Schoenecker's Shenanigans: Nazi Nightmare

By: 
Jarrod Schoenecker

My grandfather, Corporal Wesley P. Barclay, as seen in a newspaper clipping, after he was home and freed from Nazi prison camps in 1945.

One night, a couple weeks ago, I had a nightmare. Dreams or remembrance of dreams I may have had is a rare occurrence for me. In my nightmare, I stood in a hazy old air hanger, gymnasium, or some similar building. Somehow I knew that the Nazis were coming to look for me and take me away, as if I was in Germany. I had at least a little time to prepare. Different indistinguishable people came by and offered me suggestions of how to hide, where to go, and what to do. Finally, it was time, and I remember starting to crawl up warehouse racking and onto roof trussing of this building. The Nazis were entering and I woke up.

My nightmare didn’t end there. I began thinking, “Where could I hide in the house? Under the stairs behind boxes? Could hide in a large box itself? Under the basement entry stair where it was less obvious?” At some point, I realized that I was not being hunted down by the German Nazi party.

What I felt in my nightmare couldn’t have been more real. It felt hopeless, desperate, scary, and alone. It made me think about what is happening in Ukraine right now with Russia invading to complete what I believe to be an attempted genocide. It also made me think of my own grandparents who served in World War II.

Francis Krohmer, my step-grandfather, and my biological grandfather, Wesley P. Barclay, both on my mother’s side, served in World War II.

More on this in the Dec. 8 edition of the Messenger.

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