STORY SIX

THE DAY OF THE HUN

OR

FROM THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE

Strange events began to happen while I was attending the third grade of elementary school. At first there were Army trucks that came to the village. Then more soldiers set up positions in the fields surrounding the village, especially on the hilly parts, facing to the East. All this happened within a week or two. We were naturally curious and, as boys decided to wander among the hills and mix with the troops. We noticed they had set up weapons and machine gun nests and would let us get behind the guns and make believe we were aiming at an imaginary enemy. That part was fun.

The fun ended abruptly. It was a dark, cool night when we were shaken awake by our parents, told to dress warmly quickly and within fifteen minutes or less we were loaded in the back of an army lorry and driven off. We got out a few hours later, and took a train to Votice, a medium sized city near the center of the country. There, some local people awaited us, and took us to their home for food and shelter. In the morning we found out that a foreign army, Hitler´s Wehrmacht, had occupied that part of the country called Sudetenland, which included what used to be our home.

While my parents were making all kinds of plans, life for me continued somewhat routinely. I was enrolled in a new school. Luckily by this time I was bilingual, so I had no language difficulty. I met some new classmates that became friends, thought the girls in school were very pretty, the teachers unusually strict, and the homework overburdening. By now, patriotism and war talk were the topics of most people's conversation. More new people also arrived in the city seeking shelter and assistance and the community was very outgoing in meeting these requirements. We even saw some movies in an improvised theater. There were also more people in uniform and army vehicles and convoys were a routine sight.

Then one morning my parents said lets pack our suitcase we are going to Prague, the Capital. Apparently paperwork had been processed to the point where after issuing passports, we could plan to visit my grandmother who lived in America. This was something, wow the Capital. I couldn't wait to get there and see such a big city. I wasn't disappointed. We registered at a nice hotel just a bit away from the center square of the city, where we were allotted a room on the third floor facing the main avenue. While my father was busy arranging the necessary paperwork, my mother took us to see all the important sights, including, the castle, the old "city", the bridge, museums and especially the famous clock. Its ingenious builder, it was said, after almost a lifetime of working on and completing this unique masterpiece, was put to death by the then king, so that such an unusual clock could not be duplicated. I had never been to a large moviehouse, so that when we were allowed to go, the film that just happened to be playing, was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". I couldn't get over it. It was such a thrill to see it. Of course it was in our language which made it easy to understand. After that, we were treated to some delicious snacks and cakes together with hot chocolate.

It looked like my parents were beginning to be happy since apparently father had gotten the passports and was waiting for a confirmation from a Dutch shipping company for passage to America. Then, just two days prior to leaving we awoke during the early hours of the morning and looked out the hotel windows. We were both frightened and awed. The Hun army was rolling in. There were columns of big tanks, army trucks and armored vehicles as far as we could see down the main avenue. The Krauts had taken over the Capital by night and the country by next day. The people, including ourselves assembled by the thousands in the main city square the next day and at one point broke out and sang the national anthem, but of course it was to no avail. Occupation soldiers and SS troops by the hundreds shoved the people away from the main avenues surrounding the square and after some minutes, army units paraded down the avenues in their goose step and full dress gear. A long line of open army vehicles followed with one large one in particular from which some head Kraut was standing with his hand stretched in salute. Many people around me wept, and others looked very unhappy. I guess they knew the score and correctly figured they were in for a rough time. We returned to our hotel.

The next day my father took me with him and went to a government building on the square, which had temporarily been made the Military Headquarters of the Hun army. He stated his business at the reception office and was told to go to a certain room down the hall. There other officers frisked him for weapons and made him stand against the wall with his arms up. About half an hour later, he was taken to the commanding general, and I was permitted to go with him. While he was stating his case, the general kept looking at me and I thought he once or twice kind of winked. At any rate, he told father everything was in order and had his deputy stamp our passport with his signature. Then we left the building. That evening we took a train which would take us through Germany into Holland. But, the trip wasn't over yet.

We pulled into Munich Hbf, a large city station in the Southern part of Germany before midnight. Everyone got off the train; we had a two hour lay-over. The station was well patrolled by troops and it was stupid to sit in the nearly empty waiting room. Then father noticed an open restaurant. According to the large printed sign in the window, he shouldn't even have entered, but he did and we all went along. We sat at a long table and waited to order some snacks. Before the waiter even came near, two uniformed officers joined us at the table. They asked where we were from and where we were going. Though my father cautioned us not to speak, I just answered and said we came from the countryside and were going to visit grandmother in America. "Is that so?", replied one of the officers, "Are you really going to America?", "yes" I replied, "and you can come with us if you'd like". Upon that response both officers broke into laughter as did my parents and the officers became very friendly to us. They insisted on buying us snacks and sodas and had a good time chatting with us. I think they also got a chuckle out of our unusual countryside dialect. We hardly noticed but the two hour wait went quickly and the officers escorted us to the train and wished us an enjoyable voyage. The train left the station and we were once more on our way. About mid morning the train slowly came to a halt in the countryside. There was no town or station in the area. Soon army trucks pulled alongside the train. Officers and soldiers came aboard the train and row by row started to interrogate the passengers. Some of the people were told to get off in sharp command-like words. A few that didn't want to were manhandled by the soldiers and pulled off. They were placed in the empty trucks. When an officer came to our seats he looked at us and I guess we weren't frightened due to our encounter the night before, so I smiled at the officer and he nodded his head and said," All is in order here", and went on. Some twenty minutes later the train started up once again and the next time we stopped was at a platform of a large city. There dozens of ladies greeted us with flowers, hot chocolate and butter bread with chocolate sprinkles. We were in Rotterdam, Holland and we were told we were the last train out, the borders were sealed.

It was just a week later that we sailed from Rotterdam on a passenger liner, the Veendam, that was to take us to our grandmother. Sea life was totally new for me, and I had to explore all nooks and crannies of the ship. Some places were not only out of bounds but locked securely and there wasn't any way I could enter. But on a number of occasions I would wander once entering the crews quarter, the galley, and the engine room. Each time I was dutifully escorted back to the main deck and reprimanded. About four days out of port, on a swelling open sea, the ship came to a stop and just rolled and pitched. We all wondered what had happened. The captain announced that a German U-boat had asked the ship to stop so that he could verify the cargo. About two hours later, satisfied that this was a purely passenger mission, the U-boat commander allowed the ship to proceed without further incident. War was still some four to five months away, but it may have already started on the high seas. The ship detoured from its original course, stopping outside Halifax, Nova Scotia, a Canadian province, first, and then making its way slowly down the coast. We all cheered when we first saw The Statue of Liberty. We had made it to America and to grandmother.

Now dear reader, I had cautioned you about this Story, and indicated I wasn't at all certain whether it would put you to rest. So perhaps you'll have to read STORY SEVEN next.

©1990 Herbert Holzbauer

published @1996 edition S.p.N.LAUB

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