A grandmother’s pink cabbage, referred to as surkål, cooked with caraway seeds and a splash of vinegar, was the jewel of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.
Jean Marshall
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Jean Marshall
A grandmother’s pink cabbage, referred to as surkål, cooked with caraway seeds and a splash of vinegar, was the jewel of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.
Jean Marshall
We interviewed 8 refugees from completely different corners of the globe and requested: What’s one valuable belonging you introduced alongside in your journey to remind you of house? The solutions ranged from a set of incense stones made by a Yemeni grandmother (and now emitting their particular aroma in Ecuador) to Ukrainian sheet music.
We additionally requested our viewers: Tell us about an object out of your private or household historical past that has particular that means as a memento of the previous in a special nation or a mirrored image of your identification.
Thanks to all who shared their tales. Here’s a sampling of responses, edited for size and readability.
A crystal decanter with a chip jogs my memory of a daring 1911 journey
My valuable object is that this more-than-a-century-old decanter.
In 1911, when my then 14-year-old grandfather Jan Roušar (modified to John Roushar on Ellis Island) and his household left Oldriš in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) to come back to the United States, they introduced alongside this household heirloom. It is heavy reduce crystal and should have had vital that means to hold that far.
A decanter with a chip in it’s a reminder of the willingness to tackle daring challenges, reminiscent of a grandfather’s Atlantic crossing as a boy.
Monica Elenbaas
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Monica Elenbaas
A decanter with a chip in it’s a reminder of the willingness to tackle daring challenges, reminiscent of a grandfather’s Atlantic crossing as a boy.
Monica Elenbaas
I by no means noticed this decanter in my childhood — it had a chip within the lip and was thought of unusable. When my mother and Aunt Dorothy helped empty my grandparents’ home within the Seventies, it moved to my mother’s home and acquired tucked behind a china cupboard.
I got here throughout it a couple of years in the past whereas serving to my dad and mom within the cleanup after a hearth. My mother requested me if I needed it, “although it is damaged.” I discovered it stunning and determined that if and when my husband and I set sail, it will include us on the seas, simply because it had when my pricey late grandfather was a boy making his Atlantic crossing.
It has traveled since 2016 with my husband and me on a 40-foot catamaran referred to as “Grateful,” which has journeyed to the waters of 5 continents.
I feel Grandpa would approve. He’s one in all my angels above. I consider the bravery it took for his dad and mom to see the writing on the wall and resolve to depart behind their thriving mill enterprise as a result of they may see WWI coming and had no need for his or her sons to be pressed into the Kaiser’s military.
By comparability, crossing seas is pleasure for my husband Jamie and me. Whenever I have a look at the decanter I’m reminded that willingness to tackle daring challenges runs within the household.
— Monica Fox Elenbaas
A Norwegian grandmother’s cabbage dish was a technique to say ‘I really like you’
In 1906 my grandmother, Oline Steffensen, traveled from Norway to the United States. She was 25 years outdated. She had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and needed to go to Utah so she may go to the temple there and “be sealed,” because the Mormons say, to her mom, who had died when she was a little or no lady. The need to hook up with her members of the family for eternity gave her the braveness to make the journey.
Red knitted caps had been a grandmother’s means of claiming, “I really like you.”
Jean Marshall
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Jean Marshall
Red knitted caps had been a grandmother’s means of claiming, “I really like you.”
Jean Marshall
In Salt Lake City she married Rudolph Stockseth, a fellow Norwegian, who was a printer. They had 9 youngsters. My father was the oldest. They by no means had sufficient cash, however they’d a substantial amount of love of their household. I keep in mind properly the camaraderie of my aunts and uncles at household gatherings.
What Oline introduced from Norway was her potential to like … and to knit … and to cook dinner.
I keep in mind consuming Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners in her small brick house and savoring the aroma and tangy style of pink cabbage cooked with caraway seeds and a splash of vinegar, referred to as “surkål .” It was the jewel of the meal to me.
My grandmother’s brusque, accented English made me assume she was grumpy. I now notice that the meals she made – and the pink caps she knit for us – had been her means of claiming, “I really like you.”
— Jean Marshall
I nonetheless have the sneakers I wore when my household fled the Nazis
I’m 84 years outdated, thought of to be a survivor of the Holocaust. But I consider myself as a “refugee” fortunate to have escaped the Holocaust.
I used to be not fairly 2 years outdated when my household (mother, dad and older sister) boarded what I used to be later informed was to be the final practice out of Paris earlier than the French authorities was to give up. I’m informed it was the primary week of June 1938, however do not know the precise date.
We had been heading towards Bordeaux after which on to Spain, armed with all of the requisite journey permits, American visas and a small suitcase full of some clothes in addition to my mom’s journey stitching equipment, contained in a repurposed pink steel tobacco tin.
A pair of sneakers and a mom’s stitching equipment saved from fleeing the Nazis brings to thoughts the resiliency and braveness that refugees display of their quest for safety.
Mireille Taub
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Mireille Taub
A pair of sneakers and a mom’s stitching equipment saved from fleeing the Nazis brings to thoughts the resiliency and braveness that refugees display of their quest for safety.
Mireille Taub
It was a harrowing journey. The practice, full of refugees, was bombed – making conflict on civilians was a typical Nazi tactic. We had been fortunate sufficient to outlive and proceeded to stroll to Bordeaux — which had been declared a closed metropolis due to its strategic location, in addition to the French authorities sequestered in Bordeaux had not but determined how finest to give up.
We should have walked for miles. I wore my patent leather-based sneakers, my dad and mom carried that small suitcase. Eventually we met by probability the American consulate officer in a small metropolis exterior Bordeaux. My father and the officer had been in a position to hire a truck to drive us to the Mediterranean coast. Eventually we had been in a position to cross into Spain and Portugal, the place we boarded a Greek freighter that set sail for New York. We arrived on August 11, 1940.
My patent leather-based sneakers, now not shiny and glowing, remained on my toes till I outgrew them. I nonetheless have them, together with my mom’s makeshift stitching equipment. I take advantage of this stuff them as props for my volunteer work on the Nassau County Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center, the place I inform guests the explanations my household had been compelled to hunt refuge in addition to discussing the necessity for protected havens 82 years later.
I treasure my sneakers and mom’s stitching equipment as a result of it underlines the resiliency, willpower and braveness that refugees display of their quest for safety — and as a reminder as properly that for thus many, the sheer presence of luck can chart your future.
— Mireille Taub
Why I’ll by no means depart my flute behind
My most valuable object is my flute!
A flute saved from a hearth represents a non secular connection to music.
Penny Rogers
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Penny Rogers
A flute saved from a hearth represents a non secular connection to music.
Penny Rogers
I began enjoying within the faculty band once I was within the seventh grade, a bit of over 50 years in the past, and as soon as I started enjoying, there was by no means any query about what I’d do for a profession. Playing music meets my non secular wants like nothing else – and is mentally difficult, which I really like.
I majored in music in school. My first job was as a music trainer. When the residence constructing the place I used to be residing caught fireplace in the course of the night time, I ran exterior. A fireman requested me to maneuver my automotive so the hearth truck may get nearer to the constructing. He went again into my residence with me so I may get my automotive keys: “Just your automotive keys, ma’am. Nothing else!”
When we left, I had my keys … and my flute. I’d have fought him if he had informed me to depart it behind!
If I ever should “bug out” for any motive, you may imagine my flute will likely be the very first thing I seize to take alongside!
— Penny Rogers