Hello,
What part of the US do you move to? My area has German descent in almost
all the people here. Even thou i wasn't born during the times of both wars,
i have never heard of these problems here.
Cindy
Indiana
[Original Message]
From: Maureen <mcshelly2@msn.com>
To: Hannover-L <hannover-l@genealogy.net>
Date: 10/5/2007 6:34:31 PM
Subject: Re: [HN] School Difficulties in the USThat's really tough and I'm sorry, Heide. We had a half-dozen new
students from Germany throughout
my 1948-1954 post-World War II years in public schools in Englewood, NJ,
and also new were a Dutch girl,
a Belgian girl and an English boy, and I never noticed anything like
that.
In our school, five elementary schools came together for Junior High and
High School, and people more-or-less
had their cliques already formed from elementary school, so I'm sure it
was difficult for transfers from the next
town as well. But I never heard any expression of dislike or references
to the war. Or any physical violence
between students or ganging up on one. That's so sad. I'll apologize
for them, they knew not what they were doing.
What I HAVE regretted is that the teachers never used the obvious
wonderful opportunities we had then to help
us broaden ourselves and our outlooks and learn about the other cultures
and customs and places they had lived
in Europe. There was no encouragement of that, our loss!
Maureen
From: HeideB
To: Hannover-L
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 9:57 AM
Subject: Re: [HN] PLATTDEUTSCHKarla, you have to think about the times in America. After both world
wars
there was a lot of anti German feelings in this country. I came in
1953 as
an 11 year old. I was beaten up in school and called a German spry. I
had
a terrible time in school and no friends. Germans would not even admit
they
were Germans. In the 1960's I lost 2 jobs when people found out I was
German. In my case, my parents did not enforce German because there
were
only the three of us and we had to learn English. My parents learned
from
me. But we approached coming to America differently. We accepted
America
with our whole hearts and beings. My father was the only one on the
block
to fly the American flag and we were very proud to become Americans.
The
last 20 years or so changed this situation. But still if I am asked if
I am
German, I say no, I'm German by birth and American by choice. So don't
criticize your ancestors too much. They did this to protect their
children.
Heide
PS Maybe Sitz mal?
From: "Karla Nurnberg" <muessidenn@yahoo.com>
To: <hannover-l@genealogy.net>
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 7:30 AM
Subject: [HN] PLATTDEUTSCHDear Listers,
My Grandmother used to tell us, when we were little girls to
Sitzemado, which we interpreted to mean sit down there. This is
probably not
spelled correctly in her native Holstein dialect. I do not care,
whether she
spoke High or Low German, but I would have loved to learn any kind of
German
from my Grandfather and her. They did not teach it to us, so both my
cousin
and I had difficulty with the language, when we lived in Germany. Too
bad
that the younger generation of German Americans were not taught the
Language
of their ancestors. I am very proud to be of German descent and also on
my
mother's side Danish.
Her Mother was born in Denmark and her Father's parents were also.
Mother
and her Aunt were not taught to speak Danish, but they learned a few
words,
so Great-Grandmother and Grandma could not speak Danish without having
some
of their conversation understood.
Does anyone on this list know of someone, who might be able to
help me