On Mother's Day

Our mother Bessie Hazel was born on 22 November 1919 in Harrison County, Texas.
She had twelve siblings - three older sisters, one older brother, six younger sisters and one younger brother.

Bessie got married not long after she completed her education. The marriage took place in First Christian Church in Plano, TX, on 13th April 1919. Our mother was about twenty then.

During her marriage, she bore five children. Bessie Hazel was a kind-hearted woman, a devoted and caring mother and a loving wife. Mom took care of her children and husband, and the family home. She made delicious, Southern-style dishes and exquisite desserts as well. When eating out, the food places of her choice were the ones which served home like Southern type meals. Her favorite restaurants were Luby's and Cracker Barrel. Mother did not drink any alcohol.

Bessie Hazel was a great fan of Dallas Cowboys and always watched their games on TV. Besides that, she also enjoyed watching various TV shows and listening to country and western music on Channel 11.

Our mother passed a few days before her 79th birthday, on 5 November 1998. She was buried at the Restland Memorial Park in Dallas.

Thank you, Bessie, for your son, my wonderful husband.

Mom's WW2 Stories: Red Box

Some time after the war officially ended, mom got a new pair of shoes. Well, not from a store as footwear was still not available in regular shops. A lady who lived in the neighborhood presented them to mom. The shoes used to belong to the woman's daughter but the girl no longer needed them. No, not because she grew out of them. She just did not need them anymore.

Why?

One day the girl played out together with three boys. They found an unexploded bomb, maybe they tried to move it or just trifled with it, nobody knows. Anyhow, the bomb went off and all the kids were killed. And the girl did not need those shoes anymore.

One day, mom and her friend R, a girl around her age, were walking to a girl scouts meeting. The girls were talking and playing, chasing each other from time to time. Suddenly R noticed something on the road, close to the pavement.

"Ah, what a nice red box!", she cried.

The box looked lovely indeed. It was small, red, round and shiny. Like a cute little gift waiting there to be found.

"Kick it!", mom said to her friend.

And R did. At the very same moment the nice, red, and shiny box turned into a blast - fire, and shrapnel. The former one hit R who ignited the detonation with the kick. Mom got all the shrapnel.

Instead of reaching the girl scouts meeting point, the two girls were rushed to a nearby hospital. R was injured, one of her legs was terribly burned. Mom had pieces of metal stuck in her eyes, chest, legs, and arms.

R's burns were treated but her leg got crippled in the result of the injuries. However, according to the doctors, the disability was possibly temporary if the follow-up physical therapy would be exerted at home. R was released from the hospital. Mom does not know whether the girl's leg was treated/exercised afterward. Probably it was not as R limped since then and her condition never improved.

Mom (a few-year-old girl at the time) spent quite a long time at the hospital. Nevertheless not much was done to help her. The girl's body was powdered every day and covered with paper bandages. Mom says it was toilet paper - well, possibly it was, I guess, the hospital supply was rather poor those days. Anyway, her condition was getting worse, she could not see either - her eyes were seriously wounded. As for the only effective treatment, the doctors suggested removing both mom's eyes and her left leg. The limb - not cleansed but powdered only - was hit with gangrene. Fortunately, mom's mother did not agree to that radical procedure and took her little girl back home.

Not only mom's leg but her entire body, covered with powder, was in a terrible condition. Grandma started treating her daughter on her own. The lady bought kali hyper manganicum in a pharmacy. The tiny purple crystals which are to be dissolved in some amount of water have antiseptic properties (they are still available without a prescription in Poland - to be used on the body surface only).

Anyway, grandma cleansed her daughter's body and started removing the shrapnel pieces from her arms and legs with sterilized tweezers . Mom recalls it was all very painful. Her mother patiently took out a few bits of metal at a time. However, she did not try to touch the ones which were stuck too deep in the girl's eyes and chest. Grandma's care and the kali manganicum washes saved mom and her left leg. Even though the convalescence lasted long. Mom's eyes healed and the vision in her right eye came back. Thanks to grandma her daughter could live and play as she had before the calamitous incident.

What stayed with mom was the shrapnel which could not be removed and the thought which has bothered her all her life: "If I had not told R to kick that box, nothing would have happened to her".

I advised mom to consider something else. Very likely, if her friend had not kicked that red box, attracted by the look of the item, she would have possibly picked it up and tried to open it. The result of that would have been even more tragic then. Possibly, she actually saved her friend's life.

