20. Oktober 1949
| GEO INFO | ||||
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| Paderborn–Lippstadt–Münster/Westfalen–Warendorf | 
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| Warendorf, Markt 17 |
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on the Servatiiplatz, in the background the ruin of the Reichsbahn Directorate Münster
20 Oct 49. Departure from Friedland. Our returnee train rolls through Westphalia. The men hang in bunches at the window. A young woman walks below, her eyes fixed on the road ahead. She looks up once. She sees the men waving and recognises the returnee transport. A smile flits across her face and she waves back in a friendly manner.
Paderborn, Lippstadt. Great hustle and bustle at the railway stations. Red Cross helpers hand out small gift packs to the returnees. And the same touching and harrowing scenes at every railway station: The jubilant relatives hugging their returnee, and next to them the pale face of the haggard mother, who walks wordlessly along the train with pleading eyes in silent lamentation, holding up the photo of her missing son.
Münster/Westfalen. I got off the train here and am now sitting on a bench waiting for the train to Warendorf. Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone walking around me with their head sticking out and looking at me curiously. I look up and recognise Fritz Schäfer, the red-haired Antifa member from Smolensk. He had remained behind in Smolensk when we were transferred to Borissov, but had been released before us. He is studying in Münster, but lives elsewhere (Ruhr area?).
On the train to Warendorf, a young woman sits next to me, who of course immediately recognises me as a returnee. She is understandably curious and wants to know all sorts of things. She also wants to know whether my arrival is known and whether I will be picked up at the station in Warendorf.
But there was nobody at the station because the time of my arrival was uncertain. So I walk slowly through the streets of the little town, whose medieval church towers I have already seen from the train window. I didn’t know such steeples from Berlin.
I reach Markt 17 and ring the bell at “Arens”. Then I slowly climb the 2 floors[1], and at the last turn of the stairs I can already see Carola standing in the doorway.
It is the afternoon of 20 October 1949.[2] I am finally home.
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