(bright upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to "Prairie Pulse."

Coming up a little bit later in the show, we'll hear music from Elska, but first, joining me now is Claus Lembke from Bismarck.

And Claus, thanks so much for joining us today.

- It's my pleasure.

- Claus, I know you're here today to talk about your book, "Koming to America, an Immigrant's Story," but before we get to the book, tell the folks a little bit about yourself and your background, and maybe where you're originally from.

- Well, I grew up in Germany and had a chance to come over to the United States, and I'm a happy, new citizens, well, not that new anymore, over 55 years, but that's pretty much my story.

- Well, so what made you write the book?

- It was for the purposes of telling my family and my children where I came from, what the different life was over there, how I grew up and what I found here, once I got here to the United States.

We wanted a document that for that purpose, but it got bigger and bigger and bigger and redeveloped in the form of book.

- So how long did it take you over the time to put it all together and write the book?

- Unfortunately, over three and a half years.

But the biggest thing was I didn't always get to it.

- Okay, so you're saying you didn't work on it full-time?

- That's correct.

- Okay, but can you talk a little bit about life in Nazi-occupied Poland, in the '40s, I guess?

'Cause you were born in '42, I understand.

But you now know about it, so tell us about that.

- Yeah, that's correct, it was occupied, but I was born there because my dad was placed in service.

When Germany, in '39, took over Poland, they had a number of Bolshevik commune farms there, and dad was placed in service for that.

I've seen his contract, a copy of his contract that he had to pay the German government so many tons of butter and so many tons of cheese and all the flour, because it was a larger commune farm.

And that's where my parents moved there, and that's where two of my brothers and I were born in 1941 and '42 and '43 in today's Poland.

- So what was life like after World War II, in Poland area, with poverty and difficulties?

- Well, in '43, my mom got a permit to visit her parents in northern West Germany, and I was told that they were fleeing, of course, but they could never admit it publicly because they would have been punished or maybe even thrown in the concentration camps.

So they said they were visiting and they had full intentions of staying in West Germany.

So they really fled from that Polish area.

- So when did your family move to West Germany?

- Mom in the Fall of '43 and dad in the Winter of '44, driving cattle towards the West, trying to save what they could save from the farm.

- Really?

Okay, so what was occupied-Germany like?

- Well, it was actually kinda nice.

I remember the British soldiers, I grew up in Northern Germany, it was British occupied, but later on, we moved to the central part of the Americans, we loved those American soldiers.

When they came by with colonies of trucks, they used to throw out some candy, one time a greenish can of peanuts.

Wow, what a pleasure that was for us?

So we loved all the soldiers, even the French, later on, I was in the French occupied area, we loved those soldiers, they were very friendly to us.

- So talk a little bit more about your time there, I guess you actually served in the army under NATO command.

- Later on, yeah.

When I knew I was gonna immigrate to United States, I knew there was the war in Vietnam over here, and you wouldn't get drafted right away.

I was told that when I counseled the US Consulate in Hamburg, told me that you get drafted right away if you have not serviced in the military.

So I enlisted for two years in the German military, and a typical German, I became a drilling instructor for two years, and I enjoyed it very much.

- All right, so you served in the German army in what years?

- From '63 to '65.

- '63 to '65, and then understand, maybe, you went and started farming?

- Dad always rented the farm after the war, and I always wanted to be a farmer.

So I worked on Dad's farm for a couple of years after school, and then I went to a apprenticeship program and I became a journeyman in farming, and then went to college for two-year agriculture college too.

I wanted to be a farmer, I knew that from day one.

- Okay, but let's back up a moment, 'cause your family moved to West Germany, you said in '43 and '44?

- [Claus] Correct.

- So what was your family life like from '44 to the '60s then?

- Well, I was of course at first a small child, but I remember a little bit about the currency.

We went to a puppet theater to play once and mom, by that time we were five boys, and gave each one of the entry fee.

And the entry fee was paper money, and we had a stack of six, seven pieces of paper, paper money, because currency was so devaluated that for what maybe value of a 10 cent, we had four, five different paper monies there must've been marks, the old rice mark in paper printed.

And they were not even printed on both sides.

They printed the money so fast, almost like we do now here in the United States.

- Okay, and then, as you said, you then served, in the '60s, in the army, and then farming a little bit, so why, and when did you immigrate to America?

- When I went to college, or my mom opened up a laundromat and the dry cleaning outfit, and it went so well that dad quit farming.

