It was September 1947, almost two years after the end of the war. The days were still warm but one could smell autumn in the air. During one of these warm days our small family, my husband and two-year-old daughter Natalia, woke up early in the morning to get ready to leave our transition camp in Bremenhaven, Germany to sail to Canada. Awaiting us at the pier was a ship by the name of ‘General Stuart Hainzelman’. It was an old vessel but comfortable. When we arrived at the ship, a small cabin was assigned to us for the duration of our trip, and we went to unpack our few belongings.
It was hard to describe the impression of the Atlantic Ocean, seeing it for the first time. It was greenish-dark grey, with almost black waters that tossed its waves far away to the horizon. It made us fearful of the long journey ahead. Yes, Canada was far away. We felt that somehow our old life was being left behind and it would never return. So, in the evening we retired to our cabin and we prayed to our Lord to give us courage and protection for a safe voyage and not to leave us at life’s crossroads in our new country.
Life on the boat was well organized. The people who could help the crew were taken to do various tasks and there was no time to think of anything else. Because every healthy person was made to work during the day, there were no quarrels or serious misunderstandings between people. Yes, the work was long and hard. Passengers were exhausted by the end of the day and tried to rest during the night. Time was going fast. There were no major incidents between travellers on the ship and finally we arrived safely at Halifax, Canada. There were a lot of people on the ship. When we enquired, we were told there were 1,500 passengers. All the people were coming to work in every province in Canada and were to be delivered to their destination by agents.
We were assigned to go to the province of Saskatchewan to work on a farm that belonged to a distant cousin of my husband. This cousin left us a one-room log house to live in, two shacks, a horse and wagon with a water barrel, two rifles for protection, some farm tools and half a bushel of root vegetables. The problem was that the fresh water well was located about one and a half miles away from the cabin and our closest neighbours lived fifteen miles away from us. When our duties at the farm were explained to us, I was horrified. What would we do in the wintertime when the prairie would be covered thick with snow? And I was expecting our second child! I was raised in a city so I had to think fast before they sent us to Saskatchewan. What was I going to do?
In Halifax at the railway station all families were inspected and given labels to wear with the name of the province they had to go to work. The label given to us stated ‘Saskatchewan’. Quietly I turned our labels over and wrote on them ‘Ontario’. My husband was frightened that the authorities would send us back to Europe for that. Somehow it was not noticed by the conductor, and we were escorted to the train going south to Toronto. We did not realize that Canada was such a big country. On our journey south we saw grasslands, lakes, woods, flocks of many different kinds of birds and herds of running wild animals. It took us three days to get to Toronto.
At the railway station in Toronto, the Salvation Army people took us under their wing and found a family which accepted us into their home. We were deeply grateful for our safe arrival in Canada, especially to the people of the Salvation Army who unselfishly spent almost half a day on our behalf. The next day we found a nearby church and gave thanks to our Lord for His guidance and protection.
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