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    The War Yo-Yo Kid: A Memoir
    The War Yo-Yo Kid: A Memoir
    The War Yo-Yo Kid: A Memoir
    Ebook271 pages1 hour

    The War Yo-Yo Kid: A Memoir

    By Annelé Jeanette Shaw

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This is a very interesting story about a very young Finnish childs confusing and upsetting life by being sent from one country to another during the ugly and devastating Russian-Finnish war. She was sent to a different country, away from her own family, to completely unknown and different people with different customs and talking a different language. The first time she was sent away, she was only eighteen months old.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTrafford Publishing
    Release dateSep 24, 2013
    ISBN9781490707846
    The War Yo-Yo Kid: A Memoir
    Author

    Annelé Jeanette Shaw

    Annelé Jeanette Shaw has lived in the USA since 1962, when she married a US Marine officer. She is a retired physical fitness instructor. The Shaws has three children and two grandchildren. Two of their children live in the San Diego area. After leaving Denmark, she lived in London, England, and Paris, France, before coming to the USA.

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      Book preview

      The War Yo-Yo Kid - Annelé Jeanette Shaw

      Copyright 2013 Annelé Jeanette Shaw.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

      ISBN: 978-1-4907-0785-3 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4907-0784-6 (e)

      Trafford rev. 09/16/2013

      21097.png www.trafford.com

      North America & international

      toll-free: 1 888 232 4444 (USA & Canada)

      fax: 812 355 4082

      CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      THE WAR YO-YO KID

      THE THREE (3) WARS

      MY FATHER

      1939-1941

      MY MOM

      MY SIBLINGS

      MAJ

      SVEN

      SYLVIA

      LEA

      MY BROTHER LEO

      EILA

      GUNNEL

      ARRIVING IN DENMARK

      MY DANISH FAMILY

      MY DANISH FAMILY.

      (MOR)

      ARNE

      BENTE

      AGE FOUR

      THE GERMAN OCCUPATION

      OF DENMARK

      SONJA

      THE TRIP TO

      THE COUNTRYSIDE

      STARTING SCHOOL

      THE GARDEN

      LEAVING DENMARK

      BACK IN FINLAND

      DANISH CITIZEN

      MENTOR

      MY CONFIRMATION

      MY LIFE IN NYKOBING

      FALSTER

      BORNI

      MOVING BACK TO

      HASLEV

      HASLEV

      A VISIT TO

      JENSEN’S SHOP

      VACATIONS

      CHRISTMAS IN DENMARK

      HUSASSISTENTERNES

      FAGSKOLE

      LONDON

      LILO

      PARIS

      THE INVITATION TO USA

      THE ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK

      THE SCANDINAVIAN

      TRIP IN 2011

      THE CHALLENGE

      INTRODUCTION

      M any times during my adult life I have been told by friends and acquaintances, who already knew bits and pieces about my rather unusual and confusing childhood and my life in general, that I should definitely write a biography or book about my life and upbringing, It has made me think about it and I finally decided that it probably would be a good idea.

      It has taken me a long time to finish this book, because nobody in my present surroundings is able to help me with this project.

      An old professor once told me: When you write this book, make sure you map it.

      That is exactly what I have been trying to do in order to get it in the right sequence of events. It has not been an easy task, since I am now writing this many years later.

      I might remember something that happened about fifty five years ago and maybe think of something which took place five, eight or ten years earlier.

      I don’t consider myself much of a writer at all, but hope that it might turn out to be an interesting story anyway. Some people have even suggested that it could make a very good movie as well. Over the years, when some things from different times in my life have been brought to my mind, I started to write it down. Therefore it has taken a long time to get this book put together.

      There have been many long passages of time between the different articles and happenings; At times I would write it in Danish or Swedish and other times in English. There have also been certain episodes and memories which were too unpleasant and hurtful, to write down. I would much rather block it out of my mind.

      What are you going to name The Book", people would ask me.

      The first title that came to my mind was, Why doesn’t anybody want me?, as that was how I often felt as a young and lost child, I was sent around from one family and country to another, starting at age 1 1/2 or 18 months, and it wasn’t just to somebody in the neighborhood, but to completely foreign people in a different country with different customs and different languages I didn’t understand.

      It was a very uncertain and scary experience for a young child.

      Later on I learned, of course, that it was for protection during the war situation. Both the parents and the government wanted to save the children from all the bombing and destruction that was taking place in the war torn Finland at that time.

      Many families were separated and their lives were shattered.

      One Mother said: It is better to have your child 100 miles away and safe, instead of having him or her in a grave next to you.

      I have to add that I am very blessed and fortunate that several years later I got to meet and know my birth family again.

      I chose another name for the book: THE WAR YO-YO KID.

      image_Page_002.jpg

      LEA WITH ME IN THE STROLER

      image_Page_002.jpg

      ANNELE

      image_Page_002.jpg

      SVEN

      FINLAND

      image_Page_003.jpgimage_Page_003.jpg

      FINLAND (The red blobs are the Russian army,

      the blue ones are the Finish defence troups)

      THE WAR YO-YO KID

      I was born in Helsinki, Finland on a very cold Sunday morning, January 30, 1938, and I was given the name Annele Jeanette Selander. I was baptized or christened in Kallio Lutheran Church on March 31, 1938.

      (My sisters told me later, that they picked the middle name Jeanette after the movie actress JEANETTE McDONALD).

      It was one of the coldest winters the Scandinavian Countries had experienced in several years, at least so I was told.

      The Country was totally cowered with mountains of powdery white snow and the traffic in the City of Helsinki had almost come to a stand still.

      Anybody, who braved the freezing cold temperatures and dared to venture out doors, was dressed like Eskimos and only did so out of necessity, or to go to work.

      My family was at that time living in an apartment building in Snellmansgatan in Helsinki. I have since visited Snellmansgatan to try to find the building, but it no longer exists. Whether it was bombed during the war or just torn down, I don’t know.

      I was the youngest girl out of a family of eight (8) siblings, six (6) girls and two (2) boys.

      Only about one year after I was born, the Russian-Finish War started, when Russia attacked Finland during the winter of 1939. It turned out to be three individual wars, which lasted to 25 April, 1945.

      SNELLMANSGATAN

      image_Page_004.jpg

      SNELLMAN IN FRONT OF THE FINISH BANK

      THE THREE (3) WARS

      M ost people have never heard of the 3 wars.

      First THE WINTER WAR 1939-1940.

      THE CONTINUATION WAR 1941-1944.

      THE THIRD WAR 1944-1945.

      In the fall of 1939 the European countries & Russia had a lot of disagreements.

      (The disagreements were primarily over political & geographical problems).

      Russia (Soviet Union) was dissatisfied over the fact that St. Petersburg, which at that time was Leningrad, didn’t have free exit out to open waters, but was somewhat isolated. They wanted to take the Karelian area and the eastern part of Finland as well as the peninsula in the northeast out to Ishavet.

      Finland of course did not want to give up part of the country, so Russia attacked the much smaller country—

      Finland.

      Finland had about 21,600 soldiers and Russia had 120.000 soldiers.

      Naturally Russia was much too overpowering, so they ended up, in spite of much opposition from the Fins, taking Karelen and big parts of the eastern border of Finland as well as The Arm in the north. Finland was totally unprepared for war, THE WINTER WAR only lasted a little over 3 months (100 days).

      Stalin thought Russia was going to take over Finland in a couple of weeks and estimated that

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