The war was over, life was slowly coming back to normal but such (often lethal) accidents happened almost every day. People who were lucky to survive WW2 died or got seriously injured due to booby traps, delayed bomb, and missile explosions.

Mom and her mom - picture taken during the war

 

More Mom's WW2 Stories

• Gustloff and Narrow Escape
• Wilie 
• Air Rides, Bicycle and Dugouts
• School
• Hilda, Song and Gestapo Man 
• Grandma Arrested
• Cemetery & Clogs

Mom's WW2 Stories: Gustloff and Narrow Escape

In the previous Mom's WW2 Story the German ship Wilhelm Gustloff was mentioned. It served as a cruise ship at its very beginning, then was turned into a hospital ship. Later, Gustloff stayed in the war port of Gdynia and was just a floating barracks for the Nazi army men.

Mom lived with her sister and mother in the war port neighborhood. When the Russian army was getting close to Gdynia, grandma (who was a civilian war port worker) and her children were ordered to appear in the war port to be boarded on Gustloff. Neither grandmother nor the kids wanted to leave their home, but they were not asked what they wishes were. It was a Nazi order so a "no, I don't want to" was not an option. On a cold winter day, they went to the square near the local Nazi army barracks - mom and her sister with their little backpacks (made by grandma) on their backs, their mother carried a small piece of luggage.

When they arrived at the designated place, it was packed with people. Some called the names of their relatives who had got lost in the crowd, children cried. It was all scary and messy - chaotic loads of people who were waiting to be boarded on the ship (which was supposed to happen at 10 PM). Mom, her sister, and grandma kept close together, they talked to each other in Polish that they wanted to go back to their house. A young Wehrmacht soldier who was standing nearby heard them talk. He understood what the two Polish girls and their mother were saying as he was Silesian.

To your knowledge: Silesia is a region in the south of Poland. During WW2 many Silesian families, because of different reasons, signed the so-called "Volks list" and as a result of that, their men were drafted into the Nazi army.

The Silesian got the girls and their mother out of the crowd and led them to the German bomb shelter which was not far from that gathering place. In one of the shelter rooms, there were two big stacks of hay. The soldier helped the three fugitives hide in one of the stacks, covered them with hay, and left. Mom and her family sat in their hiding quietly not being sure what would happen. Some time passed, and they could hear two Nazi soldiers came to the room. They were looking for any civilians who would be possibly trying to hide there. Our three 'girls' were horrified. It did not last long and (to mom and her keens' surprise) a young couple was found in the other haystack. In the meantime, the other soldier was kicking mom's family stack of hay with his boot. Suddenly mom felt severe pain - she got a strong kick in her leg. The little girl was about to scream but luckily, grandma covered mom's mouth with her hand instantly. The three ones were frightened and mom thought their end was about to come. But nothing happened. The young couple were taken away by the soldiers and all got quiet again.

The Nazi man must have felt he kicked something or (very likely) somebody, but he said nothing. Was it the Silesian man? Mom does not know as she could only hear what was going on but saw nothing. My guess is, that was the man, otherwise, he would have checked what under the hay was. But he did not and said: "There is nobody here".

Mom cannot recall how long they sat in the haystack but finally, with the help of the Silesian man they managed to get back to their house. There were some neighborhood people as well, and they all, including the Silesian man, hid in the cellar of the house. The people were afraid of Russian soldiers - the stories of what they had done, especially to women and girls, reached the area before the Russian army managed to get there. Grandma advised the Silesian man to change and put on some civilian clothes. Unfortunately, he did not manage to do that as there was simply not enough time. The Russian soldiers came very soon. Those army men told everybody to get out of the cellar and line up in front of the building. When mom, her sister, and the neighborhood people were all standing there, suddenly a young Russian soldier aged about 18 arrived riding a horse. He got off the horse and shot the Silesian man. Mom remembers that the people who were there wanted to lynch the shooter, but nobody could do anything. The Russian guy was the one who had a gun. And the latter one got back on his horse and rode away. The Silesian had a wife and a baby boy back home in Silesia.

If the Silesian man had not saved mom, her sister, and mother, most probably they all would have drowned when Gustloff was sunk by the Soviet army submarine S-13.

