Stephen Bernard Schanzer, my Grampa Steve, was a wonderful story teller. As we were growing up, my brother, Tom, and I heard little bits and pieces of his “adventures”, as he would call them. Occasionally in the middle of the telling, he would pause, and say with a broad smile, in his thick accent, “I tell you about dat part another time" and then it would be time for bed. As children we never had a complete picture of events as they happened during those war years.
My grandfather was born in Vienna on November 18, 1889. As a young man, he worked for Herman Pollack Söhne, a large textile firm, which had factories in Austria, Germany, and France. In 1914 he enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian army and was captured by the Russians in Poland. After a year in Siberia he was imprisoned in the Buriata region east of Lake Baikal. He was trapped, as were many other Austrian POW's, by the Russian Revolution and only escaped after four years in exile. In 1918 he was taken by train to Vladivostok, and eventually escaped on one of the first steamships to Trieste, Italy.
Eva Beck and Steve - 1926
Upon arrival in to Vienna in 1920, he returned to work for Herman Pollack Söhne. By 1925 he had married Eva Beck, within a few years, my mother, Doris Marie, and my uncle, Karl, were born. Hitler invaded Austria in 1938; and sadly, Eva committed suicide shortly after that. Steve could see that war was imminent and fled with his children, first to Pilzen, Czechoslovakia, and then to Paris where he had many personal and business contacts. At that time, Doris was 12 years old and Karl, or Charlie as he was later known, was nine.
By 1939, Steve realized that France was not safe for his children. He made arrangements through a business contact for Doris and Charlie to be adopted by a foster family in Australia. Alone children left Marseille, France, on the last British boat heading for Australia, not knowing if they would ever see their father again. By 1940, Charlie and Doris were settled and they remained there for the duration of the war. As difficult as it was, Steve felt that sending the children abroad was the best way he could protect them.
In 1940 at age 50, Steve was conscripted into the French army while looking for work in France. Germans captured his troop, and he was trapped on the northwestern coast in Britagne. After escaping over a wall, he decided the safest way to navigate across France was by bicycle. Steve was clever and a good judge of character. Perhaps that, as well as his flawless French and unassuming manner helped him to pass through the many French gendarme and German checkpoints.
Once he was safely in Portugal, Steve wrote a long letter to his children telling them the story of his adventures evading the Nazis. On May 20,1941 Steve sailed from Lisbon to New York.
In 1948, Steve, Doris and Charlie were reunited in New York City. (See photo above.) Charlie was drawn to the mountains of Colorado and the as yet untamed skiing around Aspen. He settled there in the early 1950's; after a few years Steve joined him. Later, Steve took great pleasure in teaching languages and silversmithing at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS) in Carbondale near Aspen. The octagonal jewelry workshop at CRMS, was designed by his son, Charlie, and to this day bears a plaque in Steve's honor. (Click to read a great article about Steve written in 1976.) He also enjoyed cooking for large groups, authored a cookbook, and frequently kayaked down Colorado's rivers with students from the school. He felt a kinship with the Native Americans of the southwest, and he often drove his Ford Mustang on road trips to visit them while living in Aspen with Charlie, his wife, Fonda, and their two girls.
Steve (left) gives skiing pointers to Doris (3rd from left), Charles, and a friend of Doris (2nd from left) in Van Courtland Park, New York City, 1949
My grandfather was a man who enjoyed people and a good laugh.
He passed away in his home town of Aspen, Colorado, on October 4, 1979.
My Grandpa Steve in 1966 at age 77.
Charlie, Doris, Herb and Steve take a break from skiing. Arapahoe Basin, Colorado, 1965.
Click here to hear Steve tell of his escapes during World War 1 and World War 2.
Steve, age 89
December, 1978, Aspen, Colorado
Photo credit:
Carrie Paterson, Steve's grand daughter, age 6