In April of 1941, after President Roosevelt accused Lindbergh of being a fascist sympathizer, Lindbergh resigned his commission as a colonel in the United States Army Air Forces. You could not blame people for their hostile feelings towards the German-Americans, when Nazi Bund meetings were being held at many locations around New York City, as well as in the neighboring Schuetzenpark, the German word for the riflemen’s or shooters’ park, in North Bergen. Charles Lindbergh was of that persuasion and supported the isolationist “America First Movement,” advocating that the United States remain neutral. Others advocated that we stay out of the war. At the time, some Americans joined the German American Bund that backed what Hitler was doing. “Hitler was invading every European country surrounding Germany, and it was obvious that eventually we would also be at war. I couldn’t believe that everything had come together as well as it had, and that I was on my way back to Überlingen and my children.”Ĭaptain Hank Bracker, Stories from Beyond the Sea The train didn’t make any more stops and continued east crossing the Rhine River Bridge, which miraculously was still there. Herr Schreiner had been a very popular, much admired school principal and seeing how tired and bedraggled we now looked, the passenger offered us his window seats and helped to make room so that we could store our suitcases in the luggage rack above our heads. Once safely on the train, someone from his school in Mannheim recognized him. With the help of another man pulling on his coat, Herr Schreiner finally managed to squeeze in far enough so that we could close the door behind him. Several of the people made snide remarks but I turned a deaf ear to this and pushed as hard as I could, so that he could also get in. With every surge of the train I expected him to lose his grip but with what I am certain was superhuman strength, he hung on as the train picked up speed. As the train left the station, he hung onto the two entrance handles right behind me and I pushed for space, trying to make enough room for him to get into the carriage. Although he wasn’t that big of a man, Herr Schreiner pushed my suitcases up the two steps into the railway car, and I climbed up behind them.
My talking hank clean the ocean points full#
Finally another train did pull into the station but in stark contrast to the empty platform we were standing on, the train was completely full of people. As tired as I was, I couldn’t have handled my luggage alone. “I was exhausted and had to rely on Herr Schreiner to help me and knew in my soul that God had sent him to my aid.
It also became the gathering place for personalities such as the American actor Orson Welles, the beautiful actress Dolores del Río, the famous artist Diego Rivera and his soon-to-be-wife, “Frida,” who became and is still revered as the illustrious matriarch of Mexico.” The bohemian enclave of Coyoacán now a part of Mexico City, where Frida Kahlo was born, was located just east of San Angel which at the time was a district of the ever expanding City. Although the stated basic reason for the Communist Party’s existence was to improve conditions for the working class, it became a hub for the avant-garde, who felt liberated socially as well as politically.
It also attracted many actors, authors and artists from the United States, many of whom were Communist or, at the very least were “Fellow Travelers” and had leftist leanings. It was for these reasons that Julio Mella from Cuba, Leon Trotsky from Russia and others sought refuge there. Moreover, living in Mexico was less costly than most countries, the weather was usually sunny and no one objected to the swinging lifestyle that many of the expats engaged in. Since Mexico accepted communism as a legitimate political party during the 1920’s and allowed refugees greater flexibility of thought, it became a haven from persecution.
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