"I Wouldn't Wanna Be Anywhere Else"

At the age of four Helen Klask embarked on a journey to America. The photo above was taken from the green card she received when she first stepped foot on American soil.(1) A one hour interview was conducted following her and her parents' extraordinary story of immigration. During this hour Helen discussed their experiences during World War II as they were captured and put in work camps by Germans. Then Helen shared her journey to America and the struggles they faced once they arrived in America. Finally we discuss Helen's citizenship and how her life is today. Helen lives in Livonia, Michigan, and works at the local K-MART. She has four children and six grandchildren. She is an extremely caring and thoughtful person. She kindly opened her heart and shared her story with us, just as we are about to share it with you.

A HARD LIFE FOR SUCH A LITTLE KID

  [My parents] were born in Poland. They grew up near Kraków, and you know very well it was farm country. My dad had no one. He was an orphan. His mother died and his father remarried. She did not like him and his brother, so when they were seven and eight she kicked them out. They lived in the neighbor's shed. They never had any education or anything. That’s a hard life for such a little kid. My mom did go to school until 2nd grade. They got married in 1940.

  Then Germany invaded Poland.(2) They took [my parents] to Germany to work the farms. They weren’t like the Holocaust but they were labor camps.You lived with a German farmer and you worked from sun up [to] sun down. If people got caught stealing or anything they just chop their hands off. They were separated. She was sent to one work farm and he was sent to another. My mom did say that did have some churches but not very many [and] that was when they would see each other. You were not fed very well. Most of the time they had soup and sometimes they’d throw a potato in it. My mom said that, “they worked the plants for a couple of years and when you got thinner and weaker is when they sent you to the [concentration] camps. That time was coming for them.” But then the war ended and they had [a] German farmer they befriended. That’s who I’m named after actually. Her name was Helen so they named me Helen in her honor. I was born on 5/18/1946. Then after that they wanted to come to America. It was 1950.

I'M THINKING IT'S REAL AND I'M HOPING IT WAS REAL

You had to have a sponsor at that time and my mom's half sister sponsored [us] in 1950. It was between 250 dollars and 300 dollars to bring someone over which was a lot of money [at that time]. And so she sponsored us. We were in a displacement camp in Germany before getting on a boat to America. I don’t know how long we were there. And then we got on a boat for about 30 days. I was too young to remember [the conditions of the boat] but my mom and dad said it was crowded and people were sick.

When I first entered New York Harbor I remember my first experience vaguely. I don’t know if it was a real memory or not but I remember standing by the rail by my mom and dad, looking out into the water and seeing the Statue of Liberty. I’m thinking it’s real and I’m hoping it was real because I didn’t know what it meant. We just knew we were coming to America.

We were prompted at a port in New York. People were going through giving their names and [my parents were some of the few] whose birthdays got mixed up. They made my mom older than my dad. They didn't say anything because they were too scared that if they were to say something, they were going to be shipped back.

[From there], I really don’t remember how we got from New York to Michigan. There, we lived with my mom’s half-sister in Dearborn. She had a corner store in the neighborhood and we lived in one of the upstairs apartments for two years.

WE DID NOT HAVE A CAR OR A PHONE

We rented a little house about 2-3 blocks from where my mom’s half-sister lived because it was too tough.  My mom and dad had median jobs. My mom was a cleaning lady in a hospital and my dad worked in a brick yard unloading bricks off the trucks. They [also] worked at thrift stores.  [It was] very hard, hard work. But that was all they could find because they had no education, no language.

My [parents] never drove because we did not have a car until I turned eighteen. We did not have a phone until I was in the ninth grade.That was tough for me because if a guy asked for my phone number he’d thought I was blowing him off by saying, “I don’t have a phone.” He’d say, “Really? Are you really saying that?” and I’d say, “Really, I mean really we don’t have a phone.” But we got along well without a phone and a car. We walked or took the bus.

And I remember the first thing my mom and dad bought was a TV. They bought a Filtho TV for Christmas. [It] did have a big red bow. I remember that. [At first, when] they came over and they had nothing. But that’s how they got started.

DP: DISPLACED PERSONS

I don’t remember too much but [I do remember that] we were called displaced persons and that was kind of a derogatory term. So they kind of treated us like that, [especially] older people did. Because that was the term they used for the people that came to this country at that time.  And then it was alien and then permanent resident which was nicer. And when someone called you a permanent resident you had to show your green card. We did everything a regular citizen had to do. We paid taxes. Yet we were taken advantage of, [especially] my mom and dad. Because when you don’t speak a language, people kind of think “you’re dumb.” And people thought [my mom and dad] came from another country, they were…[dumb]; [they were considered dumb because they didn’t know English]. Maybe my mom and dad weren’t literate but they weren’t dumb.

Helen's father's green card

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Helen's mother's green card

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I FELT CRAPPY AND DIFFERENT

I went to a high school in a small catholic school in Detroit. [It was] a private school. I did well. The nuns taught me [even though] they were strict. But I liked them. The school was Polish and there were a lot of Polish-speaking people. They were polish but they didn’t speak Polish. Actually, there was a Polish pastor. it was kind of geared towards Polish. I loved it.

  I remember one time my mom knit me a hat. She made me a red skirt with a green sweater. And the teacher actually made me stand up and made fun of me. It was because I had homemade stuff on. I felt different cause all my stuff were homemade, not bought. I looked funny. I felt crappy and different. I remember that. That’s how bad I felt.

"YOU'RE DONE." SO I'M DONE.

And then, at 47 I became a citizen. Something I wanted to do forever but didn’t get around to it. I thought, “I’m not going to pass,” I was so nervous because you had to know everything. It was tough; I studied for a couple of months. But when it came down to answer, I went in the room and he asked me questions about my background. Then he just asked me a couple questions and they were not hard. He hardly asked me three things like, “Who is the president?” I mean it was fortunate I did not have it hard. Then he says, “You’re done.” So I’m done.

I love it! This is the best place to live in the world. I just love it. You know anybody who downplays America, they’re lucky. They can say that because anywhere else you can’t. I got to enjoy all the rights and everything; the voting, [and] the freedom to express whatever. I meant this is the country that really lets their people express their opinions without being shot at. I love that you can make a decent working. I like that you can make a good wage. I like the food. I like liberty. I like all the rights. I just like it here! The voting part was my biggest part of becoming a citizen. I think voting was the number one thing. I take it very seriously. I love how my vote counts. It felt great. I am glad I’m here.

FOOTNOTES:

(1): United States permanent residents card, identification card that gives a permanent resident status to Aliens in the United States. It is called a green card informally because it was green during 1946 to 1964.

(2): Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Within weeks the Polish army was defeated, eventually Warsaw surrendered on September 2, 1939. Germany occupied the remainder of Poland and remained in power until January 1945.

IMAGE SOURCES (In order top to bottom):

1: Klask, Helen. Green card. Circa 1950. Provided 15 November 2013

2: Image source: link

3: Image source: link

4: Klask, Helen. Green card. Circa 1950. Provided 15 November 2013

5: Klask, Helen. Certificate of Naturalization. Circa 1950. Provided 15 November 2013

STORY FACILITATORS:

Ying Thao and Anna Reget