Friday, March 26, 2010
Naming Erika
I entered the world in a suite on the 4. floor in our own Hotel Hopfenstock in Karlsbad, now Czechoslovakia 1939,
4 days before World War II started.
Mother and midwife were in the hastely transformed delivery room, the future father, grandfather and the family dog in the foyer. When mother screamed with pain, Purzel, the dog, hauled with her, it must have been quite a spectacle.
Finally, the baby was born. Everybody stormed into the room to congratulate my mother and each other to the new heir of the hotel, Michael.......But there was no Michael, it was a girl! Big surprise, big question: How do we name the girl, they were sure it would be a boy, whom they would call Michael.
Just then Hitler's new recruited soldiers marched into the Park before the hotel (my grandfather used to rent to spectators his best rooms on the third floor with balcony for Hitler's speeches). The soldiers sang: "Auf der Heide blueht ein kleines Bluemelein, und das heisst, Erika!"
Mother, father and grandfather looked at each other, nodding and crying: "we got it, we got it," we'll call her Erika.
Hence Erika got her name.
What is the English translation of Erika?
I entered the world in a suite on the 4. floor in our own Hotel Hopfenstock in Karlsbad, now Czechoslovakia 1939,
4 days before World War II started.
Mother and midwife were in the hastely transformed delivery room, the future father, grandfather and the family dog in the foyer. When mother screamed with pain, Purzel, the dog, hauled with her, it must have been quite a spectacle.
Finally, the baby was born. Everybody stormed into the room to congratulate my mother and each other to the new heir of the hotel, Michael.......But there was no Michael, it was a girl! Big surprise, big question: How do we name the girl, they were sure it would be a boy, whom they would call Michael.
Just then Hitler's new recruited soldiers marched into the Park before the hotel (my grandfather used to rent to spectators his best rooms on the third floor with balcony for Hitler's speeches). The soldiers sang: "Auf der Heide blueht ein kleines Bluemelein, und das heisst, Erika!"
Mother, father and grandfather looked at each other, nodding and crying: "we got it, we got it," we'll call her Erika.
Hence Erika got her name.
What is the English translation of Erika?
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