industrialized area of the Ruhr. Heavy industry supplied the Reich and the Army with coal, iron or steel. Our battery of 16 –year-old soldiers was first transferred to Upper Silesia and was finally moved to the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. There we realized what had been going on. No one today can imagine the shame and grief we felt.

P.: Which pieces of advice would you now give to us young?

G.: One should reflect about the enormous changes that have happened since the 1950ies.

Today we live in what might be called a ‘consumers’ society’, in a world of abundance and affluence here in the West where most of us possess more than is needed in everyday’s life.

We have sufficient food, often too much so that people waste it or throw it away.  Incredible to those people who have experienced hunger and misery in their youth. I remember the first years after the War when, for example, oranges were first offered on the market: one family of 5 persons could purchase 3 oranges after queuing up for a long time. Nobody today can imagine such a situation any more. Our experiences were quite different from those of the present generation.

 So my advice  to the youth is: be less materialistic and consider more human values, be more thoughtful and never forget how well-off we are and, last of all, do not only criticize each and everything.

P.: Thank you for this interesting interview.

G.: You are welcome.

Britta Bienek interviews her 83 – year – old grandmother

B.: Where and how did you spend your childhood?

G.: I spent my childhood in the country. We lived in the East before the War and had a farm there. We played with all and everything.

B.: Which are your memories?

G.: I have a lot of nice memories about my childhood as I enjoyed great liberties: no fences for us, only for our animals.

B.: Could you tell us about your average school day?

G.: All pupils from year 1 to year 8 sat in one class at our primary school and all had the same teacher.

B.: How many pupils were you then?

G.: From the village and the surrounding farms came about twenty, 7 of my age in the first year. Each year group was given different tasks as the teacher was mainly occupied with the elder ones. I spent four years at primary and then changed into secondary in town with a teacher for each form. So as it is still today.

B.: Tell us about your teachers. Were they different from ours?

G.: They were rather serious, strict and in most cases older than yours today .When the Second World War started, most male teachers had to join the army and women replaced them as substitutes. Teachers were persons who commanded respect and their words counted. We simply obeyed.

B.: Did you learn a lot?

G.: Yes. We were taught the same basic subjects as you today. My favourite subjects were Geography, German or Natural Sciences. I hated History as dates were a dead matter to me.

B.: How would you characterize the main differences of school now and then?

G.: You are taught more subjects and school today is more internationally orientated. School life now seems to have become more hectic and full of stress. The system has undergone too many changes in too short a time and this not always for the best. I am a bit sorry for you today.

B.: Tell us about the relationship of parents to their children.

G.: It was quite good. I had 4 brothers. Our parents did not have much time for us, but the relationship was cordial. We felt like a big clan. My father had 10 siblings and my mum 6. We all – the huge number of cousins included - had great fun.

B.: In how far did the War have an influence on your childhood? What did your parents expect from you?

G.: I survived. The war caused a lit of grave changes for my family and me: we, as refugees, had to leave our village, our farm, all our belongings behind in the East. We had to find a new home in the West, find a place where to settle . At first we were put up in emergency accommodations. School for me was over and we had to find work and enough to eat to survive. You had no expectations then. In such a situation you can only fight for yourself and that is what I did.

B.: Let us talk about gender roles .Was there a clear allocation between men and women?

G.: Yes, there was. Differences between the sexes were much greater. Women today have a lot more liberties. In my youth women were a sort of servants and had to fulfil their duties in the family. Their main aim was marriage. Marriages then were mostly arranged by adults. All this has changed a lot as today you choose your partner yourself which is much nicer.

B.: Let us approach the importance of values. Were good manners in your youth more important than today?

