Get Those Toes!

There were rows of snake-rail fencing surrounding the fields where we were camping. Several soldiers had been asked to begin tearing the wood logs down and chop them up for the campfires and cooking. While I was helping separate the coffee and sugar rations before dinner I heard several of the men yelling and laughing by one of the nearby fences. When I went over to see what they were yelling about I saw that one of the men was pulling an axe out of his boot. Somehow he had missed the log he was chopping on and the axe blade had sunk into the top of his foot.

                The man’s face had gone ghostly white. The axe blade was near the toe-end of his boot. When he pulled it up and saw the blood on the axe head he exhaled a curse that caused the other soldiers around him to erupt in laughter.

                “Does it hurt, Henry?” asked one of the soldiers.

                “Not too bad. Maybe I just nicked myself,” he answered. He sat down on another log and took off his boot. I gasped when I saw that the three smallest toes on his sockless left foot were gone. They had been cut clean off leaving behind three raspberry shaped nubs.

                “Well! Where’s yur toes, Henry?” asked one of the laughing soldiers.

                Henry picked up his boot and turned it upside down and began shaking it out. I watched as three little white sausages fell out into the grass.

                “Get those toes before the dogs do, Henry!” Another round of laughter erupted. Henry claimed there wasn’t much pain to be felt, at least not yet. Regardless he was given a discharge and sent back home. I overheard some of the other soldiers claiming that Henry did it on purpose just for that reason. They said that when he heard the guns from Gettysburg booming in the distance he began to grow yellow. Maybe that was true, maybe not. Either way I’m sure there were some other soldiers there who were more than a little jealous of Henry’s discharge orders.

--from Time Trip #4: Killing for Country

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4

KILLING FOR COUNTRY  

To be released in March 2013! 

Makin' Me Itch

     The vegetable rations we were given that night looked like dried out blocks of green cheese mixed with pork fat. “You need to boil those,” said Mr. Ankles. “Like this.” He took the dry block and dropped it in one of the mess pans of hot water. Within a few minutes the block began to break apart and the dried out parsnips, carrots, and turnips within began to plump up a little. “Looks like you got some onions in this one.” Mr. Ankles poked at the floating vegetables with his knife, investigating each morsel. The vegetables had no flavor at all and they had the consistency of hot mush. “No you know why our boys’ll be cleanin’ out some of them gardens round here.” Mr. Ankles chuckled again and finished eating his steak.

     “What you cookin’, Nicky?” asked Steven. I looked over and saw the other drummer boy poking a stick into a mess kettle that was hung over a fire. The water in the kettle was beginning to boil over. Nicky lifted the stick up out of the water and a gray mass of wet clothing lifted up with it. I realized now that he was only wearing an undershirt and long johns. “Why you cookin’ your clothes?”

     “Damn lice,” said Nicky. “Makin’ me itch. I heard this is the only way to git rid of ‘em.”

     “You have lice?” I asked.

     “Yeah. Awful little critters.” The camp cooks used mess kettles to boil coffee, soups, and our peach sauce among other things. Some of the men also used them boil their clothes when they had lice which apparently was spreading through the camp like crazy.

I took off my cap and ran my hand through my shaggy hair. It was natty and filthy and probably hadn’t been washed in months. I looked at my dirty fingers and there they were. A couple tiny, clear-skinned bugs in my sweaty hand.  “Ah, crap.”

     “You need a mess kettle, too, Zammie?” I looked up and saw Steven grinning at me. 

--from Time Trip #4: Killing for Country

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4

KILLING FOR COUNTRY  

To be released in March 2013! 

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1

THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 

Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2

A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3

WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 

Available at Amazon.com!  

What's Obon?

“What’s Obon?” asked Kyla.

“What’s Obon?” Masahiro appeared almost insulted at Kyla’s question. “It’s only the best festival of the year.”

“A festival?” asked Kyla. Her countenance brightened with the thought of another celebration.

“Yes. It’s when the gateway between the dead and the living opens up so that all of our ancestors can return home to visit.”

“You mean ghosts?” asked Kyla.

“Exactly,” answered Masahiro. A sly grin crossed his face.

“Don’t scare her, Masa-san,” said Sadako.

