Hide Article Text (OCR)
pings tnv forgettm- to be good in tmuat ami wrapped it. with a cloth Herbs, in Great Bond. learningthe two weens beooe Christmas. * looked awiuliy sick, and i^ept-KnuJish onlv slowly because theyhhe watehed the syrup mailing United piece of root siaio on my!spoke German so' fluently. Herand L.Je «olt;rk.-; tilling v.ooi her •- ennai.h. 'education began when she wentmmiwCo bakmgs ui pfcBw neiisse The soldiers saw the wan face lo work iR Su Hose hospital’s diet ao'-i lobivUchen and sprengorle •— nnd sniffed the tai'd and hunted kitchenthe gn.;,u lt;Jenna a holiday cookies. elsewhere. “Even n you’re not •*[ trunk I sometimes got the Later, she walked in the fields, aick. that hot laid will do it.” mixed up,” she* admits. “Ibehind Uio lister, picking up the Mildred finally was taken from hope no one died ”raws of potatoes. And she walked her mother and hustled to a work y*ur.se friends at the mospitalm the forest alter berries with camp. ordered to wash lw n.ughi m.gC(j her tlt; g0 to high school, her brother Hurst who was four flannel .shirks a day in a wooden she WHS* admittedly fright-years younger. tub and do it with a smalt piece oncii she halt;i bccome acquaintedShe knew vaguely she couldn't of soap. “When tnoy discovered wjlh Mr and Mrs Cad Dobnnski go bevuuml eight giades of school,dirt, they slapped you in the who live near Lorraine, arranged■ i•cruise her fatr.er was not a Nazi face with the wet shirts.”p i i t v member. But she does notrrecall any of the horror of Hitler prepaimg for the blood bath --except for one faint memory.to live with them and enrolled in Lorraine rural high school in theIn three days her hands wornbleeding raw. She refusedwork.toSome Jewish people ran (bo hilt;ri» where wo traded, Horst and I would bo half frozen when we'd go there ill the sleigh alter groceries. The storekeeper’s wifo always had hot. buns for us, with honey on them. 1 remember oiico we went and the. store was dark and the windows were broken. My father came back to the sleigh and said theMrs. Dobrtnskl was a former I hold out my IiuikU to tm gM[fih !(?;tchei. and hclped m.soMlrr Ho had one of »,««« ,)rc(1 wi)h ,lcr homework. When Kims with the big drum for but- jygQ graduated with the class oflets l ivas crying a.ul I said |al Enplish was hpr f;lvonle sub. •I km.w you will shot me. hut jcol and she wajj gcttjng As anclI won’t wash anymore.’ An officer looked at mv hands ami: B.s.* She. found, at Lorraine, a com-alter that I worked in the munitv as German as Eadach, butfieldsa rich, quiet farm community, far“Vou take those chances. Vm, rclU0vef| from the lroublcs of the don t care auyinorc. peop)e o[ Rildach. she spoke at aMomen ssjeju iti barracks, on church young peoples meeting one Storekeeper and his wife Mere ;straw covered bunks, younger girls nighti telling the storv of her trav-gone and w.» never bad hot buns like Mildred on the top bunks, the^ _ of (he hol lar(J and vinegarand honey again.” older, loss attractive ones on the wnsh an(1 ,ong walk t0 Belli#In the summer of TO» the high- bottom. 0ne tho listeners was Leonway past the Sehmdler farm, That,” explains the young J;uue„, whose • parents, Mr. and which led lo Poland was clogged bride, was so when the soldiers Mrs. Wilbert Janzen arc leading with soldiers and Mild r c d.came looking tor girls at night,j flirmers in ,he community, watched thorn tioin the potato;they would see the old owmcn.”j “He was the bashful type Mil-field. The government ordered Mildred was in tile work i-lirCl, Kavs wiUl ,hat age-old wo.u-farmers to turn over all surplus three weeks when the war ended „„•« .smile, but he had a sister production to the state. and the joyous Russians, hurrying in S(.hool