Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Chinnow Manor Home

Photos of the area are on this website:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnprgm/Usedom-Wollin/Chinnow/index.html

"A Teenager's Diary of Peace, War, Flight and Expulsion"


This is the story of the Chinnow family in Stolpmuende/Pomerania. Life was good until 1939 when the war started and all the horrors and the insanity of it unfolded.On the day of my conformation, in March of 1945, we had to flee from the Russians. Refugees had been coming through Stolpmuende for months. The cities were piles of rubble from the constant bombings.We were fleeing west, hoping for better treatment from the Americans. We had heard how the Russians treated the people in the lost territories.Unfortunately, the Americans stood by while the Russians and Poles carved up Prussia--and with that--Pomerania.The Marshal plan saved a lot of people all over Europe and the Americans treated us fairly. At the time, I kept a diary, which is the core of this story.