Stephanie Kamola, Reflections on my life

We were lucky to be able to send our children to colleges and saw them start their own families. Alexander chose the State of Washington as his home with his wife Lynn. He established and works in his own forest business with increasing success. his two sons excelled in their chosen fields in college, they have a little sister, Anneliese, who undoubtedly will follow scholastically in their brother's footsteps. Angela graduated from the University of Southern California and married Steve Welch, an engineer specializing in offshore oil drilling. They lived close-by. Now he works for a company in Houston, Texas. We were used to have his family living close and enjoyed their two children, Bennett and Stephanie while they were growing up. Now we fly three or four times a year to their home in Sugar Land, a suburb of Houston The children are now teens in high school were they too excel in their studies and in sports. We have our own house on their big property, complete with big living r...

We both agreed when we decided to get married to emigrate. I wanted to leave Germany, the country where I had lived since destiny had driven my parents to this country during the First World War. In almost thirty-five years I should have rooted. But in spite of family and many friends, I had always wanted to move away. Teofil after enduring five full years in the Concentration Camp Dachau, could apply as a displaced person for emigration. We had the papers for Australia and needed only a physical check-up for the whole family. When the doctor saw our delicate and well cared for children, he advised against the mass emigration which we would have to bear.  We applied for entry to the United States. We needed a sponsor but had none. Se we registered for Canada. It was easy to get the papers for Canada. However, before it happened, we found a sponsor in the USA, who gave an affidavit for our whole family. It took a few years before a quota was open. Finally, we got the permit to emigr...

Due to the strict which started early in the evening, we had no other chance but to take walks around and around our house. The ice was broken and we always walked hand in hand, like when Kamola pulled me up the hill after Frau Burchard's equipment had been installed at her country home. It felt natural, and we held hands always during the next fifty four years. We had much to talk. I knew practically nothing about my fiancee. On these walks during long and peaceful twilight hours I learned that he loved pigeons and that these birds gave him much pleasure and cost him much pain when he was a young boy. He told me about Tartar, the horse which was his best comrade before and during the 1939 war between Poland and Germany. While Kamola crossed a river on Tartar, they were surprised by enemy fire. Tartar was shot and killed. Kamola, however, was not injured. He swam to shore and escaped. On the dead horse where Kamola's papers and personal belongings, which were sent to his parent...

During the following months many things happened. We decided to dissolve the weaving in the KZ. First went Frau Burchard's looms and equipment. She arranged for the rent of a big truck and the permission to drive it with all her property to her country home, with the help of the weaver commando. On the fixed day the commando loaded the truck very early in the morning. Kamola and five of his men came to our house to pick me up. At our destination the dismantled looms were put together again. The work lasted into the night. Everybody got lunch, beer, coffee and snacks. Frau Burchard took good care of everyone, true to her customary generous way. I noticed that the men purposefully stretched the work to last as long as possible. They appreciated to be here, out of the KZ walls, and they wanted to stay as long as possible.  I called Kamola outside to listen to far away hollow canon thunder. It was dismal to hear enemy artillery fire so close to home. Without doubt, the end was very nea...