William Penn Life, 2011 (46. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2011-03-01 / 3. szám
Branch News Dayton member served as Hungarian translator during WWII by Anne Marie Schmidt and Karen Vance Ethel Stefanics-Vance is a member of Branch 249 Dayton, Ohio. As a Women’s Army Corps (WAC) member who served under General George Patton, she was recently featured in an article in the Dayton Daily News about veterans serving in WWII. She turned 88 years old this past Valentine’s Day. Ethel (pictured right), a first generation Hungarian- American, said: “When the war came, I joined the WACS and became an X-ray technician. Our small hospital unit joined Gen. Patton’s group in France and then was sent to a large hospital in Munich, Germany. Patton was head of the Third Army, and I stayed there until the war was over. I wasn’t always an X-ray technician; I played a variety of roles.” Her last role was that of translator. “The Germans had taken over part of Hungary and we had Hungarians working in the hospital in Munich. One day, when I was going through the chow line, I heard the kitchen help speaking Hungarian. So, I started talking to them in Hungarian, and they all stopped working because someone was actually speaking Hungarian to them. By the time I had gone through the food line and approached a table to eat, someone had already told the colonel. The colonel wanted to know who the person was speaking Hungarian. He asked me what my position was. I told him I was an X-ray technician. He said, no longer! You are going to be our translator,” Ethel recalled. “There were a lot of Hungarians the Army wanted to send home. Hungary was under Russian occupation at the time, so I had to write the families to see if they could accommodate them and then got to escort them home on a train to the Austrian border, where we were met by the Austrian military. The Austrian soldiers then took us to the Austrian/Hungarian border. I could only hand them over to their families at the border because, as an American Army soldier, I could not step into the country. Sometimes I would wave to the Russian soldiers just to get them to maybe smile. The first train ride back to Munich was lonely, but on the other return rides, I was accompanied by another WAC.” After the war, Ethel used the Gl bill to study physical therapy, later working at Dayton hospitals. She met her husband George in a class at the University of Dayton. “My husband and I returned to Germany years later, and I showed him the hospital where I worked, now a huge civilian hospital.” Ethel is an active member of our Dayton-Hungarian community and remains active in WPA Branch activities and the Magyar Club of Dayton. We are proud of her service to our country and of her support of our Hungarian heritage. □ Branch 590 Cape Coral, FL by Joan Mauerman Branch 590 held its Christmas party at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater in Tampa, Fla. Prior to the show, elections of branch officers were held. Elected for 2011 were: Michael Tomcsak, president; Eugene Toth, vice president; Joan Mauerman, secretary-treasurer and reporter; and Jodi Reyes and Maureen Jefferson, auditors. Branch 590 donated three boxes of dolls and stuffed animals and money to Catholic Charities of Lakeland, Fla., and made a donation for the needy to St. Anthony Church of Lakeland. We received thank you cards from both organizations. We also made a $250 donation to the WPFA Scholarship Foundation in memory of the deceased members of Branch 590. We wish to thank the Home Office for all its help and donations. We extend our condolences to the family of Kalman Nagy of Port Charlotte, Fla., who passed away Nov. 21, 2010. He was past president and an officer of the Hungarian Christian Society of Venice, Fla., and past vice president of Branch 590. Kalman was also responsible for scholarships to the Presbyterian College in Papa, Hungary. He leaves behind his wife Julie, two daughters and four grandchildren. May he rest in peace. Get well wishes go out to Richard William Penn Life 0 March 2011 0 19
