Helga Prenzel's life story 2/3: We didn't have to go hungry

In the second part of Helga Prenzel's life story she tells us about her clever father Gustav, who steered the family through the war and the post-war period, often using methods that weren’t quite legal, such as an illicit alcohol distillery, small cheats as well as his manual skills. What is most exciting, however, is her assumption that his assignments with the Organisation Todt, the paramilitary construction unit of National Socialist Germany, also brought him into contact with the resistance movements in France and Poland, and that he probably worked with them. She also tells us about her stepmother and her mother, and how she got to know her husband at 17 and made plans to emigrate to Australia with him and their 3 sons in 1958.

Hier haben Helga und ihr Mann in den 50-igern eine Einzimmerwohnung gekauft Source: Helga Prenzel

Eine Familienfeier im Nachkriegsdeutschland Source: Helga Prenzel