Boyhood memories of WWII
By Joan Janzen
November 1 marked the date Helmut Schmidt, along with his parents and siblings, arrived in Luseland seventy-five years ago. In 1948, Helmut's uncle in Canada helped the family in Germany move to the great white north. "We were on a ship for ten days and landed in Quebec City. Then we spent four days on a train and landed at Luseland." Today, Helmut resides at Pioneers Haven in Kerrobert.
This is a Card of Capture for Prisoners of War which Helmut’s dad received when he became a POW in Texas.
This is a cabin class Immigration Identification Card Helmut received prior to his journey to Canada in 1948.
He was born in Kornthal, Poland, on December 4, 1933, the middle child among five children. His grandparents were Germans who had moved to Poland to settle under the Polish government, where his Opa had become a harness maker.
Helmut's mother married Gottlieb Bohnet at Maniewo. They planned to move to Germany, but since his mom would have lost her farm as the heir under Polish government laws, her marriage was dissolved, and she stayed in Poland. "My dad came to Mom's farm, and they were married," he explained.
Prior to the war years, Helmut's dad experienced problems under the Polish Government. Many German families had people stealing from their orchards and fields during the night.
In September 1939, the Polish government evacuated his family and torched most of the buildings and all the animals on their farm. The weather was hot, causing the dead animals to have a terrible stench. "Neighbours had to light cigars while burying the animals to help with the smell," he recalled.
"All our buildings were burnt except for most of our house," he remembered. "At the end of our home, the horse barn was burned, but we saved the rest, which was later rebuilt to become our kitchen."
At the same time, his dad was conscripted by the Polish government to move a Polish mail worker and his family from Znin to move eastward, where the front action was taking place. "Dad was overtaken by the German army before he took them back to their home in Znin," he said.
After a few weeks, his dad safely returned home and began to rebuild their home. However, the German government stipulated the street had to be open to the yard and instructed where the buildings were to be located. He also remembered that, as German people, they were not allowed to help Polish people who were in need of clothes or food.
"The German army had moved in, so we now had a German Government, which meant we did not have to attend a Polish school," Helmut said. His new school was a half a kilometre away. "Here I was sent on a train trip by the German Government for a six-week field trip to a boy's home near the Ammer Sea, with a stopover in Bavaria," he recalled. However, their plans to visit a zoo in Berlin were cancelled when they received an air raid alarm and had to stay in someone's home.
Every morning, the students stood at attention during a flag parade, sometimes wearing only shoes and shorts, no shirt, after which they would take a run around town. After four years, Helmut was placed in a higher education class called the Mittelschule at Znin, where he stayed in a dorm for boys. They had drills, marching and parades.
"I also had to go into the Hitler Jugend, which was the first training to start for the army," he said. The students had to make their beds perfectly or do it again. His uniform was black shorts, a brown shirt, a black belt, a black leather knot with a red three-cornered scarf around the collar for a tie. "We also had sort of a bayonet in a holster," he added.
Helmut recalls secretly going to confirmation classes with a Pastor at the back of a church in Dietfurt because it wasn't approved by the "Party." The first quarter of school ended before Christmas. "School didn't start again because there was no coal available to heat the school," he explained.
However, Helmut said it was a blessing. "If I had been at school, I would not have been with my family when they had two hours' notice to leave their home and flee."
His dad had been drafted into the Polish army in the 1920s during the Polish-Russian war. Once again, in 1943, his dad was drafted into the German Wehrmacht and posted in France, right at the time the Allies landed at Normandy on June 6, 1944. Helmut's dad got hit with shrapnel in his leg after only six days of duty and ended up in a German army hospital at Cherbourg, that was taken over as a POW by the American army. At that time, the American army made his dad a prisoner of war (POW) and shipped him to Camp Maxey in Texas, where he remained until the end of the war.
"On January 20, 1945, we got kicked off our farm with only two hours notice," Helmut said. "The Russian army had moved in, and they moved all the German people back to Germany. We spent six weeks on the road travelling to West Germany." It was cold, with no provisions of food for the family or their horses.
Helmut recalled after travelling until supper time that first day, they found a home where everyone had left in a panic. Their supper of hot bowls of soup were still on the table. But it was a cold and hungry journey and was hard on Helmut's 85-year-old Oma, who died along the way.
"One night we came to a home where a lady gave us hot potatoes in skins with salt on them. That is still the best meal I ever had in my whole life," he said. The family was rescued from near destruction many times along the way until they arrived in Boye on March 1.
"We got a small attic room in the school," Helmut said. After six weeks on the road, Helmut attended school at his teacher's home in Boye, in two small rooms in the attic.
After the war ended, Helmut's dad was shipped back to Germany. He worked on a Bavarian farm till after harvest and then went looking for his family. He met another POW who told him he could find his family at Boye. Helmut said his dad always thought the man had been an angel.
"We were living in the British Zone, but we German people had no support from the British army or other police," Helmut recalled. Some time later, they contacted their distant relatives who were living in the American Zone, but Helmut's family was not allowed to move to a different zone. A truck driver with a permit accepted a fee and moved the family and belongings hidden under a tarp during the night.
His dad got a job in Heilbronn clearing up demolition ruins from the air raid bombs, followed by a job making wooden rakes and handles. It was a rough year for the family.
Helmut's mom found a connection with his Uncle Bill in Canada, who found a way for the family to come to Canada. Their journey to Canada began on September 20, 1948, and they arrived on November 1. Unfortunately, all the family's photos were left behind, and the few photos Helmut's mother managed to take when they were forced to move were also later destroyed by British or Canadian troops.
The above information is compiled from Helmut's written memories about his life.