So here I was just graduating with an agricultural degree and no farm.

That was at the same time when in Hillsborough, North Dakota, a new sugar beet plant was being planned.

And I happened to find an uncle in south of Moorhead here that was sent over to Germany to start negotiating for the building of the plant.

And he had a farm, south of Moorhead, in Wolverton, Minnesota, and he had no kids.

And it sparked an interest in me and he was interested in me and we hit it off.

And he said, "You come on over, maybe we can work something out."

That's what led me to the United States.

- So did he sponsor you to come, is that the way it worked back then?

- That's correct, he sponsored me.

He had to sign a commitment that for five years, I would never be a warden to the state.

I couldn't go on Social Security, I couldn't go on Welfare or anything, he sponsored me, in essence, a job for five years.

- Did you have other family over here at the same time or- - No, I did not, I had an uncle, my mother's brother in New Jersey who immigrated in the '40s, but no, I did not.

- Okay, so what kind of adjustment was that like for you?

- Oh, it seemed overwhelming, but is not when you're 22 years old and invincible.

But the language was a problem.

I had four years of French in high school, and no English, and so it was difficult at first.

It was even made more difficult because when you're sitting on the tractor all day on the farm, you usually don't learn any English, you know.

- Well, so did you know any English to speak up when you came here to America?

- I need to qualify that because I heard about "The Beatles" song, "she loved me, yeah, yeah, yeah," so I did know some words of English, of course I did.

- But that was the extent of it that time?

- That was it, that was it.

- So then talk about some of those language challenges you faced.

- Yeah, every language is different, just in principle, take the saying "back and forth."

I know French, and I know some Swedish and Norwegian, they don't say, "Back or forth," no other languages says, "Back and forth," they'd say, "Forth and back."

You know, that caught my attention.

How about "pushing the envelope."

You know, that's...

I pictured it like that, I would take and pushing envelope on the floor, and I did not understand it, or I heard the story about how he went hell-bent for leather, or I didn't... And it was Paul Revere that did that.

He jumped out in the horse, was the saddle and the leather stuff, and he went and warned us that the British was coming.

There's a few other ones like when you say, "Doesn't that take the cake?"

And then I wondered, what was the cake?

"Or playing a dice game and horse apiece," somebody announced.

Well, we've always had sixes, but I didn't see no horse on that agenda anywhere.

And those things are habit that you grow up here when you're born in this country, you're taking for granted.

And I had to learn all of them.

- Well, I've often been told English is the hardest language to learn, partly because of what you're stating, did you speak French very well, when- - Yes, I did, I spoke pretty fluently.

I spent four years with my family next to a French camp, and yes I spoke it well.

But it is not true that English is a hard language to learn.

It is in some ways, but in other ways, a German language and even French is much more complicated, much more complicated.

We have one word for, the, the car, their house, and there's only one T-H-E. And in Germany, they got like, (speaks German) it depends on if you're male or female, or if you're singular or plural, there's different words for that.

- Well, can you talk about "the American dream," and what that meant to you and means to you now?

- See, I still believe in it today.

The most wonderful part is growing up, just knowing my family and friends, everybody knew, by the time you were between 10 and 15, what you wanted to be.

And the norm is over there that you be that and you reach for that.

Over here, if you're 18 and you're a mechanic and you want to become a butcher, there's no reason in the world that you can't, if you find employment, or if you've opened up your own business.

That's, the American dream here.

And still today you can reach it.

And that's what I found so fascinating about this country.

- So do you feel like you've lived your American dream?

- I, sure, did, of course, I did, and I'm still living it.

I think it's fantastic.

- Now, as I understand it, all of your siblings still live in Germany.

- Yes, they do, I got four brothers and two sisters, and many cousins and nieces and nephews.

- Can you talk about that?

And do you see them much or- - Yeah, we do communicate, of course, with today's communications, even on my phone with a video, where we can talk to 'em spur of the moment and very, very inexpensive too.

And I've had the chance, I was a member of the Bismarck-Mandan Development Corporation.

They exhibited in Germany every year, trying to solicit companies to come over to Bismarck, North Dakota, and I was their translator when we went over there every year.

So I've been back home...

I shouldn't say that, I promised myself, this is my home, I'm not going back home to Germany.

Every time we left Germany, I said, "I'm going back home."

