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Genes and Environment
We are who we are because of two things: our genetic makeup and how and where we grew up. The jury is still out as to what is more important to our formation but what we do now is that both have large influences upon our lives ...
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| Comments (2) |
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From
To
| 01/01/1920
12/31/1937 | |
Babyhood and later escapades
I was born in my parents' apartment over their store and tailoring business at 54 Königsberger Straße in downtown Elbing. Both were rentals. I have the faintest recollections about this place and sometimes wonder if its from ...
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| Comments (18) |
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From
To
| 12/01/1937
01/21/1945 | |
School life
I should add that I have absolutely no memories of school during this time frame. I probably attended Kindergarten at 6 and then started first grade in my 7th year but with the bombing of the city I doubt that there was ...
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From
To
| 12/01/1937
01/21/1945 | |
How often did I die?
The train.I am trying to write only facts here. No embellishments, no fictionalization, just what I remember. I have read other accounts of people in my position who write about all the details of their surroundings. They ...
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| Comments (2) |
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From
To
| 01/21/1945
12/31/1945 | |
Early Years after WWII
1946 We met up with my aunt Erna and her two children Traute & Erwin in Berlin. Let me step back a minute to 1945: they had tried to leave Elbing a day after us because Uncle Fritz still had to finish his shift at the ...
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| Comments (5) |
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From
To
| 01/01/1946
11/20/1948 | |
a new Beginning
Release from POW campThe occasionally permitted postal card came from my father, as per Geneva Convention rules, with every possible space filled in tiny, tiny print. It was planned that when the time came to be released, ...
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| Comments (3) |
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From
To
| 01/01/1948
03/31/1949 | |
Learning about America
I'm a refugee boy.My father's parents were now gone. There was no money for a family burial plot and my grandparents were buried in the plot of the Hämmerer family to which my grandmother belonged to by birth. I also ...
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From
To
| 04/01/1949
03/04/1952 | |
The Ocean Crossing
The trip. The time period involved here is only 11 days.
Yet, these were eventful days whose experiences are with me to this day. There were a lot of firsts. By nature I'm off immediately exploring the boat from top ...
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| Comments (4) |
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From
To
| 03/04/1952
03/15/1952 | |
The fist few weeks in a new world
So this is AmericaWe were docked at one of the many slips at the foot of Manhattan and were picked up by Bruno Mayer-Rosa who was the husband of yet another Ellerkamp boyhood neighbor named Paula. I think they lived in a ...
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| Comments (1) |
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From
To
| 03/15/1952
04/15/1952 | |
It's a series of events
See the chapters in chronological order of newest first below.
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From
To
| 12/01/1937
08/21/2008 | |
My bike, my way around Philly
Life on 3rd St ends
My paper route was doing well and I paid for the bike in rapid succession, week after week.
My mom was not making much money in the store and my dad got sick from the chemicals in the cleaning plant. ...
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| Comments (5) |
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From
To
| 01/01/1952
12/31/1956 | |
Freshman year
Teenage life - freshmen year.
Life on Lawrence St had me learn the language and made me an American kid of German ancestry. I did what other kids did. I learned to speak fluently enough to get along with everybody.
As ...
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| Comments (4) |
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From
To
| 06/01/1952
09/15/1953 | |
The rest of the high school years
1953
Ok, I had a car before I had a license and my travels were somewhat restricted until I received my full permit. As every male knows, the process of receiving a driver's license is like the right of admission to manhood. ...
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| Comments (2) |
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From
To
| 09/01/1953
06/15/1956 | |
Background as written by me
Dad was a master tailor. Schneidermeister in German. At 14 or 15 it was normal for young men to enter an apprenticeship for three or four years to learn a trade. They would then advance to the level of journeyman and were required ...
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| Comments (1) |
My Father's life dream |
From
To
| 01/01/1971
10/08/1976 | |