A 250km Flight

How I like those evenings sitting together with my father, having a beer and talking about the old days. Yesterday he told me the story about te flight of his mother Hildegard Tomschin from former Prussia (what is mostly Poland now) to Germany. An interesting story I like to share with you.

It was the year 1944 - in not more than a year after the Second World War was over. The people in Prusia started to flee to Germany fearing the Russian Red Army. My grandpa had to fight in the German army and therefore my grandma hat to flee on her own - accompanied by three little children. My father wasn't born yet. She started her flight in Potęgowoto and settled down in Heringsdorf in the end - a distance of more than 250 km! 250 km westwards during wintertime sleeping in barns, barracks or near the road.

Flight from (A) Potęgowo to (C) Heringsdorf via (B) Świnoujście. Binz in the upper left side is where my parents live today. 

She came to Świnoujście in April 1945. The month before Potęgowoto was conquered by the Red Army. Świnoujście had a big harbour and lots of refugees got on board of of the ships there. Unfortunatelly there was this night when the Allied Forces sent 650 American bombers to Świnoujście. The bombs took away the life of 22.000 people. My grandma wanted to get on board of one of the ships the same night. But the ships were overcrowded so she couldn't get on any of them. She hat to go on further by feet and heard the bombs fall.

8 km further she settled down in Heringdorf and fortunatelly the war was over soon. Let's hope that those unbelievabe stories will never repeat again.

**Meine Oma Hildegard Tomschin ist über 250km im Winter von Potęgowoto nach Heringsdorf geflohen. Eine der unglaublichen Geschichten die einen hoffen lassen, dass uns so etwas nie erneut widerfahren wird**