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It was a huge deal for him to get a good job after 7 years of unemployment. This also allowed him and his wife to leave the farm they were living on.
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Marga is born in Worms, Germany
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Towns were bombed and families had to stay in bomb shelters in the basement of their house for extended periods of time.
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These were the Hitler youth meetings for boys from the ages 10-14.
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This is the first time Marga sees him and is able to remember it. His visit lasted 3 days.
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They have no information on whether he is alive or not and if so, where he is.
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She was turned in by her own son for not letting him go to the metings or where his new shoes to the pre-Hitler youth meetings/trainging. She was imprisoned for 3 days.
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Marga's family went to her grandparent's farm in Beindersheim, Germany-13 miles away from Worms. They remained there for 3 months. This same day her family finds out from the Red Cross that her father is in a POW camp in Arizona.
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War ends.
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The rest of family moves back to Worms.
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The Americans liberated Worms. Their tanks lined the streets. They were seen as dangerous, especially to women. Marga and her mother were not allowed out of the house for two months.
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All people had to learn French. Marga recalls their culture being very heavily influenced by the French.
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The school consisted of 50 girls. They only got to go to school for two hours in the morning because they had to share the bulding. Prior to going to school, Marga and her mother worked on the farm in order to have food. Her time on the farm were crucial to her development of an appreciation for nature, which is present in her life to this day.
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Marga remembers marveling at learning to read. She describes it as "walking through a magical door".
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Although everything was homemade, they could start buying things that they couldn't get during the war.
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Marga was home alone when he came home before his schedueled arrival. When the doorbell rang she looked out the window and saw a man she didn't recognize. She told him to go away because she had been told not to open the door to strangers. He told her to open the door and told her that he was her father. This was the first time she had seen her father since she was 3.
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All Marga's family's money is worth virtually nothing. The 100 marks she recieved for her first communion were only worth 10 marks now. Gretal anticipated the currency change and spent most of their money prior to the reform.
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Paul gets a job at the bank again, but is transferred to Lampertheim. Marga had to go to a new school for which she had to travel a long way on public transportation/walking. This is when she met her best friend Lilo, who continues to be friends with Marga today. Marga participated in track as well. Marga went to this school for 6 years.
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She was in Kensington for 9 months. She then lived in France for 6 months following her time in London.
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She was pregnant with Catherine and got married to Robert McCormick in Germany, She had to come to the United States even though she wanted to travel more.
