The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister (33 page)

1943: October 22

Kassel is bombed by British planes and is completely destroyed in a matter of twenty-five minutes. (The exact time was 7:45 p.m. to 8:10 p.m.) Thousands are dead, and everything is burning and in rubble. The Gestapo building is destroyed. All those in the hospital survive by being in the largest bunker in Kassel, which was built by French prisoners of war and was located at the back of the hospital and connected by an underground tunnel.

1944

After four months of not knowing Anna’s whereabouts, Nonna receives notice from a concentration camp in Bohemia that Anna is imprisoned there. The reason for her imprisonment is not given.

Several letters from concentration camps arrive at intervals of four to six weeks. All letters are written for Anna in German by another person since Anna cannot write in German. Anna’s prison number is stated on the letters, which were very carefully screened by the authorities.

1945

World War II comes to an end and the Americans take over Kassel, freeing all the people in the labor camps.

Four weeks before the war ends, Nonna comes down with rheumatic fever and myocarditis (an inflammation of heart muscle).

Anna died just weeks before her camp was liberated. Nonna received her final letter in September but continued to hold out hope of finding her.

1945–1947

Nonna’s illness lingers for almost two years. While in the hospital, Nonna makes all possible attempts to find her mother.

1947–1948

After all the efforts to find Anna fail, Nonna asks to be transferred to a hospital in Merxhausen, Germany, where all the victims from the concentration camps—mostly Jews—are being taken. There she hopes to look for some clues about her mother.

1948

After spending some time in the Merxhausen hospital and meeting many of the Jews and other people from KZ camps, Nonna fails to find any clues about her mother. She decides to leave that hospital and travel to Bad Hersfeld, Germany, where there was a camp for refugees and displaced persons.

Shortly after arriving at Bad Hersfeld, Nonna makes arrangements to attend a nursing school in Fulda, Germany.

1949

Having acquired much experience and knowledge of nursing while with the German hospital in Kassel, Germany, Nonna finishes her nursing course in only a few months and graduates with honors. She receives a scholarship to a pre-med program in Heidelberg and travels there to enroll. But she decides to apply for a visa to go to America.

After working as a nurse in Hanau’s general hospital for a short period, Nonna goes to work as a secretary at the IRO center in Hanau. She is employed by an English woman named Mrs. Hawksley, from London.

Mrs. Hawksley arranges for Nonna to apply for a visa to emigrate to the United States of America.

1950: Early Spring

The visa is approved, and Nonna goes through the procedures required of all immigrants to the United States of America. The sponsor is the Napoleon Avenue Baptist Church of New Orleans, Louisiana. The place of employment and a residence are provided by church members—the Guillory family.

1950: May 5

Nonna goes to Bremerhaven, Germany, and awaits her departure by ship.

1950: May 20

The USNS
General W. G. Haan
arrives in Bremerhaven, and Nonna goes aboard ship.

1950: June 6

The
General Haan
arrives in New Orleans at the Port of Embarkation, and Nonna leaves the ship, setting her feet on American soil.

Her father’s dream for so many years finally becomes a reality for Nonna, the lone survivor of the family.

Glossary of Names and Places

The following list includes names of Nonna’s family and friends up until 1950, as well as names of places that were part of her family history before, during, and after World War II.

Towns and villages are listed here with the country to which they belonged during that time, though borders have since changed in many places.

Feodosija and Yakov owned seven dachas in Russia and the Ukraine, which accounts for the different birthplaces of their children.

Babushka

Russian word for grandmother; Nonna’s name for Feodosija.

Buchenwald, Germany

Location of the porcelain factory where Nonna and Anna worked for three months.

Dunja

Russian woman who reported Anna for trying to save a Jewish baby on the train to Germany.

Flossenbürg, Germany

Location of the concentration camp where Anna died.

Ivanovich, Dimitry

Family friend who helped Feodosija and her children escape after Yakov was killed.

Kassel, Germany

Location of the carton factory where Anna and Nonna worked for six months.

Nonnatchka, Kitten Nonnatchka

Nonna’s nicknames.

Konstantinowka, Ukraine

Location of Feodosija’s Great House. The place where family gathered for holidays and special occasions. Same town as Santurinowka, later in history.

Lichtenau, Germany

Location of a labor camp where Anna and Nonna worked for three months.

Lisowskaja, Taissia

Nonna’s sister, born in 1940. Died at five days old.

Lisowsky, Johan Stanaislaus

Yevgeny’s father, Nonna’s paternal grandfather.

