In this arpillera Mara vividly remembers fleeing in 1945 as a child from the Russians in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in the Soviet zone, north of Berlin.
“We were about three months running westwards during the nights and hiding in the woods during the days. I was not yet three and had to run with my bigger brother of five years old. My mother took the one year old sister in her arms. Finally my mother returned with us to Ulrichshusen where we had found shelter in 1943 when bombing in the cities became too hard. When we returned … my mother had to work in the fields for the Russians. There was little food and a lot of people died of typhus.”
Almost 65 years after the event Mara reflects that “children are always the fragile ones” in such traumatic events “…mark[ing] their whole life.” She connects her experience to our present: “ all these children suffering now in these new wars is deeply concerning.”
This arpillera was sewn by Mara in one of the workshops -EVACUATION- that took place as part of the associated activities during the exhibition The Human Cost of War, at the Tower Museum, Derry City Council Heritage and Museum Service, 2011.
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