A Pole Comes to the Rescue

 A Pole comes to the rescue.

A polish farmer named Milzarek always was addressed as Pan(Mr) took Mom,Diet and me out of the camp.Mother was still weak from typhoid but it did not phase him and with time Mom got better with the help of Pan Milzarek's mothers chicken soup and other food.At the farm was also Mrs Pauline Fester(mid 60yrs)and another girl( about 20y).I lost track and name of the girl but not Mrs Fester(another story that ties me to Hinckley,MN).We lived in a garden house surrounded with an orchard and flowers.Mrs Fester had a history book with writings and pictures...I did not know how to read yet but loved the pictures...I think I came across a similar edition at the library of the German American Institute in St Paul,Mn.later in 1976...that somehow got lost when the library changed and the old books were thrown away because only a few knew how to read the old type Gothic script.I don't remember how I learned how to read but by 1946 I could read the German book...and my passion for books never grew old and during the move out of our house of 45 year earlier in March of 2013,my boxes became very... very heavy.Maybe Mrs Fester was responsible for my reading but Mom always told me that I loved books before I was six and I loved to stack them in a pile.I think Mom was the person behind my reading...she always was a good student herself and with a good memory...reciting passages from her confirmation days... late into her 80s.

After we got out of the camp,,,a coal depot converted to the holding camp(concentration) with barbed wire etc.and settled in the garden house at Pan Milzarek's farm,life seemed to be less stressful for us kids.We all became healthy again.The Germans who had been send to various farms in the region were able to see each other and stay in contact but freedom of leaving a place was not allowed and attempts were punished.The revenge fever settled down.However Poland had to be build up again and the use of German workers without pay seemed a good way without straining the budget.The farmers were requested by the local authorities to provide manpower as needed without stopping the work on the farms.Also trying to stay within lawful steps,the local authorities accepted any complains against any German person by any Polish person that may have suffered real or imagined harm during the German occupation period of 1939 to the end of the war and the liberation of Poland by the Russian forces in 1945. However the perpetrators were dead or vanished,so...minor cases were blown up to make it look good and lawful. If an accused person was convicted by a judge(no jury),he or she was send to forced labor camps anywhere in Poland.

Well...my Mom had been a boss on the farm and had employed several Polish workers from 1940 to the end of 1944.The workers were paid the going rate but if they were efficient more which was against the German authorities rules.One of the workers felt that Mom had ordered him around too much...like getting up in the morning to get the work done...and a complained was send in.Mother could not get the other workers from the farm to speak for her...they were not to be found and most would not come forward anyway fearing the accusation of German lovers.

So now Mom had a dilemma.If she faced the accuser without witnesses,she would be convicted and send away to who knows were and her children would be without her for some time which could be years.She made the choice to escape and leave the two younger boys in the care of Mrs.Pauline Fester.The older son Art was already miles away.Her parents were in the near by village and could maybe keep an eye on us too.Mom vanished into the night and ended up in West Germany.She has written down her journey in German which will become part of my story in the future.