Lisowsky, Yevgeny Ivanovich

Nonna’s father, born in Warsaw, Poland.

Ljaschov, Ivan (Vanya)

Anna’s brother, a test pilot, killed in a plane crash in the Azov Sea.

Ljaschov, Yakov

Anna’s father, Nonna’s maternal grandfather. A Russian Cossack who was killed by the Bolsheviks during the Revolution. Born in Poltava, Russia (near Odesa).

Ljaschov, Leonid (Ljonya)

Anna’s brother, born in Dnipropetrovs’k, Russia (now Ukraine).

Ljaschov, Zhenya

Youngest of Anna’s brothers, born in Konstantinowka, Russia.Served in the underground during the beginning of Hitler’s invasion.

Ljaschova, Anna Yakovlevna

Nonna’s mother, born in Novorossisk, Russia.

Ljaschova, Antonja (Tonja)

Anna’s sister, born in Sevastopol, Russia (now Ukraine).

Ljaschova, Feodosija Nikolayevna

Anna’s mother, Nonna’s maternal grandmother. Born near Odesa, Russia (now Ukraine).

Ljaschova, Xenja

Anna’s sister, born in Tashkent, which was then under Russian protection (now Uzbekistan).

Marienkrankenhaus

German hospital run by Catholic nuns, at which Nonna and Anna worked.

Nachichevan, Russia

City near Rostov-on-Don, location of the university Nonna occasionally visited.

Nathan

Jewish boy who saved Nonna’s life en route to Germany.

Nicholas II

Last Tsar of Russia. Nicholas; his wife, Alexandra; and their five children were killed by the Bolsheviks in 1917. Nonna’s family has a birthday card sent to Yakov from Nicholas, postmarked January 1913.

Petrovich

Keeper of the Great House estate.

Ravensbrück, Germany

First concentration camp to which Anna was sent alone.

Rostov-on-Don, Russia

City where Nonna and her family lived and where Anna participated in the theater.

St. Petersburg, Russia

City where Anatoly was sent for his safety and education. Anna and Yevgeny were educated at the University of St. Petersburg.

Solzhenitsyna, Mrs. Taissia Shcherbak

Mother of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Shared Anna’s love of music.

Taganrog, Russia

City near the Black Sea; Nonna’s and Anatoly’s birthplace.

USNS
General W. G. Haan

Ship that transported Nonna from Germany to the port of New Orleans in America, May 1950.

About the Author

Nonna included this “About the Author” page in her transcript.

MOST IMPORTANT IN MY LIFE

My husband, Henry; my children; and my grandchildren

THINGS I LOVE

To listen to music, read books, and write.

To play chess—I learned to play at a very early age, five or six years old.

To paint—I used to paint when I was younger but have not done so in a long while.

Classical music, opera, the symphony, concerts, ballet, stage plays, the works of good artists (paintings), and literature—I love to read good books.

To meet new people and make lots of friends.

All my grandchildren—Catie, Cristen, Zachary, Benjamin, and Kara.

To have my immediate family around the table and laugh a lot, remembering some of the funny and even silly things.

To laugh a lot—my two sons and my daughter and Henry have a great sense of humor. So do I!

MY FAVORITE COMPOSERS

Peter Tchaikovsky (especially his
1812 Overture
), Beethoven, Schumann, Mozart, Bach, Chopin, and others—too many to name.

MY FAVORITE OPERA SINGERS

Luciano Pavarotti (tenor) and, of course, my mother, as I remember her singing when I was a child.

MY FAVORITE BALLET DANCER

Mischa (Mikhail) Baryshnikov, especially in
Swan Lake.

MY FAVORITE PIANIST

Vladimir (Volodya) Horowitz—his last concert was held in Moscow, Russia, in 1986.

MY FAVORITE ARTISTS

Rembrandt and Repic, and the works of most artists.

MY FAVORITE WRITERS AND POETS

Leo Tolstoy

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksandr Pushkin (the greatest poet I know)

Anton Chekov

Charles Dickens

I know much about Anton Chekov—he was born and lived on the same street on which I was born, in Taganrog on Azov. I know much about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn—when I was five years old, my mother and I spent the night at his mother’s home in Rostov-on-Don. His mother and my mother gave concerts together (piano and violin). At the age of six I danced (ballet) the “Tatar Dance” at one of his mother’s parties. They lived near the “Great Theater” in Nachichevan, which was near Rostov. My memories of those times are so vivid, and I visited the university where he attended very often.