The Only Grandfather I Ever Knew (Part II)

When David awoke he saw a light through the forest and wondered if he could dare go there for help, since he didn’t know exactly where he was. He decided to knock on the door and, to his great relief, a Czech woman answered! The woman said she’d help him because her husband was also at war and she would want someone to help him should he be in trouble, so she gave him some of her husband’s clothes and let him sleep in the hayloft. In return for the favor, he took care of her livestock and chopped wood for her.

In 1945, as the war was coming to an end with the Allied Forces attacking Germany from the west, David became a prisoner of war once again as a German. When the war ended the captives were allowed to return to their home countries, but David did not want to return to Russia, knowing the fate that awaited him there. Since Germany was devastated from the war, he applied for immigration to Canada, but was denied because of the S.S. tattoo on his arm. He had been forced to get it while working under the German army and had tried to remove it, but it was to be a lifetime reminder of a time he’d rather forget.

A while later he heard of an organization that was taking Mennonites to South America and this is how he ended up in Paraguay. Upon arriving there he got word that his family in Russia had perished in the war. It was not long before he met my widowed grandmother, they fell in love and got married. In this way he acquired an instant family, my mom being the oldest child.

But the story does not end here. One day, after the birth of two sons, David received mail from Russia. It was a letter from his first wife, Helen, who was still living in Russia! She had been released from the labor camp and was trying to find her family. What was he supposed to do now? Of course he was happy to hear that she was alive, but by now he was happily married to someone else. The mixture of emotions churning in him were impossible for him to describe. After much agonizing he decided to write her and tell her that he could not go back because the Russian government would still see him as an enemy and not allow him the freedom to live a normal life there. And obviously he felt an obligation to his new family, as well.

I cannot imagine being in Helen’s shoes at this time. Like she hadn’t gone through enough already! But she was a gracious woman who decided that this was just her fate in life and all she asked for was a picture of him with his new family. My grandparents, David and Liese were married 37 years and she died of colon cancer in 1986. I loved my Opa and have very fond memories of him, always making me feel special.

In 1993 a new Russian president allowed people more freedom to emigrate and Helen, along with some of her family moved, to Germany. My Opa, being widowed, and still living in Paraguay, decided to visit her in 1994. Yes, after 53 years of separation! The amazing thing was that we just happened to be in Germany with our three children and we got to meet Helen, her daughter and some grandchildren. We listened with rapt attention as Helen and my Opa each told their story. It was a very emotional time in which I was struck with the reality that these (his) grandchildren never got to know their grandfather, while I had been blessed by their loss. What a privilege it was to meet this sweet lady and hear her side of the story. She passed away about a year later and my Opa died in 1999, back in Paraguay. They never did get re- married.