Elvera Reuer’s Publicity Archives . 02
The Journal . New Ulm, Minnesota . 04 13 86
Elvera Reuer American by Choice
by Amy Jo Brandel
"I am very happy to be living in this beautiful country called the United States of America. You probably have to go through an experience like I went through to appreciate America," said Elvera Ziebart Reuer. "I learned early in life what freedom was."
Reuer now lives in Aberdeen, South Dakota with her American-born, German husband. Her flight to freedom began in 1940 at the age of 10 in Bessarabia, now southern Russia. The terror ended nine years later as she and her family landed on Manhattan Island, New York.
"We could not believe it was true—that we had arrived at our dreamland of America. The Statue of Liberty to me was like the Lord was standing there. We went on our knees and thanked Him that we could finally live in peace," she said.
Not until 1977 did she find the inner strength to tell her story to others. Her narrative is recounted in a book entitled The Last Bridge. At the Dr. Martin Luther College auditorium on Tuesday evening, Reuer recalled her painful steps leading to freedom.
"The Lord moved me to write this book to tell the American people," she said. "Some people don't realize how important freedom is. In Russia a gathering like this would be impossible. Only in America can we express our feelings. I get very upset by people who run this country down."
Her great-grandfather, a parochial school teacher, left Germany in 1865 following the call of Catherine the Great to settle in Bessarabia. "In Germany they had no freedom of speech or religion and Catherine the Great promised that to them," she said.
In 1940, the re-established Bessarabian Germans were told to leave. Adolf Hitler made a pact with Russia and they were traded for wheat. Russian leader Josef Stalin wanted the food and Hitler the young men.
When the Russians invaded Reuer's village that same year, she was 10 years old. They raided homes and molested the women and girls. Churches were destroyed and the bells melted into bullets. Her widowed mother hid her eldest sisters in the chimney, away from the soldiers.
Hitler offered the Bessarabian Germans land in Germany. The family's choices were few—if they did not leave, the men would be taken to Siberia and the women abused. "We felt we would rather be with German people than with Russians." she said.
They left with few belongings. Her mother baked large bread loaves in which money, jewelry and other valuables were hidden.
The family, along with 93,000 other displaced Germans, fled from the advancing Russian troops. They were loaded into trucks, freighters and cattle cars as they moved deeper inside Nazi-controlled Germany. The move began nearly four years of life in refugee camps. "They had barracks there and they bedded us down like sardines," she said. "They fed us potato soup, which our mother would skim the worms off of. She knew we would have nothing to eat until the next day and that it would probably be worse. She said, "Oh children, that's nothing. Just eat it."
She recalls the air raids, the fear, the second-class citizen treatment from the native Germans. The young men were drafted and the women made to work in ammunition factories. "This is why Hitler wanted us. He wanted young strong men to fight the war," said Reuer.
On Christmas Eve, they had strict government instructions: "You can have church services but you are not to mention Jesus Christ as your Savior. We do not pray to Jews." The young people were sent to Hitler Youth meetings.
"In the spring of 1942, the big news came that Hitler would settle us in our new home. What Hitler had in mind was to settle all of Poland with Germans from Russia," she said. "Poland was all run down because it had just gone through a war. Those poor Polish people got chased off their farms and sent to prison camps."
The family arrived at their promised farm—a battered Polish farmstead. The son whose parents had operated the farm remained but his family had been sent to a concentration camp."
Reuer's mother then demonstrated "the courage of 20 men put together. She demanded the SS to bring the young man's parents back. He ordered us off the wagon but mother would not move. She said, 'I will not get off this wagon until you give me your German word to bring his parents back. I wonder what Hitler is going to say if he knew you could not handle a woman' Of course he could not swallow that. And two weeks later they (the parents) came back."
In January 1945, the Russians were again near and they had to evacuate. "In two hours' time we were ready to travel," she said. "We wanted to outrun the Russians. My mother said that no Russian was going to put a hand on her girls. Her goal was to keep us away from the Russians. All she wanted was to live in peace."
At the Oder River, her mother again demonstrated courage. As the Germans prepared to blow up the bridge to stop the advancing Russians, "hundreds and hundreds of wagons waited to cross the river," she said.
"The Germans stood there with their bayonets and would not let us cross. Mother drove up in front of them and said, 'If you are not going to move I'll run you over and she hit Julius (the horse) with the whip.'"
Seven wagons made it across—the eighth blew up as the bridge collapsed. Their crossing was followed by Russian machine gun fire and screams from women and children being slaughtered. They began traveling only at night to avoid the low flying planes. They progressed through fighting zones. They muddied their faces so Russian soldiers would find them unattractive.
On May 1945, they entered an American Zone. "It was like a miracle. It was like driving into heaven," she said.
For three more years, the family lived in a one-room apartment, waiting to come to America. Reuer and her family found sponsorship from relatives in South Dakota. On December 28, 1949, Reuer, her mother, a brother and a sister stepped on American soil.
Reuer is proud that she can vote, worship, and speak freely. She is even prouder of the fact that she is "an American by choice." [END ]
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