Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

From Hawthorne Works to Heartbreak: Legacy of Loss

July 14, 2024 • Natalie Zett • Season 2 • Episode 70

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Listener discretion advised: this episode has some graphic descriptions of death. 

Welcome to the 70th episode of Flower in the River! Today, we're peeling back the layers of time to explore the chaotic history of early 20th century Cicero, Illinois, focusing on the behemoth known as Western Electric's Hawthorne Works.

My journey begins with a fateful trip to Chicago in 1998, driven by an inexplicable pull to uncover my family's hidden past. Little did I know that this adventure would lead me to the ruins of Western Electric and the doorstep of my Aunt Pearl, who held the key to our untold stories.

 We'll dive into the immigrant experience in Cicero, examining what drew so many to this bustling suburb and the profound impact of the Eastland disaster on the community. Through newspaper articles and personal accounts, we'll uncover the heartbreaking story of the Schultz family, who lost multiple members in the tragedy and faced additional hardships in its wake.

 Central to this narrative is Rosemary Pietrzak, granddaughter of Anton and Pearl Schultz. Rosemary's mother, Marie Schultz Pietrzak, lost a brother, two sisters-in-law, and an infant nephew in the Eastland disaster. Through Rosemary's recollections, we gain intimate insight into how the tragedy affected her family for generations.

Join me as we honor those who've kept these stories alive, like Rosemary, who tirelessly shared her family's experiences. We'll reflect on the words of Viktor Frankl and consider how tragedy can shape us and connect us to our shared humanity.

 This episode is a testament to the enduring spirit of those affected by the Eastland disaster and a reminder of the importance of preserving and sharing our family histories. Don't miss this powerful exploration of Chicago's past and its lasting impact on generations to come

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Natalie:

Hey, this is Natalie. This episode contains detailed discussions of tragic deaths and graphic descriptions. Listener discretion is advised. Hello, I'm Natalie Zett and welcome to Flower in the River. This podcast, inspired by my book of the same name, explores the 1915 Eastland disaster in Chicago and its enduring impact, particularly on my family's history. We'll explore the intertwining narratives of others impacted by this tragedy as well, and we'll dive into writing and genealogy and uncover the surprising supernatural elements that surface in family history research.

Natalie:

Come along with me on this journey of discovery. On this journey of discovery, the only voice that documents have is the voice we give them. With every document we find and every story we tell, we have a choice. We can take what we see at face value, report it devoid of context and run the risk of misrepresenting the circumstances, or we can seek the context we need to understand the record, the event and the person. That is a quote from Context, a powerful tool for problem-solving, by Elizabeth Schoen Mills.

Natalie:

Welcome to the 70th episode of Flower in the River podcast. I'm Natalie and today we're peeling back the layers of time to explore the chaotic history of early 20th century Chicago, specifically early 20th century Cicero, illinois, while the main focus is the behemoth known as Western Electric's Hawthorne Works. It's really about those who lived and worked there. I wanted to do a Cicero episode for a while now, not just because of the Eastland connection, but because so many of my relatives worked for Hawthorne Works from the beginning of the 20th century until it closed in the early 1980s. Ironically, one of the few family members who did not work for Western Electric was my great-aunt, martha Pfeiffer, who was killed on the Eastland. My grandmother was the Western Electric employee who gave her sister the tickets for the company picnic. Little did grandma know that she gave her sister a one-way ticket to eternity. But today I want to introduce you to another family affected by the Eastland disaster, a family that encountered so many setbacks that it'll have your head spinning. It really will. However, the gifts they would receive would come from a family storyteller and I will share some information about her with you. But let's go back in time. It's April 1998. It's April 1998. The hum of engines filled the air as I boarded a plane from Minneapolis-St Paul to Midway Airport in Chicago. Was I crazy? Absolutely, but the pull was undeniable. I had to see this thing through.

