By JEFFREY SMITH
Leader staff writer
Jacksonville resident Ursula Czichon was a little girl when her family fled to western Germany as the Russian army advanced into eastern Germany toward the end of the Second World War in early 1945.
Czichon, 78, with her sister, Magda Kubis, 81, talked about their experience during a Sertoma Club meeting at the Jacksonville Museum of Military History last Wednesday. Czichon, who married an American service member, has lived in Arkansas for almost 60 years.
Czichon was 5, and Kubis was 8, living in Bolko in eastern Germany (now Bolkow in southwestern Poland). Their family still had a chance to get out of eastern Germany to escape the Red Army if they could reach relatives in western Germany.
In January 1945, Czichon, Kubis, their 1-year-old sister, their mother and her mom’s 70-year-old parents packed what they could carry on their backs and began their 400-mile, five-month trek west to their uncle’s home in Hungen, Germany, 50 miles south of Frankfurt, arriving in May.
“We literally walked away from everything,” Czichon said.
Their father was drafted in 1945 as the Nazi regime was collapsing. He was later captured by the Russians and sent to Siberia. He was athletic and tried to escape twice but failed. He was one of the last prisoners of war released in 1949 because he could speak Russian and was used as an interpreter. After his release, he was 100 percent disabled and lived to be 71.
“When walking, we always walked close to the woods because bombs were falling. We had to run and hide, lying down on the ground. We let everything go by and then got up again and traveled a little bit farther. It was a slow walk,” Czichon said.
“We got rides on hay wagons, sometimes on a train wherever we could catch a ride, because we were among many others. There were flatbed cars. People climbed on and lay down close together. I remember one night on the train, we lay very still. A lot of railroad tracks were already bombed. The train went over one area, and we felt the tracks give a little bit. We hoped and prayed we made it through that particular area,” she said.
“On the journey we slept where people took us in, hay barns, on straw in schools. The hygiene was terrible. My sister got lice and had to get it treated. She received the wrong medicine, and it burned her. I had boils on my head and had to have my hair shaved off. I wore a bonnet for three month until my hair grew back,” Czichon said.
Four weeks before arriving at their uncle’s house, they were in Bavaria. People people there let the family sleep in hay barns and go into the fields and find something to eat.
“That’s where my little sister passed away. She didn’t have any milk, medicine and she had pneumonia. We had to bury her there. That was pretty hard,” Czichon said.
“People exchanged jewelry for food. We were malnourished. My grandfather gave his food to us during the trip. When we got to Hungen, he was put to bed right away. A week later, he died,” she said.
Their uncle was on the police force and had nice housing. He took care of them until they got an apartment of their own. Their grandmother lived for five more years.
Czichon came to the U.S. in 1958. She was 17 years old and married a service man. “I love it here. This is home and am very proud to be an American,” Czichon said.
She worked 20 years with Barnes Security as a security guard, later training armed guards. Czichon lived in Jacksonville for 18 years with her daughter, Pat, and her husband, Gary Green. Czichon has three children.
Kubis, who lives in Bottrop, Germany, is visiting her sister this month.
She was a homemaker and worked as a city recreation administrator. She has four children. She was married 54 years until her husband died three years ago.
