Mom in Germany: c. 1940-1950

Mom, walking with friends, c. 1949 (that's her on the right)

Mom left Germany for Canada, alone, in 1951, at age 17.

(Click on photos to enlarge them)

Yes, people really do sunbathe on the beach in Germany.

Mom c. 1950

UPDATE: she tells me that she often took her vacations at a coastal resort town north of Hamburg, on the Baltic Sea (Timmendorfer Strand). She usually went with some girlfriends, and sometimes with some old boy friends (i.e., town friends who happened to be boys and who regarded her virtually as a sister). It was all very innocent, she insists. They slept in tents at the beach. They had virtually no money. Mom seemed to know how to have fun.

Visiting the grave of her stepfather, c. 1941

I don't know what this is about. I'll ask!
UPDATE: mom tells me that, starting at age 14, she started training to become a kind of county clerk--a bureaucratic government worker. Her four classmates were all boys. Needless to say, she was popular with them and with the teacher. She was only three weeks away from completing her training when she set out for Canada in 1951. "The boys were all good at math," she says, "but not me. But they were always very willing to help me with that."