Katja's Story

Chapter 1: The beginning of the end.



My story begins in Hammulbürg, Germany. The date is October 12, 1939. Times are getting rough. Food is scarce and jobs are unthinkably hard to obtain. My name is Katja Friedmann. I am 13 yrs. old and I live with Vatti, Mutti, Karl, Inge, und Bienchen. We all live together in a two bedroom flat in 12Ö8 Walnutstrasse. We were getting comfortable in that flat. My sisters and brother all shared a room and my parents shared a room. We were all one big happy family. Until NAZI's came into power. They were big and like a streak of lightening. They came into Germany and rose in popularity with all of the rich and poor alike. They liked everybody and everything until Adolf Hitler got elected prime minister. Then the changes came. All of the sudden friends of our family couldn't do certain things for the oddest reasons. People who had been in Germany for their entire lives were suddenly boycotted and mocked publicly on the streets. They couldn't go to the Police. The police were doing it too. No one liked them just because they wore a weird shaped yellow star on their jacket. Somehow that warded people off like that! My life was not drastically altered by this. It seemed a little far away from home to be worried about. You know? I probably should have paid more attention. I should have realized the problems that would come out of it. But you must understand that when you are a kid like I was anybody who could stop poverty in its tracks and build up the economy is a saint in everybody's eyes. So that is why Adolf Hitler came into power and forever changed history. At that time we had no idea what laid in store for us. Which is probably why we were able to carry on.


Chapter 2: The First Signs of Change

The more obvious signs of change came later when I was older. I was almost 14 when the problems started. One day I was walking home from school just the way I do everyday and out of the bushes popped 2 SS officers and a guard. They looked at me politely and smiled. But then their faces grew cold. They stared at me as if I had a yellow star on my coat. I looked at them kind of scared at what I saw looking back at me. I knew certain choice people of the neighborhood had disapeared recently and I had heard rumors that SS men were responsible. After what seemed to be a lifetime one of the officers asked me a question.

"Guten Tag, Fräulein" , said the first one in perfect German.
"Guten Tag, Herr Soldier", I replied nervously. This was probably the way they took everybody. I kept my guard up.
"And how is it that you are passing this way on your way home? Don't you live on Walnutstrasse?" the second one grinned evilly.
"Ja, Herr Soldier, but I am going to the market to get a loaf of bread for our supper" I returned still keeping my guard up and wondering how he knew all this about little old me.
"Oh, isn't that sweet. The little girl is getting a loaf of bread from the market for their supper. That is soo sweet. Maybe I should accompany you home, you know how short bread is these days don't you Fräulein?" he said it so thickly and sweetly if I'd already bought the bread I would have cut some of his words out of the air and covered my bread with it. It was kind of scary. I couldn't do anything though. He was in charge of the situation. I could like it or lump it. I decided to like it at least on the outside. So he took me to the market and led me by the hand all the way to my house(which he knew the location of by the way!) and stopped right outside my front door. I told him he could let me go on alone after that and that I would be fine on my own. He insisted on seeing my safe arrival to my very kitchen. I couldn't resist so I knocked on our front door. Mutti came to the front door and saw me. She had just reached out for the bread when the sight of the soldiers hit her full force. She gasped and just about fell over with shock. She had just recomposed herself when the soldiers grinned, with a taunting "I'm here now and you can't do anything about it" smerk, and walked off. Mutti pulled me inside and shut the door quickly. She took the bread and went into the kitchen. I went to my room to think.

I wondered whether I should tell Mutti that they knew information about us. They knew where we lived, what Vati did for a living, etc... It was pretty spooky. That night I forgot about the soldiers and everything else and just went to sleep.
The next morning when I woke up, I remembered the soldiers. I wasn't really scared of them anymore. I guessed if they were going to come arrest us they would have done it last night or something. So I just went to school and left it at that. Little did I know that it was far from over. When I got home from school that night I found Inge, Mutti, and Bienchen all sitting solemnly in our parlor. They all looked up as I walked in the door.
"What's the matter, Mutti?" I asked. "Why are you all just sitting there?"
"Katja, your vati has been arrested and taken off by the soldiers!" said Mutti in a sad voice.
"Where's Karl? Did they take him too? Why did they take Vati? What's going on?" I had tons of questions swirling around and around in my head. Nothing made sense anymore.
"No, no calm down. Karl hasn't gotten home from his job yet. The soldiers just said they had some questions to ask Vati and then they will let him come home. Don't get all excited." Mutti seemed to be pretty content with the present situation so I calmed down and decided to wait for Vati to come home...

