This is a true story of my Oma, Emilie (Kary) Schmalz, on her journey to America. Her life began in a small Ukrainian village by the name of Kary. The village was named after her great-grandfather Michael Kary, who was the first generation born in the Ukraine.
     Before moving to the village Kary, Michael lived in the city of Landau, Ukraine. After living there for quite some time in the village of Landau land became scarce, especially with a man who was raising five sons and four daughters.  Michael and his five sons decided to move and buy five-thousand acres of land from a Polish nobleman. The land was 7 kilometers from the Bug river and had very tough soil at first but was black and rich underneath the crust. By the year 1905 the five sons built six large houses for themselves and their father, quickly shaping the village Kary.
     By 1944 there were twenty-five homes in all, mostly smaller in size, because of the 1917 Revolution. Things went from bad to worse during these times because all the land was confiscated in 1921.The Germans occupied the UK in 1941 and then retreated in 1944, so my Grandmother and her family started to head west to get away from the communists. Most people of German descent went along with the wagon train toward the West. My Grandmother Emilie was seven years old at the time and was looking forward to the trip. She soon discovered that the trip toward the west was nothing she expected. For months they were on the road where food quickly became scarce. Her mother, Katharina Kary, would make a fire each night and make a tortilla type food which was made up of flour, salt, and water.  They would call this food Gorscheky. Through their long journey they traveled through Moldavia, Romania, and parts of Hungary and from there they headed to Poland on a train. This train was not just any train but an animal train, so conditions were still slim to nothing. When they arrived in Poland, my Oma’s  mother Katharina became very ill because during their journey she gave birth to her sixth child.
     When they arrived in Poland, they all got their first set of clothes, since leaving the Ukraine. Their pictures were taken and they were given German citizenship because at that time the Germans  ruled Poland. Life then resumed some what normal for the Kary family for about 2-3 months while their father Adam was sent to war.
     Soon things quickly turned for the worse when their town was air raided. They were unaware of who did the bombing but my Grandmother clearly remembers the extreme chaos that the town endured. Her brothers and sister were full of fear while screams filled the streets. They once again ran to the trains to flee west discovering throughout their trip that the rails had been bombed.  A few months later they arrived in the town of  Klosterlechfeld, Bavaria where a distant cousin of the family lived. At that time my Grandmother and her sister Kathy had there first bath, which was exciting for them. They stayed for a week in Klosterlechfeld, but soon were put on some passenger train 80 kilometers away to Rummeltshausen, Algau. The family was assigned to stay in this town and live with a rich farmer. The next day my Oma’s mother Katharina went to the Burgerweister for work while  the children sat inside the room and waited for her. The rich farmer walked into the room and started screaming at the children telling them he hated having them there and would rather have his house bombed. When Katharina came back into the room, the children told her what the farmer had said to them. The man’s mean words and screaming caused Katharina to sit and cry. She then took the kids and went out to the streets of  Rummeltshausen. A neighbor came out and asked Katharina what all the commotion was about, so she quickly explained. The lady, also a refugee from North Germany, was furious with what the man had said. So she marched straight to the Farmers house and really gave him a piece of her mind on how rude he had been. When she was finished  yelling at him, she took my Grandmother, Emilie and her sister into her house for the night. The next day the neighbor lady took Katharina to look for a house. They found a lady whose husband had not returned from the war and offered to work for her if they could stay in her home. So they lived there for awhile milking cows and doing other house hold chores for the lady. During the war my Oma’s father Adam was injured during the war and spent sometime in the hospital until he could work again.  After his release from the English Occupations he started to work on a farm in North Germany. Then on the nineteenth of November 1945, Adam found them through the Red Cross.  The whole family was so happy and finally at ease that their father had finally returned from the war.  My great-grand father, Adam and great-grandmother, Katharina were used to doing hard labor so they decided to raise pigs to sell for money and to help feed the family. They were also able to enjoy for the first time in a while the taste of homemade smoked sausage, schwartemache (head cheese), and leberwurst.  All the children helped out by tending the cows and doing whatever chores needed to be done. At that time my Oma was nine and remembers being very afraid of the cows and having nightmares about them, but knew she needed to take care of them so she could eat. Then in 1948 Adam wrote a letter to his cousins in Canada asking  if they were willing to sponsor them to come over. The cousin’s response was not what they wished for. Unfortunately they could not sponsor them because they were in serious debt at that time. Adam also applied to live in the United States but they wanted families with boys and in their family the three oldest were all girls.
     In February of 1952, Katharina and Adam had company one afternoon when the woman visiting told them she could predict their future. She raised up the ring looked at Katharina and said, “I can predict your future.” All eyes were on the ring as it dangled back and forth on the chain while the lady told them that they would receive good news very soon. Strangely, two weeks later, a letter arrived from the American Consulate saying they wanted to take another look at the family.  Adam had previously applied for a carpentry job, not mentioning that he was a farmer. They said they needed farmers and that they would take them, so by May 3^rd the family left for the US.
     My Oma, Emilie says her journey to America was hard but very exciting compared to eight years earlier. Fifty-three years later she is still very grateful to live in America and has loved living her life here.