Christa Schneider was born in April 1940 in Breslau, Silesia, the younger of the two daughters in her family. Her father, a German soldier, had died from wounds sustained at Saint Petersburg [Annotator's Note: Saint Petersburg, Russia] in October 1944. The family lived in Breslau until it was declared a fortified city and women and children were forced to evacuate. In January 1945, Schneider, her mother, grandmother and sister traveled by train for two weeks to get to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] where her uncles could assist with their welfare. Finding accommodation was difficult and the women lived in a single room. Schneider remembers foraging in the park for greens to furnish the family table. The war was nearing its end, and the fight for the German capital became "intense."

As a child, Christa Schneider said, living in the middle of the war zone was "terrifying." The roar of the airplanes over Berlin and the boom of the exploding bombs are still vivid in her memory. Her home was near an intersection, and Schneider said that during one calm day, the children played outside; that night all four corners of the intersection were on fire. In February 1945 word came from the government that citizens could go back to Silesia and her grandmother, who was homesick, persuaded Schneider's mother to attempt a return. The Russians intercepted the train on which they traveled and the women returned to Berlin. Unfortunately, Schneider had accepted a cup of contaminated water from a Russian soldier and nearly died of dysentery. Her mother had to rely on home remedies for her daughter's recovery. In Berlin, the electrical supply was erratic, and sometimes Schneider's mother got up in the middle of the night to cook their food, which was scarce. They lived on a rationing system that Schneider called "ridiculous," and they licked their plates to consume every morsel. Store bought bread often contained sawdust. Her grandmother was resourceful in their home, and her mother worked when she could to provide an income.

Christa Schneider's mother worked in an office before the war and met her husband there. Although he was not inclined toward a profession in the military, Schneider's father was drafted as a common soldier. His marriage was interrupted for four years while he was in service, and ended when he died from battle wounds. Schneider's family evacuated from Breslau [Annotator's Note: Wrocław (Breslau), Poland] to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] because she had two maternal uncles in that city. One of them saved his future wife, a Jewish girl, by getting her a false passport. Schneider said she had Jewish neighbors who vanished, and even as a small child she realized that something was happening that put Jewish people in jeopardy. She cannot believe there are people today who refuse to admit that the Holocaust occurred. When the Germans finally surrendered, everyone Schneider knew was glad that the "despot" [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was gone. She said the children played among the ruined buildings and there were still piles of covered corpses in the parks. It was a difficult reality for a child to accept, but Schneider grew accustomed to death, among the non-combatants as well as the military. Those who survived wanted to rebuild a better Germany, but it took time to transform the bombed-out, defeated country. Schneider said the Germans are good workers and did quite a good job.

After the war, Christa Schneider's family lived in the British Sector of Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. Her mother made money taking on sewing jobs, eventually establishing a sewing cooperative for young people in a ruined palace. Living conditions improved, food was in better supply, and schools began to reopen. In Schneider's memory, the blockade of Berlin is marked by the noise of airplanes. She was still a small child, and when playing outdoors, the presence of aircraft passing overhead every two minutes was notable. Her opinion of Americans improved with the advent of the Marshall Plan, and the airdrops that featured chocolates. Even though she never caught a parachute, she received one Hershey chocolate bar each week at school and remembers eating each one immediately and entirely. The adults in her family discussed the airlift, and Schneider was aware that it was going on, even though she was not old enough to fully understand the circumstances. Remarkably, one of Schneider's relatives acquired a seat aboard a British plane and took her to live in a small village where she ate well and was able to continue school, temporarily relieving her mother of one "mouth to feed." Schneider said the experience was "special" because she was the first member of her family to travel by airplane, and the nine months she spent away from Berlin were predictable, tranquil, happy ones.

When Christa Schneider returned to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany], she resumed her education among other survivors of the war. She said they never discussed their traumatic experiences in school or at home. As a student in Berlin's British sector, she liked learning and remembers the educational program was intense compared to what she sees in today's educational system. Schneider said she was always interested in history but never wanted to study the two world wars. Only recently has she begun to read accounts of that historical period. Schneider went through college in teachers' training and became an elementary school teacher, specializing in the English language. On weekends, she frequented the lakes and green spaces throughout the western part of the city. She found a difference between West and East Berlin, and only had a few occasions, when she visited elderly relatives, to visit the Russian sector. She found the people less "free," and the stores scantily supplied. Once the dividing wall was built, she never went there again, but hoped the Soviets would "go home," and Germany would be reunited again, although she didn't think the wall would come down during her lifetime. She was living in California when it happened, and said she was plugged to the television when the news was broadcast. For her, it was a wonderful surprise.

Between high school and college, Christa Schneider worked as an au pair in Britain. She cared for the three children of a medical couple who helped her with practical use of the English language. It was a very positive experience for Schneider and she felt no apparent prejudice against her as a German. She has no recollection of ever discussing the war with her acquaintances while in Great Britain. She liked the feeling of living in a single family home in Cambridge [Annotator's Note: Cambridge, England], a smaller city than Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany], but was happy to return to her mother and sister after a year away from home. She went to college and met the man she would marry, who coincidentally had the same surname, so she remained Schneider after she married. There was always a difficult process to get into or out of East Germany, requiring lengthy and sometimes frightening stops at passport checkpoints. Only restroom stops were allowed while transiting through East Berlin, and transients were not allowed to speak with the locals. Schneider said the houses there were drab and depressing. She found the rules restrictive and dictatorial, and knew that Stalin [Annotator's Note: Soviet Premiere Joseph Stalin] murdered many people within the "bad and suppressive" Soviet regime. She understood the motivation for people trying to escape over the wall and was happy when they were successful. She and her husband were far better off living in the western area of Berlin, under a newly formed constitutional democracy. She recently became an American citizen, and feels she has two countries where she feels "at home."

Christa Schneider spent nine months in the United States when her husband's job landed him in Austin, Texas. She found it hard to return to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany], and came back to live in Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois] for two-and-a-half years not long afterward. Living is the United States was not difficult because her husband's income was adequate, and the life of a scientist's wife was interesting. She had occasion to meet Colonel Gail Halvorsen, best known as the "Berlin Candy Bomber"] through a newspaper article announcing his planned appearance in a nearby town. She was then forced to think about the Berlin Air Lift, and began participating in Halvorsen's yearly visits. Schneider described meeting and being recognized by pilots who risked their lives and dropped candy over Berlin during the airlift period as "moving" for everyone.

The events of history that Christa Schneider lived through gave her strength, and a "fullness" for the great men who participated in the airlift. Moreover, she recognizes what all Americans did to build up her "fallen-down" country through the Marshall Plan. Schneider was in the crowd that heard President John F. Kennedy [Annotator's Note: 35th President of the United States] state, "I am a Berliner"; she felt it complimentary. She believes it important to teach World War 2 to future generations as a "warning, a big warning" to negotiate and "try to be peaceful."