Peter Zwarecz

Story

My mother and father came here to start a new life, but it was a hard life for them. Mum was 19 and never went back to visit her parents and died at 73 years of age .

In Germany she lived with her parents in a apartment building with all mod cons and here her first place was out in the bush on a farm in a old mud house with no mod cons. Her life was very poor and it was like living in a prison camp – no friends no relatives to run to. She had 7 children – lost a boy and a girl and had the worst husband in the world who treated her like trash and also his 5 sons like trash. For 21 years I lived at home and was beaten regularly till I was black and blue, as was my mum but nobody cared.

When I started school I could not speak English and for 7 years at primary school I was beaten up and was called Nazi, German trash. Adolf Hitler, and list goes on. When I started high school it was the same story , I was always up the office getting the cane because it was all my fault.

So I wished my parents had not come to this country and stayed where the were. Today when kids get picked on at school it’s on the tv in your face and its a big deal. People have no idea today – what happened to me didn’t make me a bad person but my life has been ruined by my upbringing and all the school years because of the way I was treated. To much more to write about .

About the Journey – I came here on the ship called the Skaugum .

Impressions on Arrival – I don’t remember as I was too young but mum cried for years.

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