European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 4, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday thursday july 4/5,1990 the stars and stripes Page 9over Here bord Erless reunion for Ohio woman. A. A -.s. A. War Saga by Deedee Arrington Doke Kaiserslautern Bureau Kaiserslautern West Germany a Adelheid Rostus life has the ring of an epic novel of Europe set in the mid to late 20th Century. She tended the wounded of Adolf hitlers mangled army climbed under soviet barbed wire to escape from communist cruelty and cast off her German citizenship in order to become an american. When world War ii began Rost s family lived in Stettin a German City near the Baltic sea that now is ill Poland. The household included Rost her two Sisters and three cousins whom the family had adopted. Rostus father and the cousins father were identical twins. In 1941, when Rost was 16 and living away from her family to receive nurses training her Mother was killed at Home by a bomb intended for a local missile factory. Because her father was in the German army the children were sent to an orphanage. Except for an occasional letter Rost had Little Contact with her siblings. F. A it was hard. We did no to have a car or a phone. Those were kind of scarce a Rost recalled. V she later lost Contact with her father when a letter to him was sent Back marked a missing in  during the War she worked at a railway station nursing injured German soldiers returning from the russian front. The station was the first Stop for trains returning from the front at the end of the War the area where Rost lived was taken Over first by americans then six weeks later by the russians. The russians put up barbed wire to Seal off the East Rost said. Taking a change of underwear in her pocket she soon slipped under the barbed wire to the West. A i was by myself. Why should i stay a she asked. But surviving on the free Side of the barbed wire did no to mean that Rost had left her problems behind. Hunger forced her to Swap her Diamond earrings for a loaf of  an East German passport  get you a West German ration card. You had to get a Job first and jobs were hard to get hold of a Rost said of the years just after the division of Germany. Rost returned once to East Germany to try to persuade relatives to join her. She Wasny to successful and she barely made it Back to the West when soviet Border guards captured another woman attempting to flee at the same time. A i done to know what they did to her. In a sure it was t pretty Quot Rost said. Rost found a Job As a nurse in a ceramics factory near Bremen. And in the Early 1950s, after a three ear engagement she moved to Ohio to marry Wiliam Rost whom she had met while he was stationed in Bremerhaven. A a sets Lynda Oak Tsoo Heidi Rost sits Between her daughters Robin betting left and Julie Hill showing photos of relatives. The couple had four children and Rost went on building her new life in a new country. Two of those children a Robin Ber United kingdom i thing and Julie Hill a Are living in their mothers native country. Both Are married to air Force members assigned respectively to Span Dah Lem a and Kapaun air station in Kaiserslautern. Over the years Rostus ties to the old country frayed but never broke. Ass map in 1971, she received a startling red Cross message a a a i done to know if you re the right one but you May be my  a Rostus father had spent a number of years As a prisoner of the soviets. After his release head spent years trying to locate his eldest daughter. Another Surprise awaited Rost her father had remarried soon after her Mother s death and had More children. Rost saw her father in 1972. He died the next year. But she had to wait until 1990 to see her adopted brother Adolf who lives in East Germany. A the was just a baby when 1 saw him the last time but i recognized him rigid away. He looked just like my a. Talk about. I was so glad finally. Rost recently returned to West Germany a for the second time since she left in the Early 1950s a for a special family reunion that included several father a Rost said Quot of there was so much to relatives from East Germany. The reunion held in a town near Hannover was made possible in part by the erosion of political barriers Between the East and West and in part by her daughter Robin who helped organize the Celebration. Among the relatives at the gathering was Rostus sister a nun who is known As sister firm Ala. She is Mother Superior at the cloister of everlasting prayer in Oscher Sleben East Germany. The two had kept in touch by letter since being separated in the chaos of world War ii. And in 1972, on Rostus first return to Europe the nun briefly visited her during a business trip to West Germany. Quot we gave her Money a Rost said. Quot she put it under her habit to smuggle it Back in to East  but the visit was too Short and the correspondence by letter was often unsatisfactory and incomplete. A Lois of times they a East German authorities open the mail. There would be a half Page missing or things clipped out. You  get any information out Rost said. Rost realizes that the latest visit May be the last time she sees some of her extended family. And the resident of Fairborn Ohio does no to plan either to visit her old Home or to move Back to Europe a despite a fondness for German breads and meat salad. A too Many bad memories Quot she said. Quot in Man american and in a going to stay in the Stales Quot hard liners attack proposed soviet reforms Moscow apr hard line communists led by politburo member Yegor a Migachev mounted a Strong counterattack tuesday against reforms and what he called anti socialist movements at a party Congress in the Kremlin. Migachev won thunderous applause from the 4,567 delegates at the 28th party Congress when he angrily denounced what he described As a Media Campaign against conservative party members and their allies in the military. A in our Day there Are forces going against socialism and the communist party. And they have great influence in the mass Media a Migachev said. Mikhail s. Gorbachev who is general Secretary of the party and president of the nation sat Stone faced As Migachev and other conservatives criticized reforms that they said were weakening the authority of the party. Migachev leading the hard line attack a in our Day there Are forces oing against socialism and the communist party. Quot a Yegor Migachev was followed to the podium by two other prominent conservatives Kab chairman Vladimir a. Kryuchkov and defense minister marshal Dmitri t. Azov. A Gorbachev ally foreign minister Eduard a. Shevardnadze answered with a Strong defense of Reform or perestroika and of Gorbachev a efforts to shift Power from the party. Shevardnadze who has been the Point Man in arms deals with the United states fended off criticism of Quot concessions in the Security  a squandering a Quarter of our budget on military expenditures we have ruined the country Quot he said. A we shall have no need for defense because a ruined country and an impoverished people have no need for an  he also praised soviet policy toward Eastern Europe where since last August democratic governments have replaced what Shevardnadze called Quot totalitarian regimes that had been imposed on them and were alien to  Quot we forecast this. We sensed that if there were not changes there would be tragedy a he said. In a remark that ran counter to soviet traditions Shevardnadze said he did not see Why the foreign minister should also sit on the politburo the top party body consisting of 12 voting and seven nonvoting members. Shevardnadze was applauded but not nearly As heavily As Migachev who later told reporters that the loss of Eastern Europe Quot does t strengthen our position but weakens