General News
15 July, 2024
A life on the farm after surviving the horrors of war
The Lord's prayer was recited in German at the funeral of former Dimboola-district and Horsham resident Else Polack, who died in Dimboola District Hospital nursing home aged 92.
Mrs Polack (née Florian) was born in 1932 in Gelsenkirchen, Essen, Germany, and migrated to Australia in 1960.
She was the second child of Emil and Martha Florian and had an older brother Horst and a younger sister Christel.
Her parents ran a small grocery story but with the outbreak of World War II the shop was sold and the family moved to Essen Steele.
Her parents were faithful Christians who loved to sing hymns as her father played the pedal organ and her brother the violin or trumpet.
Mrs Polack achieved good school results but the impact of war was felt in Essen as its Krupp steel factory was a major target for Allied bombing raids.
She quickly learnt about air raid alarms, preparing buckets and mops to put out the fires of phosphorus bombs and fitting gas masks.
Frequently she took cover in shelters during aerial bomb attacks.
Once an Allied airman was found hiding in garden sheds nearby.
Her brother Horst was called up for the German regular army when 16 and later led a Flak 88-gun crew.
In 1943, as the bombings increased, Else was part of the Kinderlandverschickung, the forced relocation of children to Czechoslovakia.
The vision of her grieving mother waving goodbye remained with her for life.
Later, on a trip home, her father defied authorities and kept her with them.
Horst survived his war experiences and returned bedraggled and skinny but alive.
After the war, restrictions remained and her father grew vegetables to feed the family.
Mrs Polack was confirmed in 1946 in Essen-Steele Lutheran Church.
She returned to school, learning English and some French, and in 1949 received her leaving certificate.
She worked in a shoe shop, later meeting Günter Schröder, whom she married in 1952 in Essen-Kray.
They had a daughter, Ulrike.
Conditions in Germany were difficult but exciting opportunities were on offer elsewhere and the family set off for Australia, where there was a shortage of skilled workers.
After a round of sad goodbyes, they began the long ship journey, suffering sea sickness along the way.
On board there were also English lessons and films about Australia.
Their first home was at Bonegilla migrant camp near Albury but they soon moved to Sydney, where Günter, a fitter and turner, had found a job.
They lived frugally and attended a German-speaking church.
Günter gained employment on the Snowy Mountains Scheme so they moved to Cooma, where Else worked in Woolworths selling make-up, then as a copy typist and later as a property manager.
By this stage they could afford a car, and in 1961 the family moved to Melbourne.
They built friendships with other German migrants and attended a German Lutheran church.
However, the hot summers proved challenging for them.
In 1963, homesick for Germany, they migrated back.
They soon returned to Australia, though.
In 1966 tragedy struck when Günter was killed in a car accident.
He was 36 years old.
Mrs Polack continued to help manage the construction company of their friend Heinz Gerlach.
While at a Lutheran conference in Horsham, she met Katyil farmer and Dimboola Shire councillor Les Polack.
They became engaged and Mrs Polack was surprised to discover that many in the Katyil community spoke German.
Her parents made the long trip to Australia for the couple's wedding at the German Lutheran Church, Parliament Place, East Melbourne.
For the next 33 years she lived on the farm.
During that time a son, Matthew, was born.
Mrs Polack was a member of Lutheran churches at Katyil, Dimboola and Warracknabeal, taught religious education and enjoyed travelling back to Germany.
The sudden deaths of their brother-in-law Ivan and his wife Coral in an accident in 1985 left the Polacks to help care for the orphaned children, John and Carolyn.
The Polacks retired to Horsham about 2000.
In 2008 Matthew married Kate Smith.
Subsequently, Mrs Polack's grandchildren, Hannah, Jonty and Jude, were born.
The Polacks moved to Portland but later returned to Horsham.
Ill health meant Mrs Polack was unable to remain living at home so she moved into care in Dimboola.
Pastor Levi Graham led a service in Dimboola St Peter's Lutheran Church before Mrs Polack's burial in Dimboola Cemetery.