Living History
By TheRealDawn
@dawnald (85135)
Shingle Springs, California
March 19, 2011 11:57pm CST
I went to the MIL's friend today and got some help with my German letters. They are published here, for anybody who wants to read them:
http://rddcn.multiply.com/journal/item/264/Letters_From_Germany_-_1922_1923_-_Senkbeil_letters_1_through_8
She gave us a living history lesson about her escape from what became East Germany ahead of the Russian army into territory occupied by the Americans, British and French.
I don't remember nearly all the details, but some of the highlights were:
- A mass suicide of a family she knew, probably out of fear of the Russians
- Passing Buchenwald concentration camp - first she had heard of such things
- Crossing the Elbe river at night with the help of some German soldiers
- An encounter with Karl Doenitz, the last President of the third reich
- An American who helped her find out where her father was imprisoned
I'm thinking somebody ought to capture this stuff while they still can. It was fascinating...
1 person likes this
13 responses
@sarahruthbeth22 (43143)
• United States
21 Mar 11
This sounds like an outline for a damn good movie! This period has so many stories ,true stories that Should be told so we will Never forget.
1 person likes this
@sarahruthbeth22 (43143)
• United States
21 Mar 11
And then a movie based on the book. Have the author of the book be the screenwriter. That way the book And the movie can be used as a aide in teaching furure geneations about this period.
1 person likes this
@hofferp (4734)
• United States
20 Mar 11
How interesting and thank you for sharing them. What are your plans now? Do you think there's more information out there that you could research and possibly write a book? My Mom's cousin wrote nearly 20 books from research she'd done on my Mom's side of the family. (My great grandparents and grandparents migration to America from Russia in the early 1900s.) She's since past, but most of her books did quite well. I hope you plan to do something more with these letters and even with your MIL's friend's information. I think the somebody that captures this stuff should be you...
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@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
21 Mar 11
I wish I had the time. But maybe gradually I could gather enough information together.
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
20 Mar 11
wow
I read those letters (had to stop and go to bed so only just finished them.) I'm glad you took on that project, it certainly shows why things go so bad as to let Hitler come to power.
I agree, that someone (you?) should record your MIL's friend.
Heck, even my dad's stories during the war (and he never left the States) were entertaining!
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@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
21 Mar 11
You won't know if you don't ask. You might also ask if she knows other people that might be willing to talk about it.
I have to say the letters were very enlightening about why things came out the way they did.
Honestly, if the winners of WWI hadn't been so set on PUNISHING the Germans for the war, the second war would've never happened. Just as if Lincoln's ideas for rebuilding the South hadn't been shot down when he was and Johnson hadn't been too weak a man to push them through - he did try, but the North was heart set on punishing the South.
Honestly, if the Allies had built up Germany like they did after the second war rebuilding Germany and Japan, even Italy, then the second war wouldn't have looked the same (can't exactly say what the far East would look like if Japan hadn't joined with Germany and the Axis.)
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@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
21 Mar 11
I can ask...
Yeah, seriously, if you were starving and had no hope, and some guy came along, not only promised jobs, but actually delivered them, along with a healthy does of national pride, and you had no idea the terrible things that were going on, wouldn't you follow him?
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@celticeagle (160064)
• Boise, Idaho
20 Mar 11
That was a fascinating time in history. It is astounding how these people could treat others. And some even refuse to believe any of it ever took place. It is fascinating to me that someone is still living that remember back that far. Document all you can for future historians to find fascinating as well. Thanks for sharing.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
22 Mar 11
I don't know anyone personally that went through these kinds of things in their lives. However, I recently read a book that my sister loaned to me that was based on a girl's letters that she had saved while she was in a labor camp during World War II. This was a very interesting book to me because of the fact that I was able to read things as she was experiencing them, which is unlike anything else I've ever read about World War II. I only wish that there were more people that had saved these letters and could have them printed for later generations to read to learn from.
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@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
22 Mar 11
Do you happen to remember the title of the book?
@dibs2010 (132)
• India
20 Mar 11
I did not understand what you want to say by this full topic you write down in this hole document. please provide us a simple and understandable topic to know about you and what you are trying to make us know about you and your topics. do not take it very personally i just do not understand your topic that is why a am writing this. please make is simple.
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
21 Mar 11
I went to visit an elderly German lady. She was helping me with some German letters that I had (old family letters). And while we were there, she told us her own story about how she traveled on foot from East German territory to West German territory to escape being in the same place with the Russian army. Clearer?
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
20 Mar 11
Absolutely fascinating Dawn and you can see how the climate was right fit the growth of National Socialism and the rise of Hitler. What became if these letter writers? Did they stay in Europe or get to the US? I am sure that the doors of Ellis Island were jammed open with refugees from the economic decline that followed WW1 and of course they all arrived just in time for the Depression!
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@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
21 Mar 11
Exactly right. When you are hungry and have no hope, you will latch on to whoever comes along and provides jobs and food and so on. The woman we were talking to repeated something she had heard from a friend's father after the war, "that wasn't the Hitler that I voted for".
I know that there was contact up until WWII, but after that I have no idea. These people were in a very "bad" part of Germany. Most of it went back to Poland after the war, and was occupied by the Russians. A lot of awful things happened during that time...
@yoyo1198 (3641)
• United States
20 Mar 11
Very interesting, Dawn. Thank you for the insight. I have always been a history student and have many books relating to WWI and WWII. I read especially about the lead-up to WWII. These letters are indeed a portion of that histroy. Even in the '20's the prices kept rising and rising. By the time of the war most of the citizenry were destitute.
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@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
21 Mar 11
And it makes it even more real when you read about it from people who were actually living it.
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
20 Mar 11
well lots and lots are already put down in many many books. plus its in movies and on the history channel. so its being captured already. ive read tons on it. thats why so many people are in fear of it happening here. as many did not realize what was going on until it was to late. 
thats why we should always be sure our presidents and people in power was born here.
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
21 Mar 11
a lot of it's been captured, but so much hasn't, like this woman's personal story!
@blue65packer (11826)
• United States
20 Mar 11
It is great you know all this infromation on your family history! So many people don't know anything about their family history!
My family is mostly German and over the years my dad and a late uncle did alot of research on our family history! I know my relatives,from Germany, first came to the Untied States in the 1860's. That is my dad's side! On my mom's side my older brother is still working on that! I do know my grandfather,on my mom's side,came here as a young boy from Germany. So I know alot of my family history! More people should look in to it! Like you said it is fasinating! I agree!
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
21 Mar 11
The research my aunt has done on my father's side of the family is pretty fascinating too!
@debrakcarey (19887)
• United States
20 Mar 11
Oh dawn, this is fantastic! You must feel so proud and rightfully so. I will spend some time reading them all. Great job preserving not just family history, but part of a nation's history as well.
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@Renhard (3471)
• Jamaica
20 Mar 11
I hope I am not being disrespectful if I ask what is so fascinating about HIstory? I hate history so much. I know they all say you have to know your history so you dont make the same mistake in the future but I just hate History to the max. I am a science student, I am studying, maths, chemistry, physics, and biology. But it is just hard to understand how people could actually like History.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
21 Mar 11
To each is own. I like science too, but just the facts of it, not all the calculations and so on.
Anyway, what makes this so interesting is that it's not from some dry old history book, but it's in the actual words of people who lived during that era.