- Yeah, so did any of your siblings think about coming, or ever come over here to stay?

- I've had a sister stay with me in Fargo.

She worked at the travel agent in Germany, and she learned the English language over here by being here one year, and she lived with me, but no, none of my other brothers and sisters ever came over here.

- Well, can you talk about your real estate and political career?

- Well, real estate, of course, I started here in Fargo, Moorhead, and I was struggling.

It was a difficult.

My language deficiency added to some of the challenges, but it also had its pluses.

I remember many times somebody called in the real estate officer, or that was key for realty or somebody else, that said, "I don't remember the guy's name, but he was a German."

And that was a connection that did help, and I became, eventually, State Realtor of the Year.

So I did have a successful career, at least I think I did have a successful career in real estate, here in Fargo, Moorhead.

- And did you have a political career?

- I did too, Dick Hentges, a former mayor of Fargo, guided me into, should I be a Democrat or Republican?

And to put it in very simple terms, I attended both conventions here in Fargo.

And they were both noble parties, and they still are both noble parties.

But I thought when I visited a Democrat party, they were whining a little bit more that the Republicans.

But anyway, with the help of Dick Hentges, I choose to become a Republican.

And Herschel Lashkowitz, a former mayor, well-known name in Fargo here, he contributed to that too, because I didn't care for his politics.

So he pushed me into the Republican column.

- You know, you have a chapter in your book called "Prejudices."

Can you talk about why and what that chapter is about?

- Yes, my first prejudice experience was when I went to high school.

After four years in grade school in Germany, you can opt to test out for higher, fast-track school.

When I went to the middle school, some 10 miles away from my little town, I met a nice young friend and we became close friends.

And he was a very nice guy, I really liked the guy.

And then it turned out that after about six months I found out he was Catholic.

And he was nice.

Why was that?

That was some prejudice.

It was infiltrated into me somehow.

Why would I be surprised that he's a nice guy, even though he's a Catholic?

And the second one happened when I came to New York, I had an uncle there and I stayed with him and they had some company over a Sunday afternoon, nice young couple, Super people, friendly people.

And when they left, my uncle said, "Did you know they were Jewish?"

It hit me like a ton of brick.

Why did it hit me like a ton of bricks?

They were nice, they were wonderful people?

Why did they have some kind of a connotation of Jewish must not be nice or something?

I can't figure out why it felt that way.

- Yeah, we talk about biases, conscious or unconscious.

- That'd be unconscious.

My parents never said anything bad about Catholics or Jews, never did.

- Back to your book, what's the hardest part about writing this book, what was the hardest part?

- Sitting down and doing the work?

I did, I was pleasantly surprised, I bought a computer program called Dragon.

You could speak into it and it would type for you, it would type about 90% of it, and the rest you had the correct, it did make a lot of mistakes, so there're a lot of editing in there, you know.

- Did you speak German or English to it?

- [Claus] I spoke English, I spoke English.

- Okay, I just wondered.

Who helped you with your book in terms of recollections and memories?

- Well, mostly all over the origin of my wife, Marsha, she kept at me and she kept at me and stuff like that.

But I went back to Germany during that time, during those three years, and confirmed with my brothers, because I found out that many perceptions that I had of a thing happening was a little different their mind.

And I have felt, as a writer, that you need to have that accurate, and you have to pursue that.

A lot of it, like that ship that is a picture of you on the front page, you find that online.

Where was it built?

You know, it was a ship that transport US soldiers back and forth before it became a cruise ship.

So a lot of research, online, you can find that.

- So you've talked about, you've been back to Germany over the years for different reasons, but can you talk about the impression of how it's changed over the years?

- Well, my oldest brother and I are real close friends, and he's an active in the Conservative Party, or they equal the Republican, so we do talk a lot.

And now they have a Democrat prime minister over there, and I told him, I'd never come back to Germany until you have a Republican prime minister.

- So even though you didn't grow up in Poland, have you been to Poland?

- Yes, the three brothers that were born in Poland, we took a motor home once a here some 15, 18 years ago, and went back to Poland to found the place where we were born.

We looked, I have the original birth certificate.

I was recorded in the town of Rypien, and we looked for that record and there was not there.

I have the original paper, but there was not there.

Every record that the German left there was destroyed as soon as the Polish got their freedom back.

- So were you able to find the former family farm there?

- We found the farm and it was owned by a Polish individual and he denied that we were ever there.