G.: Good manners have always been important but today they seem to be practised less. In my youth, bad manners were regarded as a ‘faux pas’ and caused a bad reputation. Good manners meant: cleanliness, good behaviour, politeness : the young used to greet their elders or offered a seat in the train, bus or tram. Today this sort of behaviour seem to have vanished or has become rare. Ethics and moral standards have immensely changed. After the war, society has changed enormously with the millions of refugees. Later the change was caused by a ‘muddling up’ of all sorts of people such as immigrants, political or economic efugees or asylum seekers. They all arrived with different moral values. Today our society faces a lot of changes . Let us, for example, only mention the fast sequence of electronic inventions which influence us and change our lives. We had no computers and when calculating, we used our brains. I still do so. In the supermarket, I add the prices and then pay to the astonishment of the woman at the cashier the exact amount of money. This is a hobby of mine.

B.: What about the importance of material things?

G.: Yes were important, of course, but less than today where human values are less considered. In my family luxurious things did not count, we only catered for things we needed for everyday life. There were also rich people living in villas; we called them ‘decadent society’. Differences between the rich and the poor have always existed. In my youth in the country, we had no magazines or TV, only the radio was available. So we knew a lot less than people do today.

B.: You lived in different countries. Which differences did you experience?

G.: My vision of the world has changed. My attitude of tolerance has increased. I have no prejudices. This is also due to my education as we grew up in a liberal way and we have always been tolerant to other people.

B.: What about ‘mobbing’?

G.: This word was unknown to us. At school, we integrated all: newcomers, strangers, bombed-out ones and no one was excluded. Only during the last two decades I have noticed a negative development in our society.

B.: What is your advice to young people?

G.: To be more thoughtful. You should understand how good your lives today are and you should not grumble so often about this or that.

B.: Thank you, grandmother, for the interview.

G.: You are welcome.

Pia May interviews her 78 – year – old grandmother

P.: Where did you spend your childhood and which are your memories of that time?

G.: I lived with my parents in Northern Germany. It was very nice at home. We had a river behind our house in which we swam a lot.

P.: Would you describe an average day when you were at my age.

G.: We children had to help a lot at home and on the fields: collecting potatoes, milk the cows or bundle the corn. But we also played a lot: rounders, dodgeball, tennis and we learnt how to play the piano.

P.: If you compare your and my leisure time activities, what would you say?

G.: Our lives were quiet whereas life today has become ever so hectic.

P.: Describe your school life.

G.: In my time teachers were much stricter. Today, I suppose, they are sometimes too lax. I don’t know which way is the better one though.

P.: How were you educated?

G.: In former times education was quite severe, in general. As to my family, however, we lived in a more liberal way. Today children are educated in a free way, too. My parents did not expect me to follow them blindly, and so I enjoyed my personal freedom.

P.: What about gender roles?

G.: At school, I cannot remember any differences between the sexes. In society, men had a greater authority. I was even allowed to bring a male friend home.

Especially shortly after the War, religious denominations - being a Catholic or a Protestant –

played an important role. There were even separate school which now is the exception.

P.: Were people in your youth more socially inclined or more helpful?

G.: No, I don’t think so.

P.: Did or does your family mean a lot to you?

G.: Yes, this is the case. I had a very good relationship with my parents.

P.: How important were material things for you?

G.: Social aspects, values and good manners have always been more important to me than material things.

Matilde, my grandmother ate at a soup kitchen and hid in the basement during the bombings, by Nerea Martínez

My name is Nerea and I´m 16 years old. I interviewed my great-grandmother.

Her name is Matilde and she´s  83 years old. She was born in 1930 in La Unión and she spent her childhood there.

She had got a sister and a brother but eleven years ago her sister died and her brother is still alive. Her father was tinsmith and her mother was a housewife.

When she was a child she remembers that  she played with a doll that her father gave to her. This doll was called "pichi".

She left school when she was 8 and she was at school only for two months because she had to work to get some money. She worked at a country house cleaning and picking crops.

she remembers that in the Civil War they went hungry and they hadn´t got any cinemas or any shops and sometimes she and her siblings had to go to a neighbour´s house and stay there to sleep because her mother had to go to the field to work for two days.

During the civil war she ate at a soup kitchen.

her only dream at that time was the war ended because when the bombing started they had to hide in the basement.

She never had the opportunity to travel because her parents didn´t have much money.