“It’s good that they come back and visit us, Kyla, to see what’s going on,” continued Masahiro, “but sometimes they won’t leave. Sometimes even the spirits of murder victims will return to haunt their killers.”

“What?” Kyla loved these types of stories. “Is that true?”

“Honest,” answered Masahiro. “I heard about one man who had been married for many years to his wife, but then he met another woman. Someone younger and more beautiful and he fell in love with her. So the man poisoned his wife which not only killed her but disfigured the muscles on the right side of her face like this.” Masahiro made a grotesque face with his tongue dangling out.

“Ah, how mean,” said Kyla.

Masahiro continued, “Well, he threw her dead body down into a deep well out near the mountains. So now the man was free to marry his new bride and life went on as normal for them. Then, when the next Obon festival came around, the man began to hear horrible sobbing coming from outside his house at night. It was coming from some crazy homeless woman standing near his gate. 

Obon lasts for three nights. On the first night the man did his best to ignore the sobbing. On the second night, he yelled out his window ‘Whoever that is, you’d better stop crying! Get away from my home!’ But the crying and wailing didn’t stop. It grew louder. On the final night of Obon the man couldn’t take the noise anymore. So he grabbed an axe and ran out to where the woman was standing. He was about to threaten her with the axe when she looked up at him.” Masahiro acted out a dramatic glare at both Kyla and Sadako. 

Masahiro continued, “And he immediately recognized the woman as his old wife. Her bloated and twisted face glistened in the moonlight from the well water that had filled her body. She began to move towards the man, but he was so scared he swung the axe to keep her away and it lodged deep into her ribs. CRUNCH!” Masahiro imitated the swing of the axe. “The woman fell to the ground and the man ran back to his house in terror. He jumped into bed and pulled the blankets up over his head. The crying outside had stopped, and eventually the man fell asleep. Usually when he awoke, the man’s new wife would already be making him breakfast. Frying fish, boiling rice, heating tea. But that morning she was nowhere to be found. When the man stepped outside he saw the body of the woman he had attacked that night still in the front yard. He ran out to drag the body back to the well, but when he rolled the woman over he saw that it was actually the body of his new wife. She still had the bloody axe wound in her side. The first wife had gotten her revenge. True story.”

“Really? That’s not a true story, is it, Sadako?” asked Kyla.

“Well—“

“Of course it is,” interrupted Masahiro. The sly grin never left his face. “All the stories I tell are true.”

--from Time Trip #4: Killing for Country

A Japanese family celebrating Obon.

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4

KILLING FOR COUNTRY  

To be released in March 2013! 

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1

THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 

Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2

A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3

WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 

Available at Amazon.com!  

The Chinese Oscar Schindler: Dr. Feng-Shan Ho

Dr. Feng-Shan Ho was one of the first diplomats to save Jews by issuing them visas to escape the Holocaust. He was responsible for saving thousands of Jews in Nazi occupied Austria in 1938 and 1939, yet he was completely unknown, even by the people whom he saved.

He was described as a man with a "compassionate heart." That compassion was most likely the result of his background. Born on September 10 1901, in rural Yiyang in Hunan Province, China, his name Feng Shan means "Phoenix on the Mountain." Poor and fatherless by age seven, he and his family were helped by the Norwegian Lutheran Mission. Feng Shan Ho was educated in their schools and felt a lifelong gratitude.

--From the University of Minnesota's 

Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

After Austria’s annexation to Nazi Germany in March 1938, the 185,000 Jews there were subjected to a severe reign of terror, which resulted in intense pressure to leave the country. In order to do so, the Nazis required that Jews have entry visas or boat tickets to another country. However, the majority of the world’s nations refused to budge from their restrictive immigration policies.

Unlike his fellow-diplomats, Feng-Shan Ho, who served as the Chinese consul-general in Vienna during 1938-1940, issued visas to Shanghai to all requesting them, even to those wishing to travel elsewhere but needing a visa to leave Nazi Germany.

Many of those helped by Ho did indeed reach Shanghai, either by boat from Italy or overland via the Soviet Union. Many others made use of their visas to reach alternate destinations, including Palestine, the Philippines, and elsewhere.

