‘You know this place might not be Cambridge, but it is rather like a small town – a very cosmopolitan town,’ she said. ‘Or that’s how it should operate. The main organisational work is done by various organisations: the Red Cross, of course, the UNRRA – that’s the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration – and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. But it’s all under the auspices of the American military.’

‘Does that work well?’

‘I don’t see eye to eye with Major Derrick. He seems to think he’s running a prison camp. Keeps guards at the gate and tries to stop the residents coming and going as they please. Half the bloody guards are Germans, and who knows what they did in the war. The refugees don’t like that side of the arrangement one bit. The sooner they are allowed to form their own camp committee to run the place the better. Oh, and the major is a frightful anti-Semite and thinks the Jews are dirty and uncivilised. Just like our ghastly military governor here in Bavaria.’

‘You mean General Patton.’

‘Of course. He’s in overall control of this camp and all the other DPs, like the huge one at Föhrenwald, but he simply can’t get a grip. I just don’t think he’s interested. Do you know what Patton said about the poor Jews? He called them “lower than animals”.’

‘That’s shameful.’

‘Of course it is. Dear God, anyone would look worse for wear if they had been through what our Jews have suffered! The problem is Major Derrick takes his line. He’s new out from the States, and that makes a big difference. Most of the troops who were here at liberation had a lot of sympathy for the people they freed because they saw exactly what had been done to them by the Nazis. But many of those fighting men have gone home now and the new intake are not so understanding. When they see a child pull down its pants and defecate in public without shame, they can’t understand the experiences that have led to such practices.’

‘It makes me wish I could help.’

‘But you can’t.’ It was a statement of fact, not an accusation. She sighed. ‘At least the other half of the guard detail is made up of black American GIs. I have found every one of them more polite and less arrogant than Major Derrick. Maybe he’ll learn a thing or two from them.’

‘What will happen to the refugees?’

Her helpless shrug told all. ‘Who knows? At the moment many of the stronger and younger ones go out in the day to help with the harvests on local farms; they get bread, milk and beer as pay, which improves their diet.’

‘And in the long term?’

‘Some have tried to return to their homes in Poland and Hungary and elsewhere – only to be stoned and driven out by the local people who have appropriated their homes and farms. Even in Holland and Germany many of them can’t go back. One family used to have a fine apartment in Munich but it was confiscated and given to a Nazi family. The son asked his father why they can’t go home and the man just said “mustn’t make trouble, my boy”. He had tears in his eyes.’