my dearest children and...
TRANSCRIPT
My dearest children and grandchildren
This is but a brave and humble attempt to tell your future generations about what
happened to your forefathers and - mothers in the dreadful times before and right after
World War II.
Writing this and putting it into perspective with what history tells us about those sad
times and perhaps a feeble attempt to correct what the USA press 50 years after all this
happened, wants you to believe - I was just a kid when WWII happened, but I will try to
tell the Maciak Story as well as I can 50 years later :
Elsy Wattenhofer – Maciak : Born March 12, 1926 in Wuelflingen/Winterthur /
Switzerland at her parents home at 5.30 p.m, with a midwife and Pappa Wattenhofer in
attendance. – It was Friday Evening – as soon as I was born, Pappa left for his beloved
Singing-Club night (Friday night was always cherished) and they all celebrated Elsy’s
arrival in style.
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Nothing too much of interest happened during the next few years of little Elsy’s growing
up. Mom and Pappa Wattenhofer worked and grandmother took care of Elsy – also
grandmother was very sedentary and not well at all. So the little girl in her care never
was allowed friends in the house, it was too hard on grandma.
Flashbacks from my childhood where only a few - when the “big people” talked about
Germany’s Hitler and what he was up to. The first and very distinct remembrance I had
from the troubles outside my very small world was on my 12th
birthday (1938) when
Adolf Hitler marched into Austria, declaring “Victory” in his homeland. – For a child this
was fascinating to watch.
The following year of course is when I re-collect the first real shock in my life. Sept 1
1939. In Switzerland was the biggest fair. It took place in Zurich and exactly on Sept l,
l939 our teachers had set the day for our class to visit this exhibition. We left home early
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in the morning on the train from Winterthur – Zurich and spent about ½ day there having
the time of our lives (weather was beautiful).
And than it happened : Over the loudspeaker it was announced that World War II had
just been declared; we were to leave the exhibition immediately as a state of general
mobilisation existed - in Switzerland. All the eligible men were to report immediately
with their weapons and in uniform to guard the Swiss boarder - My father was of course
among them.. We were sent as fast as was possible (with thousands of people doing the
same thing) to the train station in Zurich where total chaos existed. Our teachers must
have sweated blood to try and get us home (for us kids all this commotion was exiting, if
not fun – we just did not realize the extent of all of this).
We finally made it home; where I found my mother in tears – as Pappa had to leave
already for reporting at his military headquarters. Mind you: in those terribly confusing
hours we did not know whether our family would see each other again. However we
stayed home; Mamma and Grossi and I super happy that at least I made it home o.k.
What followed was rather anticlimax… as neither Germany nor the Allied Forces won
much ground. Everything started to be rationed, textiles, food etc. etc. And since my
father was never home from the service, my mother had the big task of fending with
rationing coupons, money etc. – she was still working full time – and that’s how we
survived as well as we did.
As I was entering Swiss High school (starts after 6 years of primary school) it was
summer 1940 - Hitler had invaded France, conquered it and wiped out whole armies
they were pushed (or came on their own free will) across our Swiss borders – and all of a
sudden our country was dotted with khaki uniforms. – It was no small task to feed and
house all these foreign soldiers. Everybody was asked to help with agriculture to help
feed the huge amount of refugees – we hardly managed before for our own people
without imports that were non-existent.
Those allegations made 50 years later, that Switzerland treated its refugees badly are
being put into a false light. Everybody : Swiss , refugees and foreign armies interned ,
had a very difficult life – with no imports, there was not enough food not enough clothing
not enough fuel (private cars did not exist anymore and buses for transportation ran on
wood-alcohol) - Mainly during school vacations Swiss families even took in one or two
children from occupied France, to give them some reprieve from their hard everyday life
in a war zone.
In 1942, I was sent to Geneva for 8 months to try and get fluent in the French language. –
Coming back to Winterthur I entered college (Technikum Winterthur for studies in
commerce with international dealings and foreign languages.
