No Other Choice—别无选择（乔治·布莱克）（第三章~Section 2）

     Probably, because of the fighting, it had not been possible to warn every British subject in Rotterdam individually and, anyway, my grandmother did not have a telephone. Perhaps there had been an announcement on the radio, but I had not heard it. Anyway, that would have made no difference. In the frame of mind I was in, I would not have left even if I had received a warning. In my eyes that would have meant abandoning the sinking ship. Besides, I would not have left my grandmother alone in those dangerous times. That this was a very short-sighted point of view, I was soon to find out. Before the end of the year, I had come round to exactly the opposite.

【也许，由于战争的原因，不可能对鹿特丹的每一个英国公民都单独发出警告，而且，我的祖母没有电话。也许广播里有通告，但我没有听到。不管怎样，有与没有并没什么区别。我当时想的是，即使接到警告我也不会离开的。在我看来，那就意味着要弃家而去。此外，在那些危险的日子里，我不会把我的祖母一个人留下的。我很快就发现，这是一个非常狭隘的想法。到这年底时，我的想法已经完全相反了。】

     If we schoolboys had hoped that the war would bring any changes in the old-established school routine, we were soon disappointed. A week after the invasion, my school, which was undamaged, opened its doors again and a month later, on the usual date, we sat for our exams. In spite of my secret hope that the war might deliver me from this ordeal, I had nothing to fear and passed with good marks to everyone's satisfaction.

【如果我们这些小学生曾希望战争会给传统的学校生活带来任何改变的话，我们很快就失望了。战争一周后，我的学校，完好无损，重新上课了。一个月后，在正常的日期，我们参加了考试。尽管我暗自希望战争能把我从这场磨难中解救出来，但我并没有紧张，并以优异的成绩通过了考试，让每个人都对我很满意。】

     To recover from all the shocks, it was arranged that my grandmother should spend the summer months with my uncle Tom, the grain merchant, who lived in a small village not far from the town of Zutphen and I would go with her. That part of Holland is very beautiful, hilly, with lots of forest, many old castles, fine country houses and small historic towns. I liked staying with my uncle, with whom I got on well, and who would take me with him in his car on his visits to farmers and millers with whom he had business to transact.

【为了从所有的打击中恢复过来，我决定让我的祖母和谷物商人汤姆叔叔一起度过夏天，他住在离祖特芬镇不远的一个小村庄里，我和祖母一起去。荷兰的那部分地区非常美丽，多山，有许多森林，许多古老的城堡，漂亮的乡村房屋和历史小镇。我喜欢和我叔叔呆在一起，我和他相处得很好，他会开车带我去拜访他要做生意的农民和磨坊主。】

     I had been there about a fortnight when one warm afternoon, as I was lazing in the garden with a book, the elderly village constable came to see us. Very apologetically he explained that he had just received instructions to arrest me as a British subject and take me to Rotterdam. He was unable to tell me what would happen to me and kept on saying how sorry he was, but orders were orders. We had to leave early the next morning and his proper course was to lock me up in the local police station. In deference to my uncle, however, he would allow me to spend the night at home if we promised not to take advantage of this.

【我在那儿呆了大约两个星期，有一天下午天气暖和，我正拿着一本书懒洋洋地躺在花园里，村里一位上了年纪的巡警来看我们。他非常抱歉地解释说，他刚刚接到指示，要把我作为英国公民逮捕，并带我去鹿特丹。他无法告诉我接下来会发生什么，只是不停地说他很抱歉，但命令就是命令。第二天一早，我们不得不离开，他的正确做法是把我锁在当地警察局。然而，为了尊重我的叔叔，如果我们保证不利用这个机会逃跑，他会允许我在家里过夜。】

     This totally unexpected development brought great consternation in the family. Looking back now, it seems astonishing that this event was so totally unexpected. On the contrary, we should have foreseen it and taken evasive action in time. The fact is that my family, and indeed I myself, were so used to regarding me as an ordinary Dutch boy that the thought that I might be interned as a British subject simply never occurred to us. As it was, since my uncle had promised the constable that I would be ready to accompany him the next morning, it was now too late to do anything. To my grandmother, especially, it was a big blow. I tried to console her and give myself courage by suggesting that it might be just a question of reporting and that when they realised I was just an ordinary schoolboy, they would let me go. The next morning the constable came to fetch me and, so as not to make it look as if I was some young hooligan who had been taken in custody, he had put on civilian clothes. On arrival in Rotterdam he took me straight to police HQ. There I was told that, in accordance with instructions received from the German authorities, I was to be interned as a British subject.

