Gertrud Harten & her 3 Children | Courtesy of Karin Harten
World War II Breaks Out
In August 1939, we received horrendous news from Germany. They talked of “war” and a desperate time began. Every night we listened to the radio and we simply didn’t want to believe that the situation would really break into a war. But, in fact, that happened. The Second World War broke out on September 1st 1939! Our dreams to travel to Germany every two years had to be postponed for an indefinite time. In all Ecuador, a psychotic ambience against Germans prevailed. We tried not to greet our Ecuadorean friends in order to prevent them from being put onto the Black List.
The first year of the war were relatively quiet for us, although we were, of course, terribly affected by the news from Germany and Europe. When in August 1940 Hitler declared the “Blitzkrieg” against Great Britain, our anguish increased tremendously. We could not believe that Great Britain would not counterattack. And we were right.
It became impossible to send any money to Germany. The contact with our home country was of great importance to us. Wolfgang always sent money to his father who was supposed to build a house for us to which we could retire one day. Mail between Ecuador and Germany took increasingly more time. Due to the war, it was impossible to send mail directly. In July 1940, a Japanese steam vessel took our letters first to Japan and from there to Germany, after crossing Siberia. When would it arrive? A lot of letters got lost… As an example, a letter sent from Hamburg on October 25th 1940 reached us in January 1941 only. Keeping contact with our families, became increasingly difficult and we were full of anxiety. Finally, in September 1941 we received a lot of letters from Germany. They had been on their way for an incredibly long time. Some letters had been sent via New York and from there to Ecuador. But they contained the good news that both our families were alright.
In August 1941, I found out, shocked, that I was pregnant. Our second child would be born in April 1942. On one hand, we were very happy; on the other we were very preoccupied since we did not know what would become of us in the future and, especially, what would happen to German citizens in Ecuador.
On September 15th 1941 Ecuadorean officials, accompanied by police, knocked at our door. They had the order to search our department looking for clandestine radio equipment, which, of course, they did not find. We had only one “normal” radio with which we could hear news from Germany. But they were looking for spies…
In Manta, the place we lived, there were a few persons spying on us, but most of our Ecuadorean friends stayed firmly at our side. They helped us as much as possible and, which was more important, they supported us morally.
Suddenly one bad news followed the other: all Germans in Ecuador were put on the Black List with the exception of Wolfgang. Why? Did they overlook him because his behavior was always so tranquil and everybody liked him? Ecuador sided with the United States. Lists were published of all the Germans who would be deported, but our names were not on them. Therefore, Wolfgang was named vice-president of the company where he worked in order to try to save what he could.
In March 1942, I felt very bad, I shivered, although the temperatures were very high. Unfortunately, our doctor was in the United States. Therefore, Wolfgang had contracted a German nurse who should be at my side during birth. But she was also on the Black List and had to leave Ecuador together with all the others.
Wolfgang had to leave Manta to go to Guayaquil on business matters. He was terribly preoccupied and said goodbye to me. And I was in great fear of what might happen to him. I didn’t want him to go away. On April 4th 1942 at 9 p.m. he embarked on a small vessel which would take him to Guayaquil. At my side was only a young German girlfriend who would also leave as soon as deportation took place.
That night, again, I felt a terrible chill and, simultaneously, a terrible heat.
I woke up on Sunday April 5th (it was Easter Sunday) with a terrible headache and all my body was hurting. I tried to prepare something for lunch in the kitchen, when suddenly everything went black around me and I fell down. Somehow I could drag myself to my bed. When my young friend came back from a stroll with Alke, she found me with high fever. At 7:30 p.m. the birth pains started and I don’t remember anything about it, not when my baby was born and nothing about the days after his birth. When I woke up several days later, they told me that I had suffered under the worse malaria which one could have! People who were not prepared for an event like that and terribly frightened had burned my feet with hot water bottles and shaved my head to put ice on it, in order to bring down the fever. Thank God our doctor returned in time to save my life!