She met her husband long after the war and she was married for many years. Her husband worked in the field.

They had good relationships with their neighbours but they had few.

  the best memories that she has is when she married and she had her children

she thinks that there are many differences between  young people nowadays and young people at that time because then there wasn´t so much freedom and so many places to shop.

My grandfather by Sergio Valverde.

INTERVIEW

1.- How old are you?..... Then, when were you born?

I am 81 years old, so I was born in 1933.

2.- Where did you spend your childhood?

I spent my childhood here, in La Unión.

3.- How many brothers and sisters have you got?

In my family we were six people, my brothers, my sister, my parents and me.

4.- What did your parents do? What was their job?

My father was miner and my mother didn´t work, she did the housework.

5.- What did you play in that period?

In that period we played marbles and we also played skipping.

6.- How old were you when you left school?

I was fourteen years old.

7.- How was the school at that time? Did you have books, notebooks, etc?

We only had got a pencil, a rubber and a notebook…

8.- When did you start working? What was your job?

At the age of 15, I helped  my father in the mine and with the goats.

9.-  What can you remember about the Spanish Civil war?

The church was invaded by the communists.

10.- And about the Post-War period?

A lot of hunger…

11.- What did you dream of at those hard times?

To live in peace.

12.- What did you expect from the future?

I remember I wanted those hard times to go by because it could not be worse, so things would improve.

13.- Did you have the opportunity to travel?

Yes, I travelled to Portugal, France and other Spanish cities.

14.- When did you meet your wife?

In 1952.

15.- How long were you engaged?

Six years.

16.- What was your wife´s job?

Working at home, like every woman in that period.

17.- How was the relationships with your neighbours?

Very good, better than now.

18.- What are the bests memories of that time? And the worst? Did you remember a specially moment that you personally lived?

Seventy years. The Civil-War.

19.- What are the differences between young people then and nowadays?

Then young people were much more polite!

My neighbour Andres´ memories of the Civil Spanish War by Juan Antonio García

Juan Antonio´s interview.

My name is Juan Antonio.  I´m 17 years old.I live in La Unión and I study at Maria Cegarra Secondary School.

 I´ve made an interview to my neighbour Andrés Vidal who told me about his life. He lived during the Civil War and his life is very interesting.

He´s 90 years old and he was born on 1st September 1923 in La Unión.

He spent his childhood between La union and Cartagena.

Andrés had a sister who was 3 years younger than him, but she died very young.

 His father worked in many places, such as, the Peñarroya Mine and Cartagena Port. His mother was a housewife.

Andrés and his friends usually played top, marbles, football with a rag ball in the street…

He went to school until when he was 12 years old.

The school had a blackboard, a desk where five students sat… and a few things more. The school was in Cartagena and there were 50 students more or less. These students were of different ages and they were in the same class. Mr. Carlos was the higher students´ teacher and he had an assistant. Mr Carlos´ wife was Ms. Ramona. She was the youngest´s teacher. The students went to school in the morning and in the afternoon, but they ate at home.

When the Civil War started, Andrés left the school, and his family moved from Cartagena to La Unión, and he started to work in his uncle´s garage.

Five planes bombed Cartagena every day. For this reason, they moved to La Unión and then they moved to El llano. There, they slept in his uncle´s mine because it was safer.

His two uncles went to the Civil War. When the War finished, they worked as truck drivers and they gave Andrés´ family a little bit of food. They survived with that food.

He didn´t have dreams. He could only work to eat.

He didn´t think about his future. He spent his money on food.

His first trip was when he went to Murcia for a funeral. Then, he travelled to Valencia and Zaragoza with the army.

When Andrés was in the army and he was 21 years old, he had a partner who was from La Palma. They were in Valencia and one day Andrés went to his partner´s house. There, he met his wife and they felt in love. Five years after, they got married. Her name is Florentina.

Andrés got along with his neighbours.

He worked very much, occasionally more than 12 hours per day, for this reason, he didn´t have much free time but his best years were when he was with his wife and his daughters.

