A Day in the Life of Peter and Eve
A Day in the Life of Peter and Eve A Day in the Life of Peter and Eve In the cool, dark cellar, Peter Kissel's alarm clock rang. He silenced it as quickly as he could. "Wake up, little sister," he said. In the cot next to his, Eve was still sleeping. Peter felt sorry for her. Eve was too young to remember what life was like before the war. It was a war that seemed to go on endlessly. Last night, enemy bombers had flown right over the roof of their house. The distant boom of their falling bom
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A Day in the Life of Peter and Eve
A Day in the Life of Peter and Eve
In the cool, dark cellar, Peter Kissel's alarm clock rang.He silenced it as quickly as he could.
"Wake up, little sister," he said. In the cot next to his, Eve was still sleeping.Peter felt sorry for her. Eve was too young to remember what life was like before the war.
It was a war that seemed to go on endlessly.Last night, enemy bombers had flown right over the roof of their house.The distant boom of their falling bombs had lasted for a long time.
Peter wished he were still sleeping. He had been dreaming of frying sausage.The war had caused food shortages, making meat almost impossible to find."Oh, if only Mother were cooking sausages for breakfast!" Peter thought.He sniffed hopefully at the air. But all he could smell was the cellar's coal dust.
"At least," Peter thought to himself, "I still have my jar of apple butter."He imagined spreading the jar's delicious contents on some fresh bread.Fresh bread, like meat, was difficult to find in the stores.
The apple butter had been made by Peter's mother, using apples, sugar, and spices.She had given him the jar on his last birthday.Peter had decided to save it for when his brother Carl and his father came home.Carl was a soldier fighting in the war.
Papa had to live in a town far away so that he could help make trucks for the war."It's so dark in here," Eve groaned. The morning light barely entered the gloomy cellar.
The cellar was gloomy for a reason.Before Papa had moved away, the rest of the family had made an agreement with himto stay safe from the enemy bombers by sleeping in the cellar.Papa did not want the enemy planes to see any light from the house.So together with Peter he had covered the cellar window with dark cloth.They had also tied bundles of rags and old newspapers to the window,so it wouldn't rattle when the planes flew overhead.
The Kissel family lived an hour's train ride away from Berlin, the capital of Germany.The planes flew over their little town on their way to bomb the capital.The townspeople could see the flash of the bombs exploding in Berlin.Sometimes they made the ground shake.
"Peter, Eve, breakfast!" Mama called from upstairs.Peter knew there wouldn't be any sausage.Still, he kept his hopes up. Maybe his mother had been able to get some fresh bread!
But there was only yesterday's bread with the butter substitute that Peter hated."Mama, Herr Braun has six dairy cows.Can't we buy butter from him?" Peter asked. (Herr is the German word for "mister.")
"Only the soldiers get butter," Mama said.
"Carl is a soldier. Do you think he's been lucky enough to have butter?" Eve asked.
"I hope so," her mother replied softly.
After breakfast, Peter and Eve walked to school.The schoolyard was filled with shouting and running children.When the headmaster appeared on the steps of the building, everyone fell silent and formed orderly lines.Peter watched his little sister line up with the youngest girls as he joined a line of older boys.
Fräulein Mann was Peter's teacher. (Fräulein means "miss" in German.)Peter worried about his teacher. She often looked sad and tired.Her dresses were faded, and Peter could see where she had been forced to mend them.
Wringing her hands, Fräulein Mann rose to speak."Today," she began, "I am pleased to introduce to you two of our town council representatives, Herr Meitzel and Herr Lutz.They will be speaking to us about our duty to Germany in this terrible time of war."
"Heil Hitler!" Herr Meitzel shouted, raising his arms and clicking his heels.This was a salute to Adolf Hitler, the ruler of Germany.Herr Meitzel looked at their teacher expectantly.
"Heil Hitler," Fräulein Mann said softly. Peter could tell that she disliked giving the salute.
"Boys and girls, I am here to warn you about a terrible danger," Herr Meitzel began."There are those living among us who are not true Germans," he said, narrowing his eyes."I'm talking about Jewish people, boys and girls.Beware! Might someone you know be a Jewish person who is pretending to be German?It is your duty to turn them in!Herr Lutz will now tell you how to stay safe from the Jews, and others who would destroy our beloved Fatherland."
"Perhaps," Herr Lutz began in a hushed tone, "you have neighbors who have opened their home to refugees.But how could you tell if those refugees are true Germans, like you and me?I have here a copy of a letter written in secret by a refugee who is pretending to be a real German.Our experts have translated it from a language used by our enemies.‘My friends,' the letter begins, ‘these fools feed me well with meat and sweets while I steal their money and learn their secrets.'Imagine, boys and girls, these enemies are eating your sweets while they laugh at you!Be watchful. Tell us whom you suspect.We will report to our superiors, and action will be taken! You could be a hero, like a soldier!"
With that, Herr Lutz and Herr Meitzel left.The room was quiet. Peter thought of his old friend, Hans Karp.Life in Germany had been difficult for the Karps, because they were Jews.Peter remembered the night a mob threw rocks through the windows of their houseand painted terrible words on their front door.When Peter asked his mother why this had happened,she said that Hitler was telling the German people that Jewish people were to blame for all of Germany's problems.Peter's mother warned him not to believe this.
