Uprooted: The Ralph Kand Story, Part Nine -- Men on the Run

Morning came, but Ralph had not slept. Most of the people had already left the bunkhouse when he finally sat up. Only one other man remained, a short, heavyset man with small ears and greasy brown hair.

“What’s your name?” the man asked.

“Kand. Ralph Kand. And you?”

“Hans. Did you just arrive?”

“Yes.”

“This is not a place you want to stay.”

“I don’t plan to.”

“Good. I’m leaving, too.”

Ralph looked at him. “You can get us out of here?”

“I have tin snips,” Hans said. “I’ve been here three weeks. Tonight there will be no moon. I found a place along the outer fence where there are no guards and no lights.”

Ralph had found a partner.

It was well past midnight when Ralph and Hans left the bunkhouse. They had been told the camp was not a prison. The fences were there to control the large number of refugees while German authorities processed them. Ralph had no interest in waiting. Keeping to the shadows, the two men made their way toward the section of fence Hans had found. When they reached it, Ralph knelt and lifted the bottom wire.  It was loose, so they didn't need the tin snips. One at a time, they crawled underneath.

Across the road they found a stand of trees and disappeared into it. “Now what?” Ralph asked.

Hans brushed the dirt from his clothes and threw the tin snips into the weeds. “We walk. We need to put some distance between us and the camp.”

They continued through the countryside. “We have to go west,” Ralph said. “We can't stay in Poland.”

After a while Hans wanted to stop. “Let's find a place to rest.” Ralph wanted to keep moving. He continued walking, and Hans followed.

As dawn approached, Ralph heard the dull rumble of a train in the distance, followed by the blare of  a heavy brass steam whistle.

“We can't take a train,” Hans said. “We have no money and no papers.”

“It's the fastest way out of here.”

They both understood the problem. If they were going west, they needed transportation. But first they needed rest.

They came upon a small stream and stopped to drink. Ralph splashed water on his face and drank from his cupped hands.

Hans carried a small pack containing extra clothing. He put it under his head and lay down. Ralph found a patch of grass nearby. Both men quickly fell asleep. The sun was high when they woke. They were both hungry. After walking for a while, they found the railroad tracks and followed them southwest.

Eventually they came to a clearing. Below them stood a farmhouse surrounded by rolling fields and stone walls. Hans headed toward the farmhouse and Ralph followed.

As they approached the house, they saw an older Polish man sitting on the porch. He had a round face and heavy eyebrows and was whittling a piece of wood. Without saying anything he watched the two strangers coming toward him.

 

Hans asked how far it was to town.

 

The farmer continued to stare.

 

“This is Poland,” Ralph said. Hans had spoken to the man in Estonian. Ralph tried German. “Do you have any food?”

 

The farmer looked more closely at the two strangers. “Where are you from? What do you want?”

 

“We are Estonians. The Red Army has taken our country. We are trying to get west.”

 

Hans nudged Ralph. “Ask him if he has food.”

 

“I already did.”

 

The farmer began speaking. “The Germans have taken much of our corn and potatoes to feed their armies. We can feed you, but it won't be much.”

 

He asked their names.

 

After they introduced themselves, the farmer invited them into his small wooden house. Ralph and Hans sat at a table covered with oilcloth. Vegetables had been cut on a board nearby. The farmer called out in Polish.

 

A woman wearing an apron appeared, nodded to the two strangers and returned to preparing a cabbage stew. They learned that she was the farmer's daughter. His wife had died the year before.

 

They ate and talked. Ralph did most of the talking because Hans knew little German. The farmer wanted news from the east, and Ralph and Hans wanted to know what lay ahead. With armies moving and reliable news difficult to obtain, travelers learned what they could from one another.

 

The farmer told them how to reach the nearest railroad station. “You should be able to get on a train,” he said. “The problem will come when the Germans ask for your papers.”

He suggested they take a train to Breslau (now Wroclaw) and from there continue toward Prague. “From Prague you can go anywhere.”

 

Ralph wasn't so sure. Prague was still too close to the advancing Red Army. But he thanked the farmer.

 

“You'll stay here tonight,” the man said. “Get a fresh start in the morning.”

 

Before they left the next day, the farmer gave each of them a handful of coins. “In the name of God and His Son,” he said. “It won't take you to Prague, but it will help you reach the border.”

 

Hans made the sign of the cross. Ralph put the coins in his pocket.

 

They reached the station and boarded a train with no one stopping them. They found seats in the last car and waited. Ralph expected a conductor to come through asking for tickets. Instead, two German soldiers appeared. They were moving from car to car, checking identification papers.