After some time, when mom and family were back in their flat, two Russian soldiers knocked on the door. They searched the place looking for gold. Mom still remembers such a picture: one of the soldiers placed himself with his back against the room door frame. He was moving his back left and right and at the same time loads of lice and fleas were falling down on the floor. Anyway, the soldiers took everything which was of the golden color, including furniture knobs, and pieces of a coffee set made of China (they chopped off the golden coffee pitcher handle and a decorative ball which was at the pitcher lid top). Fortunately, grandma had sewn her rings into one of her petticoats so the soldiers did not find any real gold at home. However, the army men fancied the piano which belonged to mom's family. One of the soldiers sat on the upper part of the instrument and banged the keys with his boots which he enjoyed very much. So they decided to take the piano. Since the instrument was too big to push it through the flat door, they came to an idea that one of them would throw it down from the balcony (the apartment was on the first floor = second according to American standards), and the other one would go downstairs and catch the load. Needless to say, the soldier who was on the street did not catch the piano. The instrument crashed into pieces when it landed on the ground. I guess those men had not expected that? Anyway, there was no piano anymore, and they left without it.

Soon the war ended. What happened to mom and her family later? I will tell you in March.

The photograph was taken before the war in Hel (Hel Peninsula) where the family used to live. Shortly before the war started, grandpa was transferred to a military unit in Gdynia so mom, and they all moved there as well.

The photo: our family (and their friends) are going to the beach. At that time, it was customary for children to wear pajamas when going to the beach. Mom is the little one in the first row.

UPDATE

While visitingthe WW2 museum in Gdansk, Poland, we came across the bell.

More

Mom's WW2 Stories

• Red Box
• Wilie 
• Air Rides, Bicycle and Dugouts
• School
• Hilda, Song and Gestapo Man 
• Grandma Arrested
• Cemetery & Clogs

Mom's WW2 Stories: Wilie

Not long after the beginning of the war, mom's family was assigned a lodger by the Nazi Army. The man who occupied one of the rooms in the family's flat was a German officer who served on the speed-boats patrolling the war port area. His name was Wilhelm S. Luckily, soon it appeared that he was quite a decent and friendly human being. The fact that grandma and her daughters were fluent in German made the coexistence easier as well.

Wilhelm had a wife and a son in Germany. The wife (her name was Lena) sent him packages with food, sweets and other things which were hard to come by in the occupied by Nazis Poland. Whenever the man got a parcel, he gave the food and sweets to mom and her sister. Food and such goodies as chocolate were scarce during the war so the gifts were helpful and appreciated.

Mom and the rest of mom's family called the lodger "Wilie".

One day, grandma said to him: "Wilie, come and help me steal some coal".

The coal was not available for Polish people then, only Germans could purchase it legally. That was why the Polish were to freeze in the wintertime or be "innovative" regarding getting the coal.

The man replied: "Hitler does not allow me to do that."

Grandma explained: "It is going to get cold, if we do not have the coal, we will all be freezing here." And the man went with her to "find and fetch" some coal.

As I wrote in one of the previous posts, mom's father was arrested by the Nazis and sent to a Lager and then to a forced labor camp in Germany at the very beginning of WW2. I do not know how Wilhelm managed to do that, but he organized grandma's meeting with her husband. Needless to say, visiting military men who were kept at such camps was not a common thing at all. Not to mention that the POW camps for Polish, Soviet and other East European soldiers were more similar to regular concentration camps than to the camps where American and West European army men were held.

Grandma and her two daughters traveled to Germany by train then. In a compartment "for Germans only" together with Wilie. They were all scared as they were afraid of what would have happened if it had been discovered that a Polish woman and her children dared to be there. Fortunately, it was not and they all got to Münchehagen where Wilie's house was. Mom and the family met Wilhelm's wife in those days. Grandma and the girls stayed at the S' place for some time and after that, Wilhelm, grandma and her older daughter went to meet grandfather. Mom stayed with "Tante" (aunt) Lena in Münchehagen. Mom recalls that the lady was very good to her. Aunt Lena always asked her what she wanted to eat or what cake she would want to have on a given day. And Tante did cook, bake and get the little girl what she felt like having. All in all, mom lived with Mrs. Lena for a year. The S. liked her so much that they wanted to adopt her. However, grandma said "no" to that offer, and mom missed her family as well. All in all, Wilie brought mom back home to Gdynia on one of "his" speedboats.

