German Tears

By Pauline Elischer

This is written by Pauline Elischer, a survivor of World War II, one of the many victims of that war at the tender age of nine. This story could be beneficial for her readers as she shares the perils of war.
Once you lose your roots, the grace of God is the only way you can truly heal and find peace in life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543419573

Pauline Elischer

This Biography is written by a survivor, Pauline Elischer, of World War II. Who at the age of 71 was inspired to inform the younger generation of the perils of war. She believes that once you loose your roots- you are just a fallen leaf blowing in the wind. Family unity and the believe in God as the creator of all living things are the solid foundation of a happy and successful life. There is no other foundation strong enough to build on.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Pauline Stiffel.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017906747

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-5434-1959-7

   Softcover   978-1-5434-1958-0

   eBook   978-1-5434-1957-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 07/21/2017

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Contents

Introduction!

Chapter 1 Arriving In West Germany!

Chapter 2 Crossing The Border!

Chapter 3 Safer On German Ground!

Chapter 4 Germany In Ruins!

Chapter 5 Living On A Farm!

Chapter 6 Moving To Schweinfurt!

Chapter 7 Good Food And Horsemeat!

Chapter 8 A New Baby Boy In The Family!

Chapter 9 The Devil Never Sleeps!

Chapter 10 Baby Karl Heinz Dies!

Chapter 11 Peter Is Born!

Chapter 12 School In The City!

Chapter 13 A Camp For Undernourished Girls!

Chapter 14 German Festivals!

Chapter 15 Freezing Cold Winters!

Chapter 16 Building A New House!

Chapter 17 The River Main!

Chapter 18 Reading And Knitting!

Chapter 19 American Soldiers!

Chapter 20 Lost Innocence!

Chapter 21 Some 15 Years Later!

Chapter 22 Home In Germany!

Chapter 23 Going To America!

Chapter 24 Broken Promises!

Chapter 25 Life In Chicago!

Chapter26 New Friends!

Chapter 27 New Man In Her Life!

Chapter 28 Back In Germany!

Chapter 29 Miracle Of Life!

Chapter 30 Flying Back Home To America!

Chapter 31 Marriage Turning Sour!

Chapter 32 Resolving The Marriage!

Chapter 33 A New Love!

Chapter 34 Back To The Windy City!

Chapter 35 Robby John Is Born!

Chapter 36 John Comes Home!

Chapter 37 Car Accident Kills John!

Chapter 38 Moving To Texas!

Chapter 39 Congressional Record!

Chapter 40 New Job!

Chapter 41 Help Me Lord!

Chapter 42 Adams Family Moves To California!

Chapter 43 Deciding To Move To Delaware!

Chapter 44 Getting Married!

Chapter 45 Robert’s Children Arrive!

Chapter 46 Leaving Hell!

Chapter 47 Single Again!

Chapter 48 Pauli Comes Home!

Chapter 49 Brother Rowland Living With Lisle!

Chapter 50 Two Funerals In One Week!

Chapter 51 Son Robby Passes Away!

Chapter 52 Robby’s Life!

Chapter 53 Lisle’s Life!

Chapter 54 Hell Returns!

Chapter 55 Where Are You Hiding Lord?

Chapter 56 Lisle Turns 80 Years Old!

DEDICATION

I, Pauline Elischer, dedicate my book to my only living child, and my

six grandchildren. Also, my four great grand children. May the Lord bless and keep

you safe all of your days.

My only son, met the Lord in 2004. May he rest in peace!

INTRODUCTION!

Countless blood and tears have been shed on German ground. Most men have been either killed or disabled. Even boys of tender ages drafted into Hitler’s Army will never return home again. They have been killed in the battlefields across continental Europe or frozen at the gates of Stalingrad.

CHAPTER ONE

Arriving in West Germany!

Simon and Pauli arrived with their two children, Lisle nine and Rowland two, in what shortly afterwards became West Germany in Weyer by Schweinfurt on the Main River. Schweinfurt lies between Frankfurt and Wurzburg in upper Bavaria. The Stiffel family had lost everything down to their roots. Their lives were spared because they escaped from Czechoslovakia by night, chased by the Russian soldiers who killed anybody related to the German race, but also young Slovak women were raped and killed when they swarmed across their land. The Stiffel family had to leave all their earthly belongings behind and was separated from their extended family members never to see any of them again. The very old, Lisle’s grandmothers among them, returned back home from Eger in Sudetenland and refused to flee. They starved or froze to death during a bitter cold winter in their mountain village, called Zeche, renamed by the Russians to Manilova. Even though their life was hell under the Communist regime, they had lived to nearly 100 years of age.

Before they fled their homeland, the school children in the German occupied Czechoslovakia were taken out of their classes and loaded on to wagons drawn by horses. Most of them did not have a chance to say good-by to their parents, and cried bitterly on the way to the train station where they were loaded into passenger compartments and shipped westward. Later it took the authorities several months to reunite most of them with their families. Lisle was one of those school children!

