In the early 1930's, my father helped his younger brother and family (his wife and 5 children) to emigrate.
This was just before Hitler took power.
After the USA entered the war in 1941, we
received no more mail from our relatives in Germany. Fortunately they
lived in an area that was not bombed and only at the end of the war as the
Americans drew closer, did they see any fighting. However, several male
family members were lost as members of the German army. We were very
worried at this time since we had no knowledge about what was happening in
our family.
Now the story gets interesting. My uncle's oldest
son (who was about six years old when he emigrated) joined the American
army soon after high school. He could speak German and was used as an
interpreter. He was with Patton's 3rd Army after D-Day.One day when
he was questioning a German prisoner, he discovered that the young man was
a childhood friend! Can you imagine?
Of course, my cousin asked many
questions about our family and how they were coping and if his grandmother
was still alive. The young German soldier thought he meant our
great-grandmother who had died earlier and said that the grandmother had
died. Of course, my cousin wrote immediately to his father and to my
father about this news and about all the other family news that the young
man had told him. Of course it was a hard blow to our families in the USA.
Later as the Third Army drove across Germany, it happened that my
cousin's unit was stationed near the town where he was born. When the
Americans took over the town, he marched through with his unit and
immediately recognized his old home and the family inn. As soon as he
could, he went to the inn and said: "Ich bin Sepperl" - At those words,
there was rejoicing at the inn. My grandmother was indeed alive, as were
most of our other relatives! Can you imagine the joy in the USA when we
learned of my cousin's discovery?
After the war, as soon as
packages could be sent, my parents and my uncle and aunt and their family
began to send them. We did not send the official "Care" packages. We sent
packages on our own. I remember very well that my father (who was a
Metzgermeister) would bring home pots of fat and would render that fat
into lard on our kitchen stove. He would cut the hardened lard into
"bricks" and wrap it. He would buy coffee and hide cigarettes deep inside
the cans so that my relatives could use them to bargain with for extra
food. I would give some of my toys to send along for my young cousins.
Clothes were sent also. Every four to six weeks my father would put
together about five or six boxes to send to our families. Included also,
were sugar, flour and cans of other foods.
My family and my uncle and
aunt were not wealthy and these "shipments" could be quite costly, but
there was never a question that we would not help our families in need.
For even in the areas of Germany that were not heavily bombed, hunger
was a major consideration, as I am sure many of you have first-hand
knowledge.
Thus ends this story.
I wish that I could have written it in German but I would never have been able to express it as well.
Hopefully, most of the readers will have some knowledge of English. If not, I am very sorry.
It is a family story that we are very proud of.....
