The following is a report from 1967, written by Peter Watson about a camp at St Peter in summer of that year. 

For the first time for several years the reservoir by the Plattenhof, high up in the Black Forest 20 miles from Freiberg, was warm. The two weeks of hot sunshine, marred only by some violent but short-lived thunderstorms meant that swimming costumes were the dress of the day, With continuous sunshine, activities were easy to plan, and fo fourteen days a team of 12 students gave 37 children (13 girls and 24 boys) a holiday which students and children alike will long remember. 

The team arrived at St Peter early in July with 9 days in which to prepare the camp for the children. Once again B.A.O.R. were generous with their loan of equipment and for the first four days the Army drivers were with s to help with the building of the camp. Twelve 160lb tends, a marquee, kitchen, store hut and latrines were erected in three days of hard work by students and soldiers together. This year we were back on the t-op-of-the-plateau site which we were unable to use last year. Sited 3,000ft above sea level, we had far-reaching views across the Black Forest. A further day was spent in small groups in different parts of the area, planning activities for the children, after which two of us left to visit the families and plan the pick-up. The families were of various Central European background, some living in new flats and some, whose turn in the Caritas re-housing scheme had not yet come, in back-street slums. The basic qualification for all the children was that if we had not taken them, they would not have had a holiday at all. The pick up is a tricky operation involving several hundred miles of driving for all three vans which was further complicated by the breakdown of our oldest van, Fortunately, however, we were rescued by the Edinburgh University C.H.V. camp who generously loaned us a van and driver for a day. It left at 4.00 a.m. to make the round trip in a day. (The broken van was out of action for the rest of our camp. Luckily it was ready for the second camp; unluckily it cost £160 to repair.)

Eventually the camp was under way. We had determined from the beginning to maximise the use of daylight. This entailed an early-to-bed early-to-rise routine. The first two or three days were centred on the camp as the routine was established. Early to bed was always difficult to enforce but its advantages were obvious when having completed the day’s chores, including the highly competitive morning tent inspection, we were able to start a day’s activities by 8.30. 

In camp the day was spent swimming, playing football or wide games and tackling an extremely arduous obstacle course, making short walks through the forest, and practising for the concert. With two highly talented musicians and Philip and Tony, and a harmonium given to us in England, it seemed natural that music should play a large part in the camp. The climax came on the second Sunday afternoon when the children gave their concert. Perhaps the audience was not as big as we had hoped, but Countess Szapary, who selected the children, some local farmers and the Edinburgh students found the children’s efforts to be of an extraordinarily high standard, considering that most of them had never been encouraged to sing before and the short period of practise available to them. All the children took part in an international selection of songs, ably conducted by Tony and accompanied on guitar or harmonium by Philip. 

The harmonium also helped to make mass in the marquee a moving experience. Father Sommer, a half English, half German priest from a local parish, came up to celebrate mass. We were joined by the Edinburgh camp. The result was a polyglot service of High Church of Scotland, Church of England, Polish Catholic, German Catholic; Anglican responses in a German Mass, with hymns, ancient and modern, sung in Polish, German and English, accompanied on the harmonium. A truly ecumenical congregation in the heart of the Black Forest.

the service marked the end of a period of intense rivalry between the children of the Edinburgh and Cambridge camps. On reaching their respective camps the children immediately identified themselves as English or Scottish to such an extent that the football matches become intensely patriotic affairs in which honour had to be maintained. Any doubtful decision endangered the referee’s life! The first matches were played on the Edinburgh site and the return matches on the Cambridge site after Mass. Following the return match the two eldest boys from each camp had a very sportsmanlike and formal wrestling match: after each fall they stood back and shook hands. The result was a draw and honour was maintained on both sides. Co-existence became possible. 

Our relationship with the local people seemed even better than usual. Stefan, owner of our land, continued to be very helpful and his family were always welcome guests in the camp. One highlight of the fortnight was the game played in St. Peter itself. The student team, disguised as a fruitseller, a road-mender, a tramp, and even an Arab, wearing a motley of clothes borrowed or brought from England, went into the village and tried to merge into the background. The children were let loose to find them. With men dressed as women and women as men, and with a password: “Have you washed behind your ears today?” the game took possession of the village for one and a half hours to the delight of the children, the local people and the tourists. That afternoon the village of St. Peter was over-run by our children and loved it. 

The camp itself lasted a fortnight from mid-week to mid-week. The Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the middle week were spend as three separate groups of big boys, small boys and girls making trips around the countryside – either on foot or by van. Two groups visited the circus and saw the city of Freiburg, two groups visited the ice-caves at Schöpfheim, another went to Tübingen and all three did a day’s walk through the forest. Fitted into this programme was a specially strenuous exercise for the biggest boys. Richard and Tony took them 30 miles across the Feldburg, the highest mountain in the Black Forest. They started late one evening, slept rough and walked for the whole of the next day. The were several pairs of sore feet at the end, but all the boys enjoyed (anyhow in retrospect, when stories of distance became taller and taller) being pushed to the limit. 

An innovation tis year was Witold. For several years he has come as a child; now 17 we asked him to join us as a student. The experiment was a resounding success. He is both a hard and reliable worker and his help with the children was invaluable. He fitted in perfectly with the students. I hope that this experiment will have helped to solve the continued problems of older boys on camps. By bringing a boy right through the camps like this I feel we have achieved the ideal of continuity. 

As last year we felt somewhat guilty at not laying on something special for girls in the camp. In camps primarily boy-orientated, we have not yet managed to find any special activities for the girls, partly because they seem to enjoy joining in most of the things which the boys do, or sitting by themselves. It was boys who volunteered to help in the kitchen the most, probably because it is something they do not experience at home; for the same reason, the girls enjoyed the boys’ games. In a happy camp the girls were laughing as much as anybody else, so perhaps we need not consider this a problem. 

It was Witold who said that the food was the best he had ever had on a C.H.V. camp. Full credit for this must go to our Homerton girls. Led by chief cook Janet, they excelled themselves at every meal except breakfast which the men prepared while they had a lie-in. We were further helped by the N.A.A.F.I. who allowed us to order food which was delivered to the camp by the Army. This saved us the bulk of shopping, only fresh fruit and salad and bread had to be fetched. The time and effort saved is incalculable and we are very grateful to the N.A.A.F.I. in London and in Germany for this service. 

The success of a camp is measured by the children’s reactions and judging by those, we succeeded. This was due partly to the weather but largely to my team. All of whom gave themselves unstintingly to the children for the fortnight. To them I am personally very grateful. It was a first class team which did a first class job/ My only regret is that we can not all go again next year. The groundwork of the camps is laid in Cambridge by C.R.I. we would not exist For all the time and energy exerted, all the experience and advice freely given by F-D, and his staff we are always grateful. The Army in Germany every year is so generous with its loans of equipment that a mere thank you does not seem enough; similarly for all those who gave us money for C/H/V. Ultimately we are wholly dependent on them and can only say, please come sometime and see the children for yourself. 

The camp is run for the children and it is only by seeing the children that one can see how worthwhile it all is. On their behalf I can say “Thank-you.”

Peter Watson,
2nd October 1967