By Norbert Lorenz

From an account by Eva Sellner (née Mittermueller), born 1915

Translated from the German by Cindy Quitta

In 1927, there was a large sleet (hail) storm. The corn was destroyed. The hail soon destroyed everything on the ground, so that there wasn’t any corn left. Farther away, where it wasn’t so bad, we still had some crops (grain), because the crops were still standing. Then, we threshed and, to have bread, we had to cultivate 50 meters [50.7 yards] of crops and grains. However, in one part of the field everything was destroyed. There was nothing left at all. We did not have corn, and all the cattle, pigs, horses, and poultry depend on the corn. Everything depends on the corn. My father had to take his money to buy corn. Therefore, we went to America. In January 1928, 39 people emigrated from Neupanat at the same time.

On December 9, 1929, we left Neupanat. My father Peter MITTERMUELLER (a.k.a. Pheder KOSCHERS), my mother Eva (née DIRB), and five children (Eva, Anna, Marianna, Juliana and Peter) left Neupanat. I was 14 years old at that time—the oldest one of my brothers and sisters. There was another girl, Anna KONRAD, who was as old as my mother was, and she worked for us. When she heard the fact that we were leaving, she absolutely wanted to go with us. However, she did not have any money, so my father paid for her journey. We never got back the money. As a single woman, however, she was not allowed to enter Argentina. Therefore, she went down to Uruguay and then died there a half year later.

The trip was long and cumbersome. We went by train from Arad to Vienna and stayed overnight there. The next day we went to Paris, where we ate that night, before we continued to the port in Cherbourg in northern France. However, we had to remain there for eight days, because our ship, which we should have left on, had to save a sinking ship. From Cherbourg, it took us three days to go to Lisbon. From there, our ocean voyage took 24 days to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I often asked the steward whether we would ever see land again. There were about 2,500 people on the ship. Most were Jewish emigrants from Poland.

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