We waited and waited that night. Vati didn't come home. It was 6:00 in the morning and still no word from him. Karl had come home at 5p.m. that night and wondered where Vati was. We told him and he looked worriedly at Mutti but said nothing.
The next morning we didn't go to school the way we did normally. We stayed home and helped Mutti in the house. She said we shouldn't go to school probably till Vati got back and things were back to normal.
We waited that entire week, but no word came from Vati or about him. It was as if he had never existed at all. Finally on the last day of the week Mutti called me into the kitchen with Karl. I went in there and Mutti said she had some things to tell me.
"What is it Mutti? Have we heard something from Vati?" I was hoping for a yes. The topics we would discuss were a bit different than I thought.
"Katja, I am afraid Vati may never come back. For a while now your Vati has been secretly helping Jews escape from Germany to neutral countries like Enland, Switzerland, or America. We were afraid that the Nazis had found out and that was what they wanted. I wasn't sure until he didn't come back. I'm sorry we couldn't tell you about this sooner."
I was stunned. My Vati was a member of the Underground? He was hiding things from me all the time? He wasn't coming back? I didn't like the sound of what might be coming next.
"Mutti, did Karl know all this time too?" I asked.
"Ja, Karl knew. He was a great help. He is practically a man in this field of work. He is already 18. Everybody that could did help."
"Mutti, why did Vati put himself at risk like that? Didn't he care about what would happen to his family? We need him!" At this point I burst into histerics at the possibility that Vati didn't care what happened to us as long as the Jews were helped.
"Honey, don't you understand? He cared about us. He still does." These words were comforting but only for a few moments.
"Then why would he risk everything to help Jews that he probably didn't even know?"
"He cared about you. Can't you see? What kind of world would it be if we only cared for and helped our family? What if we never reached out? The Nazis are harming innocent people. It takes a brave man to step in and stop the cruel fates that are being dealt out to the Jews all over the country. This country and some others are saying it's ok to harm people as long as they're Jews or Gypsies. Your Vati was part of the small group of dedicated men and women that are making a difference."
My world was changing and I could feel it. Everything around me was different from what I had as a child decided about it. Nothing was the same. Vati, a member of the Underground, was no longer here! Karl had helped and never said a word about it. I despised the Jews. How dare they expect people like Vati to get them out of trouble. All it had done was get Vati in trouble. It's too bad they didn't just stay out of Germany! This was my opinion of Jews for several days. I went around the house moping and pouting and wishing my Vati hadn't had such a big heart.

One day everything changed again. I was going into the kitchen looking for Mutti and I found Karl with 2 children and a lady. They looked like they hadn't seen the great outdoors for months. They looked like they could use a bath and a good scrubbing. Most of all, they looked extremely sad. The kids looked old beyond they're years. Mutti came into the kitchen just then and saw me standing there. She stood there quietly there for a few minutes and then said to the lady and kids in a hushed voice, "You better get into your places pretty quickly. I'll bring you your supper later." Then she said to me,"There's more, Katja, I don't know if you're ready for it since your recent attitude, but there's more lots more. We're going away to another land. We can't stay in Germany a week longer. We are leaving in 2 days."
"Mutti, are those people Jews?" I asked, though I was pretty sure of the answer I would get.
"Yes, Katja, they are Jewish. They are going with us. You better go pack now." She said it with the tone of voice that no-one in their right mind argues with.
I went and packed. That night was just the beginning of many more like it. It was cold and dark. The moon was out but not much. I was never happier to see daylight than I was the next morning. I had had enough of these people making our apartment crowded. We hadn't even departed yet.
The next day we all helped packing. It was a big job that had to be done as quickly as possible.

Chapter 3: The Move

By the afternoon we had packed up all the things we were going to take with us on our move. I asked Mutti where we were going to go to. She said America. America sounded far away and so big. I asked if Vati would meet us there. She said she didn't know. I didn't look forward to getting out in the world. I wanted to stay right where I was, but I had no choice in the matter I was moving anyway.