While I was there I met George Maciak (on the way to and from school). He was a
Polish internee having served in France in 1940 in the Polish II division. He was but one
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of those thousands of soldiers that were pushed into Switzerland when Hitler overran
France in summer 1940.
George Maciak : Here a short summary of where and how he grew up.
George was born and raised in Nowy Sacz/Poland, a small city in the Karpatian
Mountains, not too far from Krakow. Mother was a school teacher and father was a
prominent physician. – George also had a younger sister ; Jagoda. – When Hitler’s armies
invaded Poland, George’s father took his son (then aged 17, just after completing the
important Matura-Exam) and left Nowy Sacz for Romania (then still a neutral country,
because he feared that the invading German armies would take his son for forced labor or
worse. - Mother and Jagodka however stayed behind in Nowy Sacz. Half a year later
father Franziscek Maciak went back home to his Family in Poland. Son George Maciak
traveled from Romania through Italy into France and joined the just formed Polish II
division to help defend France against the intruding German Armies. –Finally, when
France was conquered by Hitler, the II Polish Division approached the Swiss boarder at
the Jura Mountains and eventually asked to be allowed to pass over into Switzerland,
where they were interned.
Here goes George’s story (I could never verify, if it really happened this way) He told it
many times :
He was assigned to drive a truck, loaded with sugar – a rare commodity in 1940’s France.
Before entering Switzerland he was ordered to dump the load and leave the truck behind
in France. – Now; George had a very sweet tooth and the thought of parting with this
precious load was too much - he claims he cried himself to sleep that night while leaning
on a sugar sack. - Morning as it always comes found him crossing the boarder into
Switzerland still pining for the lovely sugar. – The soldiers were taken to the Bernese
Oberland and housed temporarily in private families, mostly farmers so that they could be
put to work in the fields (hands were desperately needed.).
Half a year later it was decided, that those who already had their Matura-Diploma could
start studying at various universities. –
And here goes another of George’s stories: He lined up in the waiting-line for those who
desired to study medicine. (His parents had already decided he should follow in his
father’s footsteps). - But after a while in the line George got impatient waiting around
and stepped one line over because it was much shorter; this one was for the men who
wanted to study Chemistry. – And so it happened that George started his Chemistry
studies in Winterthur. Winterthur was designed to house (in private homes) the largest
group of Polish students.
They all started heir studies at the Technikum Winterthur (where I was in Business-
College) and about half a year later they all changed over to the ETH or the University
of Zurich and commuted daily by train to Winterthur (about ½ hrs ride)
George and I lived “just around the corner” from each other but for the first 2 years
nothing happened - I was still “under age” and it also was forbidden to the Polish
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internees to fraternize with Swiss girls. – But time passed and things improved slowly
and in winter of 1943 George and I formally met and started to go steady, much to the
dismay of my mother. By the time I had started my first job in the office of “Publicitas
Winterthur” (an ad agency). George and I had settled down into a nice routine. The
internees were studying 9 months per year and the 3 summer months they were sent into
the mountains (mostly Graubunden) to build roads. – This; George missed one summer
of 1944 because he was put in a detention camp in Wauwiler-Moos near Aarau; reason:
the Swiss military police had caught him in Zurich in civilian clothes and with a love
letter in his pocket.
So his punishment was to spend 3 months in the detention camp – George and I
corresponded almost every day by mail which was heavily censored, so they could not be
real love letters. – But this sour time also passed
And finally: May 8, 1945 The end of the war
George and I got engaged and his uniform finally wound up in the trash can. We all felt
that daylight had finally arrived after the long darkness in our lives. A great sense of
relieve and joy for the future over came everybody.
By now George had finished all his studies and received the diploma as a chemical
engineer from the ETH and wanted to go on for his doctorate. But – the international fund
cut off all money. So that was the end of this dream and George looked for work as a
chemical engineer, but that proved to be very difficult as there were too many Swiss who
also wanted positions like that. - Finally he found a modest job in a pharmacy in
Winterthur. We officially got engaged at the end of May 1945.
