Stories From the Pews of Faith*
Members of Faith share personal experiences that highlight God's love, mercy and guidance.
Emil and Mary Petereit
Every war—including those occurring right now—eventually comes to its end. In today’s story, Faith members MARY and EMIL PETEREIT recount their experiences during and after World War II. Perhaps their recollections can serve as witness and encouragement for our lives as this Russia/Ukrainian war continues, and after it ends.
BACKGROUND
Both Emil and Mary were raised on small farms. Their roots hark back to Germany (Mary) and Lithuania (Emil). Their native countries were heavily involved in World War II. In Emil’s case, the push-pull of Soviet Russia fighting Germany. In Mary’s case, the tranquil-but-still-dangerous Bavarian countryside. The following conversation took place the day that Ukraine was invaded by the Russian Federation.
FAITH: Where did you grow up?
MARY: My parents were Bavarian landwirts (small farmers), not bauers (large-scale landowners). There were 14 of us kids at home. My dad passed away at 42, so we were raised by my mother. Our farm didn’t have electricity, heat or running water. Food was sometimes scarce.
EMIL: Our family—my parents, my brother and me—were German Lutherans. We were also farmers. My dad’s farm was in Lithuania, just a few miles from the Lithuanian/German border. When I was about four years old, the Russian army was coming closer. So we moved just a bit farther west, into Germany.
FAITH: How did you get along during the war?
MARY: We were pretty safe in that part of Germany; our village was bombed only two times. But my uncle—he was a baker—took in Jewish families until the war was over; that was a dangerous thing to do.
I was raised a strict Catholic. We went to church twice every Sunday (morning and afternoon), and before we went to the parish school each morning, we went to Mass. We prayed the Rosary on our knees every night. For a long time, I wanted to be a nun. Even when my mother was very old, she rode her bike to church every day. If it wasn’t for her faith, she wouldn’t have made it, with all the kids.
EMIL: Can I say something here? It’s one thing to explain war to someone; it’s another to live through it. When you’re under a bomb, it’s entirely a different story.
FAITH: You’ve experienced that?
EMIL: When I was six, I was on the fourth floor of a house in East Prussia. (We moved around a lot during the war.) I remember that I was eating barley soup and looking out the window at a bridge. One second the bridge was there, the next second it was gone—it was bombed. I used to sit on my mother’s lap and listen to the bombs fall. That’s what I mean about experiencing war.
FAITH: Any other memories?
EMIL: Our family was running away from the Russians. We were moving west in a long wagon train—more than 100 families. The German Army was moving in the other direction toward us. The road was too narrow for our wagons and the tanks, so the German military chased all the wagons and horses off the road, into the fields. We hid in a farmhouse, and when the Germans had passed we came out to find that there wasn’t a single wagon there anymore. We kept walking without wagons or horses—we wound up in Königsberg (a historic Prussian city now identified as Kaliningrad, Russia). While there, we were told that we were completely surrounded by the Russians. The only escape was by boat along the coast of the Baltic Sea. There were 2,000 of us on a ship that could hold only 900 people.
FAITH: Were you ever close to being killed?
EMIL: Yes. At another farm where we lived, we were taking a neighbor’s sheep to pasture. The Germans were marching prisoners of war down the street of the nearby village—there were so many of them you couldn’t see the beginning or end of the line of prisoners. All of a sudden, some British or U.S. planes flew low over the column, strafing the soldiers. We dove into puddles. When the planes were gone, we kept walking into the village where all the brick buildings were. The planes came back, though, and started shooting again. Some of their bullets hit the wood beams right above my head—the splinters fell into my hair.
FAITH: When did you come to the United States?
MARY: Our farm was too small to feed us all, and we had more relatives in the U.S. than in Germany. So when I was 16—after two years in trade school—I came to Chicago. The only reason I came here was to work—to send money back home. (After the war, our relatives sent us packages all the time; we’d sell the contents on the black market.) My older sister had already come to the U.S., so I already had a place to stay. I worked in a tool-and-die factory. I started work when I was 17, but I told everyone that I was 18!
