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Hillside Street, Bennington, Vermont (802) 442-2559
"resolutely inclusive, spiritually alive, and empowered for ministry in the world." |
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Profile - Inge Fricke Posted: November 9th, 2008 @ 8:09am
INGE FRICKE was born in Landeshut in the eastern province of Silesia, then Germany, but now Poland. The town was nestled in the Riesen-Gebirge mountains where Inge learned to ski, swim, hike, and bike ride. As the oldest of four children she lived through World War II and avoided air raids. In 1944 when the Russian army was approaching, all schools were closed and children put in war effort jobs. Thus Inge was unable to finish middle school but was sent with 15 and 16 year olds through the Hitler Youth movement farther east, close to the Polish border, to help dig trenches to stop the Russian tanks.
After the May 1945 collapse of the Third Reich, Russia invaded and took over everything German. One year of Russian occupation later, Polish families moved in and what property had not been confiscated by the Russians was taken over by the Poles. Inge and her siblings survived this without bodily harm, thanks to the strength and organizational talents of her mother who worked in Russian and Polish establishments. The family had no word of their father who had been fighting in the German army as a soldier. The last message from him had been from the Russian front.
Two years after Polish rule it was evident that the Americans did not come to free them. Choices were to become either Polish citizens or sign up for the
“train to the West”. This Inge did! She left her mother and siblings, who had to sew uniforms in a Russian factory, and hopped on a cattle train with a few clothes and said a fearful and tearful goodbye.
She did not know if this cattle train would take her to the “free West” or to the American zone, or possibly go towards Siberia.
After several days on the train and a stay in a de-lousing camp, she arrived in West Germany and was relocated in northern Germany and reunited with her father who had been a British prisoner of war. As a POW her father had been sent to Wolfsburg in northern Germany to help rebuild the Volkswagen factory which had been badly bombed. The British did not know about this ugly little car which Hitler had planned every German would own as a “people’s car”. So the Brits handed this operation over to the newly formed German government. The rest of the Volkswagen success is history.
Inge’s mother was allowed to leave Landeshut in 1948 after brutish Polish rule and the family was reunited in Wolfsburg where they rebuilt their lives from scratch. All of Inge’s family still live there and they visit every year
After settling in Wolfsburg in 1949 Inge needed to work but without a high school or middle school diploma it was hard. She did have four years of English and two years of French, so her father arranged a job at the V-W factory and for two years Inge “built Volkswagens.” She made good money and saved enough to attend a private school for languages in Hamburg. Within a year she was graduated with a diploma in English and Spanish correspondence, plus typing, German and English shorthand.
Back to Wolfsburg Inge went in 1952 and Volkswagen hired her as a secretary for their foreign service department. V-W was exported all over the world and Inge went to the U.S.A. for two years to learn the language and customs. She has spent 52 years in America. Her trip to America was taken with a sense of adventure and a good dose of anxiety but she arrived in New York city on a Norwegian freighter with other immigrants.
Inge’s training in America was facilitated by a German engineer who helped her get a contract with the V-W distributor in New Orleans. He met her at the ship and introduced her to the wonders of NYC, then put her on a plane (her first) to New Orleans.
They were married in 1959 in San Francisco where their son, Gordon, was born.
The couple lived in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. and Jacksonville, FL finally moving to Bennington in1965 where her husband took over the V-W Monument Motors dealership operating it until 1975. It later became the Vermont Composites, Inc. and she was employed there for 27 years, retiring three years ago.
All this was a preliminary to Inge’s membership at Second Congregational Church in 1972. She has served as a Deacon from 1986-1996 and is now serving another three year period. She was vice-president, and later president, of the Women’s Fellowship. Inge has also worked on the Snowball Bazaar and the Antique Shows as dining room chairman.
Inge’s son, Gordon, lives in Hoosick Falls and owns Barber & Fricke automotive service. He is married to Pam, who is a Spanish teacher, and Inge enjoys their two children, Emma and Hannah.
We’re proud to learn of Inge’s unusually adventurous life before joining us in 1972 and enjoy her friendly spirit and helpful activities.
Submitted by Harriette Leidich
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