|
|
Neu-Ulm,Germany. I’m fifteen . We frequently visit the Nelson – Barracks to do carwash jobs for the „ Amis „. One dollar apiece,wich was four deutschmarks back then-a whole lot of money to us.
The soldiers are just about three or four years older than me.Most of them are stationed here for six months.Afterwards many are being transferred to Vietnam.
The soldiers take pictures of almost anything in their surroundings :
The barrack urinal,snapshots of the Ulm minster,blurred views of the Danube River banks.
The soldiers are anxious.
In Vietnam they fight communism.They have been told that here they defend their country.The soldiers are young,they are anxious and they shoot people.
The Vietnamese are anxious,they shoot people.I am afraid.
I have talks with the soldiers.At times they cry and tremble and say that they are going to war,tomorrow,out of Neu- Ulm ,Germany,straight to Vietnam .
Neu-Ulm is a small sleepy town.It lies on the east banks of the Danube river,on the banks opposite lies Ulm.The borderline between Bavaria and Baden – Württemberg runs in the middle of the river.Ulm is an ancient town.The great salt route passed through here because at this point a ford
crossed the river.
My parents come from Czechoslovakia.At the end of world war 2 they were
driven out of the country by the Czechs.The Czechs were afraid,my parents
also.During the escape my father killed a czechoslovakian border guard.
My parents moved to Neu-Ulm.
Shortly after my birth my mother pushed me in a pram across the Danube river bridge.A tank division passed,then military trucks followed.
On the platform soldiers were standing ,tossing watermelons to the german people. One of those melons hit the pram; I was almost slain .
We lived on Maximilian street.Before the war here had stood a big barrack
wich was completely bombed out during world war 2.Housing developments were built.In Ulm and Neu-Ulm many barracks were situated.The Americans moved into them and so now in Neu-Ulm they were named Wiley-barracks and Nelson-barracks.
My friends Reinhold and Gustl my sister and me used to hang out in front of the Habu-Icecreamparlor.Reinhold carried a portable with him and we would listen to AFN.The Amis were our friends.In the newsbroadcasts we heard about Vietnam.
The Vietnamese were afraid.First the French,then the Americans. By the end of the war one million Vietnamese were dead – and so were 50 000
Americans.The father of my girlfriend had fled during the war.Otherwise he would have had to join the forces.His family gave him all the money they had and he escaped to Paris.There he married a german woman.
Together they had a daughter : Ngoc Loan.
On AFN one heard the world. Neu-Ulm soon was too small for me.It happened I moved to Berlin.It happened I met Ngoc Loan.
We’ve been together since eight years by now.
The Americans that have survived the Vietnam war now have little homes,little families and in their drawers they keep little blurred photographs from around the world.They put these photographs of Neu-Ulm in a website.
When feeling homesick recently I searched Google for Neu-Ulm.
It was there I found those photographs.
The images of Neu-Ulm and the images of Vietnam.
|