He didn´t fancy telling me about the new generation. I am sure it is because of the situation in Spain. The life nowadays is completely different from some years ago. Now, we are lucky because we are not living with bombs around us, however, our ancestors feel bad thinking on us, because the politic situation is getting worse and worse and they want us to go through a situation better than ages ago.

The post-war period, Eating banana peels to survive, by Juan Francisco Agüera

 My name is Juan Francisco and I’m 16 years old. I’m going to interview my grandfather. He was born in 1938 in La Union (Murcia) so, he’s 76 years old. He grew up with his 9 brothers and sisters.
His father worked in the mines and his mother was a housewife taking care of their children.
 He used to play marbles and bowling. He went to school until he was10 years old and then, he started to work in the mines with his father.
 He remembers the hunger and that he had to eat bananas peels to survive as it was very difficult to get any food.
 He really wanted to go to school but, at that time, it was a luxury that he couldn’t afford. He dreamed of buying a house, getting married and starting a family.
 He couldn´t make a journey because he didn’t have any money.
He met his wife because she was a good friend of his sister. After 6 years dating they got married and they had 11 children. My mother is their second oldest daughter.
 His wife worked selling fruit.
He thinks that there are a lot of differences between young people in the past and now. When he was young he had to do what his parents wanted him to do (he had to obey)   but now young people have the freedom to do what they want.
 Thank you for the time you have spent answering this interview and telling me the story of your life.

We had to hide in tunnels during the bombings, by Jonathan Muñoz

INTERVIEW

Hello, my name is Jonathan and I am sixteen. I am going to interview my grandmother about the Civil War in Spain.

My grandmother is eighty-two years old, she was born in 1932 in Mazarrón and she lived the Civil War. They were five siblings, two boys and three girls , and my grandmother is older than them. She took care of her brothers and sisters, so she went to school until she was seven. She can´t  read or write.

 Her memories are very sad because her family had to hide in tunnels because of the bombings and after  the war they had to find food but that time was very bad and they were hungry. When my grandmother was eleven, they went to La Unión because her father found a job in the mine. There, my grandmother met my grandfather when she was sixteen and six years after they got married. My grandfather was a truck driver and when my grandmother was forty  she was cleaning in my school at that moment.

My grandmother thinks that now young people are not polite or respectful.

My grandmother´s family. My great-grandmother´s family were Franco supporters, my great-grandfather´s were socialists, by Carla Arroyo.

INTERVIEW

My name is Carla Arroyo and I am 16 years old. I have interviewed my grandmother Mercedes.  She lived during the post-war.

She lived with her grandparents, her parents and her brother and sister. Her father worked in iron melting and her mother was a housewife.

She went to school until she was 11 years old. She said that they only had a blackboard and an encyclopaedia for everyone. When she left school she started to work as a cleaner.

She remembers that she went with her mother and their friends to buy on the black market  things that they couldn`t get in their town like ham, sausages...

My grandmother was very lucky because during the postwar she lived in the Franco`s area and  her mother`s family were Franco’s supporters and they could get whatever they wanted but her father and her grandfather were socialists and they had a lot of problems with the police. Her father was in prison twice for insulting Franco but after three days his uncle who was a military man picked him up. She also  remembers that one day the police went to their house and they dug in their garden looking for weapons because a neighbour told them that he had a lot of weapons.

She told me that before that incident the relationship with the neighbours improved and everybody was friends and there was confidence between them. They could leave the doors of their houses open all day and no one came to steal them. If someone had a TV they invited everybody else to watch it and young people were more polite and they respected older people and now they respect nothing.

She remembers that when she was a child people had nothing and they were very happy but nowadays people have whatever they want and they are unhappy.

For my grandmother the dictatorship of Franco is the best time she has lived and she says that electricity and water bills were paid by Franco´s Government and now we have to pay  even for breathing.

My grandmother by Estefanía Asensio

INTERVIEW

My name is Estefanía and I interviewed my grandmother.

