Inga – Howick
“Perhaps it’s to have a nice time with a little bit more food and no bombs coming down on you.
What I would say if I could talk to myself? The war was over, I was hungry, I was looking for food, and I would wish to have more to eat. I grew up in Germany. I’m one of the enemies. I left Germany at a very early age, but I didn’t come to New Zealand. I went to South Africa, and that’s where I lived for a long long time.
(Auckland’s) perfect, in my opinion. That’s all I can say. I’m happy here. You’ve only got one thought; you must survive and that’s all you can do. You cannot do anything about it. You’re too small. That’s all I can say. You’re lucky if you come out alive. Scary; that’s all I can say. It was definitely scary, and I was glad that my mum looked after us. That’s all I can say. Gosh, you don’t know. I’m thinking I’m in heaven here. You do have tonnes of support. You do look after your old people. You’re friendly. What else can I say? Um, it’s something you don’t find so often; that’s all I can say.
I don’t know how to improve that, because that, for us is fine here. You know what I mean? I’ve seen worse things, so I’m happy. I had my schooling, I had my apprenticeship and then we wanted to see the world. So we went – I’ve never seen a lion or – as my grandfather says – “I know you’re going away where there are lots of monkeys, but I’m sure you won’t see one very soon. And that’s true. I mean, there were also streets, and the monkeys were not in your garden. You know?”
I take it with a joke if somebody didn’t like the Germans. I mean, I can understand but I’m not a person to hate somebody. I look at the person – not where he was born and what nationality. You can’t say because of the nationality that he’s a bad person. I didn’t experience any bad things. You know? But when I say, you know, I’m the enemy, I’m joking. You know what I mean.”
