Page 28 - San Diego Woman Magazine Digital Version

Women of Distinction

Gratitude with a pillow over her head did
not drown out the loud voices
full of abusive sounding words.
Vivianne watched her mother
By Carol Heath lose some of her love for life- she
begged her mother to leave, a
Photos courtesy of Vivianne Knebel
full stomach and warm clothes
were not worth her mother‘s
unhappiness. Marija told her
Germany. In times of war every felt life changing even at her children it was just too hard to
relationship may be your last, so young age. That little girl with survive, she was tired and didn‘t
you give of yourself freely, and her silver pail, so confident, so want them to be hungry or cold
Marija wore her heart on her proud, began to disappear and anymore. The loud fights con-
sleeve like so many other young being held back to repeat the tinued, sometimes turning into
first grade added to this heavy
“I her second child, Marija vowed feeling. Vivianne began to lose her mother would not leave him.
German girls.
physical altercations, but again
remember carrying a
By 1943, and the birth of
her confidence and her self-es-
When Vivianne turned
little metal pail, I think
I was about 5 or maybe
As the years passed the
from falling bombs, crumbling
people would say her older sister
6, and I went to this department to protect both her daughters teem began to waiver. 13, she began to recognize that
store that was just rebuilt after buildings and hunger - the ever Pavic family survived, however was beautiful with her fully
being destroyed during the war. present threat. She struck deals doing without was a constant developed body and pleasing
I had my pride of course so I in the black market and sewed reminder of how hard life was personality. However, once again
told the butcher in the grocery brasseries to survive. with each passing year. When these thoughts did nothing to
department, I would like some As the years passed and the Vivianne was 7 years old, her help her self-esteem; mercifully
fish and chicken heads for my war came to an end, life for Mar- mother was reunited with an there was a big change about to
cat. Then I brought them home ija and her two young daughters old school friend, who had just happen. One afternoon Marija
to my mother so she could did not change that much. The spent 5 years in a Siberian prison sat her girls down and told them
make soup for us.” These are the bombs may have stopped, but camp. His return to Berlin was that she was going to marry
memories of a very courageous, again they were often cold and fortunate for Marija and her two the man they called Papa. The
determined Lady, Vivianne hungry. It fell on little Vivianne, daughters as well as for him. girls begged her to reconsider,
Knebel, that I had the opportu- barely six years old, to provide He reconnected with a beauti- reminding her of the constant
nity to interview recently. I have scraps from the market, so her ful, warm, loving woman with horrible fights. Marija reassured
met only one real Lady in my mother could make soup for the a passion for life, something her daughters and told them this
life, and now I think I have met family. As for keeping the family he admired. He was a tailor by would not be a marriage of love
another. It is funny that both warm, Vivianne would collect trade and began making clothes but of convenience and survival.
these women have over-come the fish crates to use in the stove for the family, clothes that fit The family was to move to
some hardships in life to rise to keep them warm. and kept them warm. One day Canada and begin a new life, one
above it all and become beauti- Vivianne was excited to when the girls returned from with no fights-physical or verbal.
ful, accomplished, classy, Ladies. begin school and to excel in her school, their mother sat them Once her mother applied
Yes, I said classy I know it isn‘t studies, as she was accustomed down to tell them he was going for immigration, Vivianne was
politically correct but class is to pleasing her mother. However, to be their new father. The girls deemed stateless in her moth-
something you are born with, this was not the case, and it was welcomed him, as going to bed er‘s passport. She was not only
you can‘t learn it, or buy it, you difficult for Vivianne to grasp with a full stomach and wearing illegitimate, she was also coun-
either got it or you don‘t. the information; she just needed warm clothes was something tryless, she didn‘t belong to any
I can only imagine seeing more time to assimilate the they became accustomed. country and no country claimed
a scrawny little imp of a child idea. This was post-war Berlin, Vivianne began to call him her. This was yet another ob-
with cropped hair swinging there were no excuses made, you Papa almost immediately, while stacle for her to overcome. She
her little pail full of fish and learned the information, or you her big sister was a bit more vowed one day she would belong
chicken heads, her bounty for were not promoted, it was that reserved. to a country and they would
the day. This little waif, born simple. There was no summer As Berlin started to rebuild, welcome her. Once in Canada
in 1943, a product of post-war school or extra help, so Vivianne so did Vivianne‘s hopes of a things did not improve, in fact
Nazi Germany, was the second was humiliated and doomed to happy family, the kind of family things got worse and the first
illegitimate child born to a repeat the first grade, and con- she read about in school. Her winter they went hungry. One
proud, strong woman, but above demned to her mother as dumb. dreams of a happy family began afternoon Vivianne‘s mother
all a survivor. Marija Pavic was There seemed to be a to shatter as her mother and new took her by the hand and went
young, beautiful, and full of life - pattern forming that Vivianne Papa would have loud verbal to a local Catholic Church where
a unique quality in wartime Nazi was not accustomed to, and she fights. Hiding in the next room Vivianne explained the family‘s

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