 

Ralph pulled at Hans's arm. “We have to go.”

 

Hans looked at him. “Where?”

 

Along the outside of the railroad car was a narrow running board. Ralph and Hans stepped outside and held onto the railing as the train continued moving.

 

Ralph pointed up and Hans understood. Hans helped Ralph climb onto the railing. Ralph reached up, found a handhold and pulled himself onto the roof. Then he reached down and helped Hans up. There they lay flat.

 

“We should have done this at night,” Hans said. “Someone is going to see us.”

 

“Do you have another idea?”

 

Hans didn't.

 

The two men remained on the roof as the train carried them west. Ralph looked at the sky. Only a few days earlier he had been at home with his mother.

 

CONTINUED 

RELATED

UPROOTED: Intro and Part One

UPROOTED: Part Two

UPROOTED: Part Three
UPROOTED: Part Four

UPROOTED: Part Five
UPROOTED: Part Six

UPROOTED: Part Seven

UPROOTED: Part Eight

Uprooted is a true story about a man with a singular quest: Freedom. The longing for freedom is one of the primary reasons people leave their homelands, often at great personal sacrifice.

Uprooted: The Ralph Kand Story, Part Eight. Westward Bound

No one aboard the fishing boat was surprised that submarines might be operating in the Baltic. This means of escape was a calculated risk. The two torpedoes they had seen shortly after leaving Tallinn confirmed what the captain had feared.

 

The boat was crowded with refugees. People stood wherever they could find room, holding onto railings, console frames, support pillars and gunwales as the vessel moved into open water. Some prayed. One woman began crying uncontrollably while her husband tried to calm her. Ralph watched the water. Nothing happened.

 

After an hour or so, he began looking around at the other passengers. Most had slept little or not at all the previous night. There was not enough room for everyone to sleep, either on the wet deck or below, so people would have to take turns. Ralph still didn't know where they were going.

Working his way toward the captain he nearly collided with the first mate coming up from below.

 

“Where are we going?” Ralph asked.

 

The first mate shrugged. “Don't know. We'll follow the coast.”

 

“Stockholm isn't that far.”

 

“The captain doesn't want to lose his boat. If the weather turns, we don't want to be caught in the open sea.”

 

Ralph was disappointed. Sweden was where he wanted to go. Instead, they continued south along the Baltic coast.

 

As the hours passed and no submarines appeared, people began talking among themselves. Ralph listened. One man spoke about a Jewish housekeeper who had been taken away during the German occupation. Others talked about the German soldiers and how young many of them were. Ralph said little. He was wondering what had happened to his mother. And he thought about Karl.

 

By evening the temperature had dropped. Families huddled together for warmth. Ralph was traveling alone. His pants and socks were wet, and he began to shiver.

 

“We've passed the Gulf of Riga,” he heard someone say.

 

They were continuing south. Poland? Germany?

 

Ralph found a place against a wall and eventually fell asleep.

 

Voices woke him. It was still dark. Ralph stood and saw lights along the coast. Then he noticed another vessel approaching. A spotlight suddenly illuminated the fishing boat.

Someone aboard the other vessel called out in German and ordered the captain to identify himself. The captain went forward and tried to see past the light. The Germans requested permission to board.

 

An officer and two armed soldiers came aboard. The captain explained that his passengers were Estonian refugees and allowed the Germans to inspect the vessel.

The inspection did not take long. The refugees were told they were near Danzig (now Gdańsk).

 

The German patrol boat escorted the fishing boat into the harbor. This was where the passengers would get off. 

 

German soldiers ordered the Estonians into groups and told them to wait for transportation. After a time, three vehicles arrived.

 

Dawn was beginning to break when Ralph and the other passengers were taken to a temporary camp. Rows of buildings stood along muddy paths. The entire compound was enclosed by two fences topped with barbed wire.

 

A German officer addressed the new arrivals. “These are temporary quarters. You will be given food and a place to sleep until we can process your identification.”

 

Ralph looked at the fences. He had left Estonia because he wanted to be free. He had no intention of staying here.

CONTINUED HERE

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UPROOTED: Intro and Part One

UPROOTED: Part Two

UPROOTED: Part Three
UPROOTED: Part Four

UPROOTED: Part Five
UPROOTED: Part Six

UPROOTED: Part Seven

Uprooted is a true story about a man with a singular quest: Freedom. The longing for freedom is one of the primary reasons people leave their homelands, often at great personal sacrifice.

Uprooted: The Ralph Kand Story, Part Seven. The Last Boat

With the checkpoint behind him, when he crossed the next rise. Tallinn and the Baltic Sea lay ahead of him below. Ralph raced toward town on the motorbike. Where were all the people? The narrow streets were deserted. Fishing was a major industry here, but the boats were gone. Was he too late? Estonia's thriving commercial city had become a ghost town.

