What events in history have effected you, your parents and grandparents?

My Mother and Granparents were living in the Sudeten Region when Hitler began making noise. They were relatively well off and remarkably aware that there was a Holocaust coming. They packed up a scant few possesions, what they could carry and fled for safety - - - the wrong way. Those in their group who were going the right way were snatched up by the Gestapo. My grandparents & mother made it out of Czeckoslovakia across Germany and found haven in Holland. Then Hitler ordered his armies to attack Holland! Grandparents & Mom (about seven at the time) booked passage to England aboard the Amsterdam. A fellow ship, the Rotterdam, struck a mine on the way out of harbor blowing up alongside of them, her survivors were crowded aboard the Amsterdam. Cabins for four were now crowded with eight to ten people. What was to be a one to two day crossing to England became a month long ordeal as England announced it too was in the midst of War and that taking on refugees wouldn't be smart. Therefore Granparents & Mother spent a month in a crowded cabin while their ship dodged German submarines. To this day my Mother dislikes boats.

A 'funny' Holocaust story. A Great-Great Uncle was scheduled to depart Austria ahead of the Nazis. A friend told him that skiing in America was terrible, so this Uncle squeezed in a day of sking in the Austrian Alps, hit a tree and died..

Oh and my grandfather was a decoarated war hero during World War One fighting for the Austrian Army and carried a bullet in his jaw for forty years.

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What events in history have effected you, your parents and grandparents?

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