【这一完全出乎意料的事态发展给全家人带来了极大的惊愕。现在回想起来，这件事竟然如此出人意料，实在令人吃惊。其实，我们应该预见到这一点，并及时采取规避行动。实际上，我的家人，甚至我自己，都习惯于把我看作一个普通的荷兰男孩，我们从来没有想过我会作为一个英国公民被拘留。然而，既然我叔叔已经答应警察，我将准备好第二天早上陪他去，现在已经来不及了。尤其是对我的祖母来说，这是一个很大的打击。我试图安慰她，并给自己勇气说，这可能只是一个报告的问题，当他们意识到我只是一个普通的学生时，他们会让我走的。第二天早晨，警察来找我，为了不把我弄得像个被抓起来的小流氓，他穿上了便服。一到鹿特丹，他就直接把我带到警局总部。在那里我被告知，根据德国当局的指示，我将作为英国公民被拘留。】

     In the course of the afternoon my aunt came to visit me. She was in tears. What seemed to shock her most was that, in accordance with the regulations, they had taken my tie away. She brought me cherries and a change of clothes and took the opportunity of giving the policemen present a good piece of her mind. She told them in no uncertain terms what she thought of Dutch officials who carried out German orders and locked up little boys, a category to which in her eyes I still belonged.

【在这个下午，我的姑妈来看我。她泪流满面。最使她震惊的是，按照规定，他们把我的领带拿走了。她给我拿来了樱桃和一套换洗的衣服，并利用这个机会把警察们痛骂了一顿。她毫不含糊地告诉他们，她对那些执行德国命令、把小男孩关起来的荷兰官员的看法，在她眼里，我仍然是一个小男孩。】

     I spent the night in a police cell and the next morning was taken by two Dutch detectives by train to Schoorl, a small village on the coast, north of Amsterdam. At the station a sergeant of the German Security police was waiting for us and took us in a police van to the nearby camp. There my passport was taken away from me, my small bag searched and my name registered in the books. I was then taken to a hut, already crowded with young Frenchmen and Englishmen, and assigned a bunk.

【我在警察的牢房里度过了一夜，第二天早上，两个荷兰侦探乘火车把我送到了斯库尔，这是阿姆斯特丹北部海岸上的一个小村庄。在车站，一名德国安全警察的警官正等着我们，并把我们用一辆警车带到附近的营地。在那里，我的护照被没收了，我的小包被搜查了，我的名字也登记在了登记簿上。然后，我被带到一间已经挤满了年轻的法国人和英国人的小屋，给我安排了一个铺位。】

     Though I soon became accustomed to my new circumstances, I felt at first quite apprehensive. The worst excesses had not yet taken place, but sufficient was known about German concentration camps to chill the heart of anyone who entered their gates as an inmate. The fact that this particular camp was guarded by Waffen SS, with the skull and crossbones on their caps, did nothing to reassure me. As it turned out life in the camp was not as bad as I had expected. All the inmates were French or British subjects. Those under twenty were put in a separate hut under a young and aggressively fit SS sergeant who made us do everything at the double. Much of the day was taken up by roll calls, scrubbing our hut, keeping the compound clean and peeling potatoes. The food was adequate. We were civilian internees and the Germans were well aware that thousands of their own nationals were interned by the British authorities in all parts of the world so they observed the rules of international law.

【虽然我很快就适应了我的新环境，但起初我还是感到相当不安。最严重的暴行还没有发生，但德国集中营的情况已经足够让任何进入集中营的人感到心寒了。这个营地是由武装党卫军守卫的，他们的帽子上有骷髅头和交叉的骨头，这让我很不安。事实证明，营地的生活并不像我想象的那么糟糕。所有的囚犯都是法国或英国的公民。二十岁以下的人被关在一个单独的小屋里，由一个年轻而强壮的党卫军中士指挥，他让我们做任何事都要加倍。一天的大部分时间都在点名、擦洗小屋、保持院子清洁和削土豆皮。食物是足够的。我们是被拘留的平民，德国人很清楚，成千上万的本国公民在世界各地被当局关押，所以他们不得不遵守国际法的规则。】

     I had been in the camp about two weeks when the news came of the fall of France. Naturally this had a most depressing effect, though most of us, even among the French, felt that this was by no means the end and that Britain would go on fighting. The Germans, on the other hand, were convinced that all was over bar the shouting. In a few weeks, they boasted, they would land in England and quickly bring the war to a victorious end.

【当法国陷落的消息传来时，我在集中营呆了大约两个星期。自然，这产生了一种令人沮丧的影响，尽管我们大多数人，甚至是法国人，都认为这绝不是结束，英国还会继续战斗。而另一方面，德国人确信一切都结束了，不停大喊大叫。他们吹嘘说，在几周内，他们就能登陆英国，很快就能取得战争的胜利。】

     One evening in the fourth week of my internment, immediately after dinner, the sergeant called everyone in the youth hut out and lined us up in the courtyard. He then ordered those who were under eighteen years of age to take a step forward. About five of us, including myself, did so. He told us that as we were not yet of military age and the war was nearly over, it had been decided to release us. We could return home the next morning.

