LIFE WORTH LIVING
by Heinz Wegener - Atlanta, Georgia
From Germany to Goshen, Indiana
Germany, after World War II, was no place to raise a young family as jobs were scarce, and so my parents, my brother, Dieter, and I immigrated to the United States in 1951 under the sponsorship of a Mennonite church. This was made possible because my mother was a refugee from East Germany. We arrived in Goshen, Indiana, on November 7, 1951, having crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a converted troop carrier ship which was filled to capacity with other refugee families like us. In Indiana, my parents were made to feel at home by German-speaking Amish neighbors, and my parents quickly began a routine of hard work and regular attendance at the Lutheran church. In a very short time, they were able to purchase a house and a car which would have been impossible in Germany at that time.
My first three school years in Indiana were difficult as the kids at school would pick on me knowing I had recently moved from Germany. This experience of being rejected by my friends made me determined to fit in at all costs if I ever had a chance to start all over, which I did when my parents moved to a new house in the Goshen city school district in 1957. |
