GER-VOLGA-L Archives

From:
Subject: After WWII
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 22:31:29 -0600 (CST)

Richard,

Thanks for sharing your memories. I remember when you couldn't buy oleo
after the war as we do today. You had to mix the color in - it came
white. I remember going to the camps of displaced Germans when they came
to Kansas. We didn't have much, but I remember my mother taking what she
could to help them.

Ruth

> I too was in grade school during the war with Germany and was called a
> "Nazi", "Hitler" and "German lover". My teacher overheard heard someone
> picking on me and stopped that. With the name of Schmidt there wasn't any
> doubt as to our nationality. Our teacher had a son fighting in Germany and
> remember her getting a telegram one day telling her that her son had been
> wounded. School adjourned for the day.
>
> During the war we planted victory gardens and harvested milkweed pods to
> be
> used in life vests. We had lost our source of cork for vests and the
> milkweed silk was used instead. We would use 50# onion sacks and fill them
> with the ripe milkweed pods then take them to the school where someone
> would
> pick them up. I remember one trip we had the trunk and back seat full of
> bags of milkweed pods.
>
> We farmed and my dad had an "A" Farmall tractor about the time of the
> Blitzkrieg. From then on he referred to the tractor as "The Blitz Buggy"
> and
> the name stuck for years.
>
> We grew sugar beets and because we grew them we were allotted some extra
> sugar rations. Some of you on here probably never saw ration stamps that
> were used during WWII. Gas, tires, oil, sugar, coffee, some building
> supplies & a few other things I have forgotten were rationed and you were
> issued ration books according to how many family members there were.
>
> Late in the war there was a German POW camp near us and the prisoners
> worked
> in a pea processing (called a pea vinery) facility. My grandfather grew
> green peas and we helped him harvest them and take them to the facility
> where the POWs worked. My dad could speak German so he talked to the POWs
> every time we went there. They were very happy to be here, because they
> were
> being fed well, and not getting shot at. I can remember them smiling and
> kidding with each other and thinking, "These guys are our enemies? They
> don't look very dangerous".
>
> Dick Schmidt
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Carla Wills-Brandon" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 2:12 PM
> Subject: [GV] Clarification Sally
>
>
>> Sally,
>>
>> I was using your correspondence with Suzanne as a "positive" example of
>> acceptance and dialog.
>>
>> Carla
>>
>> "S. Zitzer" <> wrote:
>>
>> Suzanne,
>>
>> How interesting to hear from a member of my cohort! I too was a
>> baby (8 months old) when Pearl Harbor was bombed. My father was
>> a U.S. Army officer, served during WWII, and then after the war
>> he was stationed in Germany. We went with him too, and we kids
>> went to "Dependents Schools" which were provided for the children
>> of American servicemen and had American teachers. I don't ever
>> remember experiencing the animosity you did -- we were all kids
>> in the "same boat" living scattered amongst the German people
>> but going by schoolbus to American schools. I was there for
>> grades 2 through 6 which was a total of 4 years (they moved
>> me up a grade in the middle of one year). I have fond
>> memories of our years in Germany. We were a close-knit
>> bunch of kids.
>>
>> Sally Zitzer
>> Seattle, WA
>>
>> On Sun, 15 Jan 2006, Suzanne wrote:
>>
>>> When Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, I was just a baby. However, by=20
>>> the time I reached the 4th grade, there was still alot of animosity=20
>>> towards the German people, and anyone with a German surname (mine
>>> was=20
>>> Heinitz), got called all sorts of names in school. A couple of my=20
>>> classmates loved to call me "Hitler", or "German butcher". It was not
>>> a=
>> =20
>>> fun time. They wouldn't allow such things in school today.
>>> Suzanne
>>>
>>> Carla Wills-Brandon wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Hello Gang,
>>>
>>> I''m in London at the Slave Labour conference at the War Museum. I
>>> must=
>> =20
>>> say, I'm very disappointed, but not surprised. With all the lectures=20
>>> from academic types on slave labour, gulags, DPs and the holocaust,=20
>>> there has not been one word mentioned about our GR folk except the=20
>>> following from someone from some foundation:
>>>
>>> Anti-Semiticism was very common among Germans in America during
>>> WWII.=20
>>> There is a large population of Germans living in the greater plains=20
>>> states and a friend of mine is writing about anti-Semitic attitudes
>>> in=20
>>> North Dakota.
>>>
>>> I was saddened to hear such blanket mis-information, but not
>>> surprised.=
>> =20
>>> I present on Friday morning and will try to rectify this attitude.
>>>
>>> Carla
>>>
>>>
>>> Carla Wills-Brandon, Ph.D.
>>> Michael Brandon, Ph.D.
>>> (281) 338-2992
>>>
>>> www.carlawillsbrandon.com
>>>
>>> "We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a forth
>>> dime=
>> nsion of existence of which we have not dreamed." Big Book pg 25
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> o:-)
>>>
>>> "The German is like a willow. No matter which way you bend him, he will
>>> a=
>> lways take root again."
>>> - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>

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