As he rode past the empty docks, the truth settled over him. While he had been away on the Eastern Front, he had missed the exodus. Fear knotted his stomach.

Estonian refugees on a crowded fishing boat, 
Septmber 1944

He headed toward the warehouse district on the northwest promontory. Then, in the distance, he saw it—a fair-sized fishing boat still moored at a dock. He raced toward it. Warehouses and small shacks lined the waterfront. Ralph ditched the motorbike behind a shed and limped toward the boat.

"Anybody there?" he shouted. "We have to get out of here. They're coming."

"What are you doing?" The voice came from somewhere inside the boat. Ralph moved closer.

"We have to leave. Now."

"Everyone's inside the warehouse. I'm here to make sure no one steals the last boat. Find the door with scuffs and dents along the bottom."

Ralph turned and hurried toward the warehouse. It was a large building with shipping docks and rows of doors, all of them apparently abandoned. The office entrance was locked. He tried another door. Locked. Then he found a grey metal door with scuffs along the bottom and dents where someone had apparently struck it with a hammer.

He pounded with his fist. "Open up!"

The door cracked open. A grim-faced man peered through, saw Ralph's Estonian uniform and pulled him inside. "Quiet."

The warehouse was dark. Thin slats of light filtered through windows high above. It took several moments for Ralph's eyes to adjust. Then he saw them. Dozens of people, perhaps too many for the one boat. They were young and old, some clustered together as families, others sitting alone on sacks and crates. Nearly everyone had luggage or bags containing whatever pieces of their lives they had been able to carry.

A little dog sat between the feet of one family. A few cigarettes glowed in the darkness.

A man approached Ralph. "You'll have to get out of that uniform. You'll be the first one they shoot."

"I know. Is the captain here?"

"Upstairs. Watching the weather and the harbor."

"Can you help me find some clothes?"

They walked between stacks of stored goods looking for someone roughly Ralph's size.

Near a fifty-five-gallon drum they stopped beside a man and woman. "Do you have any extra clothing?" Ralph's companion asked. "He has to get rid of that uniform."

The man looked Ralph over. "Why isn't he fighting? He's a soldier."

"The Germans are abandoning us," Ralph said. "It's finished."

The man stared at him.

"The Red Army will be here soon. I'm grateful there's even one boat left."

"We're still here because of the submarines," the man said. "The captain says we have to wait until morning. This is a fishing boat. He wants it to look like we're going fishing."

"Henry," the woman said sharply. "You have extra clothes. Help him."

She had noticed Ralph's limp and the raised heel of his boot.

Henry reluctantly opened a sack and rummaged through it, producing a pair of slacks and a flannel shirt.

"I only have one jacket."

"Thank you."

Ralph found an isolated corner of the warehouse and changed. The pants were tight, but the shirt fit well enough. After putting his boots back on, he folded his uniform carefully and pushed it beneath several sacks of potatoes.

He wondered who would find it.

---

No one wanted to sleep.

No one wanted to awaken and discover that the boat had gone without them. Ralph spent the night alternating between pacing and sitting. He refused to lie down. Before dawn the captain came downstairs and tapped the top of a barrel. Everyone stirred.

"It's time."

They gathered around him.

"There may be too many of us," he said. "Think carefully. The Germans have submarines in these waters. So do the Soviets. And we don't know whether there is safety where we're going. This is your last chance to stay."

No one moved.

The captain looked around the room.

"All right."

They gathered their belongings and filed quietly toward the dock.

There was no possibility now of making the voyage look like an ordinary fishing expedition. People crowded every available space. The boat sat low in the water as the captain started the engine.

A puff of smoke drifted from the stern. The ropes were cast loose, and slowly the fishing boat pulled away from the dock.

There were no cheers. Behind them, the city began to recede.

Ralph stood near at the rail on the port side of the deck, watching the shoreline. Dawn was beginning to lighten the eastern sky. For the first time in hours he allowed himself to think they might actually escape.

Then the murmuring aboard the boat stopped. Everyone became still. Someone pointed. Ralph followed the man's finger. A white line was cutting across the water. For a moment he didn't understand what he was seeing.

"Torpedo."

It came directly toward them. No one screamed; there wasn't time. Ralph gripped the rail as the wake rushed closer.

When the torpedo swept past, disappearing into the grey water beyond, Ralph realized he had stopped breathing.

The engine continued its steady putter. No one spoke. They all understood now. A submarine had found them.

The fishing boat kept moving.

"There!"

