Camp Ohio Resident Roman Berezowsky

March 3, 2019.  Sometimes the people you meet in the course of researching Camp Ohio provide extraordinary information.  One of these special people is Roman BEREZOWSKY, who was a child in Camp Ohio.

Roman’s parents not only kept documents and shared stories about life in the camp, but a few years ago Roman and his wife Marilyn came to meet us, and brought along an album from his father Stefan.  Some of the photos in the album I’d never seen before, while other photos were copies of those already in our photo archive.  What was unusual about this album was that every photo was clearly labelled and identified, to the best of Stefan’s knowledge.  We had context, dates, and identification of people, places, and events for the first time for many of these photos.

In addition to making the trek across Canada for a meeting, Roman and Marilyn also attended the 2017 commemoration ceremony in Burgdorf.  (See Burgdorf Rolls Out the Red Carpet and Children In Camp Ohio – Then and Now), and they also plan to attend the upcoming Camp Ohio Reunion in July in Prince Edward Island.  (See Upcoming Camp Ohio Reunion In North America)

Roman has shared excerpts from his life in Camp Ohio, including his report card.  (See Camp Ohio School Memories)  Now he has shared more of his family’s story, the road taken to Camp Ohio, and childhood memories from the camp.

“My paternal grandfather, Michael Genik-Sas-Berezowsky, (born in 1880, in Vizhniy Bereziv, in what is now the Ivano-Frankivsk province) was a judge in the town of Kolomya, in Western Ukraine. ‘Genik’, as best as I can understand, is the ‘family’ surname, while ‘Berezowsky’ refers to Bereziv, and ‘Sas’ apparently denotes gentry sometime in the distant past.  Today, the ‘Sas’ plus $4 can get me a decent cup of coffee!”

Roman’s father Stefan was born in 1910 in Kolomya, then went to Danzig (now Gdansk), Poland, “where he received a diploma in Electrical Technology/Engineering. After completion of his studies in Danzig, he returned to Kolomya, and started up a bakery with a friend, because he was not able to locate employment in his field of studies. In 1939, he married my mother Manda, who had been born in a neighbouring town, Kossiw, and whose family had later moved to Kolomya. Her father had also been a judge.”

Daily life changed at the onset of WWII.  “Then came the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in the latter part of 1939, and with it – the Soviets, who ‘liberated’ Western Ukraine. And, amongst other things, they liberated the bakery from my father.”

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a neutrality pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that was signed in Moscow on August 23, 1939. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and Soviet leader Stalin ordered the invasion of Poland on September 17. In that time period, Western Ukraine was part of Poland. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact for more information.)  

Roman’s family was not in a good place, to say the least, but his father had an escape plan. “Because my father spoke German, and had some relatives in Germany, he and my mother were able to leave western Ukraine and flee to the west in January 1940. Initially, they went to Poznan where my mother and father had some friends. With his technical credentials, my father managed to obtain employment with Siemens, in Nuremberg, Germany. In late 1940, Siemens transferred him back to Poznan.  I was born there on November 4, 1941.”

The family survived the war, but once WWII was over they were in danger again.  “After the war, we ended up in what became designated as the Soviet Zone. But that was the last place we, or any Ukrainians would want to be, as the Soviets were determined to, at best, ‘repatriate’ (to Siberia) whatever Ukrainian refugees they could round up. Some friends helped us escape. Apparently they stole a truck and dressed it up as a Red Cross truck.  My mother wore a nurse’s uniform, and we managed to get through several check points, and traveled through several Displaced Persons Camps.”

(Image credit: Bos, Carole “Map: Occupation Zones of Germany After World War II” AwesomeStories.com.)

The family were in several camps before arriving in Camp Ohio.  “We arrived in Burgdorf in October 1945. I remember the last ride, in the back of an open truck as it was cold, and my ears had been folded over and taped shut to prevent me from getting a cold or pneumonia. So, I was almost four years old, when we arrived in Camp Ohio.”

