By Terri Wangard
A batch of forgotten letters was found in my grandmother’s
house. Written in 1947 and 1948, they came from distant cousins in Germany. My
grandparents and other relatives had been sending them care packages. My
great-great-grandfather immigrated to Wisconsin in the 1870s, as did two
brothers. A fourth brother remained in Germany, and these letters came from his
grandchildren.
When I revived a dream to write in 2008, I decided the
family in the letters would be the perfect subject around which to craft a
story. Research revealed life in Nazi Germany as increasingly grim before the
war even started. The letters provide a fascinating glimpse of life in war torn
Germany, but nothing about the war years. How had the family coped? I turned to
the internet and searched on the family’s factory name. I found it all right,
in a list of German companies that used slave labor. I wanted my family to be
the good guys, but that hope grew shaky.
Contact had ceased in 1948 after the German currency reform,
and with their silence in the letters, many questions couldn’t be answered. Why
had they refrained from any mention of their thoughts and activities during
Hitler’s regime? Desire to forget? Shame of the vanquished? Concern the
American family wouldn’t help if they knew the truth?
Circumstances of their postwar life offer a few facts. The
family consisted of a brother, his wife, and three young children, and a sister
and her husband, and their “old gray mother,” who turned 66 in 1947. Another
brother languished as a prisoner of war in Russia, not returning home until
1949, I learned from the German department for the notification of next of kin.
The sister and her bridegroom had lived in Canada for five years, returning to
Germany in 1937 because she was homesick. They were bombed out of their homes
and lived in their former offices, temporarily fixed up as a residence. Before
the war, they employed about one hundred men, but in 1947, had fewer than
forty-five, with no coal, electricity, or raw materials to work with.
My imagination took over. The family, not the newlyweds,
came to Wisconsin. Because a critiquer scorned someone returning to Hitler’s
Germany due to homesickness, I gave them a more compelling reason when I
rewrote the story. The grandfather had died and the father had to return to
take over the factory, much to the daughters’ dismay, who loved their new life
in America.
They did not support Hitler. Because their factory had to
produce armaments and meet quotas imposed on them, they had no choice in
accepting Eastern European forced laborers, Russian POWs, and Italian military
internees.
Maybe the family did support Hitler. Many did before
realizing his true colors. My version probably doesn’t come close to the truth,
especially concerning the daughter, my main character. The real daughter was
twelve years old in 1947. No matter. This is fiction, and this is a family I
can be proud of.
SUMMARY OF Friends
and Enemies, an historical with a touch of
romance.
World War II rages across Europe, particularly in
Germany, claiming the life of Heidi Wetzel’s husband. In a bid to escape her
grief and the frequent bombings of German cities, Heidi and her sister flee
Hagen to a farm in the German countryside, where they help care for orphaned
children. While there, Heidi comes across an American airman, Paul, with whom
she spent time when her family was living in Milwaukee during her high school
years. When Paul’s plane is shot down over Germany, his only thought is survival—until
he hears God’s voice guiding him to his late wife’s friend.
MEET TERRI WANGARD
Terri Wangard’s first Girl Scout badge
was the Writer. These days she is writing historical fiction, and won the 2013
Writers on the Storm contest and 2013 First Impressions, as well as being a
2012 Genesis finalist. Holder of a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s
degree in library science, she lives in Wisconsin. Her research included going
for a ride in a WWII B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. Classic Boating
Magazine, a family business since 1984, keeps her occupied as an associate
editor.
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