That night we packed up a van and prepared to leave forever. We finished packing and loaded into our van. Mutti sat with Inge and Bienchen in the first bench seat. I sat in the front passenger seat. The Jews sat behind Mutti. Karl drove. We drove up the street and paused. We had to get some fake credentials ready for the checkpoints. We were pretending to be a big family going on vacation in the country. The Jews were supposed to hide when we came to checkpoints. We came to the first one. The road was kind of dark. We could tell the guards were ready to be relieved of this duty. We hoped they wouldn't be too careful or thorough. Karl gave them some papers. They nodded and let us pass. That was a relief for all of us. We drove on, and the family sat up in the back.

The way there was long and bumpy. We stopped at a shelter about 8 hrs. later. It was far into the night. We climbed out of the van and creeped single file to the door. Karl gave 2 quick taps and 5 slow, steady taps. The door opened a crack and two eyes stared intently at us. They recognized Karl and Mutti and let us all in hurriedly. As soon as the last of us were in they peered outside cautiously and closed the door without a sound. They were obviously not amateurs.
"What's going on Frau Friedmann? Why did you bring your other children?" the man seemed puzzled. I guess Mutti had not told them of our trip.
"Didn't the message come from Hans? I told him to inform you as soon as he could that we were going out!" Mutti acted puzzled.
"I meant to tell you about Hans. He has been arrested and sent to a prison camp in Schütlotburg. Not many prisoners survive that camp." The man looked sad. Mutti looked sad too. Karl looked down and then around the room. He was about to cry. I hadn't thought about the fact that others were dying and risking everything for Jews just like Vati and that somebody might miss them. I hadn't even thought about their feelings. I didn't want to admit that I'd been wrong about the Jews or the Underground. I decided that it really wasn't fair and that I was the victim. Afterall, because of all this I had to move. I had to grow up in a foreign land. I had to grow up without a Vati. What good did it do to me? I still didn't like the Jews. I thought it wasn't fair. We were taking all these risks and dangers for their safety. It just wasn't fair.

That night we had to sleep in a barn. We were with the animals. It was dark, damp, and hard. I didn't like the floor at all. It stunk. I wished I was back in our apartment. I hated the atmosphere of the country. It was all too new.
The next morning we set off on our journey again. The roads were bumpier now that we were on the open country roads. We went past numerous checkpoints. We always seemed to hit them when the guards were tired and grouchy. It must have been carefully planned. I didn't really care. We weren't checked out very carefully. Pretty soon we were on the border of Germany and Austria. We were going to out to sneak out of Austria by train with fake credentials and cross the Alps. In Italy we would take bikes and ride to the closest waterfront. We would sail out in a cargo vessel bound for America. I wasn't really thrilled by our plans, but I went along. I had to.
As we approached the border, we saw the soldiers checking cars and trucks with guns and knives. Everyone had to get out and show ID to get through. Karl went up to talk to the soldiers. Mutti looked a bit worried about the Identification checks. The Jews definitely wouldn't have made it. Things went wrong with Karl and the soldiers. We saw the soldier grab Karl and pull him to the ground. Mutti wasted no time gawking. She jumped over to the driver's seat and pulled out on the road. She passed the roadblocks. As I looked back I expected to see Karl begging us to come back for him. To my surprise, he was smiling as the soldiers handcuffed him. I got the feeling if he hadn't been cuffed he would have waved. He didn't mind. Just so we got away. That really puzzled me. We did get away. We went on to Austria.
We stopped at another farmhouse for the night. Mutti used the same knock Karl had used before. The door was opened in the same manner and we stayed in a pretty similar surrounding as last time. The next morning I was talking to Mutti.
"Mutti, how could you just leave Karl there on the road in the hands of those soldiers?" I couldn't understand it.
"Katja, I probably should have told you before. We had a system in our organization. We believed that no one person was important enough to endanger the entire mission. He and I had decided that if he was grabbed we would get out of there as soon as we could. You see, he wanted us to get out. He was willing to sacrifice himself for the group. Your Vati was just doing the same thing. We all give of ourselves for the group. That is why your Vati probably hasn't told the Gestapo anything at all. He will keep quiet so we can get out of the country." Mutti was showing me stuff I had never thought of before. It was astounding!

