Living with a concentration camp survivor

one year later, amputation, hospitalization, artificial leg

2011-05-04T13:53:00.000-07:00

Cannot believe it has been 1 year since my last post.

So much happened last year. My husband Horst was in 4 different hospitals for 5 months with a total of about 4 months actually in the hospital.

He had cellulitus in his right leg from his knee downward. He went to the VA Hospital in Columbia, SC & stayed for 18 days. After he got out he ended up in the ER several times & was admitted to Lexington Hospital where he stayed several wks. Then he went to Palmetto Richland Memorial where he went into the hyperberic machine for about 14 times with hopes his foot would heal up. It never healed so he ended up back in the Lexington Hospital where his toe was amputated because of negligence at the VA. They left a rubber toe ring around his toe next to big toe & that caused an infection. He ended up having that 2nd toe removed, then the 3rd toe as well as part of his foot twice, losing about 1/3 of his foot. That never healed so on July 29, 2010 he had his leg amputated halfway below his knee. He was 75 1/2 at the time.

It was very traumatic for all of us. We thought the private doctors could save his leg, but even after all their trying & time, the could not because of poor circulation.

After leaving Lexington Hospital (the 2nd time) he was admitted to Health South Hospital where he stayed 2 weeks to get therapy.

He got a motorized wheelchair a few months ago & is trying to get insurance to pay for a motorized lift so he can take it with him. We bought a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan so he will be able to take his wheelchair with him to the malls or other places so he can get out & be able to move around.

He is going tomorrow morning to VA to get driver's education for handicapped. They will see if he is able to drive with hand controls. If so they may pay for them to be installed in the van.

It has been a strain on me as I have to drive him every place like to most of his appointments, stores etc. He wants to go all the time. My daughter also drives him a lot. It leaves us little time for anything we would like to do like going to a certain store or visiting someone. We are so worn out from taking care of him all day, cooking, serving him food, drinks, coffee, tea, juice, etc. Also keeping up with his laundry, helping him shower & dress, getting things for him, etc.

At least he is living, but it is not easy as I am old also. Turned 71 in Dec.

He got an artificial leg from the VA & they gave him therapy to walk with it. He does pretty well & usually uses a walker. If he does not have to go far he can use a cane.

We all certainly need God's promised blessings from his kingdom which Revalation 21:3,4 tell us that the tent of God will be with mankind & they will be his people. God will wipe out every tear from their eyes, & sickness & death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry or pain be any more, the former things have passed away. Also Isa. 33:24 says that no resident will say I am sick.

Our twins will be 45 May 8th. They were born on Sunday Mother's Day. We do not celebrate birthdays, but I think it is neat that they were born exactly 21 years to the day that my husband Horst was released from the concentration camp May 8, 1945.

We have 7 daughters as I have said before & 8 grands, 5 boys & 3 girls & one great granddaughter who was 2 in November.

2009-05-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

We got safely back from the beach yesterday afternoon. We went back to daughter's place in morning & after lunch came back to Columbia. It was ok about half way then we kept hitting rain squalls so couldn't drive fast. There was a lot of traffic as people were slowing up.

We had a nice restful vacation for a week. I cooked one breakfast & spaghetti for one lunch. The rest of the week our son-in-law & daughter cooked. Big meals! I gained about 10 lbs. I told them, especially son-in-law that they did not have a vacation as they were working most of the time.

He said he enjoyed doing it.

They had some friends & cousin & her husband over a few days. So we had a house full of people.

We got to see pelicans fly right in front of us when we were sitting on the front porch looking toward the ocean. Then when you went to the beach you could see them diving for fish.

We also got to see dolphins & got a lot of seashells.

Our a/c is now fixed. It is cool today, only in 60s. Tomorrow supposed to be in 70s, then low 80s. So we are glad it is fixed.

My daughter bought me a cane as I have been having some trouble walking, especially on stairs. When I get back every body at Kingdom Hall are going to ask me if I got hurt on vacation.

It is just that old "arthur" & old age as I will be 70 in Dec. Probably my last trip to beach in this system until I get young again!

I sat on chair on beach & waded in water. It was warm, about 75 degrees. Could not lie on beach or sit down as I would not be able to get up again.

Old age is a bummer! Thankfully the scriptures tell us it will not last forever. Isaiah 33:24 says "No resident will say I am sick!" What a joyous time that will be!

liberation day anniversary, twins' birth, beach vacation

2009-05-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

Well today is May 8 & it is the anniversary of my husband's liberation from the concentration camp 64 years ago when he was 10.

It is also the day in 1966 our identical twins Dawn & Denise were born. We do not celebrate birthdays because they are rooted in pagan beliefs. But they are healthy & 43 years old today.

They were the first babies born on that day in Bergen County NJ. They were born at 12:03 & 12:10 am. I told the doctor I thought I was having twins, but he said no. Also when I went into the hospital they checked the babie's heart beat & I asked how many? The dr. said just one. I looked like I had swollowed 2 watermelon. Besides that I felt like I had a kangaroo in my stomach as they were so active.

