Opa Weekly

One of the gifts Jason and I gave to my family is a book bound (2 volumes, actually) collection of letters that my Grandfather (Opa) wrote to my Grandmother during their courtship and first years of marriage. When we moved my Grandmother from Virginia to Florida, we found this box full of handwritten and typed personal letters. Jason and I snatched the envelope that contained the letters from Opa to Grandmother and began the process of scanning them for preservation. As we began to read them and realize the timing and nature of the letters- we knew they needed to be put together and we used blurb.com to make the books. The books are AWESOME. SO- because it takes a long enough time to scan letters, Jason did not let me read them (for efficiency's sake). This means that Jason scanned most of the letters while I sat and read a handful. Now that we have the books- I'm reading them and unfolding the beautiful and crazy time that was America in the 1940s during World War 2, specifically in the life of a German refugee (Opa), and a Kansas farm girl (Grandmother).

As a fun element to this blog, I want to start posting some of the letters for your enjoyment- hopefully on a weekly basis.

You'll need a little background information before we get started. Here is a shortened version... Opa, my Grandfather, was a German boy born and raised in Berlin, Germany as Thomas Walter Doeppner. His mother was Jewish and his father agnostic at best. His parents divorced when Opa was growing up. His father and mother were not supporters of Hitler and his regime for obvious reasons. However, growing up in Berlin had its disadvantages for a German boy against the growing political power. Opa would arrive at school exceedingly early to avoid having to give the "heil Hitler" salute at the gate. He was forced as a school boy to be the front and center audience for multiple parades and political rallies. Opa could see Hitler parading on main street under his apartment window. I remember when I was in middle school, Opa told me that the worse thing you could say to a person is that they were like Hitler. When Hitler won his election and grew in power, spreading propoganda and censoring dissenters, Opa's father moved to Switzerland. Opa's father, August, was an editor of a newspaper and obviously was not writing the correct news. Opa and his sister remained at home with his mother. The war started and things began to be more and more dangerous. From what Opa told me, I think that the sweeping of the Jews from their homes was a little less obvious and blatant than what we might think. I don't think people realized just how very dangerous things were until it was too late. Opa's older sister had left the country for work before it became difficult to cross the borders. Then Opa learned that he was drafted into Hitler's army. He knew he would not serve, but how he was going to escape was an entirely different story. The (extremely) short version is that his father paid to have him smuggled out of Germany and he eventually landed in the United States on a student visa to go to Kansas State University. He embarked on the last ship to make it across the Atlantic before the war was over (he switched tickets with a businessman to try to make it to school on time). After reading some of his notes about his journey, and even the process he went through to become an American citizen- I am really shocked that I exist.

When Opa came to Kansas State, he was accepted and got tuition help because of a recommendation by some man named Albert Einstein, who made it a habit to help Jewish refugees...and luckily August had some connection to Einstein's secretary through the newspaper world. If I remember correctly, Opa's tuition help was provided with the conditions that he participate in the Wesleyan group (and abide by its moral code). This is where he met my Grandmother.

Grandmother grew up on a farm in Kansas and the youngest of 5 children, her older siblings all boys (and the one closest in age to her died not long after she was born). She was a princess in many ways, protected as the only girl and the precious child after the older brother died. Grandmother was in school and engaged to marry Archie, the literal "boy next door" when she met the mysterious German refugee. Something definitely clicked- and Grandmother's already festering doubts of her current engagement were somehow solidified as she broke off her engagement and began dating Opa.

Their story unfolds, unfortunately one-sided through Opa's letters- but it is FASCINATING and kind of a page turner. Which is not what you expect when reading letters between your Grandparents. The letters contain a mixture of young love, fighting hard to win the girl, political discussion, wondering about relatives in the war, following current events, finding employment, applying for visas and citizenship, sharp wit, movies, friendship, physics, philosophy, poetry, German and more.

Here is the first letter I will give you- a little love for your day. (beware- you're going to raise your expectations of your significant other after reading this love letter)