Lest We Forget. This is

Transcription

1 Lest We Forget. This is worth remembering How God watched over our family and carried us, as on wings of eagles, from Communist Oppression to the Free World of North America! How My Father Left the Russian Front Line during the Second World War in 1944 by Werner Gerber My father was drafted into the German army to fight in the Second World War. This left my mother in charge with five children and a gardening business to look after. One day in late 1943 she drafted a letter asking for her husband to come home from the war. She went to our pastor and asked if he would type it for her. He told her that it would be of no use since Hitler issued a decree that no one, for any reason whatsoever, would be allowed to be discharged from the war. So she told her pastor that she would send it off in her own handwriting. At that the pastor was embarrassed and thus offered to type the letter, which she promptly mailed to the military headquarters. Some weeks passed and she did not hear anything. So she went by train to Dresden to enquire about her request. The guard at Headquarters asked her what she wanted, so she told him that she wanted to talk to a specific General to enquire about a letter she sent to him. She was instructed that she could not see him as he was occupied with the war. So she replied, I ll just wait here in the lobby until he is perhaps not so busy and can spare a minute for me. In the late afternoon the Commander upstairs got curious what that lady down in the lobby wanted from him and ordered her to see him. She just asked if he received her letter and would like to know what the response is. He acknowledged receipt of her letter but confirmed Hitler s decree that no one is allowed to be discharged from the war effort. So my mother thanked him politely and left with a heavy heart to return to her family. A few weeks later she had a dream, in which she saw a bouquet of blue violets. Now my mother was not given to dreams, but she contemplated what she saw and here is her interpretation of the dream: Violets bloom in May, in May my husband will come back from the war. Indeed he came back in May! After all the years, since 1944, I still remember the day. I was on an errand to take a parcel to the post office for my mother, when a soldier came up the road toward me, it was my dad. What a day that was! Now here is another story that needs to be told. My dad was close to the Black Sea when his superior officer told him that he received a telegram with instructions to discharge Mr. Gerber from the war. His superior told him that he would like to go home as well, and wanted to know how he had managed such an impossibility. My dad told him that he had nothing to do with it except pray and trust God that he would see his family again. Then he was told that the train tracks had been destroyed by the enemy and he would have to rely on his feet as his only mode of transport. So off he went in a westerly direction with his knapsack and gun. When night approached he asked for lodging at a farm. Now he could not speak Russian and the farmer could not speak German. He was invited in to stay for the night. They could have shot him dead, or they could have been afraid that he would shoot them. My dad offered them some medication and ointment, so they got along. Now in those times a typical farmhouse had a large masonry oven in the centre with a chimney through the roof. All the family, parents, grandparents, children and others slept on top of the oven and the animals kept warm surrounding the oven below. In the morning my dad somehow managed to get the farmer to give him a day s journey with his horse and mud sled or wagon until he could reach another friendly farmhouse. Three days this was repeated until he finally got to a train connection taking him back to Germany. Now this all did not just happen. God was watching over him. I well remember as a six to eight year old boy when we observed family devotions after supper. We all knelt as a family and prayed our hearts out to protect our dad and bring him home safely. Now as a kid our attention span was pretty short and until it was our turn to pray we studied the various forms of the chair, etc., but God knew what was in our heart. My parents and grandparents were godly people. I still can hear my grandparents sing a hymn after lunch time devotions, although my grandfather could not hold a tune. My grandfather took us children along on Sunday afternoons to distribute Christian weeklies to outlying village farms. He was always well received. What a heritage is ours! God is, indeed, our refuge and strength, and a very present help in trouble. To Him be all the glory and honour and praise. He is our heavenly Father what a privilege to be his child! Page 1

2 How I Escaped Communist East Germany in 1954 by Werner Gerber My father told me when I was 18 years old that he read propaganda in the newspaper of how freedom-loving the government is and encouraged me to see if I can get a passport to leave East Germany and go to the West without getting shot to death crossing the border. So I went to the police and asked to apply for a passport. The officer told me that there is no way for me to get a passport to leave East Germany. So I thanked him and went home. The next morning at 7 o clock, three secret service men were at my home interrogating me for three hours, asking me why I want to leave the country. I told them over and over again that I want to see the world as my grandparents and parents had. After three hours I was so frustrated that I shook their hands and bid them good-bye, telling them that I can t tell them anything else and told them that I would pick up my passport the next morning. They were quite taken by surprise by my audacity. So the next day I went to the police again. The same police officer asked me what I wanted. So I told him that I had come to pick up my passport. Then he asked my name and inserted a piece of paper about 4 x 11 inches in his old typewriter and asked my name again and where I intended to go. I told him. So he typed the following: Werner Gerber hereby granted permission to leave and go to Bielefeld, Westfalen, West Germany. He took the piece of paper out of his typewriter, scribbled his signature on it and stamped it, then threw it across his enormous desk and said, Here is your passport. Now, this was a piece of paper anybody could have forged. I thanked him and showed it to my parents. We discussed it briefly, prayed about it, and my parents wished me well with God s blessings. So I packed a suitcase with a change of clothing, and the next morning I kissed my parents and went to the train not knowing if I would ever see them again in this earthly life. When the train stopped at the border a policeman with a gun and a Russian soldier with a bayonet entered the train collecting all the passports and told the passengers to go outside behind a plywood hoarding where they were strip-searched for contraband stuff. When the police officer and the Russian soldier came to me, they both looked at my piece of paper, and lo and behold, they told me that I could stay on the train. Wow - was I ever relieved! After about an hour or so the passengers came back in, but not all. Whoever was detained was probably sent to a labour camp. When the train crossed the border and I realized that I was in West Germany, I felt like I had been born again. Now, some may say I was lucky, or I just got away with it, or it was fate. But no, that s not how it was. God was watching over me. To Him be all the glory! How my family got out of Communist Germany is another story. How My Family Escaped Communist East Germany in 1956 by Werner Gerber My parents wanted to leave Communist Germany. As they had four acres of land and a small gardening business, the government started expropriating all small farms and made one big government Kolchose (a Soviet-style collective farm) out of them. This would have been heartbreaking, so they went to the police and asked for visitors visas to visit West Germany. The officer asked why they wanted to visit West Germany. It so happened that a few years prior, my grandparents had their golden wedding anniversary and the relatives came from the west to celebrate with them. Now my parents were having their silver wedding anniversary and they wanted to reciprocate the visit of their relatives and celebrate with them in West Germany. The police officer told them that the quota for visitors visas is full and he cannot issue any more. Then he asked who wanted to go. There were the following: my parents, my father s father, my mother s mother and three of my teenage brothers. Then the officer asked for their names. As he asked for their names, he said aloud, I cannot issue any more visas as the quota is full. But he nevertheless issued the passports for all seven persons! Now, these were proper documents with photos, seals, seals and signatures, not just a piece of paper. So early one Sunday morning they left all behind, never to return. My parents were considered capitalists in our small town because they were industrious, having four acres of land, two cows, a few sheep and goats, a pig or two, some chickens and a few geese. And then they had six very small greenhouses. Their operation supplied the folks with vegetables, flowers, shrubs and fruit trees from their nursery. They left it all to gain freedom from Communist oppression. That the police officer issued the passports in spite of the quota being filled was indeed a miracle, not luck or good fortune. My sister and her husband traveled by train to Berlin and crossed over in the west sector on the S-Bahn that circulated though the four sectors of occupied Berlin. This was all God s engineering and watching over them. To God be all the glory and praise! Page 2