with me, and that‘’but it was easy to fool thorn.” to Berlin, turned their captives helped ”Mildred says slyly. We'd butcher loose. When Mildred found herj A(ter graduation, she went to a call in the dark and keep bark mother. Frau Schindler washed Vork for'Ed Staober in the Lor-some milk and eggs.” the bee out of her hair with hotline £ to Sank' She is a bLoHtcburs. Schindler didn't go to war, vinegar. of everyone in the litUe town: Harbin was put in charge of a When they reached homo. Mil-;ry Diggs the postmaster and Harrygiuup I»f iarnts whose younger dred found her birth certificate. Schmidt who runs the hardware owner3 were drafted. A polish and under a stone m the cedar, where, and Roy Whiteman at the Lorrainea 1* reach prisoner were sent to her father had buried it along with cafe and fellows who pass the timehelp with the farm work. An uncle other family valuables. The Eus-;in Harry Folks' domino parlor and never came back from Stalingrad, Sian soldiers had ripped up the!the f0)ks who trade at the Myers But the big planes from England cellar floor, but has missed a few, Smith garage and Peters gro-didn t range as far as Uadach.-stones. By that narrow a margin;eery.‘Mostly,” says Mildred, “we did* was Mildred Schindler able to; “I’ou bet she’s a good girl,”,n’t know there was a war.” prove she was an American ancl!says Mrs. Teresa Dobrinski whom!War came in the spring of; come back to Kansas.Mildred lived with after she came1945 when the Russians and Amer-j Even so, the journey wasn’t!to town to work in the bank. Mrs.!1 r i ll axx fi •] I .1 i I _ . ' i • «•« lt;Ileans raced toward their meeting, easy. Frau Schindler scarcely had at the Elbe. It was the Russiansj cleaned the house and got the po-who came first to Radach. ;tatoes planted when a new enemyThe Germans met them there; came. Russia had given BrimdenDobrinski herself came from Germany, 50 years ago.Last summer Mildred got an unexpected letter from Berlin. Herin April, in Hitler’s last effort to’burg to Poland, The Polish sol- mother and brother had slipped!hold the eastern front. The battlejdiet's came as the Germans and see-sawed across the Schindler; Russians before them, and or farm. Shells tore holes in the slatejdered the Schindlers out. roof and shattered the windows! ”We had only a few minutes tothrough the iron curtain. Mildred%applied for them to come to her, new farm home as displaced per-! sons. Along with writing thank you;and then Russian troops moved!get ready. My mother was sick notes for her wedding presents,fr1* (and when I told the soldier weSchindler plodded through h i sj couldn’t move her, he offered to chores, a Russian tommy gun al-j shoot her.ways at his back. The Peoples” Escorted to Frankfurt on the new j August.she was busy last week filling out complicated government forms. She hopes they will be here byI never want to leave here,I farmy dumped ail Frau Schindler's!German border, the Schindlers -. .................molasses on her kitchen floor and! were turned loose. They walked; Mildred says. “Unless the Rus-added the innards of a feather;the 60-odd miles to Berlin, eat-jsians come. Then, they won’t find.V A * — A m a i.. 1 . i « # f l I »bed ust for the hell of it. jing raw potatoes and grass alongWhen they retreated, the Bus- the way.sians herded the population of Ea- “Don't complain about spinach,ftme here.”Mildred does not agree it is im possible for the Russians to come
Newspaper Details
Hutchinson News Herald
Hutchinson, Kansas, US
Sun, May 03, 1953
Page 15
Full Page
Clipped by
Hutchinson P.
KS, USA 15 Apr 2021
Other Publications Near Hutchinson, Kansas
Hutchinson Gazette
Hutchinson Herald
Hutchinson Daily News
Arkansas Valley Home
Hutchinson News Herald
