Gertrude Hermanski

Gertrude was born in Freete, East Prussia in September of 1932. Today Freete is in the eastern part of West Germany. Gertrude was the 2nd of 6 children of Gustav and Martha Hoeckendorff. Sadly, three of her sisters died during the war; two were twins that died shortly after birth and the other sister, Elfi died at one year old due to severe burns she received from a kitchen accident. Elfi was born in 1944 and died one year later in 1945. Gertrude, or as she preferred to be called, Trude, had two other siblings; her oldest sister Giesla and her younger brother Bruno. Her brother passed away approximately 15 years ago and her sister passed away three years ago. Her father passed away in 1975 at the age of 73 and her mother passed away in 1992 at the age of 89.

Trudes young life was a story of survival and hardships because of the war. Her family had to flee their home many times because of the Russian invasion and occupation of East Prussia. She told stories of hiding in the woods and in their barn to escape being captured by the Russians and watching their home being hit by a hand grenade, ultimately blowing up the back end of their small home. A home that was built by her Dad, and rebuilt again during the war because of the bombings. While nobody in her immediate family was captured by the Russians, one of her uncle’s was not as lucky; he was captured and sent to a Russian prison for 9 years where he was tortured. Upon his return he became a teacher and ultimately a principle of a high school. Trude witnessed many atrocities during the war, and while we tried many times to get her to talk about what happened and what she saw, she never really wanted to talk about it much until the last couple years of her life. While most of the things she told us were certainly sad and tragic, they were also in many ways inspiring and uplifting. She told us of one event that happened when she was a little girl of 11 years old. Since the small town that she was born in and lived in did not have a school to speak of, she had to go to a larger small town by train, and stay in that town with her teacher from Mondays through Thursdays. On one particular day of the week the children heard bombing in the distance. They knew this was the Russian invasion and they all knew they had to immediately go home to their families. Unfortunately for the children, their teacher left the kids to fend for themselves; she left without telling them what to do or where to go. It was even worse for Trude as she had no one to go to because she lived in another town. Well Trude was a very strong and resourceful girl, as you will find out later as well; she ran to the train station and caught the very last train out that was going to her home in Freete. As she arrived to Freete and got off the train, she saw her Mom in the distance running towards her crying her eyes out calling out Trude’s name! Her Mom did not know if Trude had made it out on that train and was absolutely terrified that she may never see her daughter again. One can only imagine the horror they both must have felt, and then the euphoria they felt all in one fail swoop when they saw each other again.

Eventually, like most families that lived in East Prussia at that time, they had to flee East Prussia and make their way to West Germany. All of their family possessions, except for what they could carry on their backs were left there for the Russians to confiscate. If you were one of the unlucky ones that did not get out in time, well you were either a casualty of the war, or were captured; in all likelihood never to be seen again.

After a long and grueling trip, Trude and family made it to West Germany. The settled down in a small town by the name of Weilerswist; a town that turned their luck around as a family and introduced Trude to the person that would eventually become the love of her life; her husband Berthold Hermanski.

As my Dad tells the story, in a book he wrote about his life called “My Life” meeting Trude was not easy and a lot more challenging than he bargained for. He first saw her walking home from Church, and as he tells it, he immediately fell in love. He said hello and she returned the greeting. However, it would be a couple of months before he saw her again, but when he did, he did not give up trying his best to make her acquaintance; hoping it would turn into a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. After going to many dances, bike rides and parties, she eventually fell in love with my Dad. He had fallen in love with her a long time before that as he tells the story. One thing led to another, they got engaged and announced their plans to get married; but it wasn’t that easy! Dads family had applied to immigrate to the United States, unbeknownst to him, and right at the time they announced their engagement, my Dad’s father told him that a sponsor had accepted the family and they would be moving to the USA. Long story short, after much persuasion from our Dads Mother and Father, our Oma and Opa, they convinced him to move to the United States. However, if he didn’t like it after one year, he could move back to Germany and marry Gertrude. Then after much persuasion on my Dad’s part, he eventually convinced Gertrude that he would move back if he didn’t like it, but if he did like it, he wanted her to come to the United States and they could get married there. She eventually agreed, although with much trepidation and angst, as she feared they would just grow apart after a long separation and they would find someone else to fall in love with. Well that never happened! My dad loved the United States, and after 15 long months Trude got on a boat, the SS United States, travelled across the ocean, hoped a train in NYC when she arrived and travelled by train across the United States to Denver Colorado; she did all of this without knowing a lick of English, and she was only 19 years old! Remember what I said earlier about her strength and resilience; not many 19-year-old girls would take that challenge on, but she did and she never lived to regret one minute of it. Trude and Berthold were married in July of 1953, Dad joined the US Army, they had two sons in Burt and Ed. Dad served honorably for 27 years. Trude was able to go back to Germany to see her family on 4 deployments that took Dad and our family to Germany, plus the many visits she was able to make on her own to visit her family. Trude also had to be a single Mom three times as Dad was deployed to Vietnam and Korea twice; probably the hardest times for all of us as a family, and especially hard on Trude not knowing if Dad would come back. After Dad retired from the Army in El Paso, TX., and the travel stopped, Trude managed a boutique clothing store for 25 years, while Dad served the US Government in another capacity. In 1995 they retired to Phoenix, AZ. where they lived for 25 years. During that time, they saw their family grow, Burt and Ed married, with each having a son of their own and Burt with a step son from his wife’s first marriage. Burt married Nicole Cuaron in December of 1993 and Ed married Christina Johnson in February of 1976. Today both Burt and Ed enjoy being grandads, enjoy great marriages and above all, they are and always will be best friends! Dad passed away in January of 2018 and sadly Gertrude passed away in January of 2020.

And so, it is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Gertrude “Trude” Hermanski, our loving and devoted Mother, Grandma “Oma” and Great-Grandma “Uhr Oma” and friend to all whose lives she touched. Trude left us while sleeping at her Assisted Living Facility in Chandler, AZ. on her 87th year.

Gertrude is survived by her two sons, Burt and Edward Hermanski; her two daughter-in-law’s Nicole Hermanski and Christina Hermanski; her three grandsons Andrew Hermanski, Justin Hermanski (Justin’s wife Kim Hermanski) and David Dominguez; her three great grandchildren Hunter Hermanski, Finley Hermanski and Dylan Dominguez.

Gertrude lived a full and amazing life! She was a wonderful and incredibly loving Mom, Grandma and Great Grandma. She loved to be with her family and she cherished her trips to Hawaii and Germany with her husband Berthold. She instilled in her two sons’ strong values that have served them well. We will all be forever grateful for the love she gave us and our families, the kindness that she had for everyone she met, and the incredible love and devotion she had for her husband Berthold of 65 years. He was the love of her life and she was the love of his life. He was her reason for living and ultimately her reason for dying.

Gertrude made the world a better place by all who knew her and loved her. Trude never met a stranger; she had a warm heart and a smile that made the whole world smile with her! As her loving husband Berthold always said, “She was an Angel sent down from God.”

Rest in peace Oma, you are with Opa! We love you with all of our hearts!