3 This is my story. Jesus, the Son of God, has redeemed me and purchased my salvation by shedding His blood for my sin and transgression when He died on a cruel cross. However, He rose again after three days to live forevermore in all eternity, sitting at the right hand of God making intercession for those who have put their trust in Him. Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This is pretty exclusive. There is no other way He is the way to God and Heaven. I did not earn salvation and eternal life because of any merit of my own. All my righteousness is like filthy rags in God s sight. But Jesus Christ became my righteousness. ~1942 SISTER ANN HOLDING BERNIE WITH HERBERT LOOKING ON; OMA EMMA WITH WERNER IN FRONT; OPA ROBERT HOLDING KLAUS IN FRONT OF OUR HOME IN SCHNEEBERG He loved me and went after me in spite of my sin and waywardness. Jesus, in love, ransomed me, healed me, restored me, forgiven me. I ll praise His name forever because He is my Saviour, my King, my High Priest. Oh what will it be when I see Him face to face in Heaven someday? That will be glory for me! Dear Friend, I pray as you read this that you would take some time and consider your eternal destiny. Confess and repent and trust in God our Saviour with all your heart. I hope that in due time we will meet again in Heaven when the flicker of the flame of our short earthly lives is blown out. ~1946 BROTHER, HERBERT (TALLER) & ME TENDING COWS IN OUR FIELD Put your trust in Jesus, our only Hope and Saviour. This I pray for you to do, Werner ~1940 FATHER WITH WERNER ON SHOULDERS & BROTHER HERBERT ALONGSIDE A NEARBY POND AM NEUEN TEICH ~1946 PARENTS HERBERT & MARIA GERBER WITH (L-R) GERHARD, FRIEDER, BERNIE, KLAUS, WERNER, HERBERT, ANN IN FRONT OF OUR HOME Page 3

4 ~1947 FUN IN THE YARD WITH MY BROTHERS: KLAUS RIDING A GOAT, WERNER LEADING THE COW WITH BERNIE BESIDE, HERBERT ON THE FAR RIGHT... WITH OUR FATHER IN THE BACKGROUND, BEHIND KLAUS ~1950 OUR GRANDPARENTS EMMA & ROBERT GERBER ON THEIR GOLDEN 50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY WITH NEIGHBOUR S HOUSE IN BACKGROUND ~1948 GRANDFATHER ROBERT, GERHARD, OMA EMMA & FRIEDER WITH HERBERT, KLAUS, WERNER, ANN & BERNIE ~1955 FATHER, HERBERT GERBER (ON THE RIGHT) WORKING IN THE HOTBEDS IN SCHNEEBERG WITH WERNER ON THE LEFT ~1950 MY GRANDPARENTS' GOLDEN 50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY: EMMA & ROBERT GERBER, SEATED; GERHARD, SIEBER GIRL, FRIEDER IN FRONT; 1 ST ROW STANDING: ESTHER SIEBER, ELIAS SIEBER (MAYOR OF SCHNEEBERG, MARRIED TO TANTE LIESBETH), KLAUS, OUR FATHER HERBERT, PIA (A COUSIN), WERNER, BERNIE, BROTHER HERBERT; 2 ND ROW: TANTE LIESBETH, OUR MOTHER MARIA, WERNER SIEBER & HIS WIFE HANNA, ANN, OUR MOTHER'S MOTHER ROSA THALACKER... IN FRONT OF OUR HOME Page 4

5 The clock of time is wound but once and no man has the power to tell just when the hand will stop; at late or early hour. To loose one s wealth is sad indeed. To loose one s health is more. To loose one s soul is such a loss that no man can restore. Jesus said, For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and loose his soul. Mark 8:36 Think on these things. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23 Page 5