Dancing Under the Red Star (15 page)

Margaret (soon after her release) and Elisabeth, Russia, 1955

Newly wed Margaret and Günter Tobien, Inta, 1955

Margaret and Karl (four months old), Inta, 1956

Günter, Inta, November 1956

Karl, Hanover, Germany, September 1959

Karlie and Grandma Elisabeth, coming home! SS Statendam, 1961

Margaret’s West German passport

Margaret (still an acrobat at age 53) Orlando, Florida, 1974

Karl and Günter, father-son reunion, Cincinnati, 1995

Margaret Werner Tobien, Cincinnati, 1996: “My life has come full circle.”

Letter from Walter Reuther, January 8, 1969

Walter Reuther’s skates: “Call me when you come back home, and we’ll go skating.”

Eight

POTATOES AND PRAYERS

I
n the terrible first winter of the war, Mama took an authorized two-week vacation from her job at the clinic. She walked almost ten miles to a kolkhoz that needed immediate help with potato harvesting since all the men had been drafted into the war. There was no time to spare; the potatoes needed to be taken from the ground to prevent rotting. The crop was very important, because many people were starving to death. Potatoes were a major staple, and we needed them desperately ourselves. The deal was this: first fill three sacks of potatoes for the kolkhoz, and then the fourth one is yours.