Homecoming After Seven Long Years
It was 1946 after WWII had ended and I lived with my sister Friedl in Darmstadt/ Germany. Our mother just had died of cancer. She was only 46 years old. Our father did not return at the end of the war, and we did not know if he was in a Russian prison camp or died when the Russians took Berlin where he was stationed. My sister Friedl joined the Red Cross so we would receive some information or news about family members who did not return after the war as yet.
It was not until 1949 that the Red Cross office informed my sister of some news, but also told Friedl it might just be a rumor. Prisoners of war from a Russian camp came through Darmstadt and told the Red Cross workers that our father might be in Siberia in a prisoner- of-war camp. The worker at the Red Cross told Friedl that she would notify us when there would be a train with prisoners and officers coming through the Darmstadt Train Station. Could we have hope?
My throat aches with unshed tears for my dear friend Ilona and her family, as I think of all the loss they suffered, and the very long wait she and her sister endured while waiting to find out what had happened to their father.
Ilona writes beautifully as she shares the story of her family and their love for each other.
This is such a heart wrenching story, but one that needs to be told. War is awful! It harms everyone – most terribly the innocent. Ilona’s willingness to share this precious. A generous gift that I receive with holy respect and renewed commitment to counter waring ways in all forms.
Her father was truly a handsome man! His dignity shows through his eyes. His daughter carries his spirit forward and we, who know and love her, are the better for it!
How wrenching it must be for Ilona to go back and to describe those terrible times, when even a wonderful event emphasized losses. She describes them so poignantly and vividly because of course, they are unforgettable. To know her now one would think she had had an easy life. She has come through this with gentleness, kindness, and, a sense of humor that belies the horrors of her earlier life. I am sure it costs her emotionally to write her experiences, but they truly are a gift that only she can give.
Ilona tells many stories of travel, food, and art – but there are also the hard stories of living in Germany during WWII. Most of us will not experience war this personally, but it gives me even greater respect for the kind and generous woman that is Ilona. In spite of so much loss, her father must have been so grateful to return home to find his two daughters waiting for him with open arms.