Uprooted: The Ralph Kand Story, Part Ten. Schruns

By late 1944, as the Red Army advanced westward, refugees were arriving in Schruns and other communities in Austria's Vorarlberg region. Some were ethnic Germans fleeing Eastern Europe. Others were families who had left German and Austrian cities because of Allied bombing. Ralph was one of many people moving west as the war closed in from both directions.

Ralph arrived in Schruns in late October. The town was the main village in Austria's Montafon Valley. Cold rain had been falling for three days. Ralph took refuge in one of the local pubs, partly to get out of the weather and partly to learn what he could about the area.

By the end of his first night, he had learned two things. There would be no easy passage farther west through the Alps. German border patrols guarded the routes. For the time being, this was as far as he could go. He also learned that he needed a job. Without work, he could not obtain the documents or food allotment he needed to live.

Finding a room was easier. Schruns had been a ski resort before the war, but tourism had fallen sharply. There were plenty of rooms available.

Ralph rented a small room in the rear of a chalet on the north side of the valley. It faced the mountains. The room was clean, and Frau Marsden, who ran the house, seemed friendly enough. For the moment, Ralph had somewhere to live.

There were several places in town where Ralph could meet people and find out what was going on. The German he had learned during the occupation of Estonia was again proving useful. He particularly liked a pub called the Blue Moon.

The Germans operated a cement works near Schruns, and many people in town worked there in one capacity or another. Some were regulars at the Blue Moon.

Two men Ralph came to know were a Frenchman named Carpentier and a Czech named Kapinski. 

Carpentier had been a road builder in Paris. Several years before the war he had married an Austrian woman. When the war began, she wanted to return to Austria to be near her aging mother, and Carpentier came with her.

Kapinski was an accountant from outside Prague. German officials had recruited him for work connected with the hydroelectric development in the area. At first he couldn't understand why anyone would build such a large project in this remote valley. Once he arrived, the reason became apparent. The mountains and steep changes in elevation made the area well suited for hydroelectric power.

Ralph had never intended to remain in Schruns. He still wanted to go west, but for now he had nowhere else to go.

One evening Kapinski and Carpentier saw him enter the Blue Moon. “Ah, the Estonian,” Kapinski said, waving him over.

Ralph pulled up a chair.

Both men were considerably older than he was. They liked Ralph's energy and his stories. They also discovered that he could drink without becoming foolish.

“I've decided to stay for a while,” Ralph said. “Now I need a job.”

“What can you do?” Kapinski asked.

“I'm a fast typist. And I'm good with numbers.”

Kapinski nodded.

“We need help with paperwork at the cement works. I'm in the accounting office.”

“He's the head accountant,” Carpentier added.

Ralph looked across the room and spotted a waitress.

“Fräulein!” he called. “Drinks for my friends.”

“Irma,” Kapinski said. “Her name is Irma.”

It was good to be working again. There was more paperwork than the staff could handle. Many of the younger and healthier German men had been sent into military service, leaving fewer people to do the administrative work.

Ralph never learned why Kapinski had not been drafted. Eventually he noticed that Carpentier was missing part of one hand. Carpentier had become so accustomed to concealing it that Ralph had not noticed at first.

Ralph's room was a little more than a mile from the cement works office, and he usually walked. The office itself was crowded with paperwork. Boxes stood against the walls. Papers covered desks and other available surfaces.

German soldiers occasionally appeared to make certain the work kept moving. Sometimes Ralph and the others were ordered to stay late. Even then they couldn't keep up.

“We don't need more accountants,” Carpentier said one evening at the Blue Moon. “We need shredders.” Then he laughed. “Maybe all this paperwork we're not finishing is damaging the German war effort.”

The office was also cold. “Why do they keep the place at barely fifty degrees?” Ralph asked. “If it gets any colder, I'll have to chip the ice off my coffee.”

“They're saving fuel,” Kapinski said. “Heat takes energy. Last year we sometimes wore gloves while we worked.”

Carpentier shook his head.

“You're lucky you're not working on the hydroelectric project. Those men are outside from morning until late at night.”

Ralph had seen the project. Sometimes during his lunch break he walked over to watch the construction. Men poured concrete and worked around large pipes, machinery and equipment. Ralph was particularly interested in the size of the pipelines and the amount of work underway. Even this late in the war, the Germans were still building.

CONTINUED

EdNote: Ernest Hemingway went skiing in Schruns, Austria, during the winters of 1924–1925 and 1925–1926 with his first wife, Hadley Richardson, and their son Bumby. Located in the Montafon Valley of Austria's Vorarlberg region, Schruns was famous throughout Europe for its skiing. It was here during this period that Hemingway reworked his breakthrough novel, The Sun Also Rises.

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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: Part Eight  

UPROOTED: Part Nine

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 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 

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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: 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.