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How it all started:
December 27 1944
I walked into the
U.S. Army office in Minot and the Sergeant there behind the desk said,
“You’ve come to join the army.”
“Yes sir.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m 18 today, sir.”
“When were you
born?”
"27 December ‘26.”
“Are you ready to
ship out now, or do you want to wait until school’s over?”
“I want to ship out
now.”
“You’re still in
school aren’t you?”
“Yes sir.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to finish out the year?”
“Yes sir.”
At that the sergeant gave me some papers and I filled them in. I used
Erika’s name and address except, of course, I used Rudolph instead of
Erika. That way I figured my step mother wouldn’t be able to trace me.
Anyway, the Sergeant said he had a group that would be shipping out the
day after tomorrow on the train to Fort Lewis, Washington. I had to get
sworn in with a bunch of other guys including Ted Rubley, who graduated
last year, and Willie Moon, one of my Indian classmates. We were told to
report back in two days when they were going to ship us out. I figured
I’d have to spend the night somewhere. I had thought maybe I’d go out
the same day and be gone. Erika said, “You can sleep at our house.”
Their farm was near Williston, almost 3 hours drive from Minot.
That evening, after
we had cleaned up the kitchen, her Dad started asking a lot of questions
like where had I come from and why my father's name was Tautz, my name
now is Martin but I wanted Erika to know that it is really Marjanovitch.
So I told him how my father had been shot by the Red Army in Kiev
(Ukraine) because he was a Jew married to a Christian. They were trying
to get my mother who fled - walking all the way in the middle of winter
- to Belgrade (Yugoslavia). How she married an old friend who was Muslim
after he agreed to become a Christian. After she gave birth to me, we
all went to Montenegro where we sailed by ship to French Indo China and,
then, by trains, to Kunming China.
"So that's where you
learned Chinese. How did you learn German?"
I related how my
mother had schooled me in German, English and Russian as well as all the
other subjects. When I was about six, they hired an old Chinese guy who
was very well educated and he was my teacher until I left China with the
Martins.
Erika, who had been
sitting as quiet as a mouse hiding from a cat, asked why I left China
with the Martins. I told her what Mrs. Martin had told me – that my
mother had asked the Martins to take me with them to America and she
would follow later with the girls - but I didn't believe her. I really
have felt that they stole me.
We all sat there for
awhile without talking. Finally, as Mr. Tautz was getting up, he said,
"Zzyvko, thinking bad things about what happened to you - and your
father - just helps more bad things happen. You need to think about your
future and how good you are going to make it be. I wouldn't want someone
who always thinks black to be my daughter's husband. And now I have to
go to bed. Farmers have to get up very early each morning."
After he closed the
door I asked Erika, "You think we will ever get married?"
"I would like that.
Now you sleep in Aloisa's room; she's away at college. You can help my
Dad tomorrow. He would appreciate that very much.
She drove me back to Minot Monday morning early. We never told her dad
about why I was staying with them those two nights because we knew he
would object.
...and so the adventure began...(click here
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