Natalie:

Whatever this thing was, prior to 1998, I'd traveled to Chicago plenty of times, either for work as an IT consultant or to visit a college friend who lived on the city's southwest side. Indeed, I used up most of my frequent flyer miles to go to the Windy City. Why, I didn't know. It wasn't just to see my friend, as she was often working, leaving me to explore the city on my own. I'd often just put on my running shoes, take off and start exploring. I felt I knew these streets, even though I just as often would dismiss that as a romantic notion. How could I know these streets? I didn't grow up in Chicago. So when my friend was free, we'd traverse the city. She knew Chicago's history like the proverbial back of her hand. I told her she could have, should have, been a tour guide. Sometimes, though, I'd half listen, but there was something in me that absorbed every word, storing it away because somewhere, somehow, I knew I would need this knowledge.

Natalie:

Then came 1996 and my dad's death, and I was a colossal mess. A year and a half later, a package arrived that finally explained what was going on with Chicago and me. This package contained a gift from beyond the grave, or so it seemed my mother's sister, my Aunt Pearl, whom I had long thought was dead, had penned our family's history. Chicago roots deep and tangled In this manuscript. She also revealed an event I'd never heard of the Eastland disaster. She detailed how it sliced through our family disaster. She detailed how it sliced through our family, claiming my grandmother's sister and haunting those who remained. For years, the city's tendrils reached through time, wrapping around my very being.

Natalie:

Now, in 1998, I returned, no longer a mere tourist, turned no longer a mere tourist, but as a prodigal child of Chicago's past, ready to reclaim my birthright, I hopped into the rental car and began driving around before going to Aunt Pearl's house. I just wanted to work off nervous energy and just headed north on Cicero Avenue, the city's pulse seemed to quicken, matching my own. I drove along until I reached the intersection of Cicero and Cermak and it was there that I paused and stopped and stared. What was this? There were ruins everywhere, old buildings and something that looked like a solitary water tower. Those were not just industrial relics, but fragments of my own story I would soon discover.

Natalie:

Aunt Pearl, my mother's elder sister, awaited my arrival. I can still see her short squat frame in the doorway of her humble side-by-side in hometown Illinois. At 80 plus, what wisdom might she impart? Quite a bit, and for my part, I learned to listen like I'd never listened before. Later on, pearl would chuckle as she told me I had unknowingly driven myself to what was left of Western Electric in Cicero. She said I guess the ancestors are calling out to you, honey. The pieces were falling into place, but what picture would they reveal? That first weekend, the start of many that I would spend with Pearl, stretched before me promising revelations. Chicago and Cicero apparently, had both been calling, and I'd answered. But what awaited me? In the shadows of my family's, one of Cicero's most famous and colorful residents, al Capone, arrived in town after the Eastland disaster.

Natalie:

The same is true for the six merry murderesses of the Cook County Jail who were immortalized in the play and the film Chicago. In the play and the film Chicago In fact in the refrain of the song, the cell block tango is the word Cicero. The play Chicago was written by a woman, maureen Dallas Watkins. Watkins was a journalist and playwright who covered real-life murder trials in Chicago during the 1920s. Again, this is after the Eastland disaster. Watkins' play premiered on Broadway in 1926, and it was a satirical take on the criminal justice system and the media's role in glorifying criminals. Tell me, has anything changed since then? But believe me, if I could work Al Capone and the cell block tango women somehow into the Eastland story, I would do it. But so far no connections. So we need to move on.

Natalie:

Since I have so many non-US-based listeners, I want to explain the difference between Chicago and Cicero. So Cicero is a town in Cook County and it's considered a western suburb of Chicago. But it's so much more than that. It was established in 1857, and it was the first western suburb connected to Chicago by rail, initially through the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, followed by the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1864. So it's got quite the history. Now. Cicero gained territory, lost territory to Chicago and to the formation of the other suburbs, berwyn and Oak Park. Western Electric in Cicero opened a massive manufacturing plant in 1904, employing over 20,000 people some say a lot more, by the way and Western Electric Hawthorne Works was a massive manufacturing plant that produced telephone equipment. This plant not only provided steady employment but also became the center of a thriving community. Western Electric is often described as a city within a city, and I don't think that's too much of an exaggeration.