During the war, Wilhelm Gustloff (which was a German military ship, previously used as a hospital ship) stayed in the war port. On Sundays, parties for German soldiers' children were held on the ship. With fun and goodies to eat. Once, Wilhelm took mom and her sister to such a party. The girls could speak German with a proper German accent so there was no problem with that. However, they had been told not to tell anybody (when on the ship) what their surname was. It would have become clear that the girls were Polish - of course, it would have ended terrible meaning both the officer and the kids. Mom's (two years older) sister was also instructed to look after the younger one (mom of course). Unfortunately, when they both were on the ship, the "big" sister was so eager to go and play with other kids that she left mom behind. The little one got lost and started crying. Soon she was found by some military men who served on the ship. The first thing they asked her about was her first name and surname. Mom cried even more then because she was afraid she would get in serious trouble. Nevertheless, she remembered what she had been told before and said that her name was S. The soldiers took her to the party room and nothing bad, only fun happened.

Wilhelm helped mom's family in many ways. He also made it possible for grandpa to come to Poland "for a leave" and participate in mom's sister's First Holy Communion day.

The above picture was taken on mom's sister's Holy Communion day (1942). Wilhelm S. is the first from the left, mom's dad on the right. First row - mom (from the right), her mom and sister.

Close to the end of WW2, before the Russian army came to our city, Wilie managed to escape home to Germany on a speed-boat. Mom and her family never saw him again although the man did write to them a few letters.

More Mom's WW2 Stories

• Red Box
• Gustloff and Narrow Escape
• Air Rides, Bicycle and Dugouts
• School
• Hilda, Song and Gestapo Man 
• Grandma Arrested
• Cemetery & Clogs

Mom's WW2 Stories: School

When the war started and Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany, the ability of speaking and understanding German became vital. My grandma was a fluent German speaker and she decided to teach the language to her little daughters. Her teaching method was simple - she spoke to the girls in German only. Every day, day by day. At the beginning, mom (a few year old baby girl then) and her two years older sister cried because they did not know what their mother was saying. Therefore, they often asked grandma, with tears in their little eyes, to tell them in Polish what she meant. Although the method may seem a bit drastic, it appeared to be very effective - after three months of such active learning, both girls could easily communicate in German. Then, grandma Irena started talking to her daughters in their native language again.

When mom "became of age" and the very first day of her school education came, she was more than ready considering the German language. It was important as Polish was forbidden - the classes were run by German teachers in German only. Since she could also read and count (the early primary school mathematics level of course), after a short time of her career in the first grade, mom was moved the third one and attended classes together with her older sister.

Frau K., their teacher, seemed not to be keen on the Polish kids and she made them see and feel (literally) it. An example? One morning mom was walking along the corridor toward the classroom, at the same time, a German boy of the same third-year group passed her by. He was running. The teacher saw him ran but when he ran into the classroom, she said nothing even though running in the school building was forbidden. When mom reached the room, Miss K. yelled at her: "Running is not allowed!" and hit her with a stick. It did not help that mom cried and tried to explain: "I did not run Miss. It was Georg.*", she got her beating anyway.

Despite all the years which have passed (mom is eighty-two now), she can still remember what she learned during her first year at school. One of the songs which she very much enjoyed was  Jetzt fahrn wir übern See, übern See. I have found a modern video version of it on YouTube (the teacher and the kids in the video are not related to mom's story in any way).


The song is about sailing across the see without paddles, birds which sang and hunters who blew their horns. The trick during singing is that you are not supposed to sing a certain word. Mom recalls that when they sang the song at the class, whoever happened to make a mistake, forgotten to be silent at the right time, had to stand up.

Another song which she learned at school was Es regnet, es regnet, die Erde wird nass!


This one is obviously about the rain but the children are pleased because they are sitting in a dry place and they will not get wet.

Except singing, there was also reading and Das Büblein auf dem Eise. The poem, written by 19th-century German poet Friedrich Wilhelm Güll, tells a story about a little boy who is eager to check whether the fresh ice on a pond is thick enough to play on it. The poem is quite long and mom can still recite the beginning of it.

All in all, mother's wartime school education adventure did not last long. One day, when mom and her sister came to school, Miss K. greeted the pupils with a "Heil Hitler!", as usual. Then, the Polish children were given homework and told to go back home. It all repeated on the next day. The teacher did not check whether the previous homework had been done, just set another one and, again, "go home" for the Polish pupils. Soon, when they came to school they were not allowed to enter the building at all. The classes were for German kids only.

In the picture mom - ready to go to school on her very first school day (September 1942). The flowers were for her teacher. Mom was wearing a green velvet skirt made by grandma. The white (colored striped) shirt had green buttons with pictures of little colored toadstools on them.

Can you remember anything from your first year in primary school, what you learned then? Well, I cannot. Maybe there was nothing unusual about it or I did not really enjoy it. Who knows.

