Adolf Mickley
Nauendorfer Strasse 23
16761 Hennigsdorf

Fifty years ago - The Mickley family remembers
- Translated by Karl Binz, Pocatello / Idaho - 

     Father Bruno was a soldier stationed at an airport near Berlin
since 1941.  He was a Prisoner of War in Schleswig-Holstein in 1945.
After his release he traveled toward Berlin.  He was employed as a
miller in a mill in Schoenwalde, Nauen county.  His mail reached us in
Gross Tuchen in the summer of 1946.  
The evacuation of Gross Tuchen began during the first part of March, 1945; 
the battle front was already in Reinwasser.  Danzig was our goal.  
We used a tractor with a camping trailer and a baggage trailer.  
The Kemski family was in charge.  Other passengers included Mrs. Hoffmann 
and her daughter, Mrs. Kunkel and her
daughter; and the Mickley family, consisting of the mother Maria, sons
Adolf and Paul, and grandmother Pauline.
     We spent a period of time in the cellar of the hospital in the town
of Lauenburg due to an air raid warning.  Our flight ended in the
villages of Saulin and Saulinke which are located near Lauenburg.  The
Russian Army entered the villages on the 12th of March, 1945.  Several
weeks later the order was given for all German citizens to leave the
villages immediately.  This order was not obeyed thanks to some German
soldiers who had entrenched themselves in an adjoining forest.  We fled
to the soldiers.  After several days in the forest everything seemed
peaceful again.
     We returned to the villages.  However, the peace was false. Now the
Russians began searching the houses and plundering.  Wives and daughters
had to stay in hiding places to avoid being raped. The sons partially
took over the guard duties.
     The German men were transported away.  The terrible return march to
Gross Tuchen began in the late summer of 1945, mostly at night.  In the
meantime the Polish people had taken possession of most of the real
estate.  A Polish family by the name of Palouch was in possession of the
restaurant "Deuble".  They formerly worked for a farmer by the name of
Heimann.  We found refuge above the Schlaak butcher shop next to the
restaurant.  Mother and sons worked in the restaurant or on the farm.
     The "relocation" began in December of 1946.  Prior to the actual
relocation there were many false alarms.  We left from Buetow by freight
train, 30 persons per boxcar.  Our rations were one salted herring per
person and one loaf of bread per four persons.  In the middle of each
boxcar was a cast iron stove. This was were the nursing mothers and
their babies stayed.  The train ride ended in Coswig / Sachsen-Anhalt,
which we attained by way of Schlesien with many stops along the way.
Father picked us up from there and took us to his place of employment.
His job as miller provided the family with the means for survival.  The
sons were able to return to school and learn a trade.  Mother died in
1983.  Father died in 1988.  Our old home was revisited in 1973.
Signed,
Adolf Mickley
February, 1995