RETURN TO NYSA, POLAND (January 1947)

Mutti, Marianne and Lisbeth travel by train to Gorlitz. Here the Nysa River is the boundary between East Germany and Poland. Here they must sneak across the border since Mutti has no permit to enter Poland. Lisbeth had to sneak across this border the other way for she had no permit to leave Poland. Lisbeth contacts the man who had helped her across the river into East Germany. He agrees to take the three of them across that night. The river is very cold and the smuggler wears chest high wading boots. He carries Lisbeth across first and Marianne second. While Lisbeth and Marianne are waiting for Mutti to be carried across they spot a man on the Polish bank and are afraid it is a Polish guard and that he will shoot Mutti and the smuggler. Lisbeth tells Marianne to pray. It turns out that the man is a German who is looking for a way to get across to East Germany. They catch a train to Nysa. When they arrive they find Grusla's body is lying in a casket in the living room. She had died the day before they arrived. Anna tells Mutti that despite the fact that they had no way of knowing that Mutti was coming Grusla had been acting crazy and saying that Mutti was coming and that she Grusla was going to go home with Mutti. Anna shows Mutti and Marianne the stacks of clothing that Grusla had prepared for the trip.

Cashy, a Polish man, who had helped Lisbeth get the house back now lives with them. Lisbeth treats them to polish sausages and hard rolls in a restaurant. The food is delicious and Mutti and Marianne devour it only to throwup right away. They had not eaten such rich food in many months.

They stay only a few days. Lisbeth planned on escorting them back to the border and leading them to the rendezvous with the Polish man. He has already been paid to sneak them back across the border. But there is another couple, a Polish man and his German wife, who are going to Germany so Lisbeth sends Mutti and Marianne with them instead. They leave right after the funeral. They have two suitcases of ham, lard, chocolate and other food plus a rolled up down comforter. Lisbeth buys their tickets and they catch the train back to the border.

The other woman talks loudly and boasts on the train how she and her husband are going to Germany. When the four of them leave the train they are arrested immediately. They are taken to the police station for questioning. Mutti and Marianne are put in a small room with a sink. Mutti makes Marianne eat the chocolate that they have in their suitcases before it is confiscated. Mutti is taken to a different room for interrogation. One guard makes a big show of flourishing a revolver. They ask if she is an American spy and Mutti finds this puzzling because she understands that Poland and America are allies. Mutti is told that the other couple is being sent to a detention camp as defectors. Mutti and Marianne are released but told to not go near the border or they will be sent to the camp also.

Mutti is desperate. She doesn't know how to contact the man who they were supposed to meet. She decides to send Lisbeth a telegram but she has no Polish money. The Poles are making all Germans wear a white armband. Mutti sees an old man cleaning the streets who is wearing the armband. She asks him for enough Polish money to send a telegram. He is very sympathetic. He escorts her to the telegraph office, pays for the telegram and even gives her and Marianne a place to stay while they wait on Lisbeth.

Mutti waits a few days but Lisbeth does not come. Mutti takes Marianne and they get on a train going back to Nysa carrying their suitcases and featherbed. She is worried because they have no tickets but they make it to Nysa without being checked. When they get there Anna tells them, that Lisbeth has left on a train to rescue them at the border. She also tells them that the contact point with the smuggler is in a cemetery. With Cashy's help Mutti and Marianne rush back to the train station.

The train is full but Mutti does not want to wait another two days. Cashy helps her climb in the window of the toilet of one of the train cars. She breaks the toilet seat as she does. Cashy pushes Marianne up to the opening. He lifts their two suitcases of food and the down featherbed up to Mutti. Mutti locks the door and they travel all night huddled in the cold rest room. Other passengers continually pound on the door wanting to use the toilet. When the train stops Mutti waits for all the people to get off before they leave the toilet.

They don't find Lisbeth in the train station or in town. They go to a cemetery and manage to find the man. He agrees to take them across the river the next night. They go to his house to wait for the next night. Mutti is exhausted but can't sleep and overhears a conversation, where she picks up on the Polish word for "suitcase". This makes her suspicious. The next night the smuggler leads them to the river. He indicates that he will take their suitcases across and then come back for them. But as he sets off with the suitcases Mutti picks up Marianne and wades into the river.

The water is ice cold and waist deep. When they reach the East German side the police arrests the smuggler and another man. All four are taken to the local police station. The police are friendly toward Mutti and Marianne and arrange blankets around a potbellied stove where they can dry their clothes and get warmed up. The police tell Mutti that they arrested the man because he and his son had been stealing from Germans as they smuggled them across the river.

Mutti is given clearance to leave and they board a train toward West Germany. The train stops before the border and they are directed to an old villa where there are about 50 people waiting to enter West Germany. A man says that they should not worry about being detained because it is the weekend and the East Germans won't want to feed a group this large. He is right and the group sets out to walk across the border to catch a train on the other side. Mutti and Marianne with the heavy suitcases can not keep up and fall behind. Two young German men offer to carry the suitcases for them. Mutti agrees even though she is worried that the suitcases will be stolen. But when they arrive at the train station there are the two men with the suitcases waiting for them. Mutti tells them she was afraid that she would never see them again. They reply that they only deal in herrings and fish and don't cheat poor people. Mutti and Marianne catch the train to Frankfurt.

It is early morning as they walk across the ridge approaching Oberstedten. They meet their landlord who is going to work. He says "Frau Landsiedel everyone thought you would never return". They had set out for an eight-day trip and had been gone for more than three weeks.