Late 1943

I’m making my way through the German girls’ letters. I’ve reduced the number of girls and I’ve fictionalised a bit of their personality and some of the things that are happening to them. What they’re talking about in the letters acts as a background.

The girls’ letters are very factual and they don’t always show the emotions of the times. That is where I have to use my skill as a writer and read between the lines a little bit. All sorts of things are coming together at the moment. Research that I’ve done is also influencing me here.  Always to have I have a calendar of the year I’m dealing with, a couple of timelines that show what happened when, and of course, The War Papers.  

I have just three more of the letters to complete, set in the time that the Rundbrief that we found circulated.  Then I am back to total fictionalisation.

I’ve completed a lot of work towards the end of 1943. The girls seem to have been passing the letters on quite quickly at that stage. Nevertheless, the bombing of Nuremberg was getting more furious and this was an uncertain time.  Could it be that they were writing more often because they were less sure of themselves? Also, they had had to grow up very quickly. They were completing their RAD and starting their war work. Some of them were getting engaged an even married.  One has had a baby by September 1944.

I have to find a way of getting that in logically. I don’t want an unmarried mum in this thread as it is partly factual.