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Show V" Couple Recalls DarK Days Of I World War II ilEf. ' Bv DONETA GATHERUM ikti Mi. juisjsET "In war, no one ever wins," V -ja reflective Dr. Alexander Petermichl, Ik; er Professor of Natural Science and 't-ed German government employee. i fWfpray always. Bring people together, '"it. !Lt us live in peace. All people want peace If. 'peTeRMICHL and his wife, Liso-' Liso-' ,lle have been guests this past month of i Walter White family of Sunset. Mrs. ileis the Petermichl's daughter. Df anj Mrs. Petermichl lived in the part I) fCermany that was converted into Com-" Com-" 'jynist Czechoslovakia after World War Jl yrs. Petermichl grew up in the village of Saaz the international center for hops, in'ineretlient used in beer. 'On;; THE REGION was interesting because c the variety of nationalities and ethnic larl (roups that lived together. Today, there are :r.i, "i million people living in Czechoslovakia. sit 'Si million are Slavic, 3 million are Ger- pl ' mans. There is a large number of Jews. iunk- Hungarians and some people that speak nee "Russian dialects. rid; ", Because of the cosmopolitan character of ike country, people learned to speak at least dir.- ,jko languages. Mrs. Petermichl started s oi; ! studying English in school at the age of 9. okir; ' This was before World War II. Many stu-jents stu-jents learned French because of the man economic and military alliances betweer Germany and France. f' WHEN A child became a high school sti; denl. a third language was usually studie' Dr. Petermichl speaks his native German flus English, several of the Romance lan- I mages and some Czech. He studied ancient Latin in college. "Many German colleges si require Latin. This is a good way be-uuse be-uuse the ancient language is a basis for l many modern languages," Dr. Petermichl Ij plained. WHEN HITLER came into power, the Petermichl's were raising two small girls. )f Dr. Petermichl was teaching natural science at the University of Prague. By the end of , VS 1938 German troops had occupied most of Czechoslovakia. Dr. Petermichl was drafted into the German Ger-man army in 1939. Eventually he was sent to :aly. IN APRIL of 1945 he was severely ounded three times and left for dead under to ipile of rocks. A soldier passing by saw Dr. Pelermichl's boot move. He was dug out. He was treated in a hospital and then taken to a prisoner of war camp operated by the British government. THE WAR in Europe ended May 2, 1945. German prisoners were assigned to snips according to the place in Italy where n ley were captured. If the fighting was " gainst American soldiers, then they were to an American POW camp. Those j-ri irmans fighting against British soldiers IJJ ere captives of the British. Mt. PETERMICHL spent two years in POW camp. He remembers the British fillers were very unfriendly. Treatment in he American POW camps was much bet-i( bet-i( The most difficult part of being a milit-r milit-r Prisonerwas not knowing what had hap-i hap-i M to his wife and two small children. : Petermichl had no contact with his fami-" ! I' tang this period of post-war confine km. -- Liselotte Petermichl remained in her when her husband was drafted into "German Army. Her children. Heike. age Mhthild. age 2 occupied much of time. A ONE MORNING at 6 a.m. Russian soldiers sol-diers knocked on her front door. The troops had occupied the town. Women and children chil-dren were allowed to take what they were wearing, nothing more. Many died. Many of the prisoners were orphan children. The first prisoner camp was an area with many stalls that had been used as horse stables. Between 60 and 80 people were placed in one room. TREATMENT of these civilian prisoners was very cruel. The village where the Petermichl's Peter-michl's lived was adjacent to a town in Czechoslavakia that had been raided by the German SS soldiers. Czech soldiers, trained as paratroopers in England, participated partici-pated in the invasion and taking of the region re-gion from the Germans. The cruel treatment the SS soldiers gave the Czechs was returned re-turned upon the civilian women and children. chil-dren. "We slept on straw that had been used by the horses," Mrs. Petermichl remembers. "The Russian soldiers molested many of the women and children. An angel watched over us and we were not harmed." WOMEN AND children under 16 years of age were sent to one encampment. The men" and older boys went to a different place. The food rations were basically hot water with a few potatoes. Each person received 100 grams of flat, black, wet bread daily. Malnutrition and diseases associated with poor sanitation and improper diet made many people violently ill. MECHTHILD BECAME so weak she couldn't lift her head. Heike eventually developed de-veloped tuberculosis. "When Mechthild became ill, we were put in a 2-wheeled wagon covered with canvas can-vas and taken to a school with beds. We received better care. LATER UNITED Nations inspection teams visited the concentration camps and the Russians improved the conditions somewhat. The U.N. people were constantly constant-ly inspecting children for lice. Mothers would watch the children's hands carefully so the lice could be quickly detected and killed. Mrs. Petermichl and her two girls were released from the camp in June of 1946. "The last 8 days we were treated well and given good food. The Russians told us all the back experiences we had lived through had never happened," Mrs. Petermichl says. "They tried to brain wash us. We had gone without food for so long that we were unable to digest the abundant food when it was finally given to us." "MANY PRISONERS were sent to East Germany. I convinced the officials that my family was originally from West Germany. We were transported to West Germany in 28 wagons that had been cattle cars. My girls and I were in the last car that went to the West." Mrs. Petermichl was able to send word to her husband in Italy through her father-in-law that she and the children were safe and living in West Germany. The British government gov-ernment allowed him to leave Italy and settle set-tle with his family in the American zone. "THE COUNTRY was destroyed," Dr.-Petermichl Dr.-Petermichl remembers, "we had only what was on our backs. Every person was given 48 marks. "Food was available but the staple items were rationed." Mrs. Petermichl had tears in her eyes as she told of her war experiences. "We don't remember these things. There is no good that comes from going back into the past. 1 think about the children. All people, even world leaders, have children. Remember the children. Let's pray that all people will be brought together." |