* The name has been changed 

More Mom's WW2 Stories

• Red Box
• Gustloff and Narrow Escape
• Wilie 
• Air Rides, Bicycle and Dugouts
• Hilda, Song and Gestapo Man 
• Grandma Arrested
• Cemetery & Clogs

Mom's WW2 Stories: Hilda, Song and Gestapo Man

When mom was little, her sisters and parents lived on the first floor of the house which belonged to the D* family. They lived on the ground floor of the house they owned. The Ds were Poles but when WW2 began, they signed the Reichsdeutsche list. Thanks to that, the Zs were regarded as German people by the Nazis. Hilda* was one of the members of the Zs family. She tended to be a rather unpleasant and unfriendly lady and she seemed not to be keen on children as well.

One day, mom (she was about 5 then) was told by her mother to fetch potatoes from the storage place. Every family who lived in that house had their own storage place. Those little wooden shacks were not far from the house next to the barn (which was opposite the house).

When mom went out to get the potatoes, she saw Hilda. The lady was cleaning some lederhosen with a wooden brush. The piece of clothing belonged to a teenage boy Jurgen* who had come from Germany to visit the Zs.

Mom approached Hilda and asked her in Polish:

"Miss Hilda, why are you cleaning Jurgen's trousers, can't he do it by himself?"

In reply, Hilda threw the wooden brush at mom and started calling her names.

Mom, said nothing, but she did sing a song at the lady to tease her. Subsequently, the lady got really crossed and started chasing mom around the barn. Hilda was willing to get the little girl and teach her a lesson.

A daughter of mom's neighbors (who lived on the second floor of the same house) was passing by. She saw what was going on and rushed to tell my grandmother about it.

The girl ran to the house and shouted: “Hilda wants to beat up Dona*!”

Anyway, mom managed to get home too and Hilda did not succeed in catching her. However, the lady followed the little girl to the family apartment on the first floor. Grandma opened the door and there was Hilda, furious, ready to punish mom for her singing.

She shouted at grandma angrily: "You should forbid your daughter!"

Grandma stepped forward and said with a strong voice:

"When you will have your own children, you will be allowed to beat them".

Hilda, caught by surprise, stepped back and tripped over the metal frame which was attached to the stairs. At the same time, the lady lost her balance and fell down the stairs.

Not long after that, the SS-men knocked on mom's family apartment door. Grandma was accused of aggravated assault and beating a German woman. Both mom and her mother were taken to the nearest Gestapo station.

When they got there, the two of them were led to a room where a Gestapo officer was sitting behind a big desk.

The officer asked grandma: “Why did you hit a German woman?”

“I did not touch her”, said grandma, and she also explained what had happened. Both grandma and her little daughter could speak German fluently (more about it in the next Mom's WW2 Stories post).

The Gestapo officer ordered mom to sing the song she had sung at Hilda.

The girl started crying, she was scared. She said she could sing that song in Polish only.

So an interpreter came and mom was told to sing again.

That was the song:

Stara panna lat 40 wciąż w pretensjach żyje,

a tę swoją brzydką buzię w różnych ziołach myje.

Usta sobie pomaluje, włosy pozapika,

a jak wszystko pozdejmuje - stara elektryka.

The interpreter translated the words into German. 

An old maid, aged 40, is resentful all the time,

and she washes her ugly face with various herbs.

She colors her lips and fixes her hair,

but when she takes it all off - just an old bag.

The Nazi officer's face seemed very serious.

He asked: “How old is the woman?”

“40”, said mom still sobbing.

“Is she married?”

“No”, replied mom with a trembling voice.

To everybody's surprise, something unexpected happened. The Gestapo officer laughed out loud. He was laughing and appeared to be amused. Mom got confused but she started laughing as well.

Then, as suddenly as he started, the man stopped laughing. When he got quiet, his face looked scary again. He opened a drawer of his desk and reached into it.

Mom was horrified, she was sure her and her mother's end was about to come, and the Gestapo officer was going to shoot them at the very spot. The moment seemed to last for ages. However, instead of shooting, an extraordinary thing happened. Mom saw not a gun but something else in the man's hand. She was stunned.

The officer was holding a bar of chocolate. Next, with a smile on his face, he handed the chocolate to the little girl. Mom and her mother were let go. Unhurt. With a bar of chocolate to enjoy.

They were lucky - the officer found the story funny. I reckon mom must have been really scared then since she still remembers it all so well, despite all the years which have passed by.

