Oma Luise
I found out when I got home last night that my Oma Luise had passed away. She had been diagnosed with cancer last year, and had gone through chemotherapy. My mom went to Germany to help take care of her in October and it looked like she was doing much better after the chemo. A few weeks ago she started having trouble breathing, but none of her blood work was showing any signs of the cancer being back. They then did some sort of scan and found it in her lungs. On Thursday she went into hospice care. I'm glad my mom got to be with her and with her family. I'm finding it difficult to mourn because I only met her once...and I couldn't really communicate with her. As a nine year old my German was terrible and she didn't speak any English. She sent us packages every Christmas that always included a pine tree branch (which was illegal, but she wanted mom to be able to smell Germany) and lots of chocolate. My main memories of her are not actually of her at all, but of mom's two hour conversations with her on Sunday mornings. My mom has a different tone of voice depending on who she talks to - in English or German, and you could always tell when she was talking to her mom. At many points in the conversation you would hear: "Also, mutti, ich muss gehen...ja ja ja! Nein..." (Alright, mom, I need to go...yeah yeah yeah! No...) And then they would start on another subject and she wouldn't hang up for another hour.
The other thing about my grandmother, was that she is the only person on that side of the family that I know what happened to her during the war. I never knew my grandfather and my mom said that he absolutely refused to talk about it (like many others in his generation). But my grandmother's family came from the German part of Czechoslavakia - they were Sudenten Deutsche - and her story of the war was very interesting. I learned about it for a class in college, and shared it with my class then. I figure here would be a good place to put it.
"The expulsion occurred in June 1946 when I was fourteen. The adults had been talking about being expelled from Tečin but I just did not believe that it would happen. The allies had decided that all Germans had to leave the eastern countries. Because my family had been persecuted by the Nazis before, we had special status and were allowed to take household items, feather beds and other things, whereas many of the other Germans who had not been persecuted by the Nazis were allowed to take only very few items.”
“The deportation was organized and occurred street by street. People were picked up in trucks and taken to the harbor and the train station. The Germans who had been members of the NSDAP were put on a ship or train and taken to what would be later parts of Eastern Germany. They were going to denazified."
“When we arrived there, we were assigned to live with families. These families however did want to open their doors. My relatives and I sat for many hours in their yards on our suitcases while people stared behind their windows and kept their doors locked.
“For a long time we were called “the refugees” and could not integrate into the population because we were not accepted. These were hard times, where we faced a lot of discrimination. The rural areas with their dislike for strangers and their exclusive instead of inclusive ways were especially hard on refugees.”
She eventually became accepted. She got married, had a family. By shear luck (or lack thereof) when the Berlin Wall was built less than a mile from her house. She lived in West Germany. Her best friend lived in East Germany.
I wish I knew her better.
The other thing about my grandmother, was that she is the only person on that side of the family that I know what happened to her during the war. I never knew my grandfather and my mom said that he absolutely refused to talk about it (like many others in his generation). But my grandmother's family came from the German part of Czechoslavakia - they were Sudenten Deutsche - and her story of the war was very interesting. I learned about it for a class in college, and shared it with my class then. I figure here would be a good place to put it.
"The expulsion occurred in June 1946 when I was fourteen. The adults had been talking about being expelled from Tečin but I just did not believe that it would happen. The allies had decided that all Germans had to leave the eastern countries. Because my family had been persecuted by the Nazis before, we had special status and were allowed to take household items, feather beds and other things, whereas many of the other Germans who had not been persecuted by the Nazis were allowed to take only very few items.”
“The deportation was organized and occurred street by street. People were picked up in trucks and taken to the harbor and the train station. The Germans who had been members of the NSDAP were put on a ship or train and taken to what would be later parts of Eastern Germany. They were going to denazified."
“When we arrived there, we were assigned to live with families. These families however did want to open their doors. My relatives and I sat for many hours in their yards on our suitcases while people stared behind their windows and kept their doors locked.
“For a long time we were called “the refugees” and could not integrate into the population because we were not accepted. These were hard times, where we faced a lot of discrimination. The rural areas with their dislike for strangers and their exclusive instead of inclusive ways were especially hard on refugees.”
She eventually became accepted. She got married, had a family. By shear luck (or lack thereof) when the Berlin Wall was built less than a mile from her house. She lived in West Germany. Her best friend lived in East Germany.
I wish I knew her better.