The rush for visas assumed panic proportions during and immediately after Kristallnacht, in November 1938, when thousands of Jews were thrown into concentration camps, only gaining release if their relatives produced visas or tickets for travel to other destinations. Gerda Gottfried Kraus, based in Canada, relates that after Kristallnacht, her husband waited in a long line for admittance into the Chinese consulate. Seeing a car approaching the consulate’s gates, he thrust his application form through its window. “Apparently, the consul-general received it, because [my husband] then got a call and received the visas.”

Ho refused to abide by the instructions of his superior, the Chinese ambassador in Berlin, Chen Jie. Chen Jie, hoping to cement closer ties between China and Germany, had forbidden Ho to issue visas on such a large scale, estimated to run into the hundreds, perhaps even thousands. Although visas were not required for entrance to Shanghai, such a document was, as noted, a prerequisite for Jews wishing to leave Nazi Germany. It is believed that the “demerit” which was entered in Ho’s personal file, in 1939, at the Chinese Foreign Ministry was linked to his insubordinate behavior towards his immediate superior, the ambassador in Berlin, on the issue of the visas. After a long diplomatic career, Ho retired in 1973, and died in 1997, at the age of 96.

Dr. Feng-Shan Ho's diplomatic passport.

It was only after his passing that evidence by survivors who benefited from Ho’s aid began to reach Yad Vashem. After carefully evaluating the case, the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous decided to award Feng-Shan Ho the title of Righteous Among the Nations for his humanitarian courage in issuing Chinese visas to Jews in Vienna in spite of orders from his superior to the contrary.

--from the Jewish Virtual Library

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4

KILLING FOR COUNTRY  

Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1

THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 

Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2

A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3

WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 

Available at Amazon.com!  

Bund Deutscher Mädel in der Hitler-Jugend

The League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel - or BDM - in German) or League of German Maidens, was the girl's wing of the overall Nazi party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. It was the only female youth organization in Nazi Germany. The activities described in The World This Century: Working with Evidence by Neil DeMarco (from which most of this post was taken) portrays a number of rather trite and typical programs instigated by many strong and centralized Western powers. The chilling aspect of such cultural programs that involve a nation's youth is the level of collective brainwashing and lack of critical dissent that these programs can lead to. One of the reasons that the atrocities of Nazi Germany were able to build to such a horrifying level without being checked was because of the seemingly innocent and positive programs sponsored by Nazi leadership that were meant for children.

At first, the League of German Girls  consisted of two sections: the Jungmädel, or Young Girls League, for girls ages 10 to 14, and the League proper for girls ages 14 to 18. In 1938, a third section was introduced, the Faith and Beauty Society, which was voluntary and open to girls between the ages of 17 and 21.


The outbreak of World War II altered the role of the BDM, though not as radically as it did the role of the boys in the Hitler Youth, who were to be fed into the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) or the National Labor Service as soon as they turned 18. The BDM helped the war effort in many ways. Younger girls collected donations of money, as well as goods such as clothing or old newspapers for the Winter Relief and other Nazi charitable organizations. Many groups, particularly BDM choirs and musical groups, visited wounded soldiers at hospitals or sent care packages to the front. Girls knitted socks, grew gardens, and engaged in similar tasks. 

The older girls volunteered as nurses' aides at hospitals, or to help at train stations where wounded soldiers or refugees needed a hand. After 1943, as Allied air attacks on German cities increased, many BDM girls went into paramilitary and military services ("Wehrmachtshelferin"), where they served as Flak Helpers, signals auxiliaries, searchlight operators, and office staff. Unlike male Hitler Youths, BDM girls took little part in the actual fighting or operation of weaponry, although some Flak Helferinnen operated anti-aircraft guns.

Many older girls, with Hitler Youth were sent to Poland as part of the Germanisation efforts. These girls, along with Hitler Youth, were first to oversee the eviction of Poles to make room for new settlers and ensure they did not take much from their homes, as furniture and the like were to be left there for the settlers. Their task were then to educate ethnic Germans, either living in Poland or resettled there from the Baltic states, according to German ways. This included instruction in the German language, as many spoke only Polish or Russian. They also had to organize the younger ones into the League. 

Because many Hitler Youth leaders were drafted into the military, the task of organizing the boys into Hitler Youth also fell heavily on the League. They were also to provide help on the farm and in the household. As the only contact with German authorities, they were often requested to help with the occupation authorities, and they put on various entertainments such as songfests to encourage the down-spirited new settlers. Some members were sent to the colony of Hegewald for such efforts even when they had to receive gas masks and soldier escorts. Conversely, the young Polish girls who were selected for "racially valuable traits" and sent to Germany for Germanization were made to join the League as part of the Germanization.