EMIL: I came with my parents and my brother when I was 15. We had a sponsor, Mr. Roland Lehr in Quincy, Illinois. He was an executive in the Quincy Compressor Company, and he had an 80-acre farm, too. He needed someone to work the farm and…
MARY: And your family fit right in!
EMIL; We came here in January 1951. After a couple of years, Mr. Lehr suggested that we move to Chicago as a better alternative. He had no objections to our leaving. After Quincy High School, I enrolled at the University of Illinois in the mechanical engineering program. Then I worked at Argonne National Labs in the High Energy Physics Division as a mechanical engineer.
FAITH: So you both lived in Chicago at about the same time. How did you meet?
MARY: We met at the soccer games.
FAITH: How did you end up here at this church?
MARY: In 1960 we were married in a Catholic church in Chicago, and our kids were baptized there, too. We were blessed with two girls, Debbie and Kim. We also have two grandchildren, Lexi and Nathan, who were also baptized Catholic. Emil never wanted to go to the Catholic church with me. I decided to find a Lutheran church where we could all worship together as a family. Bethany Lutheran in Lemont was the one for the next ten years. After that we moved to Glen Ellyn in 1971 and joined Faith Lutheran Church when Pastor Youngquist was here. We’re so blessed here.
FAITH: Do you have anything to say that might help younger people right now?
MARY: Even if you don’t’ know what it’s like to experience war, you can still have a heart for other people. That means that you should take them in. Like my uncle did by hiding Jews in his attic.
EMIL: To younger people, I’d say, “Listen to what your parents tell you.” Because it’s important.
MARY: One more thing: We all need to go to church all the time, not just when times are bad.
The conversation ended here, but there’s a lot more to the Petereit’s story. If you’d like to hear other stories from them, take time to talk any Sunday morning. You’ll find them at the 11:00 a.m. service—smiling, grateful and wise. ….. For starters, you might ask them about some “God moments” in their life!
Every war—including those occurring right now—eventually comes to its end. In today’s story, Faith members MARY and EMIL PETEREIT recount their experiences during and after World War II. Perhaps their recollections can serve as witness and encouragement for our lives as this Russia/Ukrainian war continues, and after it ends.
BACKGROUND
Both Emil and Mary were raised on small farms. Their roots hark back to Germany (Mary) and Lithuania (Emil). Their native countries were heavily involved in World War II. In Emil’s case, the push-pull of Soviet Russia fighting Germany. In Mary’s case, the tranquil-but-still-dangerous Bavarian countryside. The following conversation took place the day that Ukraine was invaded by the Russian Federation.
FAITH: Where did you grow up?
MARY: My parents were Bavarian landwirts (small farmers), not bauers (large-scale landowners). There were 14 of us kids at home. My dad passed away at 42, so we were raised by my mother. Our farm didn’t have electricity, heat or running water. Food was sometimes scarce.
EMIL: Our family—my parents, my brother and me—were German Lutherans. We were also farmers. My dad’s farm was in Lithuania, just a few miles from the Lithuanian/German border. When I was about four years old, the Russian army was coming closer. So we moved just a bit farther west, into Germany.
FAITH: How did you get along during the war?
MARY: We were pretty safe in that part of Germany; our village was bombed only two times. But my uncle—he was a baker—took in Jewish families until the war was over; that was a dangerous thing to do.
I was raised a strict Catholic. We went to church twice every Sunday (morning and afternoon), and before we went to the parish school each morning, we went to Mass. We prayed the Rosary on our knees every night. For a long time, I wanted to be a nun. Even when my mother was very old, she rode her bike to church every day. If it wasn’t for her faith, she wouldn’t have made it, with all the kids.
EMIL: Can I say something here? It’s one thing to explain war to someone; it’s another to live through it. When you’re under a bomb, it’s entirely a different story.
