Wanderlust led to Costa Mesa

Sixty-nine-year-old Hanny Schroeder has lived in Costa Mesa since the

late ‘60s, after living in New York and San Francisco.

She was born in Germany and grew up there during World War II.

Because of her strict German upbringing, her mother would not let

Schroeder leave the country -- in fact, she went on a hunger strike

until she was allowed to go to the States, although her sister

secretly fed her the entire time.

The Daily Pilot’s Lindsay Sandham sat down with Schroeder to hear

her stories about growing up in the midst of a war and traveling

around the United States afterward.

How long have you lived in Costa Mesa?

Let’s see, I’ve been in this area probably since the ‘60s. My son

was born in ‘66, and that was in San Francisco, so ’68.

And you came from Germany?

Originally, yeah. I came to the States in ’55. I came into New

York and lived in New York for almost nine years before I moved to

San Francisco.

Was New York a little much for you?

No, it’s still my favorite city, but you need money to live in New

York. But it’s my favorite city because everything is there -- the

theaters, the museums, everything. You don’t need a car. But as far

as climate is concerned, this is the place.

Do you often go back to Germany to visit?

As a matter of fact, I haven’t been to Germany in 25 years, but

I’m going May 2 for the first time.

What prompted this trip?

Just to see family -- I have a sister and a brother still at home.

I haven’t met my grandnieces and nephews ... so I’m just flying over

for eight days, and it’s in Northern Germany. Not many Americans know

Northern Germany: It’s as flat as a pancake.... It’s that narrow part

of Germany on the Danish border.

I’m excited to see the family. Like my sisters there say, “Oh

you’re coming home!” And I say, “No, I’m coming to visit my family;

my home is now here.” I have my son here. This is home to me.

What made you want to come to the States in the first place?

What we call wanderlust. Before I came here, I was a year in

Sweden already. I wanted to see different countries and learn

different languages. When I first came, I came into the Bronx in New

York and we learned the Oxford English in school -- I had five years

of English before I came here. Well, I might as well have spoken

Russian because they couldn’t understand me. So I went to school in

the Bronx where I lived at the time.

What made you come to California?

I actually was going to visit a girlfriend who was from Latvia. We

met in New York and she moved to San Francisco, but when I came here,

she had moved to Florida. I was going to surprise her, you know, and

she had moved to Florida. So I stayed at the Y until I found a place,

you know, where I could rent a room.

You grew up in Germany during World War II. Do you remember the

war at all?

Oh yes. I was 9-years-old when the war was over. Every night when

the British bombers came, because our part of the country was

British-occupied, we had to take our bedding and everything and go

out into the country -- we lived in town -- and sleep in barns and so

on.

Were you always frightened?

No, you aren’t frightened. It’s part of your daily life. I can

tell you horror stories from [the] bombings, and you had to go and

help your neighbors and everything. I found an arm in a tree with the

wedding band still on it.

I don’t watch any war movies, like about the Holocaust. We didn’t

know. You have to understand: We lived in a dictatorship, so all you

hear is what you’re supposed to hear. The country is sealed off from

outside news. I learned when I came to New York and saw the first

movies, then I understood.

But your father was pretty high up in the German government?

Yes, my father. My mother, on the opposite, she smuggled Jews out

of the country, which my father never even knew -- they were divorced

in 1948, you know.

She then smuggled them out of the country, and the kids didn’t

know about I, but we weren’t allowed into our coal cellar.

Well later on, we found out that’s where the Jews were hidden, and

since we were so close to the Danish border, she smuggled them into

Denmark, and from there, they went up to Norway and so on. She did

that with selling alcohol on the black market -- that’s how she

financed it.