Natalie:

What drew so many immigrants to Cicero? It's easy, it's the promise of a better life right In the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Well, they saw a wave of immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe, and Southern Europe for that matter. They were seeking opportunities and stability that were hard to come by in their various homelands. The Hawthorne works offered jobs that, while very demanding, they were stable and relatively well paid compared to the options back home. And the types of immigrants who moved to Cicero between 1895 and 1920 were actually very diverse, but they were predominantly, but not exclusively, from Eastern and Central Europe, with large numbers of Czechs, poles and Slovaks, and we can't forget the Germans and Lithuanians and Italians. These communities brought with them their cultures, languages and traditions, adding to the rich life in Cicero and also creating what would become American life in the early 20th century. What was daily life like for these immigrants? Well, imagine noisy streets filled with the sounds of children playing, merchants selling their goods and families gathering after long days at the factory.

Natalie:

The Hawthorne Works wasn't just a place of employment, it was the lifeblood of the community, and many lived in company housing or nearby neighborhoods, creating an even closer-knit environment where everyone knew each other for good or for ill. Family and community were central to their lives, actually were central to their ability to survive, and there was a strong emphasis on maintaining cultural traditions, celebrating holidays and supporting one another. Religious organizations, social clubs and ethnic organizations played crucial roles in maintaining their cultural identities and providing stability and support networks. And so, in 1915, when the Eastland happened and over 800 people were killed, there wasn't a part of Cicero that wasn't touched. Indeed, many who lived in Cicero also worked at Western Electric.

Natalie:

While scanning old newspapers for a closer look at the history of Cicero during that time, I stumbled upon a familiar name. It was someone I met years ago who, like me, had lost loved ones in the Eastland disaster. In fact, she'd lost several family members, and in a piece she shared with me, it was clear that the ripples from that tragedy kept flowing through her family for generations. Over the years, this woman has been a consistent voice for the Eastland story and she's appeared in numerous newspaper articles and documentaries, and I've always admired her steadfast dedication to keeping the memory alive. Now I was watching a bunch of documentaries this past week because it is the month of the Eastland disaster and I like to immerse myself in the story again to see if I can hear anything new or learn something new.

Natalie:

Well, something indeed caught my attention. One of the talking heads in one of these documentaries made an offhand remark and trust me, I am the queen of offhand remarks, I know, but I know how revealing these seemingly flippant, glib comments can be. This guy said something like well, this particular immigrant family represents all other immigrant families. This particular immigrant family represents all other immigrant families. I'm not entirely sure what he meant by that, but it got me thinking. His comment actually provided a golden opportunity. Sure, each family or individual might represent a certain group, but isn't that oversimplifying things a bit? Don't get me wrong, we all paint with broad strokes. I certainly have done this, and I always give you a painting with broad strokes warning when I do this in these episodes.

Natalie:

But here's what's been bugging me since I started digging into this history of the Eastland With over 800 people who died, shouldn't there be at least that many unique stories? And that's what you call a rhetorical question. Of course, a lot of stories have been told, but in comparison with the number that remain to be told, we still have some work to do. So recently I've been doing an inventory on my website. I really have to do that and specifically I have to focus on these Eastland Chronicles stories because I get them out pretty quickly and I need to revisit them regularly to see what needs to be corrected, what needs to be updated, what needs to be redesigned and this sort of thing. And I looked back and in the 36, now 37 weeks counting this episode that I've been sharing these stories, I've covered maybe two or often more individuals or families each time. That's close to 100 individual stories. It sounds like a lot, right, but 100 stories is barely scratching the surface. It really is and the truth is every single person affected by the Eastland disaster had their own story, their own impact on their community and in their families. And that's what I've been trying to bring to light. It's not just about numbers, it's not just about broad representations. It's about the individuals, the families and the lasting effects on real people's lives.