• How old are you? .... Then, when were you born?

I´m 79 years old. I was born in 1935

• Where did you spend your childhood?

In Castilla la Mancha

• How many brothers and sisters have you got?

5 sisters and 3 brothers

• What did your parents do? What was their job?

My dad was a gravedigger and my mum didn´t work

What did you play in that period?

I skipped the rope in the street

• How old were you when you left school?

I didn´t go to school

• How was the school at that time? Did you have books, notebooks, etc.?

I don´t know

• When did you start working? What was your job?

I worked in a shop

• What can you remember about the Spanish civil war?

There was a big crisis and the families didn´t have food or a job

• And about the post-war period?

The crisis finished and people got a job

• What did you dream of at those hard times?

Travel to another country

• What did you expect from the future?

That the future was better

• Did you have the opportunity to travel?

No I didn´t

• When did you meet your husband/wife?

When I went to La Unión

• How long were you engaged?

51 years

• What was your husband/wife´s job?

He worked in the mine

• How was the relationships in the neighbourhood, with your neighbours?

The relationships were very friendly and funny

• What are the best memories of that time? And the worst? Do you remember special moment, good or bad, that you personally lived?

The best memory was when I played  in the streets with my sisters and the worst when we didn´t have money to buy food

• What are the differences between young people then and nowadays?

Young people nowadays don´t work to help his family and they are more selfish

The post-war period in Spain; hunger by Ignacio Victoria

                     INTERVIEW

My name is Ignacio Victoria and I am going to interview my grandmother. She is 79 years old and she was born in La Union, the village where she spent her childhood and where she lives now too. She has two sisters Jerónima and Josefa, and two brothers Miguel and Lico so they were 5. Her father died really early and she spent her childhood with her mother who was a flower seller. Her mother had to go to Cartagena to sell the flowers so my grandmother did the housework. When she was 16 years old she started to work in a richman´s house in Cartagena and then in other houses. She didn’t go to school because she had to help her mother and she couldn’t “waste” that time. She was very young during the Civil War so she didn’t remember anything but she spent her childhood during the Post-War Period and she remembers that she was very hungry and the life was so difficult at that time because of the censure and the dictatorship. At that time she only dreamed of living in peace and with happiness. She said that nowadays she only expects that her sons will be good men with a good job and a family and they pray for all our family’s health.

 She was 16 or 17 years old when she met my grandfather and they were a couple for six or seven years and when she was 23 years old she married my grandfather and they were married until my grandfather died 14 years ago. My grandfather worked making engines and then he became an electrician. Her best memory was when she met her husband and her worst memories when her mother and her husband died.

Finally she says that she can’t understand why people say that now the youth is worst or better than at that time, she thinks that now there are good people and bad people as there have always been including the old times, but she thinks that it is true that nowadays, because of the Internet and the new technologies, young people use those gadgets incorrectly and they do bad things.

Spanish post-civil war. Ana, my grandmother by Ana Ros

My name is Ana and I´m 16 years old. I´ve interviewed my grandmother whose  name is Ana. She is 76 years old. She was born on the second of June in 1938.

During the post-war period she lived in Roche, a little town of Murcia. She has one brother and two sisters. Her father was a driver and her mother was a housewife. 

She told me that when she was young she used to play games like hopscotch, skipping the rope or she dressed her dolls. When she left school she was nine or ten years old.  She went to a school where only girls could go. She only had got a notebook and a book.  She has never worked but when she left school she started to help her mother in the housework.

She can´t remember anything about Spanish Civil War because she was one year old when the war ended. About the post-war period she can remember that most people went hungry and they had a card of rationing which controlled the food they ate or the oil they used in their lamps. She also told me that at that time there wasn´t too much electricity and there was  almost nothing to eat.

When she was young she used to dream of being a dressmaker and she expected the future to be better and no one  go hungry .

When she was young she never travelled because she didn´t have the opportunity to do it and she didn´t have too much money either. 

