On September 14, 1946, the USS Holbrook, a World War II hospital ship, brought my family from Ft. Hamilton to Germany and docked at Bremerhaven. At 5:45 P.M., September 15th, we boarded a train which left at 7:30 P.M. and arrived at Furth, September 16th. After arriving at the Bahnhof, a car took us to Nurnberg, and we stayed at the Grand Hotel until our home at 12 Kneipstrasse, outside the walled city, was available for us September 23rd.
We lived on the first two floors of the home and allowed the German family, who owned it, to live in the third floor. This left a lasting impression on the family, the Debuses, and when I visited in 1959, they had just moved back into their home. They had my husband and me to dinner and treated us like royalty. The next family (Thirteen American families lived there in all) made them move out as did the others. They said that we were the best family who ever lived there. I corresponded with them until their deaths many years later.
My twin sister, Betty, and I attended the first American Dependents School for grades up to the 8th grade in Furth. The first day of school was October 17, 1946. Ten of us comprised the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. In November a few more students arrived, and the 6th grade went to a room with the 5th graders. One week in the winter the furnace malfunctioned, and when it got down to 45 degrees, we were moved to the library (and the contents of the library moved to our former room); a little stove was placed in the room. The building had been a hospital before the end of the war. German students visited several times: for our Thanksgiving play and later to sing "Silent Night" in English while we sang it in German. Our school year lasted into July, 1947.
Our class visited the Nurnberg Trials twice, and I visited at least 5 other times, including when the verdicts were given in the Doctors' Trial, August 20, 1947. My father, Col. Charles W. Mays, was the first Marshal of the Court, serving there from the first day of the Trials until we left in September 1947. My brother, Chuck, was the Student Body president at Erlangen High School (for the high school students living in Nurnberg), and gave the closing speech at the joint graduation of Erlangen High School and the Munich High School.
I graduated from East High School in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1952. Kathy was Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Texas in Austin where she received a B.A. in bacteriology. Later, she received an M.S. in biology from Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas. Kathy lived in Ankara, Turkey 1957 - 1959 and in Tripoli, Libya, 1964 - 1966. She has been an officer for 16 years on the Board of the largest, oldest, and most active homeowners' association in Dallas, Texas. Additionally, since retirement from work as a secretary/coordinator in a probate court, she researched and wrote her book, works at the polls, is active in church, and currently gives talks on the Civilian Conservation Corps.
[Kathy has recently published "Gold Medal CCC Company 1538: A Documentary" which covers the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Army in the period 1933 - 1942, as well as the gold medal winning camp her father, Charles W. Mays, commanded. It also gives a better understanding of the conditions before World War II and what our country did to help facilitate the mobilization of our military. Please contact Kathy directly if you're interested in her book.]
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