That day we stayed at the farmer's house a little longer than we had before. Mutti had to get some directions. It seemed that Karl had been the only one who knew the whole route. Mutti had known only the way to the next farm house. It was a good thing that if we had to lose Karl we lost him there. Otherwise, we could have been lost for a long time or until the Gestapo caught us. We took more bumpy roads and ended up in Salzburg. It was little different from our home town. The streets were dirty. The houses crowded and everyone was cautious of strangers who might be Gestapo or SS men in disguise. A peddler on the street was nice enough to give us some food. He was an Underground agent. He gave us a map to the next stop on our route. He had just moved away when Mutti motioned us aside. She told us to hide behind a cart. We watched the peddler. He was walking along when suddenly a man came out from the crowd and grabbed him from behind. He shoved a gun into his back and ordered him to move. The man flashed a badge. It identified him as an undercover officer. They walked away. As they were leaving the peddler spotted us and winked at us. Mutti waited until it was safe and motioned us to make a dash for the truck. We safely got in.

Farther up the road Maria, one of the Jewish children, looked extremely pale and sickly. She looked ready to keel over. We stopped in the country. She stretched out on the grass with her mother leaning over her. Her mother felt her forehead. She had a raging fever. Her forehead went from pale to red all over. It did not look good. We couldn't stop too long. We hid the van out behind some trees and camped for the night.

The next morning Maria was getting worse. She was chilled yet her body felt hotter than fire. It was really creepy. We didn't know if we should take her to a doctor or not. If we took her to a doctor and he turned us in we would all be killed. If we didn't, she could die. It was a rough few days. We finally decided to just keep pressing on. We laid her down on the last bench in the van and drove on. We got about 50 miles from the border. We stopped at another farm house. We knocked on the door. It opened to reveal a surprised worn down farmer with a ratty old t-shirt and torn overhalls. He stared suspiciously from us to the Jews. He finally spoke to Mutti.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"You were supposed to here after dark three days ago! What took so long. You weren't followed were you?"
"Sir, we had delays due to illness. She (motioning to Maria) got sick."
"It appears she still is sick. You better go to the barn behind the house over there." He pointed.
"Thankyou so much for helping us." We ran around the side of his house to the barn.
When we got there the door was open and a young boy was tending to the animals inside. He stared at us and then went back to doing his chores. He then ran into the house.
We took off our coats and jackets and tried to make ourselves comfortable. We all spread around lying on the hay.
Later the farmer came into the barn with dinner. It was burnt pork and potatoes. It wasn't exactly the best meal we've had but it was food. The Jews scarfed down their food in 1 minute. They were obviously used to eating in a hurry. We took a little longer but not much. The farmer waited for us to finish and then stealthly crept back to his house. He left us alone until morning.
In the morning the farmer came out to the barn and began waking us all up. He demanded that we all abscond that very morning! He said it wasn't safe anymore and he wanted only what was good for his family! He said if we weren't gone in 1 hour he would call the German Police to get us. We quickly got dressed and loaded up the van.
We did not argue. Things like this could ruin a whole journey. Our next shelter probably wouldn't expect us for another day. We asked for the directions to the next stop. The farmer looked around warily. He said it was none of his concern. He had let us spend the night. He had fed us. We should be grateful. It was already getting to dangerous. Gestapo agents, it seems, had come to the house during the night and searched it. They had scared the farmer's family and knocked him around a few times. He was worried they might return. They said they were searching for "A group of refugees named Johansen". They were tipped off by a peddler's assistant in Salzburg. He had seen his boss conversing with some dirty, strange people. Some of them looked Jewish. He was a Hitler's Youth member. He had been ordered to report incidents such as this. The peddler had been taken and questioned, but was not cooperative. They wondered if any groups had stopped by for a drink of water or something. The farmer was really worried and hoped we would understand.

