Two Old Ladies

It was drafty and the Holland cold bit deep in Hut 2-B. The two frail old ladies from Germany--Internees No. 00001989 and No. 00001990--huddled in their double bed, shivered as they peered through a windowpane at the internment camp where 6,000 German civilians were held.

The two old ladies were different from the rest: they were not Germans. No. 00001989, age 73, had been born Victoria Vickers. No. 00001990, age 78, was her sister Grace. When the last of the side-wheelers still ferried the Atlantic, they had made the long journey from Cincinnati, where their father taught in the University. They had come to study in Germany, had stayed there to live.

Grace married a German artist, Victoria a German mining engineer. They raised families. In World War I, Grace lost a son. When World War II began, the two sisters were aging widows, keeping house on a hillside near the Dutch border.

They tried to make the hillside home a backwater of the times. But war intruded. First, from the Russian front came telegrams: Victoria's only son and Grace's grandson had both been killed in action. Then, one Sunday last September, an American paratrooper dropped into their garden during the battle for the Nijmegen Bridge. Shells screamed around the hillside house. Soon, some polite British officers called, telling them they were in danger and had better leave.

"We Want to Stay." Last week in Hut 2-B, the two old ladies, still abed, received American visitors, TIME Correspondent William W. Johnson and LIFE Photographer George Silk. They told their story--Victoria in perfect American, Grace with a slight accent. Would they pose for a picture? They fussed and primped, tied ribbons in their white hair, prettied their shawls, tidied their pillows, smoothed the bedcover. Flashlight bulbs popped. They blinked and giggled.

They looked so cold--were they comfortable? Nun ja, it was not nice. Too much noise in the hut. And the soup was too thin. But surely the camp authorities would arrange better quarters?

"Aber nein" said Victoria. "We came here with our neighbors, and we want to stay with them. We pray for the war to be over. Then we all want to return to our homes. Perhaps we will live that long."

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