During the interview she told me the story of how she met her husband. She met him during a party in her town in the 50´s. She was with her friends in the square of the town and suddenly my grandfather and his friends went to the place where my grandmother was. When she was  coming back home he approached  and decided to woo her. From that moment they became friends and after that they got engaged.  They were engaged for six years and then they were married another sixteen years until he died.  He worked as drawer and after that he worked in a nuclear power station. In her neighbourhood the relationship with her neighbours was really good because she lived in a small town and everybody knew  each other.  Of those days she remembers that most people were unhappy because of the impacts of the war and the dictatorship. People didn´t have enough clothes or food to survive. 

One of the most beautiful memories she has is when she went to the countryside to play with her sisters and with the animals they had. She enjoyed that time a lot. Or when she went with her grandmother to visit her uncle. She remembers that her grandmother never wanted her to go with  her and my grandmother always escaped to join her.

She thinks that young people at that time, although  they didn´t have too much, enjoyed their time more than us and they didn´t need drugs or this stuff to enjoy. She thinks that they were more responsible than we are now and they valued more the things they had.

My grandmother´s memories of the Spanish Civil War and postwar period by Ana Navarro

My name is Ana, I´m 16 years old and I made an interview to my grandmother about the Civil war period in Spain. She told me her experience in those hard times.

1)      How old are you? …When were you born?

I am 79 years old so I was born in 1934.

2)      Where did you spend your childhood?

My childhood was so hard.  The period of Civil war was so complicated and dangerous, there were shelling all the time, we didn´t have much money and it complicated our situation.

3)      How many brothers or sisters have you got?

I have got five siblings: three sisters and two brothers. In that period it was so common to have got a lot of siblings. When I was eight years old we were orphaned.

4)      What did your parents do? What was their job?

My father was a miner and my mother was a housewife. My dad died in the mine, and my mum got sick and died one year later.

5)      What did you play in that period?

We usually played at jumping the rope, marbles and especially we loved to play at being different roles that we could choose from, such as doctor, detective or pilot.

6)      How old were you when you left school?

I left school when I was approximately ten because I had to start to work to support my family because we didn’t have any source of income.

7)      How was the school at that time? Did you have books, notebooks, etc.?

At school there were few books, maps, a blackboard, desks and chairs and nothing else. We didn´t have computers, projectors or other digital devices.

8)      When did you start working? What was your job?

I started working at 13more or less, and for my first job I worked as a babysitter with two children in Murcia City and I earned 500 pesetas, (3 euros)

9)      What can you remember about the Spanish Civil War?

I don´t remember many things about the Civil war. One of the things that I remember is all the bombings because when a plane passed on with bombs, we usually went with our neighbours in a refuge.

10)   And about the Post-War period?

I don´t remember a lot of things of the post-war because I was working in this period. However, I remember that there was a hostile environment:  many families were dying of hunger… It was so difficult for all the people who lived through it.

11)   What did you dream of at those hard times?

I wasn´t mature enough to decide anything about my future but I only wanted to get out from there and live in another place with a better situation.

12)   What did you expect from the future?

I dreamed of changing my fate and the fate of my siblings because my aunt wanted to give us for adoption but we prefered to stay together.

13)   Did you have the opportunity to travel?

Yes, I travelled to Ibiza when I was working as a babysitter with the family because they had relatives there. I never visited Ibiza again, but I have very good memories of this trip.

14)   When did you meet your husband?

I met my husband when I was walking with my friends along the main street of the town. He went to me to introduce himself. In this period it was so common to do this to seduce girls.

15)   How long were you engaged?

We were engaged during six years.

16)   What was your husband’s job?

My husband worked in a mine, on the washing site. Afterwards, he worked in other mines but in the washing site too.

17)   How was the relationship in the neighbourhood, with your neighbours?

With my neighbours I had a trusting relationship. We met together in my house to talk or go out with our husbands frequently. My neighbourhood was so quiet, it was a good place to live in.

18)   What are the best memories of that time? And the worst? Do you remember a special moment, good or bad, that you personally lived?