FAITH: You’ve experienced that?
EMIL: When I was six, I was on the fourth floor of a house in East Prussia. (We moved around a lot during the war.) I remember that I was eating barley soup and looking out the window at a bridge. One second the bridge was there, the next second it was gone—it was bombed. I used to sit on my mother’s lap and listen to the bombs fall. That’s what I mean about experiencing war.
FAITH: Any other memories?
EMIL: Our family was running away from the Russians. We were moving west in a long wagon train—more than 100 families. The German Army was moving in the other direction toward us. The road was too narrow for our wagons and the tanks, so the German military chased all the wagons and horses off the road, into the fields. We hid in a farmhouse, and when the Germans had passed we came out to find that there wasn’t a single wagon there anymore. We kept walking without wagons or horses—we wound up in Königsberg (a historic Prussian city now identified as Kaliningrad, Russia). While there, we were told that we were completely surrounded by the Russians. The only escape was by boat along the coast of the Baltic Sea. There were 2,000 of us on a ship that could hold only 900 people.
FAITH: Were you ever close to being killed?
EMIL: Yes. At another farm where we lived, we were taking a neighbor’s sheep to pasture. The Germans were marching prisoners of war down the street of the nearby village—there were so many of them you couldn’t see the beginning or end of the line of prisoners. All of a sudden, some British or U.S. planes flew low over the column, strafing the soldiers. We dove into puddles. When the planes were gone, we kept walking into the village where all the brick buildings were. The planes came back, though, and started shooting again. Some of their bullets hit the wood beams right above my head—the splinters fell into my hair.
FAITH: When did you come to the United States?
MARY: Our farm was too small to feed us all, and we had more relatives in the U.S. than in Germany. So when I was 16—after two years in trade school—I came to Chicago. The only reason I came here was to work—to send money back home. (After the war, our relatives sent us packages all the time; we’d sell the contents on the black market.) My older sister had already come to the U.S., so I already had a place to stay. I worked in a tool-and-die factory. I started work when I was 17, but I told everyone that I was 18!
EMIL: I came with my parents and my brother when I was 15. We had a sponsor, Mr. Roland Lehr in Quincy, Illinois. He was an executive in the Quincy Compressor Company, and he had an 80-acre farm, too. He needed someone to work the farm and…
MARY: And your family fit right in!
EMIL; We came here in January 1951. After a couple of years, Mr. Lehr suggested that we move to Chicago as a better alternative. He had no objections to our leaving. After Quincy High School, I enrolled at the University of Illinois in the mechanical engineering program. Then I worked at Argonne National Labs in the High Energy Physics Division as a mechanical engineer.
FAITH: So you both lived in Chicago at about the same time. How did you meet?
MARY: We met at the soccer games.
FAITH: How did you end up here at this church?
MARY: In 1960 we were married in a Catholic church in Chicago, and our kids were baptized there, too. We were blessed with two girls, Debbie and Kim. We also have two grandchildren, Lexi and Nathan, who were also baptized Catholic. Emil never wanted to go to the Catholic church with me. I decided to find a Lutheran church where we could all worship together as a family. Bethany Lutheran in Lemont was the one for the next ten years. After that we moved to Glen Ellyn in 1971 and joined Faith Lutheran Church when Pastor Youngquist was here. We’re so blessed here.
FAITH: Do you have anything to say that might help younger people right now?
MARY: Even if you don’t’ know what it’s like to experience war, you can still have a heart for other people. That means that you should take them in. Like my uncle did by hiding Jews in his attic.
EMIL: To younger people, I’d say, “Listen to what your parents tell you.” Because it’s important.
MARY: One more thing: We all need to go to church all the time, not just when times are bad.
The conversation ended here, but there’s a lot more to the Petereit’s story. If you’d like to hear other stories from them, take time to talk any Sunday morning. You’ll find them at the 11:00 a.m. service—smiling, grateful and wise. ….. For starters, you might ask them about some “God moments” in their life!
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