- Yeah, sure.

Okay, Own your book... How long has your book been out?

- It's been since the first part of October.

- Okay, and what's been the reaction to the books so far?

- It's been fantastic.

They tell me that the book reads the same way as I speak in my accent.

I don't know how I can get a paper on accent, but that's what I've been told.

And we ordered 1000 books, printed in Bismarck, and we have sold over 750 since that time.

- I don't know if you get asked this, but you brought it.

What was your first car?

- It was a Beamer before we knew that it was called a Beamer.

It was a little, BMW Isetta that is a model here, And the door...

I don't know where the camera is, but the door opened up through the front here, and there was only two seats in there, and a little 250CC motorcycle engine.

It was a wonderful vehicle.

- All right, well, back to your book real quick, though, what do you hope people will take away from the book when they read it?

- To realize and stop and think that all of us here are immigrants.

We were at one time, our families all came from immigrants, we all did.

And I get a nodding when I talk about it at service clubs, they all agree with it.

You know, when their forefathers came over here on covered wagons.

I had the fortune to come over here on the covered wagon too, but it was a Volkswagen.

And I didn't go across prairies, I'm sorry, I came across I-94.

There's a difference, but there's a similarity, but the mostly, as we are all descendants of immigrants.

I happened to be a first-generation immigrant, that's all.

- And your family, now, you get together and you talk about this, what do you hope the future is for your family?

- I think they're all grateful, like I am, that we are Americans.

We have lots of trouble in our country, but it is still the best country in the world, it's still the nicest place to live, the freest country.

You know, I've always said that many of these today's Western worlds, they have their own freedom, they got their own democracy and they own constitution, but none of them is practiced like here in the United States.

On top of that, the Midwest in North Dakota, it's the finest place to raise a family, it's a great country, my kinda country.

- That's probably a good place to end it on, Claus, with that said, if people would like to get a copy of your book, where's the best place for them to go.

- You can go at Ferguson Bookstore in West Fargo, right here in Bismarck, and in Fargo, or West Fargo, and you can also get it online, and the address is tiny, T-I-N-Y, URL, /komingtoamerika.

and remember every C in there is a K. That that means I have a spelling mistake right on the front page of my book.

- I was just saying that didn't borne it out, but that's good.

Claus, thanks so much for joining us today.

- It was my pleasure, I enjoyed it too.

- Stay tuned for more.

(gentle calming music) Elska's personal journey takes center stage in the lyrics of her Indie-pop-style music.

The progressive sound melts into her dynamic vocal range to produce a truly ethereal experience.

(upbeat guitar music) ♪ You're okay, you're okay, you're okay, you're okay ♪ ♪ Is not how she hears it ♪ ♪ You're fine, you're fine, you're fine, you're fine ♪ ♪ Is not how she feels it, you say just get over it ♪ ♪ Just get over it, just get over it ♪ ♪ Not your fault, not your fault, not your fault, ♪ ♪ Not your fault, is not how she sees it ♪ ♪ It'll pass, it'll pass, it'll pass, this will pass ♪ ♪ Is not how she sees it ♪ ♪ Just get over it, just get over it ♪ ♪ Open caring eyes, open soul and mind ♪ ♪ A heart in division, something's missing ♪ ♪ When our words prevail, when our wisdom fails ♪ ♪ Abandon the system, stop talking, listen ♪ ♪ You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong ♪ ♪ That's how she hears it ♪ ♪ You're not good, you're not good, you're not good ♪ ♪ You're not good, that's how she feels it ♪ ♪ Open caring eyes, open soul and mind ♪ ♪ A heart in division, something's missing ♪ ♪ when the words prevail, when our wisdom fails ♪ ♪ Abandon the system, stop talking, listen ♪ ♪ when our words prevail, when our wisdom fails ♪ ♪ Abandon the system, stop talking, listen ♪ ♪ Just get over it, just get over it ♪ ♪ Just get over it, just get over it ♪ ♪ Open caring eyes, open soul and mind ♪ ♪ A heart in division, something's missing ♪ ♪ When the words prevail, when our wisdom fails ♪ ♪ Abandon the system, stop talking, listen ♪ ♪ Open caring eyes, open soul and mind ♪ ♪ When something's missing, stop talking, listen ♪ - Well, that's all we have on "Prairie Pulse" for this week.

And as always, thanks for watching.

(bright upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, and by the members of Prairie Public.