But also, that passed. I had to stay 6 weeks in a wheelchair since me feet had third degree burns and I had to spend several months without hair, using a turban.
Wolfgang, when arriving in Guayaquil, received a telegram informing him about my grave health situation. He decided to leave everything and to return to my side “as soon as possible.” One has to remember that at that time, to travel from Guayaquil to Manta “as soon as possible” was to take a coastal vessel which needed about 28 hours to make the trip. When finally, Wolfgang arrived at my side, the worse had passed and he could take his baby in his arms. Wolfgang was very happy about his son who really had chosen the worst possible time to come to this world, embroiled in a terrible war.
A War of Nerves
The date was December 23rd, 1943, and it was 5 p.m. I will never forget that day or that hour. Wolfgang had walked downtown to Cuenca in order to do some shopping. Suddenly a military vehicle stopped in front of our door; I held my breath. Two American soldiers, holding rifles, had come looking for Wolfgang. I begged them to please give us a little more time in order to be able to pack his luggage, to please come back in an hour. Thank God they agreed. Terrified, I saw in the vehicle a couple of our German friends. I rushed to pack Wolfgang’s bag. When he finally came, we only had a few minutes left and there were so many things to be clarified. Then the Military Police came and picked Wolfgang up. Suddenly I felt an enormous emptiness. They had taken away my Wolfgang and I stayed behind alone with my three small children (Translator’s note: I had been born only on November 16th that year).
On Christmas Eve, they allowed us to visit our husbands in the Police Station. We had intensive talks in order to decide what to do. Women and children would stay on in Cuenca until receiving further news from our husbands. We promised that we would not move without their authorization.
Next day they had taken them to an unknown place. Later we heard that the American Government had decided to detain German citizens living in South and Central America since before the war in order to exchange them with American Prisoners of War.
Since the Ecuadorean Government was going to give us only 1000 sucres per month per family, some of the women decided to move together in order to be able to make ends meet. From that moment on, there were four mothers, ten children and eight employees in our farm. Our beautiful home had become a small madhouse!
An incredibly hard time started. I couldn’t count on Wolfgang’s loving support and had to deal alone with all problems. All the time, one of the children was sick. At the end of January, Wolf became very ill with gastro-intestinal disease. The doctors in Cuenca couldn’t help and advised me to travel to Guayaquil with him. However, since I was German, I was not allowed to travel by plane. An Ecuadorean friend bought a ticket and went through the passenger door with Wolf in her arms. Hidden, I could pass the barrier with Karin in my arms. I couldn’t leave her in Cuenca, since I was still breastfeeding her. After passing the barrier, I took my Wolf in the other arm and boarded the plane. Upon arrival in Guayaquil police was already waiting for me, but, as the doctors in Cuenca had informed the clinic in Guayaquil by telegram about Wolf’s gravity, an ambulance was waiting for me and brought us to the clinic. There I was allowed to stay with my little ones. The attending doctor negotiated with the authorities that from then onwards I should be allowed to travel by national airlines since my three children were Ecuadoreans.
A few days later, one of the ladies staying in the farm in Cuenca with me, brought Alke who was suffering with a very bad bronchitis. Thus, all my three children were staying with me in the clinic. For several days, Wolf struggled between life and death. When Wolf overcame the crisis, Alke’s tonsils were taken out. And all this happened only four weeks after Wolfgang had been taken away!
After the children’s recuperation, we were allowed to travel by plane back to Cuenca. Upon arrival, I was told that a telegram of the Ecuadorean government had been received in which they informed us that at the end of February a ship was coming which would take us to where our husbands were staying. We were paralyzed. We hadn’t heard anything from our husbands and my two daughters and my son still required a lot of care. A change in Wolf’s diet would be a great danger. Besides, we had agreed with our husbands that we would await their letters. So, we decided to stay in Cuenca.
