THE WAR OF MY PAST
By: Jolie Saka
PAST Dedication This is dedicated to my GreatGrandmother because she had to live through these rough times and I wanted to tell her story. I also want to thank my mom for sharing my Great Grandmothers story.
Table of content Page 16 Packet Page 79 Historical Narritive Page 10 Afterword Page 11 About the Author Page 12 Bibliography
The War Of My Past Dedicated to my Great Grandmother
My daughter, two sons, my husband and I lived in East Prussia, Königsberg (which used to be east by Lithuania). When the Russians came we needed to flee. My youngest son was 9 months old, my daughter was three and my oldest son was around six years old. We were a happy family living in Prussia when the war began. We quickly had to pack our most important belongings and try catching the nearest train going to Berlin. It was hard because I had to take care of all my children as my husband was responsible to lead all the people on January the 22nd to the last refugee train due to the fear of the Red Army within an evacuation plan. When all the people were on the train, it took off as if trying to escape the misery behind it. In bitter winter weather with 40°C we travelled hundreds of kilometers and many little children had died because of the cold. I was deeply worried that I could lose one of my kids, especially the baby. Due to all the stress I couldn't breast feed anymore and I prechewed old bread and gave it to the baby as food. Praying everyday that he will survive. The overcrowded train stopped and we heard shootings in the distance. People disembarked to look.
During that stop my husband also went out to check if it was safe enough to continue or better to stop. Everyone on the train waited for a countless while with feeling frightened and scared, but he never returned. We all decided to continue with the unsettling trip without him, thinking he was kidnapped or murdered. At one point the train couldn't continue anymore and we were forced to walk. I carried my little one and all our most important belongings with my two other children holding my hand. In the evenings we always tried to find any kind of shelter, either a bombed farm house or a ruin to be safe for the night. One night we were lucky and a farmer's wife could even provide us with hot soup and a dry place to sleep in a corner of her house. Suddenly we heard bomb alerts and sirens. Immediately some evil Russian soldiers entered the house. Completely in shock I hid my children and to distract the soldiers I got raped. After a while I saw that one of the scary Russians wore my husbands clothes that's when it dawned to me that there was no hope that he would ever return. No matter what happened during the nights I had to focus on getting my children on safe grounds. We kept on walking from morning till evening. We past bombed villages, burning houses, dead people on the side of the street covered in snow but I kept walking till we finally reached Berlin by the end of February. When we arrived in Berlin we were rushed to a refugee camp with many other refugees.
We tried to start a new episode of our life there. We connected to other families living in that area, I also reunited with some relatives. We then moved in with them and tried to start a life with them. We connected to other families living in that area, I also reunited with some relatives. We then moved in with them and tried to start a life with them. We felt upset and frightened. Not knowing what to expect or if we would survive. I had seen how cruel the Russians were, how they treated women. You have a baby, you're scared that possibly all your children won't survive. You have no food. It's tough. We had a very good life before we had to flee. We were rich. We had a silver fox farm. We made fur coats for a living. My husband used to travel to the US pretty often because we had a farm there too. My husband was the only man with a car in the whole area. But unfortunately we lost it all, we left everything behind. So then we had nothing.
Afterword In 1939 World War II began. This was because Hitler planned an unprovoked attack on Poland. Britain and France declared war against Germany after Hitler refused to stop his invasion. During the World War II there were 20,000 camps. Named concentration camps or refugee camps. Over 60 Million people died during the war. The Axis Powers were Germany, Japan and Italy and the Allies were Britain, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, the Soviet Union, China and the USA. World War II ended when the Axis Powers surrendered. This was on the 8th of May 1945.
About the Author Jolie Saka was born in Erding, Germany on the 11th of February 2004. She lived in Germany for four years and then moved to Istanbul, Turkey. She has lived there for eight years. Jolie is now 12 years old and she lives with her Mom, Dad and her older sister Nula. Jolie goes to an International school called IICS. She is in 7th grade.
Bibliography “Concentration Camps: How Many Camps?” How Many Concentration Camps?, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/holocaust/howm anycamps.html.
Saka, Jolie, and Stefanie Saka. “World War 2.” Online Military Education, 29 Oct. 2016, www.onlinemilitaryeducation.org/posts/10most devastatingbombingcampaignsofwwii/.
“World War II.” Britannica School, school.eb.co.uk/levels/intermediate/article/277798.