The first years in the country of milk and honey were not sweet for many of us.  This is not my story alone, but many immigrant children experienced similar unpleasant times.  As a fifteen-year-old I arrived in New York in 1941 with a children's transport of approximately 100.  Since 1939 until May of 1941 we lived in France in refugee children's homes in various cities. We were all like a large family and felt that we were all siblings.  The hard times of war and hunger were bearable as we had each other.  Passing the Statue of Liberty early in the morning, in June of 1941, was one of the most exciting experiences we had.  We all knew the story of the Statue. Upon debarking from the Portuguese freighter on Staten Island we were bussed to an orphanage on 137th Street in the city.  We all thought that this was to be our home until we all became adults.  It was not to be.

The organizations that rescued us from France decided it would be best for all of us to be placed all over the United States with relatives, distant relatives, foster homes, or orphanages.  We were all hungry and tattered upon our arrival.  The American Quakers made all the legal arrangements and the Joint Distribution made all the financial arrangements.  All in all there were three transports of German, Austrian, Czech and Polish children up to age sixteen.  I was on the first transport. I had close relatives living in New York and Illinois. 

My father's brother lived in Bloomington, Illinois and wanted me to come to live with him.  This would have been wonderful as I felt my Uncle Moritz was my surrogate father.  He so acted after my father died in 1935.  I loved him as I'm sure he felt the same toward me.  As he had only been in the U.S. for two years, the organization in New York felt that it would be better to live with an American family.

Our transport was disbanded almost immediately.  I was the last to leave.  No one informed me about the delay and the reason why.  This created a certain anxiety.  Through some research, the authorities that sponsored us discovered that a distant relative of mine lived in Shreveport, Louisiana.  They had their roots in the United States since 1859.  None of them spoke my native language nor did I speak any English.   By coincidence the lady of the house was visiting New York from Shreveport.  She came to the orphanage to look me over.  Prior to my face-to-face meeting with her I was tutored in my first English words. "Nice to meet you." In order for me to give a good impression, my cousins, Norbert Braunschweiger and Milan Schuster bought me a slack suit and shoes.

It so happened that the women I called Aunt Perle's daughter and son-in-law were on their honeymoon in New York driving their new 1940 Chevrolet convertible. On the evening of June 28th I was picked up in a taxi and driven to Long Island.  I was greeted and embraced by the lady that came to the orphanage and several others speaking only English.  They all made a big fuss over me and I didn't know how to react.  It was really strange not understanding what was going on.  The four of us left New York the following day for Shreveport.  Bob Lyons.  His wife Betty and Aunt Perle rode in the front seat.  The little Boston Bull Terrier and I had the entire back seat to ourselves. I was glad to have Shorty as my companion.  The ice cream, chocolate, and all kinds of goodies for the first time in many years were wonderful.  This was luxury beyond my belief, but also I had an empty feeling to leave my so-called siblings. 

Our first night stop of the trip was in a motel.  I was alone in a room and this was the first time in a long, long time that I did not have friends to share a room with.  It was a strange feeling.  In fact I felt lonely and homesick and I was ashamed that I as a fifteen-year-old cried myself to sleep. I had no idea what the future might bring. As I was brought up in an orthodox family and children's homes, I had no idea what the various meat dishes were.  I did know that we never mixed dairy with meat. To my dismay I was fed funny looking meats and dairy at the same time.  I knew this was wrong.  To please my host I ate the dairy food and left the rest on my plate.  As I didn't understand the gibberish conversation between them, I felt guilty for my actions.  I soon realized that Bob Lyons was not Jewish.  This also was a shock to me.

The second night we stopped in Montgomery, Alabama.  Immediately after arriving, Bob came out of the next cabin dressed in a military uniform.  I had no idea what this was all about.  I soon understood that Robert Lyons was Captain Lyons a medical doctor in the Army Air Corp.  For dinner we drove to Maxwell Field to eat at the Officer's Club.  All these happenings confused me immensely and I wondered what could possibly be next. This was repeated for a week.  I found out later that Bob had to report for duty at the base hospital.