The best memories of these years were when my husband and I got married and we had our house. We were really happy in that moment. The worst memory was when my parents died. The best memory of my life was the birth of my children.

19)   What were the differences between young people then and nowadays?

Nowadays young people have different values, different education, different studies, different relationships… Everything is different now.  Above all they have a lot of opportunities and they must appreciate it. 

Growing Up in La Réunion by Janie NOEL

Ms. Noel M. has chosen to tell us in a few words about a long period in her life: that of her adolescence until she became an adult.

«First, I grew up in the heights of Saint Paul in La Réunion.

We used to go to school on foot, there was no public transport; we had to walk two hours before arriving at school. We walked in groups. At that time, my parents were very strict with me. I was very obedient. Fortunately, the rest of my family did not live too far from us. We could help each other. Throughout all my adolescence, my only activities were to go to mass and to make straw bags with my grandmother and my mother. We were rather poor. I often went to weddings. At every wedding ceremony we had to keep changing partners at the end of every song so that we wouldn’t grow too attached to one single boy. (Laughter). At that time this subject was taboo. I was an only daughter, life was not too easy. When I was growing up there were no night clubs or discotheques for teenagers.

Time passed. At the age of 20, I got married. At that time you became an adult when you were 21. I had to ask for my parents’ authorization. I had no work. I only began to work at the age of 37! And yes! (Laughter) I can say it’s from that time I started to live a totally different life. I became independent; public transport began to develop and by that time I had 5 children!

The youngest child of the family was born when I had already started working; he was not born in the same situation as the others, even if he never lacked anything. (Laughter). If I compare growing at that time with today, I can say that it is totally different. Nevertheless, I am proud to see that my children have educated their own children just as I did. I am very proud to see that.

Until I started working we never really had very much money. It is only today that materially speaking I can live more comfortably and so can fully take advantage of the surrounding mountains, the beach and coconut trees. (Laughter)

I can say “THANKS” to my parents for the education that they gave me in spite of our poverty. It did not prevent me from building my life. Today I live normally, I will not forget this period which I would qualify as a transition period."

The Life of a Boarder in a Convent in the 1950s by Lucas PALATIN

I questioned my grandmother about her life at boarding school when she was young. She arrived at the boarding school when she was 15 years old in 1952. She couldn’t stay in her parents ‘house because they lived in the countryside and to be able to study my grandmother had to go and live in Chambery in a middle school called Jules Ferry. There were no places at their boarding house, so she was accommodated by the nuns in the nearby convent house. There were only girl boarders. The life in the convent was very strict. The boarders spent all their time there and they had only two supervised walks a week on Thursdays and Sundays after mass. Of course the boarders had to go to mass. My grandmother explained to me that she slept in a big room; there were fifty girls who slept in this room. It was a very big dormitory where it was cold because there was only a wood stove in the middle of the room to warm all the room. Then suddenly, my grandmother with a big smile told me: “I remember that one day the heating broke down, and there was smoke everywhere. At the time this heating broke down it did not make us laugh but now looking back I have a pleasant memory!”

In the boarding school, she ate especially soup because the nuns did not have a lot of money and because it was not very expensive to make. It’s the boarders who did the cleaning and the service. It was a very strict and controlled life but even if it was hard my grandmother never rebelled because she found it normal.

My grandmother left the boarding school only to go to study at Jules Ferry. The Jules Ferry middle school building had largely been destroyed during the Second World War and the replacement building was made of prefabricated cabins where it was either very hot or on the contrary very cold according to the season. In class my grandmother had to wear a blouse as all the others girls. She finished lessons at six o’clock in the evening and she returned directly to the boarding school.

My grandmother’s youth was thus very different from my youth today. She had very little freedom and her life, when she was young, was very controlled. She couldn’t go out in the evening to go to sport or spend moments with friends in town. Today we have many more liberties and we can do lots of things without being controlled. But when I asked my grandmother if she has regrets or if she would have preferred another route and another more free youth, she said that for her it was normal because it was the only life she knew and that thus she can’t know if she would have preferred to live differently.

