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An Imigrant's Story
I had the good luck of being born an American to immigrant parents. I’ve not suffered any kind of physical or mental deprivation in my life and have had a fairly secure and comfortable life. My parent’s lives were very different from mine. My parents were both born in what was at that time the Austrian Hungarian Empire. My mom, Piros Rosenberg, was born in Miskolz, Hungary and my father, Max Drechsler in Trnava, Czechoslovakia. They met in the United States a year after each of them had immigrated. My dad came in 1922 and mom came in 1923. They met in Chicago at a meeting of young Hungarian newcomers to America. Each of them went to this group’s meetings with the intent of meeting someone and, perhaps, marrying that person. When they met and started going out with each other, my mom had a problem that she didn’t wish to disclose to her future husband. She was three years older than he and she didn't think he'd be comfortable with that knowledge. At the time, many young men would not be interested in marrying an older woman. Not only was she older –– she was already an old maid at the ripe old age of 30! The solution for her was to lie about her age. A lie that she did not divulge to anyone until we celebrated her birthday when she was, we thought, 87 years old. As we were about to sing “Happy Birthday” she she told us that she needed to confess something that would be very surprising to all of us, especially my father. She told us the truth, that it was really her 90th birthday. My father’s reaction was that he knew it all along. Mom told me that she decided upon my father as a suitor because, although he had been in the war, meaning World War One, he had survived unharmed. His rival was a man who had been gassed in the war, and that fellow posed potential health problems for the future. In addition my parents thought his tailoring and her dressmaking would enable them to open a shop and earn a living. They were very practical people, but their plans worked out because they remained married for more than 60 years. My father arrived here after years of waiting for his visa. He and his parents had each received visas in 1914. The parents did not want to leave because American Immigration Law at that time excluded children younger than 12. If they came to America they would have had to leave their two year old child behind, and that was not going to happen. My dad couldn’t leave because the war started and he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army. He was eighteen years old. Although Trnava was a Slovak town it was part of Austro-Hungarian at that time. My father, Max, as he was born in 1896. At the age of 13 he was sent to live with his uncle in Budapest in order to learn how to be a tailor. There he was paid a very small stipend. He needed to buy his own food, pay for his room and board, and send money home to his parents. He often reminisced about the lunches he bought for himself. Usually it was a smoked fish and a slice of bread and butter. He claimed to be an expert at boning a smoked fish, and he was. He told me he had his trunk packed and his ticket purchased when the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo on June 28,1914 occurred. Ferdinand's death at the hands of the Backhand, a Serbian nationalist secret society set in motion a mindlessly mechanical series of events that culminated in the world's first global war. Austria-Hungary, declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.
Russia, bound by treaty to Serbia, announced mobilization of its vast army in her defense, a slow process that would take around six weeks to complete. Germany, allied to Austria-Hungary by treaty, viewed the Russian mobilization as an act of war against Austria-Hungary, and after scant warning declared war on Russia on August 1st.
France, bound by treaty to Russia, responded by announcing war against Germany and, by extension, on Austria-Hungary on August 3rd. Germany promptly responded by invading neutral Belgium so as to reach Paris by the shortest possible route.
Britain allied to France by a more loosely worded treaty, which placed a "moral obligation" upon her to defend France, declared war against Germany on August 4. Her reason for entering the conflict lay in another direction: she was obligated to defend neutral Belgium by the terms of a 75-year old treaty. With Germany's invasion of Belgium, and the Belgian King's appeal to Britain for assistance, Britain committed herself to Belgium's defense later that day. Like France, she was by extension also at war with Austria-Hungary. With Britain’s entry into the war, her colonies and dominions abroad variously offered military and financial assistance, and included Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa.
United States President Woodrow Wilson declared a U.S. policy of absolute neutrality, an official stance that would last until 1917 when Germany's policy of unrestricted submarine warfare - which seriously threatened America's commercial shipping forced the U.S. to finally enter the war on April 6,1917.
Japan, honoring a military agreement with Britain, declared war on Germany on August 23,1914 Two days later Austria-Hungary responded by declaring war on Japan. After minimal basic training my father was sent to an army battalion that was marching towards Belgium to join other companies in the battle. Because he was a short person with short legs, he had trouble keeping up. So, he tied a rope to his body and attached it to a supply vehicle that was moving along in front of him as an aid to moving faster. Or so he said. This vehicle carried a sewing machine in addition to other supplies. When they arrived at a very large trench that was in the midst of the battle field, he set up a tailor shop in the very rear of the trench, and spent his entire time altering and repairing the officers uniforms while shells screamed overhead.
And so he survived the Great War, and here I am.
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Contributor's Note
My dad lived to be 97 and my mom died at 101. Both with their wits about them and able to tell me their story.
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Three Abstract artists
Max Drechsler 1914
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lovely story
Thanks for sharing Julie - my wife is Jewish and her family escaped from Poland to here in Britain just in time. All the best, Ollie
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