Memories of former Harxheim pupils
The former pupils Wilma Blase (née Rösch), Egon Darmstadt, Lilli Fritzsch (née Göth), Erwin Gmall and Hans Kessel described their memories of their former school days in Harxheim in the first years after the Second World War. Despite the time of privation, they think back fondly on the school years.
The school day began with the punctual “lining up” at the school building. The school building had to be entered in rows of two. The children dispersed to the appropriate classes. Four grades were taught at a time. Grades 1-4 were located on the first floor and grades 5-8 were located on the upper floor.
Standing up, the first greeting was “Good morning, teacher!”. Sitting was allowed only after prompting.
In addition to the snack, the children had to bring a piece of wood or a “Wingertsknorze” for heating in winter. When the stove was well stoked and the water in the pot, which always stood on the stove, was warm, teacher Bolz was happy about his morning shave. He had no hot water at home and wood for heating was scarce. The children had to learn during this. There were no notebooks yet, but everyone had a small blackboard on which they wrote their tasks. By the way, such a board could be acquired, for example, in Bodenheim. The usual form of payment was a bottle of wine. When several students set off for Bodenheim, it was always great fun. The wine was always well received, the boards on the way home, unfortunately, not always. Teacher Weizel painted the map of Rhineland-Palatinate on the wall for the upper class due to the lack of atlases.
For the children who still had their own slaughter at home, it was customary to bring the teacher a can of “Worschtsupp mit Worscht” and thus contribute to the teacher’s rations.
For “air-damaged” children as well as children who had little to eat at home, Katharina Gmall prepared the school lunch, from food provided by the Americans. Once a week there was also chocolate for the school children.
At school, people liked to “scrape” and many a piece of chocolate was exchanged for a “fat bread”.
The children were also called upon for community service. Collecting potato beetles was a very important task, because only a few specimens of this species could ruin entire harvests. In addition, the classrooms filled to the ceiling with collected poppy pods. These were used in the production of oils in the Nieder-Olmer oil mill.
Despite the simple circumstances, former students think back fondly on those days.
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Compiled with the help of Wilma Blase, Egon Darmstadt, Lilli Fritzsch, Erwin Gmall and Hans Kessel.
