Refugee in search of a homeland

but with their three sons there wasn't too much space for me in the back, and so it was that I mostly rode with Onkel Rudolf and Tante Marie in their car.

The Forstmanns were also most hospitable to me. Their home and family was like my own home and family, and I spent wonderful days with them. Besides his full-time work as a buyer at Hardt Pocorny, Onkel Wilhelm also owned a timber yard in Mönchen Gladbach. While I was there, he offered my cousin Bernd a position with that firm, which he accepted. When Bernd came to visit me one day on his motor bike, he introduced me to his girl friend Ingrid Bardt. I had met her and her sister Daudi as a child in Zakopane, the ski resort in Poland. They were to be married in October of 1953.

While I stayed in Dahlhausen I had hoped I would hear from Kreglingers, the wool firm in Antwerp, about going to Australia for them. I had written to Tante Emma, Oma's sister in the USA, already in 1951 expressing my wish to go abroad, and Oma had written to her cousin, Onkel Albert, but until then I had heard nothing positive about it. The appointment with Mr. John Beaurang from Kreglinger's Sydney office had been fixed for 16 July 1952 in the hotel in Düsseldorf, where I met him together with a Mr. Denduits, from Kreglinger's Antwerp office. I had breakfast with them in one of the poshest hotels in Düsseldorf. I felt that this meeting would be a mere formality, as Onkel Albert Kreglinger had written to my parents in March 1952, that for the sake of Oma's memory he would pay my fare to Australia. However, the visit did not turn out as I had expected.

I felt I didn't have any problem with the English language, though Mr. Beaurang thought otherwise. He didn't tell me this to my face, though, but I heard through Tante Emma later on, that this is what he reported back. During our conversation, which was all in English, Mr. Beaurang asked me: "Do you know all the Australian government wool types?"

I had to admit, "No, but can't I learn those quickly?" He only smiled. That was obviously not good enough. He reported to Onkel Albert, that I did not know enough wool, and so he could not employ me in Sydney. Later I heard that he didn't really want to employ me anyway, as he had enough young people from France and Belgium, and he had his doubts how I as a German would fit in with the others. But he had to justify himself before Onkel Albert (and Tante Emma), who obviously had put some pressure on him on my behalf. After the interview he could report that he had tried, but that I wasn't good enough. This was quite a blow to my ego, and especially for my future plans. I really didn't want to go back to Bremen. I didn't like the place. I would have given anything to be posted to Sydney for Kreglinger's, but É it was not to be.

What could I do now? I thought I would write to Bremen first and find out from Frl. Meyer, the senior secretary of Herr Wunder, what the

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