Our aunt Dori — my Mutti’s (Nora’s) sister — took us in for the first few days. She lived on a farm; actually, it was more an estate, a complex with buildings and walls all around a large courtyard, and a tall solid gate like a fortress. There was a large garden; there were milkContinue reading “Katharina’s Story: Chapter 12 – A Refugee Family Settles in”
Category Archives: Writing
Katharina’s Story – Chapter 11: The Allied Occupation
The fact that the Podack family had arrived intact in Austria after leaving our comfortable life at Opa’s farm in Kalthof, arrests my attention to this very day. The credit for our survival goes largely to my mother, Nora Podack, who was brave enough and tenacious enough to take the risks necessary for our survival.Continue reading “Katharina’s Story – Chapter 11: The Allied Occupation”
Katharina’s Story – Chapter 10: Becoming Refugees
In that winter of 1944, an awareness began to steal over me that soon we would have to leave Opa’s farm in Kalthof. Yes, we could hear the grumbling of the Front, and at night, we could see the sky lit up by artillery fire over the horizon. The community was abuzz with talk ofContinue reading “Katharina’s Story – Chapter 10: Becoming Refugees”
Katharina’s Story: Chapter 9 – After the Air Raids – Summer’s End
I did not know at the time how dangerous it was to listen to the BBC… Kalthof. We are back, having moved in with Opa and Oma – August and Hedwig – after our apartment in Königsberg was destroyed. I am in fourth grade, again attending Falkschule as I did in the second grade whileContinue reading “Katharina’s Story: Chapter 9 – After the Air Raids – Summer’s End”
Chapter 4 — Mutti and Papa’s Early Years
Nora and Walter Nora’s plan was to become a teacher, instructing girls at a Lyceum (girls’ high school) in mathematics and physical education. She had already earned her teaching certificate at Albertus University in Königsberg but turned down an offer for a position in favor of accepting Walter’s marriage proposal. *** Katharina sits at herContinue reading “Chapter 4 — Mutti and Papa’s Early Years”
Chapter 3 – The Podack Women in Conflict
…Nora became familiar with her mother-in-law’s shape; sort of a hollowed back, wide hips, sloping shoulders and the forever corseted middle… Hedwig Clara Hedwig Packhäuser was born early in 1890, on a farm in Pravten, a rural village to the North and East of Königsberg, that capital of East Prussia. She was probably the second-bornContinue reading “Chapter 3 – The Podack Women in Conflict”
The Story of Katharina
Introducing Katharina: a unique woman. In many ways, she lives inside me, because her story has become my story. We have known each other a lifetime, and together have uncovered each our own pathways of life. Sometimes together, that is, and sometimes very much apart. This process comes with the realization that I am thisContinue reading “The Story of Katharina”
The Story of Katharina
Introducing Katharina: a unique woman. In many ways, she lives inside me, because her story has become my story. We have known each other a lifetime, and together have uncovered each our own pathways of life. Sometimes together, that is, and sometimes very much apart. This process comes with the realization that I am thisContinue reading “The Story of Katharina”
Ingrid Petty 