City Of Soldiers BY LYDIA WULKAN
Table Of Contents Page 1: Dedication Page 2: About the Author Page 3-7: Packet Page 8-9: Interview Notes Page 10- 14: Historical Narrative Page 15: Afterword Page 16: Bibliography
Dedication I dedicate this narrative to my grandpa, Lars Wulkan who shared his story with me and always tried his best to remember for me. Thank you to my friends who helped me make my historical narrative better by peer editing. I would also like to thank Ms. Bui and Mr. Johnson for helping me create this narrative.
Lars Wulkan
About The Author
Lydia Wulkan was born on the 9th of September 2003 in SÜdertälje, Sweden. She is currently 13 years old, is in 7th grade and lives in Istanbul, Turkey. She goes to an international school called IICS. Her family consists of her sister, two brothers and her parents. Her parents names are Birgitta and Thomas. Her sister is Felicia and her brothers names are Jonathan and Leonard. She has interests such as drawing, reading, biking, hiking, basketball, skiing and soccer.
Lydia Wulkan interviewing Lars Wulkan
Historical Narrative I grew up in Sweden's largest military city, Boden. The military had always been around but during World War II, the amount of soldiers in Boden doubled. I was only 3 when World War II started, but I was 9 when peace finally came. My father passed away just before the war started and I was raised by my mother. I don’t think I fully understood how serious the war was. I remember how many officers there were and that there were hundreds of cafès just for the soldiers. The streets were full of soldiers, walking around in their uniforms. They made me feel intimidated and I always felt like I was being watched. The soldiers ranged from very young to very old and came in all sizes. The officers, who were considered to be above the soldiers were upper class men that often sympathized with Hitler unlike the soldiers who did not.
Officers were even living in our apartment. They took one of our three rooms. I knew that there was nothing I or anyone else could do about it. I thought they were nice; I remember many of them. I helped my brother sell fruit and newspapers to them. At christmas time, I watched them riding on sleighs driven by horses towards the church. I watched mother clean poor children, they were full of dirt and had name tags on their dirty clothing. They had just arrived to safety in Sweden on trains from Finland, some were alone and others were lucky enough to have a sibling with them. They were taken to temporary families that would take care of them while they stayed in Sweden. Many of them started going to my school. I had become friends with them. I thought they were going to go back to Finland after the war, but their temporary families turned into their permanent families and they never returned to Finland. The windows had to be covered, every single window. The lights in my mothers store had to be turned off and we had to pull heavy dark curtains over the windows.
We were afraid that enemy airplanes would notice the city lights. Bombs from above was nothing to be hesitant about. We sat inside our apartment careful not to let light seep through the curtains, I stood up and went outside. I watched the colossal lights that were shooting up at the sky. The lights were like pillars searching the skies for unwanted enemies from above. As a boy, I was fond of the majestic trains full of German soldiers that would ride through the city on their way to Norway. I would watch the trains ride past the train station and found the thought of all the soldiers inside the trains astonishing. I wasn’t supposed to watch, but I snuck down to the train station and watched in secret. I heard them eat from inside the trains. The trains always stopped but no one came out. I heard a lot of talk about it being wrong, Sweden helping the Germans. Why were they allowed to just ride through Sweden?
It was everywhere, everywhere you looked. The local markets, stores, cafĂŠs, billboards, movies, newspapers and on people's faces. Huge crowds gathered around newspapers and posters, outside the post office or local stores. Everyone was full of joy and happiness like children on Christmas Eve. After movies in the movie theatres there were journal films. In these films I watched clips of streets in Stockholm, where paper was thrown out through windows in celebration followed by confetti. The war had finally ended and all of a sudden things that we had never seen before started appearing. Fruit and food that were completely new to me; I ate my first banana, it tasted like nothing I had ever tasted before. We never really talked about the war after it had ended. It was like no one wanted to waste their breath talking about it.
After Word World War II started in 1939 and ended in 1945. There were 35 million to 60 million deaths and millions more were wounded or left without a home. Sweden suffered from the European economic sanctions during World War II even though Sweden remained neutral. The people of Sweden had to ransonise their food, because they were not able to import certain foods during the war. Sweden also took in 80,000 Finnish refugee children during World War II. The Swedish government allowed german soldiers to travel on trains through Sweden on their way to Norway. Which at the time was occupied by Germany. During World War II, two million German soldiers traveled through Sweden.
Bibliography "How and Why Did World War 2 Start?" The Week UK. N.p., 14 June 2016. Web. 01 Nov. 2016. <http://www.theweek.co.uk/60237/how-andwhy-did-world-war-2-start>. "Sweden." Britannica. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://school.eb.co.uk/levels/intermediate/article/277978>. "World War 2." Britannica School. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2016. <http://school.eb.co.uk/levels/intermediate/article/277798>. Wulkan, Lars. "World War 2." Telephone interview. Oct. 2016. Wulkan, Lars. "World War 2, Interview 2." Telephone interview. 1 Nov. 2016. Wulkan, Lars. "World War 2, Interview 3." Telephone interview. 7 Nov. 2016. Att Fly Eller Stanna Kvar. Digital image. Forskning & Framsteg. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016. <http://fof.se/tidning/2015/2/artikel/att-flyeller-stanna-kvar-sa-reagerade-barnen>. De Svenska Pansartågen. Digital image. PerrasMotorNostalgi. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2016. <http://perrasmotornostalgi.blogspot.com.tr/2013/05/de-svenskapansartagen.html>. Den 8 Maj 1945 Var Det Andra Världskriget över I Europa. Digital image. 365 Days For Peace. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2016. <http://www.365daysforpeace.com/blogg/dag-250-70-ar-for-fred>. German train. Digital image. Tornsvala. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016. <http://www.tornsvala.se/category/finska-vinterkriget/>. Wulkan, Birgitta. Lydia Wulkan Interviewing Lars Wulkan. 2016. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print. Boden. Digital image. Worldkustom.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2016. <http://www.worldkustom.com/blogflash/parking-space/>.
This is a Historical Narrative about the life of a small boy living in a military city during World War 2. It is a special edition also including the process of creating this Historical Narrative.
"This is a very well written piece that inspires me. I love the form of writing and I can imagine myself right there!" - Alice Caroline Helen Van Roste "A very informative yet intriguing story, it definitely captures my attention. " -Azita Vatandost