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4

KILLING FOR COUNTRY  

To be released in March 2013! 

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2

A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Available at Amazon.com!

Fending off Wolves

Sometime later I was awoken by falling rain drops. They were big, fat ones that fell through the trees and landed on my forehead. I must have been asleep for a couple hours because the rest of the village had grown quiet. The only noise I could hear was the pattering of the rain hitting the ground and the huts. The pattering sound was quickly escalating in intensity and soon the rain had turned into a solid downpour.

My small campfire was extinguished. I ran over to take shelter under one of the maple trees when I heard what sounded like a child’s scream coming from deep within the forest. I listened for it again, but the rain was covering nearly every other noise. The forest was spooky dark, and the rain clouds had blacked out all light from the moon and stars.

Then I heard it again: a small child’s cry. I stood up and began slowly walking into the woods towards where I believed the cry had come from. If Kyla had been here she probably would have been warning me that it was a ghost. I didn’t believe in such nonsense. It sounded like a child crying for help and I wanted to make sure no one was in trouble.

I stepped through the woods, reaching out to the trees to guide my way. My eyes were somewhat adjusted to the darkness. I could at least make out shapes and silhouettes. I heard the cry again, this time followed by a command to go away. It was a young child’s voice, probably one of the five or six-year-old kids from the village.

I climbed up a small hill that was covered in mud, and when I reached the top I could see the child standing in the tall grass on the other side holding a tree branch above his head like a baseball bat.

“Go away!” he said again.

In the darkness it was difficult to tell, but there appeared to be a few shapes slowly moving towards the boy. Animals of some sort. I grabbed a stick from the ground next to me and threw it at one of the moving shapes. The animal flinched and looked back at me. I could tell now that it was a small pack of wolves: their ears high and pointy, their mouths scrunched up into snarls. There were four of them that I could count and they had surrounded the young boy from several directions.

I felt along the ground for something else to throw and I found a couple rocks about the size of eggs. I picked them up and threw one at the lead wolf like I was pitching little league. I think I hit it in the face because it yelped and jumped back.

I knew that animals could sense fear so I did all I could to express nothing but courage. Don’t be a coward now, Zammie. I also knew that wolves rarely attacked people, but that was during modern times. Maybe 400 years in the past things were different.

“Get outta here!” I yelled with every ounce of strength I could muster. I threw the second stone and hit the lead wolf again. This time they scattered and ran back into the forest.

I ran over to the little boy. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

“No. But mother!” He pointed towards another person who was lying in the grass. I ran over to see it was the boy’s young mother. She had received a vicious bite wound above her right knee and she was bleeding badly. She also had bite wounds on her arms below the elbow. She had probably received those while trying to fend off the wolves.

I touched her neck to feel for a pulse and she opened her eyes.

“You’re alive!” Silly thing for me to say, but I wasn’t sure at first. “Can you walk?”

She tried to move her leg and she winced in pain. “My ankle.”

I looked down at her ankle and saw that it was swollen up like a baked potato. “Don’t worry,” I said. “We’re gonna get you home.”

--Fending off Wolves

from Time Trip #3: Witness to the First Thanksgiving

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4

KILLING FOR COUNTRY  

Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3

WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 

Available at Amazon.com!  

Adventure 4: Killing for Country

"I thought dying for your country was the worst thing that could happen to you, and I don't think it is. I think killing for your country can be a lot worse. Because that's the memory that haunts."

--Senator Bob Kerrey, Vietnam Veteran

From Civil War to Civil Rights . . .

From a simple pistol to the atomic bomb . . .

TIME TRIP #4: KILLING FOR COUNTRY
 is a journey through history 
unlike anything you've ever read.

The latest installment in the Time Trip series will push the boundaries of historical adventure once again, sending Zammie and Kyla on an epic path across three continents as they experience the lead up, breaking point, and culmination of war and its impact on the children who have to live through it.

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4

KILLING FOR COUNTRY  

Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1

THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 

Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2

A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3

WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 

Available at Amazon.com!