My Century And My Many Lives, by Frank Munk
Memoirs, 1993
Postscript, 1994
Frank Munk, my grandfather, wrote this autobiography to record his memories
from 1901 onwards. This history and its postscript are available on our family website in his
memory as they tell a complete story of the 20th century. These memoirs may be referenced as
long as proper attribution is made; our family retains ownership and copyright. We have one
request: if you reference this material in any way, please send us email at
feedback@theragens.com and a copy of the paper, if possible, as we would
like to know when this material is of interest and we are curious as to how it is being used.
We'd like to hear from you.
© Copyright 1993, 1994, The Munk/Ragen Families
THE ESCAPE
CHAPTER 11
You may think we
left Prague because of my Jewish background, but you would be wrong. The reason
was much more pressing. The anti-Jewish drive by the Nazi occupiers had not yet
begun, everything still seemed more or less normal. I was, of course, foolish
not to have tried to leave earlier when it would have been easier, but I
believed, wrongly as it turned out, that I could weather the storm on account of
my "Aryan" wife.
One day in May a
man came to my office in Jungmannova 32. After closing the door carefully, he
showed me the I.D. card of the former Czechoslovak secret service. I was
flabbergasted: this was two months after the German invasion and to identify
oneself this way was out of the question. The man then said, and I quote: "I am
to show you a little paper." And he showed me an order by the Gestapo to arrest
all members of the Economic Committee of the Socialist Party. My name was on top
since I had served as its chairman. He then left, but I did not have to be told
anything more.
We worked
feverishly to get out, but it was almost impossible. No one was permitted to
leave the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia without a permit from the Gestapo
secret police and that was given only very exceptionally. After the debacle of
Munich, with hundreds of thousands of refugees, mostly German Social Democrats,
leaving the so-called Sudetenland, a mass relief had to be organized in what
remained of Czechoslovakia. The need was overwhelming and a group of Canadian
Quakers helped by sending Beatrice Wellington to Prague.
Nadia helped her
greatly by mobilizing her acquaintances at the Ministry of Social Welfare, at
Prague City Hall, and in the various welfare agencies. We became good friends.
Miss Wellington proved most helpful in this dangerous situation. In the course
of her work, and because she was Canadian, she inveigled the Gestapo to issue
departure permits to a group of young children who were trapped in Prague when
their parents had to leave Czechoslovakia prior to the invasion on March 15.
She simply put the
names of Frank, Nadezda, Michael, and Zuzanka Munk on the list she submitted to
the Gestapo and the Gestapo issued the permits, along with all the others. But
that was only part of the problem. We also had to obtain American and British
visas, but that was simple. We had good friends at the two legations and they
gave us the visas immediately.
We now had to take
the plunge. We left Prague on May 20, 1939. The day was a Saturday. We told our
maid and our cook that we were going away for the weekend and took a taxi to
what was then [and is now again] called Wilson Station. The train reached the
border between the Protectorate and Germany proper in some 30 minutes. Instead
of regular border guards, the border was policed by the dreaded SS, in their
black uniforms with the skull and bones emblem on their caps.
The train stopped
and by that time we were almost its only passengers. Two SS men came and
demanded our documents. My spirits sank to the lowest level ever. I turned over
our passports, our Gestapo permits, and also our tickets. The man said: "How did
you get the exit permit." I knew we would be lost if I seemed worried. So I
answered very businesslike: "If you have any questions, why don't you call your
headquarters in Prague. They will tell you." All of this in German, of course.
The two did not say
a word, simply collected the documents and left. I saw them walk straight to the
station building. I was never so scared in my life. I knew they could take us
off the train and that would be the last of us. In fact, they turned back before
reaching the station and came right to our wagon. I was sure they would arrest
us right then.
Instead they came
in, returned our documents and said: "Heil Hitler. Wir wunschen Ihnen angenehme
Reise" [We wish you a pleasant trip]. I just mumbled and they left. The train
started immediately and an hour later we were in Germany. Evidently my reply
made them think. We might get into trouble, they thought, the signature on the
permit was that of the Head of the Gestapo in the Protectorate and it was
genuine. Fortunately, the Germans have a proper respect for their superiors and
for discipline.
Now I come back to
why I had been so frightened: I knew that the original list submitted by Miss
Wellington listed Frank Munk as six years old, and Nadia as five years old. Had the
two telephoned to Prague, our age would have been revealed and we would have been
trapped. It was our salvation that the grey card issued by the Gestapo did not
give the age -- only the name and number of passport. But it was a very narrow
escape.
I was still
apprehensive. By now it was early afternoon. We had to travel all across Germany
throughout the night. They could still arrest us since they knew our itinerary
from the railroad tickets. I was relieved when the train arrived in Leipzig,
Germany, towards evening: There on the quai was standing a man in the brown
uniform of the Nazi SA, the stormtroopers, waving at us!
That is another
story. Some time in 1934 a German lawyer named Thiersch from Leipzig, with whom
I had some business relations, came to Prague to ask me if I would keep some
funds for him in case he needed them. The reason that he wanted some money
outside Germany was that he mistrusted Hitler and thought he would bring about
disaster. Czechoslovakia then seemed safer to him. After the invasion he came
again and I returned his money. He then said if we ever needed help to send him
a wire saying: "Aunt Mary arriving at ...." and he would be at the station.
Indeed he was. He
had brought oranges for the children, which were appreciated, since we had no
money, only the food we had brought along. What I did say was that he wore the
brown uniform of the SA, the Nazi storm troopers. Evidently, he had seen the
light in the meantime. The German conductor, who had seen him welcome us, was
very polite to us after that.
We crossed the
border of Holland in the morning and my wife practically kissed the Dutch
conductor when he came in. But there was a problem: we were not permitted to
take any money out and I was afraid to try smuggling. Unknown to me, Nadia had
taken one single $20 bill. She concealed it behind the picture of a German town
in the car. Once across the Dutch border, she tried to take it out, but, alas,
the bill had disappeared somewhere behind the wall. We were thus penniless, but
happy.
The train disgorged
us in Hook van Holland and we took the ferry to Harwich, England, where Tom
Bonner expected us. He was on a Guggenheim Fellowship in Cambridge that year. As
a last greeting to the Continent, I guess, as the ferry was entering Harwich
harbor, Suzie suddenly took Michael's new cap and threw it into the sea. We were
in England.
[Note: My father presented a paper titled
Leaving Prague:
A History Of
The Munks’ Family Departure
From Prague In 1938-1939 at the Monday Club in
Seattle that details this escape in more detail.]
The
books listed below provide additional background on this period of history to
help illustrate this portion of my grandfather's memoirs.
Non-Fiction
