[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Germans drafted in Russian Army

[draperpe at msu.edu]

My grandfather, Emil Pekrul, immigrated to Lansing, MI from Russian Poland in 1910 to avoid the draft.  His future father-in-law, Julius Getz, had served in the Russo-Japanese War, and had walked home after discharge, a LONG walk, following the Bsur river for part of the journey, and eventually reaching his farm in Michowice, Poland. A grandson raised on the Michowice farm, Michael Getz (Gotz), was conscripted into the Russian army during WWII as a 17 year old, and later immigrated to Canada with his family.  His Dad (Julius' son) had died in prison earlier during the war, caught helping his Jewish neighbors get into the Warsaw ghetto, thought of as a safe haven early in the war.  Michael's mother nearly died in a work camp, and expressed gratitude to an American soldier, for helping nurse her back to health upon release.  She was living with a German couple when a German soldier stopped by and asked her for a meal and if he could spend the night.  She was on her way to ask the home-owner, when she realized that it was her son, now an adult, who had found her.

Considering their experiences and hardships, one of millions of stories, I feel truly blessed and lucky to have been raised in the US post-World War II (knock on wood).

Penny Draper