Heinz Chinnow

Pomerania: 1945 Echoes of the Past: a Teenager's Diary of Peace, War, Flight and Expulsion. Heinz Chinnow

This is the story of the Chinnow family in Stolpmuende/Pomerania. Life was good until 1939 when the war started and all the horrors and the insanity of it unfolded. On the day of my conformation, in March of 1945, we had to flee from the Russians. Refugees had been coming through Stolpmuende for months. The cities were piles of rubble from the constant bombings. We were fleeing west, hoping for better treatment from the Americans. We had heard how the Russians treated the people in the lost territories. Unfortunately, the Americans stood by while the Russians and Poles carved up Prussia-and with that-Pomerania. The Marshal plan saved a lot of people all over Europe and the Americans treated us fairly. At the time, I kept a diary, which is the core of this story. I met my wife, Klaere, in Hamburg and we married in 1954. In 1957 we decided to immigrate to the United States. We got our citizenship in 1965. In 1966 we adopted our son Marc and our daughter Michelle in 1969. We worked until my retirement in 1993. Klaere and I still reside in the lovely city of Sterling Heights, Michigan.