A German in London
August 18th 1914
Monday
13:10
Dear Diary,
Mama and Papa seem very worried. Neither of them have been sleeping. They have bags under their eyes so large a field mouse could rest in them. The newspapers have been reporting about the war. Britain declared war on Deutchland a week ago. They have been sending so many letters to our relatives. There’s so much paper on the kitchen table, you’d have thought Christkindl, had come early. Despite all of the drama, it’s been very boring recently. For some reason, all of my friends are ‘busy’, and their parents say they are unable to come over to the house and play. Whenever I talk to anyone aside from Mama and Papa, they don’t respond to me. Mama and Papa have been talking about taking me out of school. I don’t understand why. There has been less and less food, and for some reason, there have been explosions, shouting and screaming at night outside. Mr. Jones, our nice old neighbour down the street, had his house blown up the other night. Apparently, he is in a ‘better place’. Hopefully he will bring me back something nice.
August 20th 1914
Wednesday
15:26
All of Mama and Papas friends are moving. Mr. Schäfer, the baker down the street has had his windows smashed. Mr. Müller was beaten up by ‘thugs’ last night, on his way back from the pub. He’s in hospital. We are going to visit him now. We were going to bring him some of his favourite Deutsch food but we weren’t able to find any in the supermarket. It must all be out of stock.
Louie, High School of Glasgow
