From The Inside, Looking Out!
My mom was born in West Prussia in 1937. West Prussia was a little piece of land surrounded by Poland and beside the Baltic Sea that seemed to be the center of struggle that turned into the beginnings of World War II. After Germany had lost World War l, the Treaty of Versailles required Germany to cede West Prussia to the newly reconstructed state of Poland. Danzig, an ethnically German city inside of West Prussia became a "free city" under the protection of the League of Nations, which meant that Germans that lived there were free to live there as German citizens, or at least something like that.
Similar to what seems to be going on in Israel and Jerusalem, at least in my humble opinion, the back and forth fighting over who controlled what, exploded into a world wide event. Inside, at the center, were a lot of innocent people that were born at the wrong place and at the wrong time. My mother was one of them.
From the inside, looking out, or from the outside looking in, sometimes it's hard to divide the truth from reality. But there is truth. Jesus said it. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
The Germans and the Poles worked together and played together. My grandfather had two Polish men that worked for him on his farm and they looked after my grandmother until she had to flee from the war.
But when Power and Control raised their ugly heads, the higher powers and parties of the time, led the people on the outside to lead the people on the inside, to think that they despised each other. “Love your neighbor as yourself” was thrown out of the door.
My grandfather was a horseman. As part of the Nazi’s riding club, he proudly rode his beautiful horses in the parades at Danzig. Danzig was such a little part of our planet, but from inside the main country of Germany, it seemed to be a great starting point that could change the world.
The pride that was squelched in World War l, raised its head.
The Germans took control over Poland and along with that took back their control over West Prussia. After winning there, they backstabbed Russia. There's a lot more to it than that, but from the inside out, and maybe even from the outside in, it looked like they would take over the world.
As the tide turned, the Russians came back with a vengeance. What Germany did to the Jews was horrific, to say the least. But what the Russians did to the Germans, was possibly even worse, if such a thing is possible. The intentional atrocities against women and children were so sickening that they mostly have been left unwritten.
From the inside, looking out, no one in Danzig even knew. Everyone seemed sure that Germany was winning. They only knew what they were allowed to know.
But then news started to leak and fear started to rise. From the inside out it looked like people needed to flee. As the people fled into the freezing landscape, they escaped past my grandparents' farm. Some stayed for the night and some warmed and fed themselves, and then rushed on. Some were buried in the yard. With my grandfather gone to the war zone, my grandmother loved and cared for them the best that she knew how. Because it was winter, they didn't flee. Somewhere, from deep inside, my Grandmother knew “the way” and what was best.
In April they fled. The Russians were really close. Their Polish farmhands saw them off. They fled to the sea. But the ship they intended to get on filled up with people. As it headed out to sea it was torpedoed and sunk. From the outside looking in, it looks like a miracle to us. The families of those on the ship, not so much.
The little boat that they got on was shot and though some lives were lost, my mother and grandmother and my mother's siblings all survived. From the outside looking in, it feels like a miracle. For the others, not so much.
The family made it to Denmark and lived in a passel of different refugee camps. There was death all around them but they all survived. Eventually they made their way to Espelkamp, which was a little spot in Germany that had once been a munitions bunker. It was so well camouflaged that it hadn't been destroyed in the war, and so the greater powers at the time decided to turn it into a town for returning German refugees. It was there that my mother found Jesus. From deep inside, it made all of the difference to her.
It's also where my Dad was working with the PAX unit during his three year stint in Germany. My parents were married there. From the outside looking in, it would be easy to say that the rest is history.
But there's more to the story. My father's family was of the Conservative Mennonite cloth. And so when Mom married my dad and moved to America, it meant a lot of change was in store, with one of them being to take on the garb of the conservative branch of Mennonites. From the outside looking in, a lot of things didn't make a lot of sense to my mom, or, for that matter, from the inside looking out. People are people. And people often try to bend the rules as far as possible, and it was no different with the conservatives. It wasn't the rules or the dress or the ethnicity that kept people modest and peaceful but their hearts. The one thing that was taught and made sense to my mom, was the “Jesus way.”
My mom did a great job of trying to fit into the culture and the church. She didn't do so well with teaching us kids. But the one thing that made sense to her, she really taught us well. That was the “Jesus way”. It starts with recognizing that we're not always right, forgiving and being forgiven.
Following someone who says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”, doesn't make a lot of sense if you're on the outside looking in. But from deep down inside, if you give it a chance, you'll find it to be true.
Hope everyone on this earth gives it a try!
You can find my mom's story on Amazon. It's called A Place for Ruth by Gertrude Slabach.
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