My wife Gertrud

I met my wife in Chicago and we married in May 1962. Gertrud came from a catholic family and when we married she converted to Judaism.

We had 4 children: Peter 1962, Nancy 1964, Karen 1965 (died 1966), David 1967

• Peter has 5 children
• Nancy has 3 children
• David has 3 children
• We have 11 grandchildren
• and now we have 4 great grandchildren
  

In 1984 we moved to Antioch, which is situated 75 km from Chicago. After moving there my wife had to drive 60 km and I had to drive 75 km to work.

My wife Gertrud was born in 1935 in Dubi, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia (Sudetenland – about 60 km from Dresden) to a family that was Czech, but also spoke German. They had lived in Bohemia for generations. But when the war was over the Czechs considered them Germans and expelled them to Germany. Many of her family were put on freight trains going North and ended up in East Germany. Their family did not see them again for many years until the border was opened again in 1989 and then they were allowed to go into East Germany to visit their family.

My wife and her parents were lucky as they were put on trains going west and entered Germany through the American occupied area. The trains went from city to city. Everywhere a few refugees were allowed to get off and stay. My wife and her parents were allowed to stay in Frankfurt.

My wife served an an apprenticeship as a dressmaker in Frankfurt and worked in her trade until she emigrated to the USA in 1959.