Natalie:

Here's an article from a publication out of Berwyn which is right next to Cicero. It's called the Life. The date is July 25th 1990, so it's a day after the Eastland disaster, but it's 1990. This article predates any organization with the exception of Dave Nelson's Eastland Museum. I don't know when he began doing this, but I'll talk about him at some other point because I've met him a few times. But as far as I can tell Dave Nelson, whose grandfather was one of the welders during the Eastland disaster, he was the only person who had any type of Eastland museum or organization at that point in 1990. And in 1990, for those who may not have been around the internet was just in its infancy and it was used by companies and academics, but it was not the thing that you and I know as the internet, and I want to share some select articles from this full page of information. But I'll share the entire page on my website and here's one of the articles Headline Hawthorne Works Rallies to Rescue. Again, this was written in 1990.

Natalie:

On Saturday, july 24, 1915, 2,500 Western Electric employees, their family members and friends merrily boarded the SS Eastland docked on the Chicago River between Clark and Water Streets, laden with picnic baskets, swimsuits and towels. Beating time to the ragtime orchestras playing on the upper deck. They eagerly awaited departure for the Cicero firm's annual picnic at the Indiana Dunes. But at 7.31 am, as horrified crowds watched helpless from the docks, the Eastland suddenly overturned. It sank into the river with only half its starboard side protruding above the water. Many passengers jumped or were thrown clear of the steamer. Others managed to swim to the river's surface. 812 did not. Many, mostly women and children, died of suffocation rather than drowning. Trapped between decks, 22 life area families were eradicated. Of the dead and this is a note from me, they're referring to the Berwyn Life publication here Of the dead, 200 were from Cicero alone.

Natalie:

Eyewitness accounts of the tragedy were published in the August 1915 issue of the Western Electric News. The publication has been reprinted by the Historical Society of Cicero in honor of the 75th anniversary of the tragedy. One published account came from a Miss Repa, a nurse from the Hawthorne Works Company Hospital who had been scheduled to board another boat but hurried instead to the Eastland. I'm going to pause reading here and let you know that I have covered Helen Repa's story in a previous episode in the podcast and I'll give you a link to that. It gives a lot more detail, but I will continue. This is a quote from Helen.

Natalie:

They were already pulling them out from below when I got there, out of the water and out through the port's holes, repa recalled People were wet, bleeding and hysterical. After working to resuscitate the unconscious, repa went to shorthanded Iroquois Memorial Hospital. There she found quote. More and more people arriving every minute, wet and shivering, and there were no blankets left. I had one of the nurses telephone Marshall Field and Company for 500 blankets with orders to charge them to the Western Electric Company. In the meantime I telephoned nearby restaurants and had them send over hot soup and coffee. Quote. As soon as my patients were sufficiently recovered I would send them home. I would simply go out into the street, stop the first automobile that came along, load it up with people and tell the owner or driver where to take them. Not one driver said no.

Natalie:

By 9.30 am Repa was back on the docks where workers labored in pouring rain to bring bodies up from the hold of the ship Quote. The bodies came out faster than we could handle them, repa said the bodies were laid out on the dock on the bridges. Another boat the sidewalk. About 12 o'clock they reached the inner cabins and after that all the bodies that came up seemed to be women and children. It had begun to drizzle just before the boat was to start and the mothers had taken their children inside to be out of the wet.