At the end of March many letters arrived from a Detention Camp in the United States. All of them had only one message: “Come as soon as possible. We will be taken to an Internment Camp for families in Texas.” Before receiving these letters, disastrous news had reached us. One of them, published in Ecuadorean newspapers, said that Wolfgang had been shot for being a spy. But I simply would not believe that and I had been right. My Wolfgang was still alive! I felt an enormous gratitude.
In April, we were informed that a ship was going to come in the beginning of May. So, we closed our farm in Cuenca, leaving so many things behind, since only 25 kilos per person were permitted on the trip. I left all valuable items I had brought from Manta in the good hands of our best Ecuadorean friends in Cuenca. In those very hard and difficult times I could always count on the help of our Ecuadorean friends.
We returned to Guayaquil and, also there, we stayed with good Ecuadorean friends. The ship which arrived in the beginning of May was full, so we continued waiting. A “war of nerves” started for us. In June, the arrival of another ship was announced, but also this one was full. The same happened with a ship announced for August. The time of waiting was interminable and demoralizing. The children came down with measles and Karin was very sick. At the end of September, we heard that a ship would come in the beginning of October and we would be able to travel with it. I was determined to board that vessel – maybe it would be the last opportunity to join Wolfgang. Although Wolf and Karin were still weak, I bought enough powdered milk and medicine for the trip. We were taken to Salinas, a small port on the Pacific Ocean, where we were put into a small hotel.
Next morning, from our hotel room, we saw a huge American war vessel named “Johnson”. At last our day of departure, October 9th 1944.
But what then happened to us was unbelievable. They took us to the ship’s infirmary where they examined us and “allowed” us to travel. They took away from me the milk and medicine I had brought for the children. 156 women and 47 children, Japanese and German, were taken to the hatchways where we had to sleep in hammocks which hung one above the other. We were allowed to go on deck only 2 hours per day in order to get fresh air. And during the crossing of the Panama Canal not even that! Still to this day, I feel indignation when thinking of that trip.
Karin became dangerously ill with gastro-intestinal disease, I was not given any medicine. She almost died. Many hours I spent beside the hammock where my little one was lying, burning with fever. Her lips were dry and her eyes glassy. Continually I put absorbent cotton, sucked up with mineral water, to her lips. A good friend helped me with the nursing, enabling me to sleep from time to time. She and her children, who were older than mine, took care of Alke and Wolf. I prayed and prayed that, upon arrival in New Orleans, I could deliver my little daughter into her father’s arms.
Crystal City: Behind Walls and Barbed Wire
Finally, in the beginning of November 1944, at 4 a.m., they took us out of our hammocks: we had reached New Orleans. The first thing the American authorities did to us was to “clean” us, putting us into hot water and disinfecting us using DDT! They did not consider Karin’s grave health situation at all. During our trip on the American warship “Johnson”, Karin became very ill with gastroenteritis and almost died in the course of our trip. I was exhausted from the long trip, taking care of Karin all the time, without proper medicine and possibilities to nurse her. Both of us fainted for a long time.
When we recuperated, we were taken to an elegant “Pullman” wagon. We felt like being in heaven and, suddenly, Wolfgang was standing in front of us. They had allowed all husbands to travel to New Orleans to pick up their families.
After ten long months of separation we were finally together again. I had missed Wolfgang so much and I had worried terribly about him! I felt so relieved to have him back in my arms. Very frightened, Wolfgang looked at his little Karin, whom, thank God, I could deliver alive into his arms. But she was more dead than alive. Wolf recognized his father and when Wolfgang took some sweets from his pockets, he immediately attached to him. Alke ran into his arms and didn’t want to leave her father ever again.
The first thing Wolfgang told me was that already in August he had received news from Germany. All our families had so far survived the war, although they had lost everything due to the heavy bombing which took place in Hamburg at the end of July 1943. Before these, the last letters we had received from Germany were dated December 1941, meaning three interminable years. In that moment, I felt an immense gratitude and relief.
