Page 10 - SC Senior Living Guide

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remembers wearing crisp uniforms that them in English.
made them feel important.
“We got acquainted, and when they
“They brainwashed you, but we had so found out we spoke better English than
much fun being brainwashed,” she said. they did, they got more interested, “
“I was an only child, and I enjoyed this Zervos said. “That’s one thing about
so much being with other people.” Americans. I think they know better, but
their grammar is horrible.”
Zervos heard Hitler speak on a number
of occasions, and she remembers his Zervos said she accidentally revealed
powerful oratory. the girls’ proficiency in English after
she heard one of the Americans ask his
“He had us so full of air,” she said.
comrades who in the town might be
After World War II, Germany was able to do his laundry. Zervos spoke up,
divided into four zones each overseen and told him her aunt would do the job,
by a different world power — England, but not for money. Instead, she would
America, France and Russia. Eutin was do it in exchange for chocolate, cocoa
in the Russian zone. and coffee — commodities not then
The Russian soldiers were not well- available to most Germans.
respected in Eutin, and residents felt the The soldier, a young Pete Zervos, told
need to send their young daughters to her that could be arranged. The conver-
live elsewhere for their protection. sation led to Zervos establishing a rela-

After being dressed as one of the foreign tionship with the family and dating the
soldiers working for her father, the teen- teenage Gerda. After about six weeks, he
age Zervos set off on a two-hour wagon was moved back to the American zone
ride to the American zone — from and the pair parted.
where she proceeded to live with her But a month later, there was a knock at
aunt in the British zone. the door. And there stood Pete Zervos
It was there she and her friend Helga with a ring for his future wife.
met American soldiers stationed there Most of the young women in Germany
as part of the Graves Registration had wanted to marry the British sol-
Service, whose members were working diers, who were seen as more gentle-
to locate the bodies of American pilots manly. But they were also more “stiff
shot down in the area. and formal,” according to Zervos. She
Romance in the British Zone said the Americans “wanted to be your
The American soldiers were seen as friend.” She had found Zervos “pleas-
“hoodlums” and were called “Chicago ant.”
Gangsters” by the locals, who witnessed Zervos decided she would marry Zervos,
them steal fruit and vegetables and cre- which would mean going back with him
ate other mischief in town. to America. They immediately began

Zervos and her friends would go swim- the paperwork process, and a little more
ming at the beach near the hotel where than a year later, in 1949, the couple
the Americans were staying, but the was married with their first child in Ger-
girls wouldn’t let the soldiers know they many and on their way to America.
understood every word they said about Continued on page 51