Natalie:

Within minutes after the wreck, western Electric employees were searching out warehouse space to shelter survivors and serve as information stations to collect and distribute the names of the living and the dead to frantic friends and relatives. The 2nd Regiment Armory was established as a morgue and tied in by telephone with the Information Bureau. Then, as family members lined up to identify loved ones, hawthorne employees circulated through the crowd sharing names of survivors. Circulated through the crowd sharing names of survivors, they spared many the ordeal of searching through bodies. The information bureaus remained open day and night for a week. Within that time, the fate of all but one employee had been determined, although the identification of friends and relatives would not be completed for some time to come. Identification of friends and relatives would not be completed for some time to come. As early as Saturday afternoon, other volunteers began visiting the homes of deceased employees to assist with funeral and financial arrangements. By Monday, 150 workers had joined in the effort. By Thursday, all families had received immediate relief.

Natalie:

The Western Electric Magazine paid tribute to its legion of employee volunteers who often worked nearly round the clock, day after day. Quote one man, after barely escaping with his life, went home, put on dry clothes and returned to the morgue where he was on duty for 26 consecutive hours. The magazine noted Another did not go to bed from Saturday to Wednesday. To many of the typists there fell work that was sheer drudgery. They did it for 12, 18, 24 hours at a stretch. It is hard to find words to express what they did. Yet if the spirit of Hawthorne could speak, she would only say I did what I could. It was little enough. And here's another blurb on the same page.

Natalie:

By a decree of the Cicero town board, july 28th was set aside as the day for a town-wide funeral. All stores and plants were ordered to close at 9 am. Then started the scene which will live forever in the memories of old residents With almost 200 dead in Cicero, black hearses were stopping in each block to pick up bodies of dead men, women and children who had laid silently in coffins as candlelights played about their still features. Everyone was on the streets and people mourned not only for their families but for neighbors and friends whose lives had been taken. This was from the 20th anniversary account of Life newspaper, 1935.

Natalie:

Before we go further, I want to introduce a couple of people. They are Anton Schultz and Pelagia, aka Pearl, jankowska. Anton, born around 1865, and Pelagia, born around 1860, were married in 1886 in Poland. I have the records for their civil ceremony, which took place in Jerzykowo in 1886. It looks like it was March 1886. Then they also had a church ceremony in a Catholic church at Wroncen. I'm just going to say that they are located within Poznan County and actually, as a little bit of trivia, these folks were located about 41 miles from where my family came from.

Natalie:

In 1892, anton and Pearl immigrated along with their two oldest children. They immigrated to the United States and eventually settled in Cicero. By the 1900 census Anton was working as a watchman and Pearl was at home with the children. And by then there are Rosalia or Rosie Schultz, who was born in Poland, john Schultz, born in Poland, joseph Frank, marie, aloysius and Stanley Schultz, all of whom were born in Cicero. And, if not the American dream, they were certainly working on making a better life for themselves.

Natalie:

But in 1912, easter Saturday changed everything and the family, the Schultz family, was getting ready. It's a very important and busy feast day and little Aloysius, who was eight years old, went outside to play. Pearl was working down in the extra kitchen in the basement and she was getting ready for the big feast the following day and Alois did go out to play near the railroad tracks and a slow freight was going by when his ball bounced onto the tracks. He went to retrieve it, but his sweater became hooked on the train. He was caught between two cars and crushed. They brought him home and laid him on a table in the basement. This was actually very typical of deaths during that time. Alois was eight years old, but also 1912.

Natalie:

The oldest son, john, who was born in Poland. He married a woman called Vera. He was 20 and she was 21. And in 1913, they had a little boy called Edward. In 1914, another son, joseph, married Sabina. He was 18 and Sabina, whose family came from Ireland, was 17. And they had two children. So now you have a fix on this family and you see they've already gone through a tragedy. So I'm jumping ahead to 1930 to let you know that much later the younger daughter, marie Schultz, married Stephen Petersack and they had two children, rosemary and Richard. And now we're going to jump back to this article from 1990s so Rosemary Petersack can tell us in her own words what became of her family. This is also from the 1990 Berwyn Life.

