Wilma Iggers, Bielefeld 2006
“We lived very simply, very frugally, and furnished the house entirely with furniture from Mr. Brown’s secondhand store. The first thing we needed, of course, were mattresses. The next morning, we were bitten by fleas that we went back to Mr. Brown — on foot, of course — with the large mattresses. He was kind enough to take them back. With the money, we were able to take other things, such as a bookcase, which we still have today. The house was poorly insulated. You could see the earth through the floorboards, for example. So we bought a coconut rug. One day on the way home, I saw Georg dragging a large, heavy thing along the sidewalk. He decided to give it to a family who — he said — were much worse off than us. And they should have the rug. Of course, we didn’t have a car, nor a telephone. In winter, there was no proper heating, such as central heating. What we did have were small gas heaters. We had one in every room. And for small children — we soon had three — it was very dangerous. So I bought rolls of wire — chicken wire — and installed one around each heater so the children couldn’t get near it.”