A year later George got lucky and was hired as a research chemist at the famous Bally
shoe factory in Schoenenwerd., near Aarau. We married on April 24, 1947 – spent a few
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days of honeymoon in Geneva and settled down in Schoenenwerd. I found quickly a job
in the offices of Bally and so we started 3 very nice years – making lifelong friends . In
August 1947 we took 2 weeks vacation and went to Poland to visit George’s family
whom he had not seen since September 1939. Sadly his mother had died in 1945 – but
we had a lovely visit with his father, sister Jagodka und many relatives in Krakau. - We
had to fly (our v e r y first flight) with Swissair to Prag/Czechoslovakia as we could not
take a train through Austria which still was occupied by the Russians. Conditions
everywhere were still very bad – freight trains full of refugees and in George’s home
town his father showed us bombed out parts of the city. We also took a trip to famous
Zakopane in the mountains by jeep. It was raining, the car-roof was torn and we all
wound up soaking wet. But such was traveling in 1947 - Adventure.
We were very happy in Schoenenwerd; our very first small apartment – new friends (Rita,
Kurt and Addie Seiler) – Rita later became Ron’s godmother. I was also doing some
modeling for Bally as well as some stores in Aarau to make a little extra money. Slowly
food rationing disappeared and we were leading normal lives.
But all that changed 3 years later. George’s work permit was not renewed. Too many
Swiss wanting jobs, at that time there was an abundance of chemists. – So George went
back for some more studies at the ETH in Zurich specializing in micro-analyses, while at
the same time we applied for a permanent visa to the USA. And in June 1950 the big day
came. We sold all our furniture, packed up and left with a train for Naples Italy. From
there we were boarding the “Neptunia” a small refugee boat, run by the Greeks. After 10
days crossing the Atlantic we stopped in Halifax/Nova Scotia to unload part of the
passengers. We then went on to a New York harbor and were met by George’s cousin.
This was the start of our 2nd
life; In the USA. We considered ourselves lucky to be here
as most of our friends in Switzerland wound up in Australia or perhaps Canada. A few of
them went back to Poland.
George’s aunt (sister of his mother) lived in Adams/Mass. Since she emigrated in 1930
she had 4 children with her husband, also a Polish immigrant. They were the ones who
put up the necessary affidavit for our entry in the USA. – We spent the first 2 months at
her house in Adams. George was frantically looking for a job as Chemist but it proved to
be very difficult. So to earn some money George worked shifts in the Berkshire cotton
factory, he hated the job, but we needed the money.
Our brake came September 1950, a small micro-laboratory in Skokie, Il hired him. And
so started our almost 2 years with Charles Beazley of Microtech Labs. – We packed up
our few things in Adams and boarded the lovely silver train in Pittsfield, Mass which
brought us in a 12 hours ride to Chicago. The first month was spent in a small furnished
room with a Swedish family. George settled in with Microtech and I was job hunting. It
did not take long until I found myself hired by Nielsen’s marketing research helping with
TV ratings. And as any red blooded American would, we bought our very first used car a
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maroon Studebaker. I learned to drive and in no time we found a small, furnished
apartment on 1717 North Shore Ave. just off the 6000 block of Clark ave. in Chicago.
We both just loved Chicago, went down town every Saturday (there were no shopping
malls in those days) and took long drives into the countryside or along the lake each
Sunday. We tried very hard to get acquainted with our new country. It took 5 years to
finally receive our citizenship.
In the summer 1951 we drove to Toronto for a first visit with the newly arrived Polish
aunt and cousin of George’s. They arrived there from Sweden, after having spent a good
part of the war in a Polish concentration camp. – You can imagine what a re-union this
was for George, he had not seen them in 13 years.