A little while later we were on the road again. We had no place to go. We had nothing to eat. We had nothing. I started complaining about that farmer's attitude.
"It's not fair! He didn't even give us directions. He was supposed to let us spend two nights and feed us. What a selfish, tight-fisted, miser. He has that whole barn and he's not sharing it!" I complained.
Mutti looked kind of amused by this and replied," But, Katja, he's just looking out for his own family. He shouldn't risk his life to help some jews and friends that he doesn't even know! Should he? Isn't that asking a bit too much?"
That stunned me. Those were my words long ago when I was told about Vati. I said why should he help those Jews he doesn't even know? Why should they be able to ask it of him. I needed to think. I felt like 1/10 of a Deutsche Mark. I must have sounded like a selfish pig. I made no more comments on the farmer's actions that ride.
That night, we stopped by the road and hid the van out of site. We decided to take turns keeping watch and sitting with Maria. She had gotten worse during the trip that day. I had my shift in the middle of the night. I sat with her with a big stick at my side in case someone stumbled into our camp. Maria was pretty quiet at the beginning. She seemed to be delirious with fever, yet when I spoke with her she knew what I was talking about.
"Do you ever think how things might have gone if your father hadn't been in the Underground?" she asked. It startled me that she was so upfront.
I said,"I have once or twice I suppose. It doesn't really matter now. I'm stuck in this place and it's no good wondering."
"Do you wish that my family and others like it were killed and persecuted instead?" she replied. I wasn't quite ready for a question so bold and to the point.
I said,"I don't know. It certainly doesn't seem fair that because you're in a fix now I am too, with no choice in the matter." I fear now that I was not very kind in the matter with the sick girl. I was complaing and pouring out my problems on her. She didn't seem to mind though. She waited patiently for me to finish.
"I used to go to school. I used to be top of my class. I loved my Vati. I used to be able to play in the park, take music lessons, and play on 2 sports teams a year at school. Now where am I? I am hiding along the road in the woods. Why? Why did this have to happen to me? I used to be so happy!" I didn't stop for anything. It just kept coming. I had not been able to discuss this matter with anyone else. No one had time to listen. They were all worried about being caught.
After a moment she opened her mouth to speak again but stopped. She changed her mind for some reason. She lay still for the rest of my watch and I went back to my bed of blankets.
The next morning, I was walking over to where Mutti slept and I accidentally overheard her talking with Maria's mother.

"Has she ever been this sick before?" my Mutti asked intensely.
"She has been sick over the past few years, but nothing like this. It is beyond any of us now. The doctor came before the new laws. He said there was nothing to be done. She usually comes out of it on her own." murmured the Jewish lady as if she was thinking aloud. She didn't seem to notice Mutti's consoling gestures. She just kept staring and muttering in Yiddish. She seemed to be praying.
After we had breakfast, we broke camp and headed back to the van. Almost everyone was ready and in the van when suddenly Maria started breathing heavily with a glazed look in her eyes. She was almost in a trance. The scene was too horrific for words. I had to turn away. I thought about the complaining I had done during my watch that night. She had listened so attentively. I thought how she must have been hurting all those hours and I just sat there and poured out my pity party. I was confused and guilty feeling. I should have comforted her. I should have asked her if I could have helped. I shouldn't have been so cold and selfish. I turned to get into the van. I was sick with myself. I replayed our whole conversation as we drove off into the mist. It wouldn't leave my head, not even when we pulled up at a checkpoint. The guards were a bit tired and cranky again. This was perfect timing, or so it seemed. As we got out, they climbed in our van and started pulling things out and ransacking our belongings. They found a box of food that they liked. They decided to keep it for themselves. They were about to discover the Jews hiding in the last seat when I started a diversion. I ran and grabbed one of them by the leg and tried to pull him out by his boot. He yelled something in German that didn't sound nice. He turned around and knocked me down with the end of his gun. He climbed back inside and continued searching, but they didn't find anything they considered important and got out. They looked around uninterestedly and went back to their booth. They waved us through the gate. My Mutti picked me up and we got into the van. We didn't know what to expect. The Jews seemed to have disappeared or something. I sat down on the very back seat. Something poked me from underneath the seat. I looked down there and Maria smiled up at me with tears in her eyes. She seemed calm and less pale. It was enough to make me cry for the other night. As we drove down the road I put ice on my bruised and bleeding cheeks. I eventually had to just tape a bandage on it. Mutti said my cheeks looked rosy for the first time in my life. I thought they just looked sick. We drove until it got dark. We looked for a spot to hide and sleep. We found a small cave and pulled over for the night.

Chapter 4: The Journey Continues

The next morning we awoke to find Maria in a fever and sweating profusely. She couldn't talk and was shaking. We put her in the van and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. We held a council to decide what our next move would be.
We decided to keep on our way. We couldn't really do anything for her right there anyway. We drove for hours in complete silence broken only by the heavy breathing of Maria. She lay down on the back seat and soon fell into a delirious sleep. When we finally arrived at a suitable location, the strongest of us lifted Maria and carried her to the door. We knocked and the door cracked a bit. The pair of eyes inside recognized us and opened the door all the way. Strong hands reached out to help us with Maria. They laid her down gently on a couch as we all had dinner. During dinner we chatted with the family we were staying with. They mentioned something about Hitler and Maria's younger sister, Brigetta shuddered visibly.