Natalie:

Headline. 75 years later, cicero remembers Rosemary Petersock of Cicero will never forget the Eastland Quote. My mother, marie Schultz Petersock, lost a brother, two sisters-in-law and an infant nephew in the disaster. She said I grew up hearing these stories over and over because they were so horrendous for my family. An aunt, jenny Schultz, left Petersock a written account of that unforgettable day.

Natalie:

Jenny, then 16, had planned to attend the Western Electric picnic with the man she eventually would marry, frank Schultz. That would be Rosemary's uncle. Also in their party were Frank's brother Joseph and his wife Sabina, and a third brother, john, and his wife Verna, and an 18-month-old son, edward. However, jenny's father would not allow her to attend. Quote. My father said there was plenty of work to do at home, wrote Jenny, and so Jenny was home washing windows when Frank came running and yelling that the boat sank and everyone was dead. Frank survived along with his brother Joseph, because they were late in getting to the ship. Joseph's wife Sabina had decided her children should remain at home. Frank and Joseph took time out to bring the two children to their grandparents' homes. Sabina hurried aboard with John and Verna and their infant son. When Frank and Joseph finally got to the ship, they could not find the others and went below deck to look for them. When the boat went over, the two brothers got out through a porthole. Quote. Frank saved a lot of people, including three sisters. Jenny wrote, but he could not save any of his own family. The rest of his life. He remembered the horror, especially the babies in the water. The bodies of John and his wife and baby were not found until two days after the disaster, far out in Lake Michigan. When they found them, they were intertwined John was still holding the baby and his wife was clinging to him.

Natalie:

And here's a follow-up article from the Chicago Tribune, sunday June 17, 2012. It's all about the Day of the Eastland and there's one headline that says Unbearable Grief. Six members of the Schultz family went on the outing. Just two survived.

Natalie:

According to Rosemary Petersack of Cicero, her grandmother, pearl Schultz, went to the armory that served as a makeshift morgue to try to find her son, two daughters-in-law and infant grandson. Quote. My grandmother became hysterical, petersack said. They said she would have to leave unless she controlled herself because she would upset everybody else. Peter Zuck said the family's grief was intense. My grandfather was just enraged, she said, explaining. He blamed, though only temporarily, the son who worked for Western Electric for getting those tickets. She doesn't say which son worked for Western Electric, by the way, and I'd like to say that all of that tragedy ended after the Eastland for this family, but it did not. The Chicago Daily Tribune reported on Thursday, september 8th 1921, headline Car Kills. Man Speeds On A dark touring car containing a man and a woman, dashed into a group waiting for a streetcar late last night at 18th and Lincoln Streets After it had disappeared, and Lincoln Streets After it had disappeared.

Speaker 2:

Joseph Schultz, 27 years old, 1911 West 16th Street, and Joseph Kuras, 26, 1909 West 17th Street, were picked up from the street. Schultz was dead.

Natalie:

Joseph would be one of the other brothers who survived the Eastland, only to meet this horrendous end. His children were raised by it looks like their respective grandmothers, as they were now orphans. So that is what happened. There were other family tragedies as well for Rosemary's family, but that didn't stop her from talking about what happened. This is from the Berwyn Life, august 26, 1990. It has quite a bit of history in here as well.

Natalie:

