Banana And Other Fruit

Upon arrival in the refugee camp in Nuremberg, her parents and her grandparents were given a tiny room respectively. For a present, there was a small basket with fruits standing on the table. Sonja Hefele recalls: “My parents were pleased by the fruits that the Germans gave us as a welcome gift but I felt offended by the sympathies of the Germans.” In addition, the family was given a little bit of money – Sonja Hefele too. When she was leaving the camp, she discovered a little store selling fruits. Here, she saw bananas for the first time in her life and she decided to invest the 20 Marks that she had saved in the camp in bananas. And so it came that young Sonja Hefele came back to the camp with a 10-kilo sack full of bananas. While her parents stayed in a second refugee camp for a couple more weeks, Sonja Hefele stayed with her uncle in Augsburg. Shortly afterwards, the family was allocated a flat in Augsburg where they moved in.