Here's a Buchenwald story for you. When the Allies liberated Buchenwald, it became part of the Russian gulag, and the Russian occupation army filled it back up with prisoners under pretty much the same horrible conditions that had tortured and killed so many Jews there. But this time the prisoners were not Jews, they were Germans, and my aunt Maria did time there for nine years.
The name, "Buchenwald" means "beech forest," and it had indeed been a beech forest once upon a time when the great 19th century German poet, Goethe, liked to take walks there. The forest is mostly gone now, but one centuries-old beech tree had survived, standing in the middle of the courtyard at Buchenwald the prison, and it had a plaque with one of Goethe's most famous poems engraved on it: Wanderer's Nachtlied Ueber allen Gipfeln Ist Ruh, In allen Wipfeln Spuerest du Kaum einen Hauch; Die Voegelein schweigen im Walde. Warte nur! Balde Ruhest du auch. The Wanderer's Night Song Above all mountain tops is peace, In all the tree tops you feel hardly a breath; birds are silent in their nests, But wait! Soon you, too, shall rest. My aunt told me that this tree and its poem were of immeasurable comfort to her and to the other prisoners at Buchenwald, but when the prison guards learned of this, they cut it down. ----- Original Message ---- From: dhamiltony2k5 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 7:34:52 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Veterans of Life Yes, that's told very special. Thanks, is a great story. I showed it around my household and everyone was blown away in turn. What life does bring. What a great story of courage. That was only 60 years ago all that happened. http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=w0HVg1kCpxU I remember an obituary last year published in the FF Ledger for Harriet Berman's mother here. It was written in a common way, that she was fun and a great game player and active in her later life and such. The un-expanded part of the obituary was that she grew up Jewish, in 1930's occupied Poland. I wondered then if the family had her story as she saw it. Her MSAE grandson from FF then has now become a professional journalist elsewhere, I wondered then if he had collected it or if it had come to be too late. There seemed to be an untold character story in the obituary. Certainly some veterans of those times only wish to go on in life putting it behind them in their privacy. That generation is passing fast now. My wife's dad was with the first army medical unit to arrive at Dachau as US troops arrived and found it. He has a scrap book with photos and articles about it from then. But now his own memory is rickety and about all gone. At Revelations used bookstore here a while back I bought a used book about all the concentration and work camps of Nazi Germany, in real nice shape that had clippings from the war carefully folded in to the book. Evidently from someone's (from around here?) estate or collection who seems to have been there. In town here we have a kind old guy who as a skilled handy-man takes care of appliances. As a boy he was displaced with his mother and brother from East Prussian farming districts that were emptied of all civilians as the Russian army came in that way against the Germans during the war. They traveled about as displaced civilians trying to connect with their family's father who had been conscripted in to the German army and sent down to Austria. As the war narrowed down, like with this other story they were separated by the lines of occupation and it was quick heads-up thinking in hand-changing destinations on travel documents that got them from the Russian occupied side over to the American occupied side where the dad was later in the war. I am telling his story to you in writing this but even in doing that I have left out a lot of viseral texture to the way he told it to me directly. My dad had his stories from then too. He is gone now and the liveliness of those stories with him. I remember some of them but not the way he told them. -Doug in FF > "Marek Reavis" <reavismarek@ ...> wrote: > > Yeah, Curtis, my folks; the back stories are equally interesting. > And as you can see, the red wine (and the vodka) apparently haven't > diminished their capacities too much. It's just a life and every > life is a story that each one of us has the opportunity to enrich > every day. I always appreciate the stories shared on this forum with > a community I feel so lucky to be a member of. > > Marek > > ** > > --- In FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com, "curtisdeltablues" > <curtisdeltablues@ > wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com, "Marek Reavis" <reavismarek@ > > > wrote: > > > > > > Curtis, here's another story I think you might enjoy told last > year > > > to a local Saint Louis PBS station in Saint Louis, accompanied > with > > > some inexpensive red wine. > > > > Totally blown away! Thanks for sending this Marek. Your folks? > What > > a fascinating couple. What a life! I live for stories like this! > > > > > > > > > > > > > > http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=w0HVg1kCpxU > > > > > > ** Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