One night while eating dinner at a restaurant next to the base, two MP's appeared, talking to Bob and pointing and looking at me.  I found out later that the waitress realized that I spoke German and a few words of English so she figured that I was a German spy.  The seriousness of the conversation with Bob was scaring me, however after a while everyone laughed and one of the MP's patted me on my head and they left.  "Please realize that all of these goings-on was explained to me after I spoke English.  After a week in Montgomery, Perle and I left by train to Shreveport. Again I had culture shock.  We were in a Pullman car and slept in a bed that night.  I had never heard about such luxury.
Upon arriving in Shreveport the next morning, we were greeted by Sam Schuster.  Sam was the spitting image of my late father.  They were first cousins.  Sam was born in the U.S. in 1873.  I was immediately informed that Sam was now Uncle Sam and Perle was Aunt Perle.

The shock of my life came as we arrived at the house and Rosalie, the black maid, Julius, a twenty-three-year-old man with Down syndrome and Sue his nursemaid, greeted me.  I had never met a person with Downs Syndrome and not having been informed by the organization in New York, I was petrified.  In retrospect, many other things should have been explained to me. The Schusters were Jewish, but they did not lead a Jewish life.  After having been brought up Orthodox, I should never have been placed with this family.  It was a completely different life for me.  They celebrated Christmas and even had a tree in the house.  All this was a calamity for me.  For some reason unknown to me Sue's actions toward me were belligerent as I assume she felt threatened by me.  I want to say here, after three months there, Sue became my friend.  For some reason Julius called me a Nazi even though he had no idea what a Nazi was.  Perle's attitude toward me changed drastically.  She didn't like me and let me know it in no uncertain terms.  By now I spoke and understood English to some degree.  Her remark to me at the dinner table was not to sit near her, that I smelled.  Maybe I did, as I was not yet used to the American custom of showering every day. As far as I was concerned, Perle was a neurotic.  She would lie in bed all day and read paperback novels.  The marriage between Sam and Perle was a catastrophe.  They were constantly yelling at each other.

As summer was coming to a close, they had to decide what to do with me. Perle wanted me to become an apprentice to some tradesman.  She felt that I didn't need an education. The principal of the local high school heard about me and called to invite me to attend his school.  At the urging of several relatives, Perle agreed to have me attend high school.  I did well, in fact I graduated in three years. During my three years living with them, I tried to avoid Perle as much as I could, as her resentment against me increased, many unpleasant episodes between us occurred quite often. I tried to avoid Perle as much as possible.  It was my responsibility to get up and go to school.  In order not to awaken Perle in the mornings, I would be very quiet eating and getting ready for school.  She accused me of spying on her. After a big blow up with Perle, things changed.  Instead of eating breakfast at the house, I would walk to Bess Schuster's (Sam's sister-in-law) house and have breakfast.  Then Barbara and I would walk to school.  Barbara were and are still good friends. Sometime in March of 1942, I was called to the High School principal's office.  He informed me that as an alien, it is my duty to register with the INS.  Mr. Coffman accompanied me to the INS office and explained that I had no knowledge of the requirement and therefore I did not get into any trouble.

Life in Shreveport has many memories for me.  I was very popular in High School and had lots of good friends and was one of the boys.  I participated in many extra curricular activities and away from the house I had very happy, early years in the United States. Upon my eighteenth birthday, I registered for the draft, and shortly thereafter I was inducted into the Army Air Corp.  After I was discharged from the military in 1946, I visited Shreveport to express my gratitude to Sam and yes to Perle for having me in their home.  Many years later Anita and I visited Perle and she apologized to me for her attitude toward me.  After many years when I found several of my former siblings, I became aware of other stories similar to mine.  Many had even a harder beginning in the U.S. than I did.  Several of the girls either living with relatives or foster parents became maids for their host families.  Several boys were treated like houseboys.  Others were not
allowed to go to school and had to work to pay for their room and board to their foster parents.  One of my friends was reunited with his mother and her new husband.  He and his stepfather did not get along.  After the mother's unexpected early death the stepfather made life very difficult for him. As the situation became intolerable, he left and cared for himself at age sixteen.  Another case was when two brothers had not seen their parents since they were very young. 

Miraculously both parents survived separate concentration camps and were reunited in Germany after the war.  They then had two other children.
One of the older boys who came with me to the U.S. couldn't cope with this and went into a deep depression from which he never fully recovered.   Most of us became adults, got married and had children and grandchildren and are proud of our achievements. All of us are grateful to have had the opportunity to come to the United States and become good citizens of our great country.