But we also had some sad times. I was finally expecting our first baby. Sadly a
miscarriage after 3 ½ months put an end to those happy expecting days. – It was a boy -
However, new adventures were just over the horizon. Norbert Neuss – one of George’s
old army buddies and good friend from the student years in Winterthur/Zurich – had
started his new job at Eli Lilly Research Labs in Indianapolis. So he enticed George to
send his resume to Lilly. And we were so lucky, 6 months later we followed the Neuss’ to
Indianapolis and Eli Lilly. Needless to say, for us struggling emigrants such a good
position At Lilly’s microlab was a God sent. On April 1 1952 we loaded our car with all
our possessions and drove to Indianapolis on Highways 41 and 52. We all rented a house
in “Windsor Village” – Neuss were there, Flint, Traverso and many other freshly hired
chemist from Lilly.
At the time George started at Lilly’s I was pregnant again and so was Eli Neuss. They
already had one girl Karin, who was 2 years old. We all together had a real good and
happy time waiting for the babies. Sadly Eli’s baby died shortly after birth.
And so it happened; our first son Ralph was born on July 17, 1952 at Coleman’s Hospital
for women (IU campus) I had a rough time with the US concept of having babies. Fathers
had to stay in the waiting room – not at all allowed near the mothers – and the struggling
mother to be was quite heavily drugged – so that the doctors had an easier time. Not at
all how I wanted to give birth – but you were overruled.
So we had a healthy son and were grateful. In those days we were kept for 5 days in the
hospital. As it was the middle of Indiana summer, the heat was just unbearable, so George
was the first in the neighborhood to buy a window air conditioner. People thought we
were nuts – nobody but the movie theaters and department stores, some restaurants had
air conditioners. Very few people had TV sets in their homes. Our neighbors and friends
from Lilly had just bought a set so, we all watched in their house the l952 presidential
election of D. Eisenhower. – We bought our first TV in 1953 watching with real joy and
relieve as Dr. J. Salk announced: we had a vaccine for the most dreaded disease: Polio. –
What a blessing for the world.
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In April 1953 I had saved enough money to buy an airline ticket for baby Ralph and
myself to fly home to Switzerland to present my parents with their first grandchild. It was
our first transatlantic flight with TWA – no jets of course. From Indy the first stop was
Pittsburgh, then on to La Guardia/NY where we had to take a bus for a 40 minutes ride
through town to Idelwild airport (later re-named Kennedy airport) - from here on TWA
to Paris and finally - last leg was Paris – Zurich. Needless to say Ralph as well as I was a
mess, we did not have lovely disposable diapers in those days – and I did not have a
special crib or even a seat on the plane for Ralph – I made a little bed for him with
blankets between my legs on the floor. Otherwise he was on my knees. Yep such was
flying in those days. But we made it and had a wonderful re-union with all the family and
friends. - We returned to Indy before Ralph’s first birthday. And in September 1953 we
bought our first new car - a green Studebaker. Did we love that car…!
The year 1954 found me pregnant again – we really wanted another baby and so on Feb.
14, 1955 our new daughter was born. But tragedy struck; again those drug practices at
birth: I reacted very badly to them, they made me quite ill; at the critical moment of birth
the baby was deprived of oxygen. She lived for a very short time, but then nothing could
save her. The hardest thing I felt was to come home and tell little Ralph – his so long
awaited sister was not coming home.
To help us all overcome this loss, we decided on a car-trip to California and back. This
was a big adventure for the 3 of us. In 2 weeks we traveled the famous route 66 out West
and via Los Angeles – San Francisco – Reno – Yellowstone and back to Indianapolis. On
the way we visited friends and all the national parks that were along the route. We had a
wonderful time.
This summer 1955 we also bought our first new house - a small 3-bedroom home in
Beech Grove. Now we really felt comfortable and tried again to have a new baby. The
pregnancy was not without troubles; but happily on March 5, 1956 we were rewarded
with a wonderful healthy, happy baby and named him Ronald. He was a quiet, sweet
thing and not much problems. - Just 3 days before Ron’s birth, George and I were sworn
in as USA citizens. So this was a most memorable March 1956.