I went to the hospital while my neighbor was having me a baby shower, so I did not get to go to my shower.

The doctor's nurse who delivered them told me when I went back to him that you kept telling the doctor you were having twins.

Also the nurses at hospital said they thought I was having twins even though the doctor there said one baby.

When I went to visit my brother-in-law when he was in the hospital & I was 6 mos. pregnant the nurses said mam you are on the wrong floor, the maternity ward is .....lol.

The twins were born about 4 wks. early as they were due June 1 or 2, but that is usual for twins. They weighed 5 lb. 2 oz. & 5 lb. 1 oz. After 10 days in isolation we took them home at 5 lb. & 4 lb. 15 oz, like 2 sacks of sugar & their heads the size of oranges!

At that time you could not go into isolation or ICU or whatever they called it. You had to look at your babies through the glass like everyone else.

They suppose to be 5 1/2 lb. before they were released. After 10 days my husband told the nurse to get his babies ready to go home. She said she could not without the dr.'s authorization. My husband said then the dr. can pay for them after today. She came back & said we could take them home.

A similiar thing happened in NJ with my next baby Kelly, daughter no. 5. She weighed 9 lb. 12 oz. It was hard to imagine she was a newborn as she looked about 3 mos. old after having the twins. She & I were going to be released on Sunday. The hospital demanded a $1000 bank check before releasing us. My husband said how can I get you a bank check on Sunday? He said if you don't let my wife & baby go I will bring you my other 4 children her for you to watch as I have to go to work tomorrow. They released us.

Sometimes it pays to speak up & be forceful!

My first daughter Susan (Susie) was born here in the same hospital in Columbia, SC that I was born in. She was born April 27, 1961. She weighed about 7 lb. All the rest besides the twins weighed 9 lb. or more. We are going to the beach for a week with her & husband & 2 teenage boys tomorrow.

She was a beautiful baby as all my daughters were. The nurses said she was so beautiful that she would probably be "Miss America". The baby nurse that took care of her also took care of me after I was born.

My relatives all said she was beautiful also. She still is, & especially so the way she acts.

We are going to Edisto Beach which is below Charleston (near where they live) down about an hour's drive from where daughter lives, toward Beaufort & Savannah, Ga.

I have never been there, but they got a nice private beach house that has 4 bedrooms on the oceanfront. It is not commercialized there as it is in Myrtle Beach & further north. Only has about 1 store & gas station & mostly private houses, only 2 rows.

The beach should not be crowded & they say you can find a lot of shells.

Will write more after we come back of how it was.

Liberation Day

2009-03-20T18:42:00.000-07:00

I wanted to add what I learned about my husband's incarceration in Terezin or Thersienstadt Concentration Camp in Czechozlovakia. It is NW of Prague. In 1780 Joseph II named the town Terezin after his mother Maria Teresia. The German's called it Thersienstadt which means Teresa state.

It first served as a fortress to protect Prague & later as a prison. The assassin of Archduke Ferdinand & wife, which led to WWI was imprisoned there.

Hitler claimed he had built a city for the Jews to protect them from the war, but in actuality turned the ghetto city into a concentration camp. The people living there were very poor & had little running water & what they had was not sanitary. Also there was little electricity. Hitler pretended he was going to have town fixed up & deported Jews there to do the job. They were in reality building their own concentration camp. He later moved the inhabitants out of the town.

Terezin became one of the most notorious camps. It did not have a crematory at first but after so many deaths they built one. It did not have gas chambers until almost end of war, but never used. Auswitzch did & most of the prisoners from Terezin were sent there to be gassed & cremated.

At first they buried the thousands who died in Terezin, but as the cemeteries got full they would cremate the dead & dump ashes in a nearby river.

It is estimated (according to different sources) that the number of prisoners who were in or went through Terezin was 140,000 to 200,000. Of this number some 17,000 survived. Between 15,000-18,000 children went through Terezin, 132 survived, less than 1%. Some estimates say only 97 children survived.

The Nazis kept meticulous records but when they knew they were losing the war they began burning records sorta like Enron did, when they shredded documents.

On May 3, 1945 the Germans forced 87,000 through Terezin & on to the east on a death march. They were told they were being led to safety but most were brutaly murdered or tortured to death. Many more dying of starvation, disease, etc. Only a few thousand survived.

The Soviet (Russian) Army was advancing so that is why this was done. The prisoners were taken from Auswitzch & Ravensbruch (women's camp) & other concentration camps.

If not for a few days most of the 87,000 would have survived.

Gas chambers were built shortly before the war's end. The German soldier in charge pretended they were not working as he knew Russians were advancing. This spared the remainders lives.

On May 8, 1945 the Russians liberated Terezin. Only 400 remained including my husband & parents & his friend & her mother.

Two German factions were arguing what to do with the remainder of prisoners. One group wanted to send them on death march also. Other group did not as they thought it would not look good if Russians had no one to liberate.

Before they could decide the Red Cross stepped in & Russians liberated camp May 8, May Day in Russia.

Twenty one years later on May 8, 1966 our identical twins Dawn & Denise were born. We already had 2 other daughters Susan 5 & Sherill 3.

