We were told not to frate Germans whose house w snowball fight with Heike
British officials were told to uproot German nationals and send them to live in Nissen huts when the country was divided into “zones” among the allies.
But he refused, and his wife Anthea, and children Colin, 17, Sheila, 15, and Kim, were to live in the “British Zone” within the same walls as the Ladiges – businessman Wilhelm, his wife Erika, sons Theo, 12, and Holger, five, and daughter Heike, seven.
But Kim saw no point in keeping a distance, and with a child’s open-mindedness thawed suspicions between the families, earning him the nickname “Die Eisbrecher”,
The Ice-Breaker.
It was apt given he had arrived during a bitter winter – prompting their first fun-filled “battle” in the snow.
Now 80, Kim reflects: “The climate in Britain had been an absolute hatred towards the Germans. We had seen the images of the concentration camps – there was a sense of disbelief people could do things like that.
“But my father felt his job was rebuilding, reconciliation, not revenge. Eyebrows were raised, but he wanted to set an example. We were not suppose to ‘fraternise’, and to start with relations in the house were cool, correct and distant.
“But I began to play with the children and that was the start of it. I discovered later they called me The Ice-Breaker, I’m very proud of that.
“There is a big lesson there about striving to get on with your neighbours that we could learn from today.
“There is always common ground, especially for children. There is a natural instinct to become pals...and we did.”
In the film, Knightley’s character Rachael Morgan joins her colonel husband ( Jason Clarke) in Germany, and shares a home with a German family – only she falls in love with the German widower sleeping upstairs. It’s a twist that never occurred in real life, Kim assures me – although he admits if he’d stayed there may have been romance between him and Heike. But the message of reconciliation in the film is the same.
Rhidian explains 43,000 people died in one weekend in Hamburg. He says: “More bombs were dropped on Hamburg in a weekend than on London during the entire Second World War.
“You can see why the families needed an eight-year-old boy to be ice-breaker.”
Kim, who lives in the Brecon Beacons, recalls his arrival in Hamburg vividly. “You could look for miles and not see a house standing. Most of the rubble had black crosses on them that indicated there were still bodies under there.”
The Ladiges’ grand home was still standing, but only half of it was to be theirs. Rhidian believes it may have been the only case where a British official allowed Germans owners to remain.
On arrival, the two families “shook hands politely”. “Then they went to their part of the house, and we were in our part,” Kim remembers. “We had the ground floor and they had the first floor.
“There was a kitchen in the basement we shared. They kept a housemaid and we had a cook of our own.”
Unable to attend the army school because of bad weather, Kim found himself playing with the Ladiges’ children. He especially warmed to Heike, who was closest to his age.
“We climbed trees, walked along the river, played hopscotch – they have that in Germany too,” he chuckles. “I picked up a bit of German and she was trying to learn English. We didn’t talk politics!” Although socialising hadn’t been enc aged, neither set of parents stopped children playing. By Christmas 1947 breakthrough came when his mother they should invite the Ladiges for dr
“They came and somehow or othe ended up dressing up as choir boys girls with sheets around our shoul singing Silent Night in German,” re
You could look for miles in Hamburg and not see a house standing
Rhidian and Col Brook