We enjoyed our trip on the Pullman wagon until reaching Crystal City, although we were terribly worried about Karin. She was still comatose.
Right after reaching the train station of Crystal City, we were taken to the Internment Camp which was outside of the town. The Camp itself was a small city surrounded by walls and barbed wire. The first thing we did was to take Karin to a doctor who thankfully could heal her after a couple of weeks.
Afterwards all German internees came to greet us since they had been in the Camp already for some time. Wolfgang took us to our small bungalow.
In the Camp, German and Japanese internees lived in separate sections. Although there were no physical limits between the two groups, there was no interaction. Everything was separated: schools, communal centers and the shops. The homes consisted in double and triple unities, with common bathrooms and toilets outside. For big families like ours (three children and their parents) there were bungalows with their own bathrooms and kitchens in the inside. We were so lucky that we got one of those units, comfortable and good. Everything was small, but we had everything we needed to live. I can confirm that during our stay we were very well-treated by the American officials.
There was a German school in the camp, which Alke attended, and a kindergarten, to which Wolf went daily. There was food in abundance as well as clothing for the whole family. Wolfgang worked at a workshop and he was paid for his work. Thus, we were able to buy our food. Medical assistance was excellent. After Karin’s recuperation, I had surgery on my feet which were burned due to the Malaria fever I had during Wolf’s birth. Their recovery was complete.
Cultural activities in the Camp were manifold: there were theater performances, concerts and cabaret. Adults’ education took place in English and Spanish lessons, which I made use of. There was a cinema and a library. We played cards and I was so happy to be able to play bridge again, a game I have loved almost all my life. Sometimes there were devastating hurricanes. At times, it seemed that the bungalows would be pulled out of their rudimentary foundations. I suffered under the insupportable heat from April until October, reaching over 100 degrees. We did not lack anything, but we missed our freedom and our beloved family in Germany. They were suffering from hunger and were dying of the cold. Wolfgang had already exchanged letters with the family in Germany and on 6th November 1944 he could write to them the good news that the family was together again.
Wolfgang told me what happened to him during our separation: after he departed from Cuenca in December 1943: the men were taken to Guayaquil and from there by ship to Panama, where they put them into a miserable camp for prisoners of war in a place called “Culebra Cut”. They had to work like slaves, under terrible heat and deprivations. They were not treated badly, but they didn’t own adequate clothing and the food was terrible. They stayed in that hell over 3 months before they were taken to New Orleans. The trip there was horrible! Normally it took two and a half days to travel by ship from Panama to New Orleans, but the ship was under terrible conditions: 250 Germans and 250 Japanese men had to travel in a convoy and in zigzag. Four of them had to share a hammock for sleeping, and several hammocks hung one above the other. The toilets were in terrible conditions and they were allowed only 15 minutes on deck daily. They were tremendously relieved when they finally reached New Orleans. From there they were taken to an Internment Camp in Kenedy, Texas, where the situation was similar to that in Crystal City. They were not forced to work and received 30 dollars a month. In the Camp, they could buy the New York Times so that they were informed about the situation in Germany.
The Crystal City Camp was a paradise for the children. When Karin recovered from her illness, she walked hand-in-hand with her brother Wolf to the kindergarten. There was no danger, since there was no car traffic. Only the guards walked through the Camp and were Wolf’s great friends. For the children, people outside the walls and barbed wired were the “prisoners.”
We were anxious to be exchanged and daily prayed for it. But days, months and years passed and we could not return to Germany. In January 1945, a list with names of hostages was published who had been chosen to be exchanged for American prisoners of war. Our names were not on the list. Suddenly the atmosphere in the Camp became full of hatred and misgivings. Families from Paraguay, Bolivia and other South American nations kept coming.
On 25th April, Wolf and Karin were baptized by a Lutheran pastor in the Camp. Alke had been baptized immediately after her birth in Guayaquil.