The mothers fled after two or three more weeks with their infants when the artillery shooting over the mountains from the Russians became too close for their safety. All men were consequently separated from their wives! They were supposed to remain behind, hold their ground and defend their land. It was their duty! But, they did not stand a chance against the strong Russian artillery and were mowed down like weeds or put into concentration camps, where forced labor, disease, and starvation killed most of them.

Simon was one of the blessed ones who escaped just in the nick of time. He pretended to be a Slovak and sneaked through to the west on the last coal wagon heading towards Germany. He knew the city where Pauli and his small son had landed. It was a large school house they turned into a temporary home for the refugees - by putting several straw mattresses in every available room.

The homeless school children who fled earlier were put into temporary shelters where they were distributed to foster parents all over town. First, Lisle wound up with a single woman and a small girl her own age. The lady cooked bread soup for dinner. She washed Lisle’s hair and found one big louse on her head. She saved the small red headed girl from being full of lice. The two young girls became fast friends over night! But, over the next days the authorities realized a mistake had been made, and took Lisle away from her new found friends. This made Lisle cry! Once again she was losing her points of reference and had no idea what was going on. But, the lady who had chosen to take her home was not a good mother. She had abandoned her own young son, and given him up to strangers. So, Lisle was lucky not to be permanently placed in her care.

The new, childless couple Lisle was placed with the second time where in their late forties. The man owned a carpenter shop, and the woman made beautiful rhinestone and crystal jewelry. They owned a beautiful house, like the one Lisle grew up in. But, the girl was very lonely. They tried to occupy her by making jewelry along- side her foster mother. One night she dreamed she was sitting on the toilet and wet the bed. The horrified girl tried to hide the accident by making up the bed, but the foster mother discovered the soiled sheets. She took the girl to the local doctor where they found out that Lisle had a bladder infection from sleeping on the cold floor on top of a straw mattress in the converted schoolhouse.

These new people in Lisle’s life threated her very kindly. She spent one winter season in their care. On Christmas morning Lisle discovered a beautifully decorated tree hiding in the basement where the man of the house had his carpentry shop. They wanted to surprise the young girl, but, she discovered the tree too soon. No one had ever gone to these lengths to please her. She was loved by this middle age couple, but she still missed her mother and two year old brother and yearned to be with them.

In January, 1945, Mr. Stiffel, Lisle’s father accidentally found his daughter by looking out the train’s window in Gablonz, a city occupied by Germans in a country called Schlesingen. It belonged to Germany many years ago, before the border was moved westwards. (This was the country that Hitler tried to unite back to Germany). A train load of children, including Lisle, had been placed here several months before and put into foster homes for an uncertain amount of time. During winter time the Zecher children were sledding down the long, steep hill and came to stop at the train station. Here they tied up to a large horse pulled sled that pulled them back to the top. The boys and girls on the bottom of the hill saw and recognized Mr. Stiffel through the train’s window and started hollering his name. He got off the train and was led to Lisle’s dwelling place by catching a ride on one of those horse pulled sleds.

They said goodbye the next day, as Lisle joined her father with a large box of this beautiful colored stone studded jewelry. The loving foster parents were left behind in tears! Many years later, in America, Lisle tried to contact these wonderful people through the Red Cross and the local newspaper, but, there was no sign of them. They too had to flee later on to save their lives! God only knows where they wound up.

Simon took his daughter and boarded the next train once again heading west to Eger. Here the family was reunited. Simon secured a job as an Overseer on a big range nearby. He claimed to be a communistic Slovak. He could not survive in a camp on straw mattresses where he found his wife and small son. He temporarily found them a better life. But, the Russian Army, marching ever westward was soon knocking on their doors again.

One day they saw the wounded German soldiers dragging their disabled bodies westward, with one thought in their minds, reaching their loved ones at home. The next week the American soldiers drove by with their Army jeeps. The young girl only saw teeth and eye balls! Oh my God, she thought, there are black people on this earth. She had heard of them, but, she had never seen a black person before. These soldiers were very kind. They threw out candy bars and oranges to the curious children lining the streets. But, the Russian soldiers followed close behind them. They raped and killed innocent women and even children. If you were of German heritage you had no chance to survive.

Pauli was very smart and persuaded Simon to sneak across the border the Russians had established, to secure the papers needed to enter what now became Occupied Germany. He was gone ten days and returned not a minute too soon. The Russian Gendarmes (Military Police) had come knocking on their door. They asked for Simon! Pauli told them he was out in the fields working. We will come back tomorrow and he better be here, they told the frightened woman. When they showed up the next day and Simon was not there, they lined poor Pauli and her two children against the wall. Oh God, cried nine year old Lisle, clinging to her mother’s skirt, I don’t want to die. I’m too young to die, she whimpered, while