We are finally in the United States and this is how we happened to come back to our fatherland.

On April 21, 1942 my parents and I were asked to come to the police department in Frankfort-on-Main, Germany.  Of course, we were frightened, because we expected to be interned.  My father had been interned, or rather imprisoned before, so we were ready for anything.  But, you know what?  They asked us if we wanted to be exchanged, that meant go back to America.  Surely we wanted to go home, but first we thought they wanted to trap us.  After having discussed the matter with the Swiss Consul we decided "yes."

The next two weeks we were packing and packing.  We sent all our furniture to a storage house and gave all our money to the care of a trustee.  These were some days of hard work, days I shall never forget.

May 13, 1942 we were ready to leave and sitting in our apartment without any furniture--just suitcases and some food.  To our greatest disappointment our journey was delayed.  After two days of suspension we finally could leave.

May 15, 1942 early in the morning we loaded the six small suitcases and three large trunks we were allowed to take out of Germany on a wheelbarrow and walked to the railroad station.  Transportation is very difficult in wartime, so we had to make use of our feet.  Our train headed for Stuttgart where we had to catch the exchange train, filled with Americans returning home.

On our way to our first destination (Stuttgart), we had one adventure.  A sick soldier, who just had returned from Russia, jumped out of the train because of a nervous breakdown and was killed.

At midnight we caught our train in Stuttgart, the train in which we would have to live for two days.  Before we left Germany we were notified to take sufficient food with us for five days, as the train we were to take did not have dining cars.  Thus, in addition to our nine suitcases, we had to carry a couple of small bags in order to satisfy our stomachs for a few days.

Early in the morning of May 16, 1942 we passed the French border, although it was not a border anymore, because the Nazis occupied Northern France.

We had a wonderful journey seeing Strasbourg, Paris, Orleans, Bordeaux and many other famous French cities.

On the way our train suddenly stopped and guess what happened?  A friend of my father's had mistaken the emergency brake for the shade and pulled it.  First we did not know what had happened, but then we got a big laugh out of it.  For a couple of minutes we saw the officials (the German police) busily running along the train, for they thought that something had happened.  After about ten minutes our train set off again. We were kidding my father's friend all the way to America about pulling the emergency brake.

May 17^th we arrived in Hendaye, our last stop in France.  Here we had to wait for the exchange, i.e. we had to wait for the Germans coming from the United States, to whose train we had to change, because the tracks in Spain are smaller.  After having waited there for one day, the train arrived and we could continue our journey.

May 18^th we passed the Spanish border, at the beginning of the Pyrenees.  San Sebastian was the first city we saw and how different it looked!  Right away we could notice that we arrived in Southern Europe--we saw only white houses, dark people, dark as well as dirty, dirty streets.  Everything was contrary to what I had seen before.  At each stop all kinds of people surrounded our train trying to sell us oranges at extremely high prices.  The Spanish people seemed to be very poor.

The nearer we came to the Portuguese border the more tropical the country seemed with its orange trees, rice fields, olive trees and cactuses.

May 19^th we arrived in Portugal and were in Lisbon at 10 P.M. that night.  German police accompa

nied our train all the way to Lisbon.  Lisbon is the most beautiful city I had ever seen.  A taxicab brought us to the Hotel Frankfort where we had to stay two nights.  How good the food tasted there and how much we got to eat!  After having lived almost only on potatoes and turnips for three years we appreciated these meals very much.

The next day we had to report to the American Embassy where we were assigned our cabin on the ship.  The price for each cabin was the same, no matter if it was good or bad.  To our misfortune we got a cabin on the lowest deck, the E-deck, though we had to pay the same as the others.

May 21^st our ship, the S/S Drottningholm, left Lisbon harbor.  The bay of Lisbon in the brightest sun was a grand sight.  Many people crowded around our ship to bid us a last good-bye and we bade good-bye to Europe.  Soon the sight of land grew smaller and smaller until the highest mountains of Portugal seemed to disappear in the dark blue sea.  Then only water surrounded us, only water and fishes. We found out later that German U-boats also followed us.  While the roaring of the sea was overwhelming our ship moved up and down in a perfect rhythm.

I made very nice acquaintances on the ship, so the time flew too fast.  My girlfriend Helen, who used to live in Düsseldorf, and I spent half of our time in the storeroom enjoying American apples, oranges and pears, something we had not eaten for a long time.  The time left we spent in back of the ship, a place where other people did not dare to go because they got seasick there.  Helen and I were looking in the water without getting sick at all.  While the others were seasick we had lots of fun, running around exploring the whole ship.  Soon we were familiar with everything.  One day we heard the siren; everybody had to put on their lifebelts for practice.  Lifeboats were assigned to us, so that in case our ship should sink we would know where to go.

May 24^th was an exciting day for us, because we saw land appearing at the horizon.  We came nearer and nearer and at midday we passed the Azores.  It is a wonderful feeling to see land again after having seen only water for a few days.

The next five days we saw only water and flying fish.  A couple of times we went to the movies on the ship.  The time passed so quickly.

One day everybody was rushing on board.  Far away we saw the American continent, rising majestically out of the ocean.  My heart began to palpitate--this was my country, my fatherland, the land I had been longing to see all my life and here I was--America.  Home, finally home!

The nearer we came, the more ships we saw.  Two little ships were approaching our ship and our ship stopped--the American Coast Guard came aboard and inspected our ship.  There was New York, the skyscrapers I had seen so often in pictures.  On the right hand was Coney Island, as somebody informed me.  I ran to the railing to hold that sight with my camera, but just when I was going to take the picture, one of the Coast Guard men told me that I was not allowed to take a picture of New York harbor.  I was sorry that I could not, but law is law.

May 31^st we arrived in New York Bay, but had to stay in the bay overnight.  The next evening, June 1^st, we were permitted to leave the ship in Jersey City.  After the customs officers had inspected our baggage, we could go to the Hotel Pennsylvania, where we lived till my parents found an apartment.  We were so happy to be in our country!

Rosemarie

(In case you forgot, my older brother's fellow students, ardent Nazis, tried to kill him in gym class several years before the war between the United States and Germany started - by arranging one of the instruments so he would fall down and kill himself.  One of his classmates told my parents about this plan a few days earlier, so they took him out of school and arranged with the American Consulate to send him to the United States at the age of 17, where he got in touch with family and immediately joined the Navy.)