Missing The Boat: War Stories of Thomas Alan Dirkin

38 The bad news was that the river was slowly eroding the position that the timber fell into, immediately following the impact. The random nature of the river’s current created a life and death game of pick- a-stick. For his peers, water ended their lives as they were slowly crushed by shifting timbers. For my father, the river’s dance happened to loosen the configuration of logs that had held him tight. He eventually wriggled free. Once again, it seemed to me, that “lady luck” had favored my father. The Women In Upper Silesia the population was seventy percent Polish speaking and thirty percent German speaking. In conversations with my father and from letters that I have read, he was helped, by a German woman called Elfride Gron. My father, in a solemn respectful tone, stressed to me the great risk that this woman had taken in helping him. He also stressed, it was not a romantic interlude. I think towards the end of the war she offered him food or kindness. After the war, my father corresponded with Frau Gron. That moment in time that their paths crossed was clearly cherished by my father. I have read the letters that Frau Gron wrote, which appeared quite formal. This formality may have been a language issue. My father, in one of his letters to Elfride Gron, also mentioned a young women Anna Losert. Frau Losert help my father get away from the Gestapo. He said he was indebted to Frau Grosert for saving his life. (See letter to Elfride Gron, page4 in the Appendix). I do not think I have any real facts to understand how my father felt, but he clearly felt strongly about the humanity of these two women. Fundamentally, I believe people are good and act with compassion. Of course this was not the case with ardent followers of Hitler or those Germans who believed they were actually superior. The relationships with these women appear to have been built on the basis of compassion, which led to respect and thankfulness in the eyes of my father. Conflict is not black and white, or an all or nothing construct. People remain human.