Headline Thanks Offered in Wreath Laying to many people. In regard to the placing of the wreath in memory of those who lost their lives in 1915 aboard the SS Eastland cruise ship. First our thanks go to the Life that means the Berwyn Life, for the coverage we received prior to and after, for promoting this function in addition to others we have pursued in the past, and Eileen Petsch for her research and in-depth story. Then I want to publicly thank our Vice President, robert Malinsky, for initiating the idea, because without his urging there would have been no commemoration service for the Eastland whatsoever. Thanks go to him also for the reprinting of the Western Electric News publication, the original of which was sent to all Western Electric employees in 1915, following and elaborating upon the disaster, and the printing of the postcards of the Eastland on a lake-bound cruise. We must thank our keynote speaker for the day, john S Kochiolko, cicero Town Trustee, who, as always when called upon, uses his expertise of history to make a superb presentation, as he did on this occasion. As he did on this occasion, our wholehearted appreciation goes to Covina Floral Shop in Cicero for their participation by sharing in the expense of this beautiful wreath placed at the site. It was most appropriate Inasmuch as transportation was of vital importance. We graciously were allowed to rent the Berwyn-Cicero Council on Aging Bus for a nominal fee. The driver, anna Simpson, was very friendly and operated the vehicle safely. Last, but certainly not least, our thanks to those who attended the ceremony, many of whom had relatives who were involved in some manner with the disaster. One was actually an Eastland survivor and still lives in Cicero Libby Ruby. To the following officers and society board members Malinsky, marie Newell, secretary Jean Rahor and Jean Vance, society members Elaine Malinsky, frank Rahor, albert and Helen Roddick, harriet Twin, henry Zaboznik and the following interested personage and Mrs David K Nelson, who own and operate a museum in Wheaton called the Eastland Collection. Mr Nelson graciously taped the proceedings with a promise to show it at a general meeting to the society. To all the aforementioned we are very grateful. Norma Zabosnik, president Historical Society of Cicero.

Natalie:

Yes, this is one of the more heartbreaking episodes, I have to say. This one was tough for me to get through because I've met Rosemary and I think at the time when I met her I was barely able to comprehend what happened to my family, let alone try to understand how the Eastland might have impacted somebody else. I was in shock upon shock stage at that point. But I so appreciate her continual sharing of her family's story.

Natalie:

And yet I'm reminded of Victor Frankel's powerful words. I read a lot of his works in my college philosophy classes and he had a huge. He said when we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. This family's history, with its cascade of tragedies following the Eastland disaster, certainly fits that description. And Frankel observed quote those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how. So perhaps for this family and others like them, the why, or rather the purpose, became about honoring those they lost, about carrying on their legacy lost, about carrying on their legacy. As we continue to uncover and share these undertold or lost stories, we're not just preserving history, we're bearing witness, I think, to the human spirit's capacity to endure and to tell the truth about what happened. Frankel reminds us. Frankel reminds us what is to give light must endure burning these families, all of you, through your suffering, you have indeed given light, illuminating the long-term impacts of tragedy and the strength required to persevere. These stories, they don't provide answers, but they do provide something equally important they connect us to our shared humanity, echoing Frankl's belief that the more one forgets him or herself by giving him or herself to a cause to serve or another person to love, the more human she or he becomes.

Natalie:

Who is Viktor Frankl? Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor. Born in 1905, frankl lived through one of the darkest periods in human history. He was imprisoned in four Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, between 1942 and 1945. Between 1942 and 1945. During this time, he lost his parents, his brother and his pregnant wife to the Holocaust.

Natalie:

Thank you all of you, particularly Rosemary Petersack. You have been faithful through all these decades and you have told the story. And you told the story when very few people were doing that and, on behalf of my family, I want to thank you for your strength and your endurance, and I wanted to let you know that I heard you and I hear you, so thank you for joining me on this journey. And I forgot to say welcome to all the new listeners, for whatever reason. There are so many listeners from way across the pond, like Sri Lanka and India Very cool. So welcome to you all. I hope this is an engaging and interesting adventure for you, and I hope again that you're all inspired to look at your own family history to see what gems are there waiting for you.

Natalie:

Hey, that's it for this episode and thanks for coming along for the ride. Please subscribe or follow so you can keep up with all the episodes, and for more information, please go to my website, that's wwwflowerintherivercom. I hope you'll consider buying my book, available as audiobook, e-book, paperback and hardcover, because I still owe people money, and that's my running joke. Still owe people money, and that's my running joke. But the one thing I'm serious about is that this podcast and my book are dedicated to the memory of all who experienced the Eastland disaster of 1915. Goodbye for now.

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