*All the names in the story have been changed

Mom and her mom

More Mom's WW2 Stories

• Red Box
• Gustloff and Narrow Escape
• Wilie 
• Air Rides, Bicycle and Dugouts
• School
• Grandma Arrested
• Cemetery & Clogs

Mom's WW2 Stories: Grandma Arrested

When Nazis attacked Poland in 1939, they took the Poles and the entire world by surprise. It all started in the very early morning on September 1.

Mom, her family and other people in the neighborhood of the war port heard a Polish soldier cry:" Germans on the hillocks!". It was too late to evacuate or do anything. Nazis were too close and approached very quickly. Soon, my grandfather, his Polish Military Police Unit men and many Polish soldiers who were in the area, were captured. The Nazis took over the port and the city as well. Grandpa was transported to the Stalag in Torun. At that time, however, the family did not know what happened to him and where he was taken.

Not long after that, Gestapo men came to our family's apartment to arrest grandma. Mom and her sister were little then. They were in their beds as they had got ill. Grandma was told to say goodbye to her children and was taken away. The little girls did not know where to. They were horrified. The children neither knew what would happen to them nor whether their mother would ever be back.

They did not know either that she was taken to a local Gestapo station for questioning. An important part of the story was that my grandmother was born during the time when Poland was partitioned. I wrote about the third partition of Poland in my previous post. In case if you have missed that information, I will repeat it here:

Poland was partitioned for the third time in 1795. Three empires Prussia, Austria, and Russia divided Poland into three parts and took control over them. It meant Poland no longer existed as a country and the Polish people automatically became citizens of the suppressant empires. They not only were forbidden to speak Polish but also, when WW1 began, depending on where they lived, had to serve in the Prussian, Austrian or Russian army. In that way, Poles fought against their own people as well. My great-grandpa was one of them. Poland regained its independence after the war, when the peace treaty was signed in 1918.

Anyway, grandma was born in the part of Poland which, at that time, was controlled by Prussia. Therefore, her father fought in the Prussian army during WW1, he also perished on a WW1 front.

All the above was enough for the Nazis to say grandma was not Polish, and she had committed a crime when she married a Polish military man. They wanted her to sign the Volksdeutsche list. Maybe she was even told, her husband would be released from the Stalag to make her sign the paper.

But grandma was Polish, her parents were Polish. If she had agreed to sign, it would have been a betrayal of herself, her husband, her family. So she refused to sign anything.

Of course, it had its consequences. You could not just say 'no' to the Nazis... Grandma was severely beaten by Gestapo men. They beat her all night long, with their guns as well.

Finally, she was let go home. She came back to the apartment where her little girls had kept crying all the time when she was away. The kids also cried when they saw their mom - she was covered with her own blood, her face was bruised, and she had no teeth. All had been broken when she was tortured at the Gestapo station.

Since mom and her sister were ill, grandma had their family doctor check on her daughters. After the examination, the doctor stated that the hearts of both girls had significantly enlarged due to the horror they had gone through. According to the medical man, mom's heart was as big as a heart of an adult. The good news was that the condition was to pass.

Most importantly, grandma was home so her children felt safe again. It was the best cure of all to the despair and distress of the little girls'.

Grandma and her daughters

Read more

Mom's WW2 Stories

• Red Box
• Gustloff and Narrow Escape
• Wilie 
• Air Rides, Bicycle and Dugouts
• School
• Hilda, Song and Gestapo Man 
• Cemetery & Clogs

Mom's WW2 Stories: Cemetery & Clogs

My mom was born not long before WW2 started. During the war, she lived with her mother and two years older sister in a port city of Poland, in the war port area.

Opposite the house where mom lived, there was a local cemetery ground. It was the place where she and other Polish children from the neighborhood used to play.  More regular playgrounds were usually occupied by German kids who tended to pick on their Polish contemporaries and call them names as well. Therefore, the cemetery seemed such a good area to play - it was quiet and peaceful. Mom and her pals could have fun there, not being assaulted by others. They played hide-and-seek among the graves and in the tombs. The children were neither afraid of the dead nor any ghosts. However, there was something they were scared of. It was the cemetery groundskeeper. The kids found the German man more terrifying than a ghost as he did not allow them to fool around at the graveyard.

When mom stood close to the cemetery fence, she could see the Baltic Sea and the naval crafts. One time it happened that the sea was on fire when a hospital ship was bombed or hit by a torpedo. The barrels full of petrol which were on the ship exploded. The hospital was on fire and the burning petrol spilled on the sea waters. Then mom saw people - hospital patients - jumping into the flames trying to save themselves.

