My maternal grandfather Ernst Gerson (Opa), a German Jew
living in Hamburg, was called up to fight for Germany in WWI.
In October 1916
he received three shots through his legs and was taken prisoner of war by the
Russians near the river Stochod in Volhynia during an unsuccessful gas attack.
He
was then sent to work in a gold mine in Siberia. After a few months of trying
to work in appalling conditions, with inadequate clothing and no pay, Opa and
some of the other prisoners realised they had to get away from the mine before
winter set in or they would die.
Opa wrote letters to the Swedish Consul
begging for help to get the men out of the mine. When the mine managers found
out about this they arrested Opa and took him away to be punished.
By this time
Russia was in a state of complete chaos as the Red and White Armies engaged in
civil war after the 1917 Revolution.
Eventually Opa escaped and made his way
back to Germany on foot and by horse and cart and train. He endured constant
deprivation, extreme hunger and cold, typhus and constant danger but after 2
years he eventually arrived back home in Germany where his fiancée, my
grandmother Barbara, was waiting for him. Of course, later when Hitler came to
power, the fact that Opa had fought for Germany counted for nothing and he and
his family were forced to flee Germany.
~ Sally Rawnsley
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