Under the Same Stars: Yugoslavia

a wise man once said why should we not all live in peace and harmony look up at the same stars we are fellow passengers on the same planet and we dwell beneath the same sky what matters it along which road each individual endeavors to find the ultimate truth there's a lady sitting behind me that I would like you to meet you don't know her because you haven't met her before she comes from another part of this world that you and I lived in and on over she does look up at the same sky but the same stars who is this woman what is her name what does she do why is she here well those are all questions that I think she can answer better than I can I am Helen listen better I have a husband and three boys we are German refugees from Yugoslavia our home used to be in the part of Yugoslavia which used to belong to the austro-hungarian after it was given to Yugoslavia and end of the First World War first of all I should like to ask you to excuse my English at only the news three languages but when I came to America I have not speak English at all but I find it out very soon that I had to learn it you would like to know how it happened that we came to America into Iowa as the front came near to our city in 1944 and the air attacked increased we like many thousand planes to flee from the approaching communist so I find myself meet my two children and to six suitcases one September evening under train traveling was not so easy those days because the trains were often attacked by night backed partisans in body by bombers and fighter planes when the train started a nine o'clock in the night we have not know we believed to the three next morning or not because the Train a night before was attacked and 22 women and children were killed but nothing happened on this rainy and stormy night and we lived through the next day's air attacked two and arrived on the third hours later in viña there we had to change trains and went out to the place where we spent next six years I feel easier after my husband had joined asked four weeks later but it did not stay so peaceful there and this area was bumped and bounced again as the Communists drew near the flute of refugees from Eastern Europe increased daily there were at last 500 thousand refugees in Austria a country just helped so big then Iowa and help of it coverage by high mountains with a population of over 6 million our hardest part was the time after the war food was very scarce and a time we had to ration our bread for one's life in a day all foods were food was rationed but even so hard to get there was hope there was no bus services and we had to walk three four miles to get our food or groceries and to carry our load home we dated sometimes for hours and hours in line to be told that everything is sold for today to try to the next day again the rations were very small and to keep our children and life we tried to get some food from the farmers but they did not like to sell anything for money so we have to away this little clothings gold cigarette coffee tea forever everything what we had it was very hard for a mother to say I cannot murder I have not more to a hungry child when it asked for more but he was very we lost everything and our home but we were very happy to be in Austria because refugees who come daily from Yugoslavia in Hungarian for terrible things how people was starboard and total two dead several of our friends for relatives found their death in such horrible way they sent younger people to Russia for killing children or others other older people came to the starvation camp where several hundred thousand died in many cases children were taken away from their parents and no record was given to whom these children belong now the seat of trying to get a better term Mitte where he sent such a children back to Germany or who to Austria and a parent or relative tried to find out their own they tried to indentify them as good they can in most cases the children don't know their name or to whom they belong the tanks are a lot that we could flee in time that we and our children have not had go through all this suffering we could see very soon that Austria was too small for us absorb all these refugees and that's with you and we look for opportunity for emigrate and as Methodists we had always some connections with a Methodist Church in America and so it was the Methodist Church who sent ahead that we can come over after we have waited almost six years we had originally planned to stay in New York but we did not like the big cities and the mixed population too well and when we received the invitation to I ever became gladly we found her friends from the first day they helped to adjust ourselves to the new life it is hard to start a new life in our age with the family and with nothing but the kindness and the friendliness of the people we know make it easier for us the life at home needs to be different than here only few people could afford to own houses or class building was much more expensive than here because wooden houses was not permitted in town and brick and stone was much higher our cities were cleaner the streets were washed and wet but we had not so much car Percodan cleanliness different from home to home the same life here the food is mostly the same but it's prepared at a different way the woman spent much more time to preparing meals why we use just fresh vegetables fresh meat and all the cooking baking handing and most baking bread and everything were made at home the most people they just prepare everything for the winter back home this makes much more work for a woman but not only the life our woman different the life our men different too you could hardly find a man to help in the kitchen or to do dishes when it was too much for survive he rather hired her a maid or some other help the mother is the center of the family life like here children seem to be children longer then he is when parents have more influence of them high school children are not except to earn any money while going to school I do not want to criticize for price either one and first we compare everything but we understood the reasons later by certain things who are different here from there I think I have been asked to ask to tell some little stories what happened the same here then back home my mother used to tell us oh when she raised us girls she just always said you must learn everything to do and when you are in your own household you can better tell Amador yet better do your own work and she tells us always the story how a young girl married former girl married engineer in the town and when he brought her the first visitors she had to make some coffee and she went in the kitchen and put the coffee beans in the pot and was sitting waiting that they get soft and we always thought that mother mother just came but I have experience here in Des Moines once I was in a store and a girl was by topic and the group that asked her shall I grind the coffee for you oh she said I don't know you have to grind the coffee before you you use it and she said I never have cook coffee I don't know you you must grind it before when you think you can grind it now I say it is just the same here then over there we are glad to be in America even if not all our hot was fulfilled it did help it take perhaps longer for people of our age to feel at home again but the candid and the friendliness the people here helped us much our boys do not have our problem they go to school and you cannot tell them from other children I think the more American than the American and these are already able to help some of our relatives to come over to I have been asked often and off why we had not brought over our furniture order or other household stuff I can just tell this that the people of this country do not know what it means to live through a war as a civilian and I wish they never would experience it may God save us all from a new board well it appears that whether you live in Yugoslavia or in the central part of the United States some newlyweds have to be taught to grind their coffee beans before they make coffee we asked you to meet today mrs. Andrew lichtenberger formerly living in Yugoslavia now in the United States because I thought you would enjoy knowing her a lady from another country once it was a long ways off no it isn't very far away in this area you thought you would meet her and and would like her when you knew her language gets in the way yes it often does but that's the difference we can live with the things that we like in common and dislike our needs or wants other words our common humanity seems to be even more important than those differences we asked you to meet mrs. Andrew lichtenberger today and through her to meet her people of Yugoslavia who with us dwell on the same planet beneath the same sky and look up at the same stars