One day grandma asked her daughters to fetch some fresh grass for their pet rabbit. Well, the best grass grew in the cemetery so mom and her sister went there to pick some green and juicy grass blades. While the girls were busy with getting the food supply for the pet, the cemetery caretaker spotted them. He shouted at them and started running towards the sisters. When the two little ones realized what was going on, they knew it could mean troubles only.

'Run quickly! Run!' - as fast as they were able to, the girls rushed home. Their hearts were beating strong, the inveighing groundskeeper was approaching them...

Luckily, they managed to hide behind their apartment door. Mom was barefoot, though. She had moved her legs so quickly, running back home, she lost the clogs she was wearing.

To your knowledge: during WW2, shoes were not available in stores for Poles. They were for German people only. The Polish could only purchase (if they had enough money of course) wooden clogs. And mom had a pair of her clogs too. She wore them most of the time - all year round - in the heat of the summer and on the freezing winter days too.

And now - disaster - they were gone!

Very soon there was a knocking on the door. It was the cemetery groundskeeper.

Groundskeeper: 'Are your children at home?'

Grandma: 'Yes.'

GK: 'Were they out not long ago?'

G: 'No.'

GK: 'Are these your child's clogs?' He demonstrated the wooden shoes to grandma.

G: 'No.'

GK: 'I will leave them here anyway.'

And he did put mom's clogs on the staircase floor, not far from their apartment door.

What a relief it was - close shave!

The girls not only did not get beaten by the cemetery caretaker, but he also appeared to be not such a bad man at all. And mom got her footwear back!

All in all, it did not change the fact that later, the groundskeeper continued scaring away the kids if they happened to play in the graveyard.

The above photo was taken during the war - the dresses and the girls' sandals were made by their mother, my grandma.

More Mom's WW2 Stories

• Red Box
• Gustloff and Narrow Escape
• Wilie 
• Air Rides, Bicycle and Dugouts
• School
• Hilda, Song and Gestapo Man 
• Grandma Arrested

Things I Learned from My Mum

In quite a few countries Mother's Day is celebrated in May, however, not on the same day of the month.
My mum has always been a friendly, straightforward and  an open minded person, liked by most  people whom she meets on her way. Her life has not been easy but she never complained or got bitter. When she came back from work, she did all the housework, cooked, spent time with us, sewed and so on, and so on. The older I get, the more I appreciate all the things she did for us and what I learned from her.
Below you can read about some of them.

Standards

1. 'Want' means 'can' = if you want to achieve something means you can do it. If you do not succeed at once, do not give up, try again. It is one of mum's sayings - when I was younger I heard it often. It sometimes sounded annoying, especially when I was upset because I did not manage to do what I wanted. On the other hand, it encouraged me to move on and look for other ways to achieve my goals. 
2. Being responsible and reliable - you do not promise anything if you know you cannot keep your promise, if you promise something you hold your word.
3. Duties first, pleasures later - first do what is needed to be done (including paying bills), rest and play when you finish it. 
4. Looking good/nice means feeling good, looking untidy means feeling miserable. Mum has always taken care of her appearance, without any exaggeration though. She has never used much makeup (it is usually a lipstick only) but always found a nice look (hair/clothes) important and uplifting.
5. To look nice you do not need very expensive clothes. The key to success is the ability to match styles, colors and patterns.
6. A high price not always means high quality. Nevertheless, it does not make sense to buy cheapest stuff, if its quality is low/ something does not last long. Then you have to spend even more money buying things again and again.
7. Think positively. If you close that positive 'door', what else is left?
8. An intelligent person never gets bored - another of mum's sayings - there are always many interesting things you can do or learn. Mum has always been a very creative and resourceful woman who also enjoyed learning new things. At present, she attends computer classes among others. Anyway, I am not sure if it is a result of what I was taught, but I do not get bored. Just the opposite - I wish I had more time to do everything I would want to!