Another man pointed. A second wake appeared. Again the passengers watched helplessly as the torpedo raced toward them. This one passed on the other side and for one extraordinary second Ralph felt relief.

Then he understood, as did everyone else. The first had passed on one side. The second on the other. The third would come between them. Ralph covered his face with his hands.

He thought of his mother standing beside the cart on the gravel road. He thought of his brother, taken away by the Soviets before the Germans came.

The boat puttered on, everyone waiting for the third torpedo.

CONTINUED

RELATED

UPROOTED: Intro and Part One

UPROOTED: Part Two

UPROOTED: Part Three
UPROOTED: Part Four
UPROOTED: Part Five
UPROOTED: Part Six

Uprooted is a true story about a man with a singular quest: Freedom. This longing for freedom is one of the primary reasons people leave their homelands, often at great personal sacrifice.

Uprooted: The Ralph Kand Story, Part Six -- More Close Calls

Ralph knew it was dangerous to ride the German officer's motorcycle on the open road. While his mother drove the horse and wagon toward Tallinn, he followed trails through the woods alongside her route.

After a few miles, he saw that the wagon had stopped. His mother was crying. Ralph left the motorcycle in the weeds and went to her.

“I cannot go,” Ida said. “This is not something I can do.”

Ralph knew she had made her decision. They embraced and both began to cry. Ralph believed he would never see his mother again.

He took a small pack containing some of his personal belongings—photographs, letters and a book—and gave it to her for safekeeping. As he returned to the motorcycle, Ida turned back toward home and Ralph continued toward Tallinn.

As he approached the city, the woods thinned and Ralph had little choice but to use the road. Ahead he could see a two-story German checkpoint. Then the motorcycle stalled. Ralph tried to start it.

Nothing.

He tried again. Still nothing.

The road was empty. Behind him was a low hill. Ahead, perhaps half a mile away, stood the German checkpoint. Ralph pushed the motorcycle down a light grade and tried again to start it. Still nothing.

He could feel the ground shaking. Tanks were approaching.

A man came over the hill on a bicycle. “They are just over that hill!” he shouted as he passed. Ralph knew who he meant. The Red Army.

Ralph pulled out his pistol and put it to his temple. Before pulling the trigger, he decided to try the motorcycle once more. He kicked the starter. The engine sputtered, and it caught. Ralph put the motorcycle in gear and headed for the German checkpoint.

Now he had another problem. He was wearing an Estonian National Guard uniform and riding a German officer's motorcycle. He couldn't go back--the Russians were coming from that direction--so he kept going.

As he approached the checkpoint, two German soldiers stepped into the road with their rifles raised. Ralph stopped but left the engine running. “The Russians,” he told them in German. “They are just over that hill. I could hear them. We have to go.”

The soldiers were very young. Ralph thought they might have been fifteen or sixteen. “Turn it off,” the taller one ordered.

Ralph shut off the engine.

The other soldier pushed him away from the motorcycle and leaned it against the concrete wall.

“The Red Army is just over that hill!” Ralph said again.

“Go inside.”

Both soldiers had their rifles pointed at him.

Inside were three more German soldiers. One sat behind a desk while two others stood nearby sharing a cigarette. Two were young. The third, who appeared to be an officer, was older. One of the soldiers from outside spoke quietly to him. The officer turned to Ralph.

“You have to stay and fight.”

Ralph understood what he was saying but did not have enough German to explain that staying there against the approaching Soviet force made no sense. “This is insane,” Ralph said.

“Take him upstairs.”

Ralph turned toward the stairs. A rifle stock struck him from the side. “Up!”

As Ralph started climbing, the officer noticed the raised heel on his left shoe and the way he walked.

“These Estonians have no heart for fighting,” Ralph remembered him saying. The Germans laughed.

Upstairs, Ralph was put into a small room containing a chair and a cot. There was also a window. It had no bars. Ralph went to it and looked down. Climbing onto the sill, he lowered himself over the edge and hung for a moment before letting go. He hit the ground and rolled, then got up and went straight for the motorcycle. He kicked the starter. The engine fired up on the first try. Ralph put it into gear and took off.

Someone shouted behind him. Then came a gunshot.

Ralph didn't look back. When he crossed the next rise, Tallinn and the Baltic Sea lay before him.

 

CONTINUED HERE

RELATED

UPROOTED: Intro and Part One

UPROOTED: Part Two

UPROOTED: Part Three
UPROOTED: Part Four

UPROOTED: Part Five

Uprooted is a true story about a man with a singular quest: Freedom. The longing for freedom is one of the primary reasons people leave their homelands, often at great personal sacrifice.