In Camp Ohio, Roman and his parents were able to reunite with his paternal grandparents, who had been in DP Camp Neubeuren in the American Zone. “Shortly before we immigrated to Canada in 1948, my paternal grandparents joined us in Camp Ohio and we came to Canada together. Meanwhile, my mother’s parents, her older brother and his wife and their young son had been taken from Kolomya by the Soviet troops, and exiled to Siberia. My maternal grandparents passed away while in exile, but my mother’s older brother and his family, including his son Vladimir – my cousin – eventually returned to Western Ukraine.”

Life became slightly more settled in Camp Ohio, and childhood activities could resume for the two years the family was in residence.  “I went to kindergarten, where my mother was a teacher. Then, grade one, where my teachers included Mrs Bodnaruk and Mrs Kowal, who were the mothers of my two closest friends, Bohdan and Yurij. They were almost a year older than me, but let me tag along with them. Together we did many things, some of them not so good. One bad habit we had – for a while – was standing on the side of the road and waiting for cars to approach, then running across the street. Apparently, good training for me, as much later, in high school in Toronto, I was on several championship sprinting teams.”

Roman recalled attending a boxing match. “One time, my father took me to the sports complex to watch a major outdoor boxing match. I had the impression that one of the athletes was a famous boxer, but from where we were, even on my father’s shoulders, as he stood there in the huge crowd, I could barely see the boxing ring.”  If anyone is aware of this event or the boxers, please let me know.

Roman developed a fondness for German beer at an early age…. “I recall tasting my first beer, in one of the beer halls in Burgdorf. Several of my friends and I had wandered into town, and into a beer hall, and I stood beside a table, watching several gentlemen drinking beer from steins of clear glass. One of them handed me his beer stein – which was almost empty – and encouraged me to finish it. The glass was so heavy that I spilled most of the beer on myself, but still managed to taste some. My first beer!” During the 2017 commemoration ceremony in Burgdorf, Roman said that he “found what has become my favourite beer – Paulaner weissbier.“

While Roman was involved in childhood activities in Camp Ohio, and his mother taught at the elementary school, his father Stefan was involved in camp administration.  “According to my father, he was assigned the responsibility of auditing and recording the various occupations and skills of the people in the camp. He did so, reported them to the British authorities, but then asked – we have all these people with many skills, experience and professions, but without tools and equipment, what can they do? A young American lady stated that she could help, and managed to eventually provide much of the requested tools and equipment. My father then inquired about the lady, who seemed to have so much influence, and was told she was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s niece.”  Up to now, we have not been able to verify the story of a woman who might have been the niece of an American president.  Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, President Roosevelt’s widow, visited various displaced persons camps in Germany, but there is no record of her visiting Camp Ohio.

Roman’s father Stefan died in 1999, and his mother Manda in 2014.  His grandfather Michael died in 1959, and his grandmother Neonila in 1960. Now retired, Roman has reflected that his time in Camp Ohio gave him a firm footing for his life and career in Canada.  “The time spent in Camp Ohio made a very valuable contribution to my development, and the study habits which I developed, even in my brief period in the school, served as an excellent basis and preparation for my subsequent studies in Canada. I obtained my PhD in Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto in 1970.”

Roman and Marilyn Berezowsky during a Mediterranean cruise. (Photo courtesy of R Berezowsky)

Thank you to Roman for sharing his family’s story.  Do you remember any members of Roman’s family or any of the events he discussed?  Do you have a story of your own that you’d like to share? Comments can be made on this blog or by sending an email to dariadv@yahoo.ca. Don’t forget to check out the photos on our website at http://www.dpcamps.org/burgdorf.html.

Upcoming 2019 Camp Ohio Reunion: Want to learn more about Camp Ohio? Would you like to meet some of the former residents and their families? A reunion is being planned in beautiful Prince Edward Island, Canada July 9 to 12 in 2019. Meet up with old friends, make new ones, share memories and photos!

© Daria Valkenburg