An air raid over Sins during World War II

79-year-old Werner Gretener has just published his first book, recalling what it was like in Hünenberg between the years 1943-1951.

While this meant, of course, that Gretener experienced the war years as a young boy, he recalls his childhood with great fondness.

One event he has never forgotten, in 1942, was seeing an air attack on a barn in Sins, just four kilometres away. “I can remember seeing it suddenly burst into flames,” he said, subsequently concluding that the real target of the attack was the Lonza factory which had allegedly been supplying the Nazis with war material. “It was a dreadful experience, but my mother always used to explain these wartime events in a way we children were able understood. When I think back, I have great respect for my mother, who had to cope alone through the war years, after my father had had to leave to serve. It makes me think, now, how we do not appreciate all that that generation had to go through.”

For the most part, for Gretener, the war years meant seeing lots of soldiers in the village, which was not without its advantages, children benefiting from gifts of army-issue chocolate and air-dried sausages, all gratefully received in times of rationing. As to entertainment, the young lads of the village got together to enjoy trapping mice and hypnotising hens.

All of this and much more is recounted in his book “My Hünenberg, Memories of Childhood and at Primary School 1943-51”. He explained how he recalled these old times to friends with less sharp memories he had met at a school reunion some 40 years ago. It was following this that he decided to start writing some of his recollections down. Then, four years ago, he got out all his notes and wrote to family and friends about them. “Some asked me how many archives I had waded through to get it all down. Yet I have never ever been to any archives at all,” he said, as he went to explain it was actually the son of a friend who encouraged him to embark on a book, some 300 copies having been printed.

Copies are available from the Balmer bookshop in the Zugerland shopping centre, or directly from the author himself via geren@quickline.ch.
 
The photograph is for illustrative purposes only.