Since then we had 3 more daughters. We have 8 grands, the oldest will be 24 next month was the first boy in my husband's (Rosenthal's) family in over 50 yrs. My husband was the only child of his father Rudi Rosenthal. His mother was previously married & had 4 sons from that marriage. So he was youngest of her 5 sons. She had no daughters, we have no sons.

We have 5 grandsons, 3 granddaughters & 1 great granddaughter. None of these would have been born if my husband had not survived.

Germans in Confederacy

2009-02-16T09:36:00.000-08:00

It is interesting that Germans fought not only in WWI & II but also in the Civil War or War Between the States in US.

Both sides had paid soldiers, I believe as well as spies. I told my husband that is the reason the Confederates lost because they could not understand the Germans when they asked which way did the Yankees, go, lol.

My 2nd great grandfather Jacob Haysmith Hydrick from Orangeburg County, SC was a Major in the Confederate Army. He at one time was stationed in Columbia, the capitol & center of SC & my home town. He was 43 at that time.

He & his first wife, my gr. gr. grandmother Margaret Hildebrand had 8 children including twin girls, like we have. The twins names were Mary & Martha. One dying at 12, we think of Typhoid fever. Margaret died at 57 & Major Hydrick married a woman 43 1/2 years younger than himself & younger than all his children. They had 6 children.

Margaret Hildebrand Hydrick's two brothers Andrew Jackson Hildebrand & Daniel Leonard Hildebrand were surgeons in the Confederate Army. They too survived the war.

I am interested in family history.

Korea, Japan, cook, large family, 38th parrallel, Waldorf-Astoria, New York City, New York

2009-02-09T15:21:00.000-08:00

My husband didn't tell me much of his experience in Korea. This is about all I know. He said they shipped out of the state of Washington for Korea aboard a huge transport vessel. On the way over they went through a typhoon.

He said most of the soldiers were seasick but he slept through it in his hammock as he was used to a ship rocking a little when he came over to America as a displaced person from Germany.

His older brother, like I said before, was in the actual Korean conflict. My husband was not, being there 1956-58.

I told him he must have had it easy. He said no because they calculated about a 3-4 million Chinese troops across the 38th parallel & they could come over any time. The Americans had about 2 divisions, only a few thousand soldiers. The 8th Army division was in Japan, but would not have been able to get there in time if the enemy came across. The General said if they did come across to expect more than 90% casualties.

My husband was a cook & cooked for the officers, including the General. When the General was hungry they sent for him in the General staff car to fix him something to eat.

He was an apprentice chef at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City before being drafted.

Now he very rarely cooks!!!Lol. When you have a big family of 9 like we had, & many times including feeding some of the neighbors & extended family, I would peel 5 lb. of potatoes for a meal.

He tells me the reason he doesn't cook much now is when he was in the army he had kps to do most of the work & all he had to do was tell them what to do & supervise. Nothing much has changed!!

Before the 5th cavalry that he was in arrived the Chinese/N. Koreans came across & there were many casualties.

I told my husband, but you were the cook, so they wouldn't get you. Oh, yes, he said they did before, killing the cooks & others & hanging some from trees.

Several times when he was there they got false reports that whom they called "Joe Chink" came across borders & several soldiers killed themselves. They never came across when my husband was there, but I am sure it was very nerve racking.

He said the area he saw of Korea, the people were very poor.

He went to Japan also & said some sections the people were poor, but many sections they had nice homes & gardens & the people were very clean.

Korean war, German army

2009-02-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

My husband's mother could have avoided the concentration camp if she had divorced her husband who was Jewish. She chose not to & went into camp with her husband & youngest son. She had 2 older sons by a previous marriage who were fighting for Hitler. The oldest was in the German Vermoth or army & was repeatedly sent to the front lines as were other soldiers who had Jewish relatives.

He was in a fox hole & buried by a tank, but his comrades dug him out. He was able to get to one of the last planes that left when the Russians came in at end of war. He was shot at & wounded escaping & had to climb over a stone wall, falling & knocking many of his teeth out. Although he survived this terrible ordeal he was shell shocked & shook must of the time even decades later. He is now deceased.

The middle brother was in the Hitler youth & had no home, so had to live on the street or anywhere he could find shelter.

He & older brother would go to authorities & appeal to them about their parents & younger brother. This may have delayed for a while their execution, but at end they would have been executed anyway if war had not ended.

The middle brother served in the US Army in Korea & saw combat.

My husband was also drafted into the army in 1958. He had papers from German doctors saying he was 30% disabled from his concentration camp ordeal but they took him anyway & sent him to Korea also.

Welcome

2009-02-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

This is a blog about marrying a concentration camp survivor & our marriage & raising a large family.

He was in a concentration camp during WWII with parents. They were freed at end of the war when he was 10 years old. He had open tb & of course was skin & bone & only weighed 50 lbs.

After being freed from concentration camp his family came to New York City.

I will tell you later about my experiences we've had in raising our family & dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which doctors said he has from concentration camp.