York Grand River Historical Society, Special Guests: Doris Kienitz and her father, Alfred.

The true story of Alfred Kienitz, an escape from East Germany.

A presentation and book signing

Tuesday, October 16th, 2 p.m.

Caledonia, Ontario

"Everyone Welcome"

Masonic Hall., Hwy. 6 (beside the railway tracks, opposite Tim Horton's)

(Doris and Alfred Kienitz Coming to The Neat Little Bookshop on Saturday, October 27, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.)

~ East Germany and the ESCAPE Kitchen Table Memoirs, Doris Kienitz, FriesenPress, 2011.  Available at The Neat Little Bookshop.

East Germany and the ESCAPE ~ the true story of Alfred Kienitz ~ before, during and after WWII.
Alfred's daughter, Doris Kienitz, conveys well the uncertainty and horror of everyday life under the dictatorship of Hitler whom her parents and grandparents despised.

"Of the four horses that the Kienitzes owned, Grete (pronounced Greata) had been "drafted" by the German army the previous fall.  The remaining three horses were now seized by the Russian army:  the mare Puppe (pronounced Poopa and meaning "doll"), her three-year-old, Lotte, and a ten-week-old foal.  Against their will, the horses were taken away.  Half an hour later, the Kienitzes heard a noise at the gate.  Looking out they saw Lotte had returned.  It was assumed that the soldiers, attempting to saddle her, were bucked off and the young horse ran back to her home.  Moments later she was seized again and taken away."

Doris describes the loss of family members and neighbours to war, the seizure of properties and possessions for use by the army and the drafting against their will of young able-bodied youth to walk miles to labour in a ploughed field, building an airstrip for the invaders.  This is a story of human will and determination to survive.
The author lives on the outskirts of Selkirk in Haldimand, Ontario.  We are honoured to host an afternoon with Doris and her father, Alfred, in The Neat Little Bookshop on Saturday, October 27 from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.   Join us for tea.

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."

~ Wm. Arthur Ward (1921 - 1994) American writer.

DAY'S PARLOR
~ Emily Dickenson

The day came slow, till five o'clock,

Then sprang before the hills
Like hindered rubies, or the light
A sudden musket spills.

The purple could not keep the east,
The sunrise shook from fold,
Like breadths of topaz, packed a night,
The lady just unrolled.

The happy winds their timbrels took;
The birds, in docile rows,
Arranged themselves around their prince
(The wind is prince of those).

The orchard sparkled like a Jew, ~
How mighty 't was, to stay
A guest in this stupendous place,
The parlor of the day!

~ Emily Dickenson (1830 - 1886) American poet

AUTUMN

~Emily Dickinson

The morns are meeker than they were

The nuts are getting brown;

The berry's cheek is plumper,

The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,

The field a scarlet gown.

Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.

~ E. Dickinson (1830 - 1886) American Poet

Thanksgiving Greetings

Post Card from 1911

In memory of a brave soldier Merlyn Kinrade

October 6, 2012

"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush.  It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment." ~ Robert M. Hutchins. Great Books

"If we win here we will win everywhere.  The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it." ~ Ernest Hemingway. For Whom the Bell Tolls

"A man can be destroyed but not defeated." ~ Ernest Hemingway.  The Old Man and the Sea