Pop turned 90 years old on May 13, 2020. The family had planned a big birthday party in Berlin, which due to covid, had to be cancelled. as a birthday present, I gave him an Absynthe glass and spoon, which he thoroughly enjoyed and of course got more stories flowing. Ever the optimist, Pop decided that since the government cancelled his 90th birthday, he will not turn 90 until May 13, 2021. Details on whether that Party will happen are still TBD.
The Covid situation and all the regulations reminded Pop very much of his experiences growing up in Berlin, and his optimism and determination were the beginning of the conversations that kicked off this Blog.
Looking back through my 2020 Shutdown conversations with pop:
April 24, 2020: The end of my series of the first 30 days of lockdown conversations with pop. He is doing fine. He has run out if cash, but learned that drive-through banking involves cars and curbs that don't stop for blind people, so he will just “do without”. He has run out of meat, so he will just “do without”, and makes a mean noodles with milk and cinnamon. (Told me no one else would eat it but it was yummy to him. Probably because he is still able to cook his own food). I haven't bothered to ask if he has enough TP, I know exactly what the answer will be. (Tp? You think anyone bothered to throw TP out of the planes during the Berlin blockade?). As long as he can listen to books (karl marx and victor hugo this week), he seems content.
April 26, 2020. Today's letters are from Odile Roze, a French woman from Tours, France. They are in English so I can read them. Odile is a friend he met while on a cultural youth exchange to England in the late 1940's. Date range of her letters are from 1950 to 1956. I selected some passages that offer perspective in light of today's stay at home orders. The first letter dated April 12 1950, appears to have been written to pop just after he was released from the Russian prison. She writes:
"It's a pity for you to have been imprisoned while such a long time, and too because you lost a term of your studies. Luckily you are free now. When somebody is imprisoned by the Russians, I think, he doesn't know if ever he will be free again."
December 22, 1952: "I am planning to go to Germany next summer, and I would like to see you, but I think it is nearly impossible to go to Berlin. Anyway, I'll try".
February 12, 1954: "Now, about my going to the states. I can't make any plans now, but what I would like to do would be to go there next summer and stay for one year, but that means I must find a job over there and I have not the least idea how I could manage to get one. If you could learn anything about it, please, let me know it. I should be awfully grateful. I don't think my parents would be too pleased about my going away again but one can't stay home all the time..."
May 21, 2020: Tonight’s discussion with pop. March 1945 at the war’s end. Two days before the Russians march in to Muncheberg and burn his grandmother to a crisp, his sister Irmel, age 15, is sent to Hamburg, the British controlled part, to protect her from being raped by the Russian soldiers. He recalls watching her ride out of the village on a German tank, alone, with nothing but a rucksack. He didn't see her again for five years.
So in fact checking, I learn that rapes against women were so common at that war time in Berlin that there was a special law allowing abortion, (which is relevant to one of the stories he told me about my grandmother but I shall not repeat it here). But I also learn that rape was so common, all German women between age 15 and 55 were ordered to get tested for STD. What the fuck are we doing worrying about a little goober snot?
July 12, 2020: Pop’s opinion on the Johnson County "Squeal on your Neighbor" law - besides the obvious connections to Nazi Germany: "put everyone without a mask into a concentration camp. It’s not like this hasn't been done before!"
Pop confirmed he was never a Nazi youth, but he was (and probably still is) a card carrying member of the east german socialist youth the FDJ. Haha! How did that get past the security checks? And to think he is a die-hard trump supporter so what does that tell you?
He said Opa was forced to be a nazi party member during his service in the war but was considered non-participating, and as a result, after the war Opa was sent to a “Denazification program” for six months, during which time he went down to 128 pounds, less than what pop weighed as a 15 year old boy. He was also not able to get a job for over five years so worked as a house/office cleaner during that time. He was not reunited with his wife (my oma) until mid 1950, more than five years after the war ended. So i guess I can survive isolation for two weeks.
(Now, if i can just learn how to follow the denazification diet, life will be good! Haha!)
I also need to learn what “denazification” is and get prepared to implement it in Johnson County, as it may be needed soon.
February 26 2021 - Pop's opinion on Texans complaining when they lose power for a week: They have nothing to whine about. The Berlin Blockade lasted for almost a year. (June 24 1948 - May 12, 1949). When it was implemented, West Berlin had literally less than two months of food and coal. There was no electricity, no street cars, no rail, no heat, no food. Pop recalls working as an apprentice during this time. He had to walk two hours each way to his place of employment, during daylight hours, to set up the whatever work product needed to be done. Then at 2 am, he would walk back to the work location to utilize the two hours of electricity the government allowed for work production to take place. Can you imagine any Texan alive today, willing to walk 8 hours a day, just to work? Well, if they did, at least the walk would warm them up!