Home

1. Home is a place on Earth where you find love, peace, understanding and support of your family, no matter what has happened at school or at work. Just no matter what.
2. It is important for a family to have meals together, especially dinners - it gives an opportunity to talk and share what has happened during a day. It creates bonds and makes the family members be together, not next to each other.
3. The importance of dinner in general - when I started to work but was still living at mum's, coming home after a busy, tiring day was like coming back to a safe port. Dinner was waiting on the table, we talked, and all the annoying and stupid things which happened earlier, were no longer that important and upsetting as they had seemed to be. The meal was calming my hungry stomach whilst our talks and mum's presence was a balm to my soul. These days, when in a restaurant, it is sad to see people (also families) sitting at the same table but actually not really being together, as they do not talk to each other at all - they are busy dealing with their iphones instead.
4.  Money is important (we all have to pay bills, buy food, clothes etc.) but it is not more important than people. Mum has never said 'I am too tired/busy to talk you you'. She was always there for us when we were younger. Mum knew it would have meant: 'I do not care'. And she has always cared - even now, although we are all grown ups.
5. All family members take care of home - everybody has their duties to take care of. When we were little, we also had little things to do such as watering plants, dusting, taking the rubbish out or tidying our room. We were never paid for doing those things though, and we did not expect any money either. Some things need to be done, even if you are not paid for it.
6. The way she took care of us, our clothes and our home. When we were little, mum mended our clothes in the night, while we were asleep. In the morning we could find them next to our beds, refreshed and ready to be put on again. I was always amazed when I woke up - how it was possible that my tights looked brand new again. Mum used to say that a sprite had come during the nighttime and fixed them. Guess what, I believed it!

Skills

1. Reading.
Mum used to read us books when we where small which triggered our interest in reading. Later, when we got old enough to do it on our own, we did enjoy reading a lot. When we started elementary school, mum assisted us while we were doing our homework. She also explained us different topics and helped with learning things by heart (including the multiplication chart).
2. How to organize housework to make it efficient - since mum worked professionally, she had little time to do all the housework. However, it did not mean she could not do it well or do it at all.
3. How to do cooking and baking without turning the kitchen into a messy place.
4. How to style my hair on my own.
5. How to knit.
6. How to make clothes and sew.
7. How to redecorate things/walls, etc. at home.

I was very proud of the results of my work - redecorating our home and later my place too. It was quite a tiring job, not easy to do. But we always helped each other as much as we could, and that was how I learned painting the walls and ceilings, and doing quite a few other things too.

Other

Music. Mum has always enjoyed listening to music. A radio was most often on at our home. More often than a TV set. While listening to the radio you can do many other things, including eg. talking, reading books or working. Nowadays, I also listen to the radio most of the time.

DIY: Joy of Sewing And Clothes Making

My mum used to make clothes for us. She was not a tailor and she had not taken any tailoring courses. She just learned everything on her own. She had an old Singer's sewing machine which she had received from her mother. Grandma was not a tailor either but she was also a very creative and resourceful lady: during WWII, when shoes were not available in stores, she learned how to make shoes and made them for her children. She could make clothes too.

Mum with her mum

 Anyway, the machine was very good - you could sew anything and everything with it - from a leather school bag and shoes to a thin silky blouse. And mum made us wonderful clothes - all kinds: trousers and jackets, dresses and vests. In the evenings and late in the night she sewed, no matter how tired she was after a work day in the office and doing all the home chores after work. I loved the pieces of clothing she created for me!

When sewing and tailoring magazines appeared in the newspaper kiosks, she also used some of the patterns included in those magazines, to make all kind of fashionable pieces of clothing for us and herself. I especially liked Burda magazine trends, and later, I was also buying it myself.
At some point, I thought that making my own clothes could be fun. After all the years of watching mum while she was sewing, I decided I was ready - bought myself a sewing machine and started my home sewing 'career'. Mum helped me of course, especially at the beginning: I always had problems with fitting the sleeves in a blouse or a jacket, so she sometimes did that for me. Dealing with a lining was not my favorite part either. I simply found finishing the inner, lining part boring. Maybe because the lining is something which is usually not really seen when you wear eg. a jacket.

My sewing was not that kind of masterpiece work which mum did but I enjoyed it although it was a very time-consuming activity. Yes, making a piece of clothing takes rather a lot of time. But I did manage to create quite a few things including shirts, jackets, hats, skirts and dresses. I also learned that little details, for example, buttons, make a difference. It is enough to sew on new, colorful or nicely shaped buttons or a more interesting zipper to change the look of a boring dress or shirt.

The hat made by myself

These days I do not make my own clothes anymore but, thanks to my past sewing experiences, I know what to do with a needle and threads when something needs fixing. From time to time I improve a dress or some other items: shorten or narrow something. However, with no sewing machine and doing everything by hand (when I was moving I had to leave the machine at mum's), completing a simple project lasts ages. That is why I hardly ever sew nowadays.

Some of the clothes I have made.