Anaya arrives in France from Morocco by Soukayna LAABDOUI and Emmanuelle JEAN

This is the testimony of my grandmother, Anaya. She's 65. She's going to tell us about an important part of her life.

Me : Hello grandma so what are you going to tell Emmanuelle and me ?

Anaya : I'm going to tell you about my departure from Morocco and how I came to France which was such an important turning point in my life.

Emmanuelle and I : Ok great explain everything, when you arrived, your feelings, when that happened...

Anaya: So it was during the late 1970s, I was 31 years old. I was married to your grand father, Moustapha. At that time, I had 6 children and we were living in a village close to Marrakech in Morocco. I didn't see your grandfather a lot because he had been working in France since the early 70s. He came to see me once or twice a year. This situation lasted about 6 years. It was very difficult. I was living with my stepmother, my sister who was in the same situation (but at that time she didn't have any kids) and my children. In 1980 thanks to "family reunification law" (‘la loi de regroupement familial’)my husband could sort out all the administrative papers and we could all come to France including my sister. My sister's husband was my husband's brother. Her husband stayed in France and my husband came back to Morocco to drive all of us to France. The farewells were very difficult and hard. I didn't know when I would come back, it was a very strange feeling because I was excited about this new life but so afraid and sad at the same time. I remember, there were 9 of us in the car, the journey lasted three days, I had never been so far from my home. We arrived at Orleans in October 1980. My sister went to join her husband in Haute Savoie because he was working there. The first day, the weather was so bad, it was pouring with rain. We lived in a furnished appartment. In the neighborhood, there were a lot of Asians. It was the first time I had seen Asians. The district was very cosmopolitan. My husband worked a lot so I had to take care of children and take them to school. I did not speak a word of French but it didn't prevent to me making friends, because indeed I met Moroccans and Turks who were in the same situation as me. Sometimes I felt homesick for my country but thanks to my children and to my friends I remained strong.

Concerning my children, they adapted better than me thanks to school and learnt the language very fast. For me it was very complicated to do something myself because I did not speak French, I was illiterate because i had never been to school. I had to wait for my husband until the week end to accompany me to do some shopping, or bring the kids to the doctor...

In 1981, I gave birth to my seventh child and in 1983, my eight and last child. Our situation was better and better so from 1984 we spent 2 months every summer in Morocco and it was good to see the whole family. My sister Aicha and her husband came with us every time. When the holidays were over, we had to come back to France. It was very difficult because we had to leave again the whole family. In 1984, we had to move because my husband had opened a grocery store in Chambéry. This was complicated because we had to abandon our life in Orléans, our friends, the children had to leave school... We had to start a new life in LA ROCHETTE. It was more difficult to adapt. My husband came back every time home late, so I had to take care of children. Soukayna's mother and her sister studied in Chambéry and slept all the week at my sister’s Aicha, because she lived next to the school. Indeed Aicha had moved to Chambéry so every weekend we saw each other, it was nice to see a familiar face.

Over the years, I enjoyed my life in France. I had more and more friends. My husband’s grocery worked very well, so we enjoyed life a little more. We bought a house in 1990 in Morocco. In 1996 we moved to La Motte Servolexe, it was better because we were near to Chambéry. Over the years my children have grown, my husband opened a larger grocery and a butcher shop. He retired, and my children are now working in this store. In 2002 we built a second home in Morocco bigger than the first one and on the ground floor we built a restaurant. One year later, Soukayna's grand father bought apartments in Marrakech. Since he retired we have spent a lot more time in Morocco and he has devoted himself to his passion, horse racing. Now, Souayna, as you know your grandfather is no longer of this world. he changed my life. Today I feel good in France, my children and my grandchildren live next to me. I speak little bit better, I often see my sister Aicha who lives in Grenoble now. I have many friends in Chambéry, I always spend all my summers in Morocco with my children and their families because Morocco is our country and our roots are there no matter where we live.

Emmanuelle and I: Thank you for this touching testimony.