When, finally, World War II ended on May 8th 1945, everybody who had sufficient financial means to pay for their trip could leave the Camp. The rest, like us, had to stay in the Camp waiting for what destiny had in store for them. On July 1st 1945, I wrote in my diary:
We are still in the Camp in Texas, behind walls and barbed wire. After the terrible ending of the War we ask daily, what will become of us? To return to our beloved home country, which is not ours anymore, which is completely destroyed and in which everybody is suffering under terrible conditions, would be awful. May God save us from such a destiny!
Summer and autumn passed in that terrible heat, and besides all, we were hoping to be able to return to Germany. We were desperate to see our loved ones again. In January 1946, I noticed that I was pregnant. Another shock, since our situation was still uncertain. At the end of March, we heard that the Camp was going to be closed in a couple of weeks and that our trip was going to be paid for. We could decide whether we wanted to travel to Germany or to the country where we had stayed before the war. Since in the meantime we had been in contact with our families, we knew that the situation in Germany was terrible. There was no housing and no jobs, Hamburg had been largely destroyed. Therefore, we decided to return to Ecuador.
In May, we were taken from the Camp in Crystal City to a part of New Orleans called Algiers. There was an American Navy Base with a jail for prisoners of war, where we were taken. Once again we were behind barbed wire. We were desperate, food and lodgings were miserable.
We stayed three weeks in that prison and only a few times were we allowed to go to New Orleans. But when we could do that, it was wonderful. Once we took the children to the zoo, another time we saw the great Mississippi, where big and impressive paddle steamers were crossing.
When news came that Ecuador was willing to receive Germans who had lived there before the War and had been in Internment Camps, we were terribly happy. On 29th May 1946 at 8 a.m. we were taken to the airport. We were very excited, but they had us waiting several hours in the airport. When, at last, at 3 p.m. we boarded the airplane, they immediately informed us that we had to disembark again because the plane was damaged. Hours later we left and after a 7-hour flight we reached Panama.
And what happened there was unconceivable! Right away they separated Wolfgang from us and we were not allowed to approach him; we were kept under surveillance, under armed guard, even when we were eating and sleeping. We lost all hope to return to Ecuador within a short time. We had to eat and sleep separated from our husbands. Only at 7 p.m. we were allowed to go near the barbed wire to talk 20 minutes with them. The children asked me whether war had started again. After 8 interminable days, we were informed that we could travel to Ecuador and that we had only been “under quarantine!” But why had they separated us from our husbands? We were never told.
During transportation to the airport, we were accompanied by soldiers. Even at the airport, we could not move freely. There was always at least one soldier at our side. Finally, we boarded the plane and we landed approx. 3 hours later in Guayaquil. It was July 1946, more than a year after World War II had ended.
Translation of a Letter written on April 4th, 1945 by my mother,
Gertrud Harten
Alien Detention Station
Crystal City, Texas
USA
To her father
Albert Ahlers, Calbe a. d. Milde
Adolf-Hitler-Straße 15
Deutschland
Dear parents and siblings!
We hope that by now you will have received our personal news through our friends, who were exchanged in January on the GRIPSHOLM.
We had felt so sure that we would have a further possibility to be exchanged. Now it is April and we are still here. When will this abominable war end? Our thoughts are filled with terrible anxiety about you and we miss you all so much. We pray that we will be able to meet again in good health. How much will have changed by then?
We are so happy that in your last letter dated December 12th 1944 we could read that you are alright. Inge (translator’s note: my mother’s younger sister) and her two little daughters will make you very happy.
Our three children are growing up quickly and are doing fine. Murkel (translator’s note: my brother Wolf’s nickname) will celebrate his 3rd birthday tomorrow. Karin walks and babbles funnily. Alke brought home good school grades. To bear this cruel time is made easier by rejoicing in the children. But we will hold fast to our belief that better times will come someday.
Please stay healthy and hopefully everything will be alright again.
Loving regards from Wolfgang and the little ones and from your
Trudel