【在我被关押的第四周的一个晚上，一吃完晚饭，中士就把青年宿舍里的所有人都叫出来，让我们在院子里排队。然后他命令那些不满18岁的人向前迈一步。包括我在内，我们大约有五个人这样做了。他告诉我们，由于我们还没有到服兵役的年龄，战争也快结束了，所以决定释放我们。我们可以第二天早上回家。】

      I was by now accustomed to camp life and had begun to make good friends among my fellow prisoners. Though thrilled at the unexpected prospect of freedom and of seeing my family again, I felt sad to leave my new friends behind to an uncertain fate. Much later I heard that a week or so after my release all French subjects had been set free. The British were kept. They stayed in the camp till the beginning of the winter when the Germans, realising no doubt that the war would not be over as soon as they had expected, moved them to another camp in Eastern Silesia where they remained until they were liberated by Russian troops in the spring of 1945.

【到现在为止，我已经习惯了营地的生活，并开始和其他囚犯交起了好朋友。虽然我为这意想不到的自由前景和再次见到家人而激动不已，但要离开我的新朋友去面对一个不确定的命运，我感到难过。很久以后，我听说在我被释放一周左右后，所有的法国人都被释放了。英国人被留了下来。他们被关押到了冬季的开始,当德国人意识到这场战争会变得持久,他们被移动到在西里西亚东部的集中营,这些英国人直到1945年春天被苏联军队解放。】

     The family was sitting in the garden drinking tea when quite out of the blue I walked in. I got a hero's welcome though I had done nothing heroic. Many neighbours and friends called to hear my experience which I had to tell over and over again. In those early days of the war, it was still something new among the Dutch to have been arrested by the Germans. Not much time would pass before it became a common occurrence and the tales -of those who survived and returned differed tragically from mine.

【一家人正坐在花园里喝茶，我突然不声不响地走了进来。我受到了英雄般的欢迎，尽管我并没有做什么英雄的事。许多邻居和朋友打电话来听我的经历，我不得不一遍又一遍地讲述。在战争初期，被德国人逮捕对荷兰人来说还是件新鲜事。没过多久，这件事就成了家常便饭，而那些幸存下来并回来的人的故事，则比我经历的要悲剧得多。】

     The summer passed and the Germans were clearly making no headway with their invasion of England. The Battle of Britain had been fought and the RAF emerged victorious. Rumours were circulating in Holland that the Germans had concentrated large numbers of ships and landing craft in the estuary of the Scheldt. It was even said that an invasion attempt had actually been made, but that it had been foiled at sea by a wall of fire. Whatever the truth of all this was, one thing was certain: the Germans would not be able to land in England that autumn. On the BBC, to which it was forbidden to listen, we heard the stirring speeches of Churchill. These gave us hope and strengthened our resolution to resist.

【夏天过去了，德国人对英国的入侵显然毫无进展。英国战争已经打响，英国皇家空军取得了胜利。在荷兰流传着这样的谣言:德国人在斯海尔特河口集结了大量的船只和登陆艇。甚至有人说，他们确实曾企图入侵，但在海上被一道火墙挫败了。不管这一切的真相是什么，有一件事是肯定的:那年秋天德国人将无法登陆英国。在禁止收听的英国广播公司上，我们听到了丘吉尔激动人心的演讲。这些给了我们希望，增强了我们抵抗的决心。】

     There was thus every prospect that the war would not be over soon. There was also every prospect that when I became eighteen in November the Germans would intern me again. I was determined that this should not happen and I was fully backed in this resolve by my uncle. He had among his acquaintances a farmer who lived in a small hamlet called Hummelo, some 20 miles from Zutphen in the depth of the country. This man agreed to give me a small room in his house and let me live with his family in return for a small payment. Another friend of my uncle's, the burgomaster of the village where he lived, provided me with a real Dutch identity card in a fictitious name. If there were any enquiries about me from official quarters, he would report me as missing. With these precautions, we felt I stood a good chance of keeping out of the hands of the Germans who, anyway, were unlikely to waste much effort to find me.

【因此，战争很有可能不会很快结束。还有一种可能性是，当我11月满18岁时，德国人会再次把我当人质。我下定决心不让这种事发生，我的叔叔也完全支持我的决心。在他的熟人中，有一个农民住在一个叫哈梅罗的小村子里，离祖特芬大约20英里，是在乡村深处。这个人同意在他的房子里给我一个小房间，让我和他的家人住在一起，以换取一小笔报酬。我叔叔的另一个朋友，他住的那个村庄的市长，给了我一张用假名写的真实的荷兰人身份证。如果公务人员问起我，他会报告我失踪。有了这些预防措施，我们觉得我很有可能不落入德国人之手，不管怎样，他们不太可能浪费太多精力来找我。】