George was reasonably happy at Lilly’s, but we wanted more money as we had soooo
many plans for our lives. - So he and Eugene Fornefeld (a fellow chemist at Lilly)
decided to open up their own Microlab in Eugene' basement.
And this was the start of “ MIDWEST MICROLAB”
Things improved nicely moneywise – however George was never home, all day at Lilly’s
and evenings at the Midwest Microlab. So all the tasks in and around the house were left
up to me –
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In 1957 I took my two sons to my parents in Winterthur and we spent about 10 weeks in
Switzerland. Ralph learned to speak the Swiss language perfectly but he forgot his
English. It took him one week to re-learn it again after we were home in Beech Grove.
The following year we decided that we needed a bigger home, so we went house hunting
and found what we wanted in the new sub division of Brendon Park. In November of
1958 – the day after Thanksgiving and in a snow storm we moved in the newly finished
house which we called home for the next 19 years. We were very happy in this
neighborhood – so many really good friends and the children had a very big family to
grow up with.
Those years were the truly good ones for all of us. The Microlab moved to Devington
(small shopping center next to our neighborhood) which made George’s commute much
easier. I also started to work for the lab for a few hours daily in our house doing reporting
and the book work. I wanted to be sure to always be home and available when the
children came home from school. We had now also a second car so it made things much
easier.
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In May 1959 my parents stepped on an airplane (Swissair of course) and visited us for the
first time.
We spent a wonderful 5 weeks together taking car-trips whenever it was possible.
Visiting for once Gatlinburg in the Smoky Mtns. – And one trip to Chicago for a visit
with grandpa’s godmother who lived there with her family. – It was a wonderful re-union,
as my father had not seen her in about 40 years. – George also took grandfather to the 500
mile race and when it came time to fly back, we all drove together to New York via
Buffalo, Albany and down the beautiful Hudson River valley. Of course we also stopped
for a visit at Niagara Falls. My father was so touched and impressed with all the sites and
sounds of his trip to the USA and his first transatlantic flight that he wrote a lengthy
travel log which was published in his Winterthur newspaper. That was still news.
They returned once more in Fall 1963 for a great visit; but there was also tragedy:
In November (while they were still here) the much loved Coliseum blew up – and on the
lighter side, just a few weeks before: Clowes Hall was ready to receive customers.
In January 1963 George announced that he wanted to take up skiing again. (He learned it
before the war in Poland) And so we packed up George’s new skis, the boys sled and
drove for 8 hours to Crystal Mtn. Lodge, near Thompsonville, Mi. – I figured the boys
and I would be sledding, while George skied. Ha! : one of the biggest misconception I
ever had…. We rented for all of us non-skiers outfits and started lessons. A few hours
and we all were totally hooked on skiing. – The next few years saw us skiing at Crystal
Mtn and Boyne Mtn about 3 times per winter – usually a prolonged weekend.
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Christmas 1965 was spent with the grandparents in Winterthur. George took Ralph to
Poland for a visit and to ski his Tatra Mountains in Zakopane. In the meantime Ron and I
were trying our ski-legs in Wildhaus/Toggenburg and finally we all converged in
St.Anton/Austria for a week of ski vacation together with our friends Rita and Kurt
Seiler.
Here goes a little story from this trip: Ron, having fun with the elevator at our Hotel, got
himself stuck between floors and guess who helped him out of his predicament; the Duke
of Kent (Cousin to Queen Elizabeth of England) – He was a guest at the same Hotel.
One night, sitting at the bar not far from the Duke of Kent and his entourage, we heard
him tell this story of the day: “and than there was this chap who took a spill right next to
the ski piste and fell with his backside into the gurgling creek”. Well guess what, that
chap was our George. Luckily he did not get hurt; he just came back with a very wet and
cold butt.
For a few years we spent skiing vacation (Christmas-New Year) with Rita and Kurt Seiler
in Davos and in Arosa, those were wonderful times.
