This year 2015, it is exactly fifty years ago that I had left my Homeland. In fact, there is no Home- Land, because during WWII it has been completely destroyed. Now rebuilt to certain (more or less historic) standards, some like it – mostly tourists – others know that all rebuilding cannot recover any cities to what they were. Old historic cities dating back to many centuries ago. But more than that, it is not only buildings that make a country, a nation, a homeland, or a town. It is the people. Since WWII, which ended May 1945, not many who survived the war (like I did from start 1939 to end 1945) are still alive today. I was very young during the years of bombings, but still remember. Today’s population in my homeland are so different, mainly because they arrived from many countries to settle down. You could say: “we build it, and they come”.
The rebuilding – mostly in the beginning removing rubble – after 1945 re-started slowly and picking up pace, the first years single handedly done by women. Since there were not many men, they had perished at the Russian Front. The few civilians that were left after the many years of Allied bombings (killing off most of them), had to do the hard work. Now, after forty years in North America, I still do not consider where I am now, my HomeLand. I have no HomeLand.

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