Such were our winters, fun and all. School and work were mostly normal with its ups and
downs. No sense going into details.
In summer 1966 we sent the boys for l week to summer camp near Cincinnati together
with a few friends. George and I flew off to Montego-Bay, Jamaica. We wanted to
explore a new part of the world. We fell totally in love with a beautiful, tropical island
and made quite a few friends down there (one of them was a Swiss from my hometown
who married a native girl) – we had some really fun times together and considered
Jamaica our 3rd
home.
While summer vacations were still spent with the grandparents in Winterthur we felt the
boys should go and explore camp style vacation in the Swiss mountains. Zugerberg for
Ralph, Crans Montana for Ron and Lake Geneva for Ralph (camp for teens)
When Ron got to be high school age we decided (with his enthusiastic yes to send him to
an International School in Switzerland “The Institute Rosenberg, St. Gallen” – Ralph had
just finished high school with his diploma and did not know what to do. So he too wanted
to go for one year to Institute Rosenberg. We had always wanted to give our boys a good
all around international upbringing and this seemed the right way to go about it –Today I
am not sure anymore whether this was a good idea. Only Ralph and Ron will be able to
say the final word on this venture.
Certainly they had a good chance to visit their grandparents who by now were in very
poor health and had moved to an old people’s home. The grandparents health deteriorated
steadily (mostly cancer) and a bout with influenza ended heir lives at Christmastime.
George and I flew to Switzerland for burial and dissolved the estate. It was a very sad
time; yet this comes to everybody’s life.
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Ron cam back to finish high school at Arlington High and Ralph entered College in
Seneca Falls/NY,
One year later, the 4th
chapter in our lives started. For Christmas 1972 we all flew to
Switzerland, rented an apartment in Bad Ragaz. Little skiing was done as there was
hardly any snow in the Alpes. New Years we spent with all our Seiler friends at a
restaurant in Bad Ragaz and the rest is history. We searched and found a condominium
and bought it in Laax/Flims. – Our lives changed somewhat after this.
I decided that I did not want to just spend vacation in this lovely apartment, doing
nothing. I wanted to work and in doing so getting to know the people and their ways
much quicker and better. – In those days Switzerland was always short of people in the
work force and I found a seasonal job with the Tourist Office in Flims. Starting June
1973 the boys and I flew to Switzerland and started to work our summer jobs. (We also
had Mike Sippel with us for a few weeks - his first European trip) - Ralph found work as
a delivery van driver for Leiwaesche Ilanz, and Ron started tending bar at the Hotel
Oberalp in Ilanz. What a summer this was, none of us knew the Buendnerland. Work and
exploring the land and people kept us very busy that summer.
Christmas vacations naturally found us again in the mountains. – I also was working the
busy winter ski season at the Tourist office. And so it went: year after year – I packed up
every 3 months to go and work in my mountains and spring and fall were spent at the
Microlab in Indianapolis. The boys finished college and were on their own. Every spring
I traveled extensively from city to city in the USA within the frame-work of the Ski
Group Shows, representing Flims/Laax.
During these years George managed to fulfill a longtime dream of his own. – The
Doctorate – He was working on his Doctorate in chemistry in association with the
University of Gdansk/Poland and in June 1979 he received formally his Doctorate in the
micro-analytical field of chemistry. A real highlight in his life.
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Very sadly we lost George to a sudden heart attack on June 15, 1983 – this was very hard
on all of us. Life was never quite the same anymore. Thank God I had my two jobs and
carried on for 10 more years. Ralph and Ron both got married and had families, and I
was blessed with 2 wonderful grandchildren : Hilary and George.
After I retired from the Tourist office and sold the condo in Switzerland (spring 1992),
my life got much more quiet, but to this day I still fly 2 times a year to Switzerland.
Thanking God I am still healthy enough to do this. - Life has been very good to all of us.
Elsy Maciak
2004