Autobiographical notes by Erwin Franzen - Luxembourg As a youth in the 1960s in my hometown, Esch-sur-Alzette, I was always very insecure and

confused about what I wanted to do with my life. ein! the oldest of si" children, I was so confused that I could never be an e"am#le to my youn!er brothers and sisters. $y father, who was born in 1911 and who wor%ed as a welder and mechanic in the iron mines and steel mills on both sides of the &rench-'u"embour! border, was very authoritarian in his youn!er years but mellowed very much with a!e. (e had been hardened by e"#eriences durin! and after the last war, when he had )oined the *erman air force as an enthusiastic volunteer +he was crazy about air#lanes and flyin!, after the -azis invaded and occu#ied 'u"embour! in 19.0. (e wor%ed for the /'uftwaffe/ as a mechanic in occu#ied &rance and *ermany, was ca#tured by the Americans in avaria at the end of the war, and esca#ed from a 012 cam#. 1n his return to 'u"embour! he was #rom#tly thrown in )ail and sentenced to ei!hteen years at hard labor for collaboratin! with the enemy -- but he volunteered to )oin a #risoner bomb and mine dis#osal s3uad, survived four years of doin! that dan!erous wor%, and was freed. (e never re!ained full civil and #olitical ri!hts in 'u"embour!. 2ell, I !uess, hearin! my father tal% about his e"#eriences I realized that I was a real wim#. I read adventure boo%s about faraway #laces and felt the ur!e to travel. In 1945, at the a!e of 51, for the first time, I was allowed to ma%e ma)or decisions about my life and to mana!e my own money. 6# to that time I had always !iven everythin! I earned to my #arents, and I !ot #oc%et money +I earned my first small salary as an a##rentice at my hometown7s Arbed elval ironwor%s in 1966-64, then switched to the /lyc8e/ 9)unior hi!h school: but left after #assin! a mid-level e"amination 9/e"amen de #assa!e/: a little over 5 years later and went to wor% in a ban% from ;e#tember 1969,. All of my brothers and sisters, incidentally, became inde#endent at a youn!er a!e. &rom the be!innin! of 1940 I wor%ed for 'u"air airlines as a reservations cler% and had limited free travel. 2ith my #arents7 #ermission I flew to <ienna and 0aris in 1940 and to 'ondon and Ivalo, &inland in 1941. 1n that last tri# I hitch-hi%ed for a few days in ;e#tember around the northern ti# of &inland and -orway, coverin! about 640 %ilometers and slee#in! outside in a chea# slee#in! ba!, with a lar!e sheet of #lastic as my only #rotection a!ainst rain. 1ne slee#less ni!ht out in the middle of nowhere near the northern end of -orway I was totally soa%ed and frozen in drivin! rain and stron! wind -- it was to be the first of many similar e"#eriences. ;o, in 1945 my real travelin! be!an. In $arch of that year I flew to =eheran, Iran, which was the ma"imum distance I could fly for free based on the len!th of time I had wor%ed for the airline. I %new #ractically nothin! about Iran. At the Asia (otel

downtown I met a youn! man from >enya, of Indian $uslim ancestry, who invited me to !o with him to 'ahore, 0a%istan, in his car, a hu!e &ord *ala"ie ?00 that he had bou!ht in $issouri and shi##ed across the Atlantic to En!land, where his family lived, and then driven to ;audi Arabia on a #il!rima!e to $ecca before comin! to Iran. /Ali/ +this is a #seudonym, wanted to s#lit e"#enses on the tri#. I acce#ted, thou!h I didn7t thin% I could ma%e it all the way to 'ahore because I had only two wee%s7 leave from wor%. =he two of us ran into an American e"-soldier, a !iant of a !uy named ob +@,, who was on his way overland to Australia, and he a!reed to )oin us for the tri# to 'ahore. 2e drove north across the Alburz $ountains to the Aas#ian ;ea and then east. In the mountains west of the town of o)nurd we !ot stuc% in a heavy blizzard that ra!ed for some 1B hours. 2e were almost out of !asoline and ill-e3ui##ed for the cold, so we huddled to!ether and shivered throu!h the ni!ht in the car. 'ate the ne"t mornin! Iranian soldiers came on s%is and brou!ht bread, dates and cheese to us and the many other travelers who were stuc% in the snow. An avalanche had bloc%ed the road ahead for several hundred meters, but the soldiers mana!ed to clear a #ath that #eo#le could wal% to !et to the other side of the bloc%ed area. ;ome C0 hours after we !ot stuc% in this #lace, with the road li%ely to be bloc%ed for another day or two, we decided to try drivin! down that dan!erous #ath -- and by sheer miracle we made it to o)nurd in one #iece, thou!h the *ala"ie7s steerin! !ear was dama!ed and had to be welded bac% to!ether. =his was to be only the first thou!h #erha#s the most dramatic of a series of adventures on this tri#. 2e lost ob in (erat, Af!hanistan, and continued to >andahar in the south without him. Ali and I stayed 5 days in >andahar, then he drove on towards >abul and I had to ta%e a bus bac% to Iran. At =ayebad on the Iranian side of the border I was 3uarantined for 5. hours because I didn7t have cholera vaccination. In $ashad I sle#t with several other men on the floor of a small room in a #oor area of town +I7d met one of the men in the street late at ni!ht when I arrived and he had invited me because there were no hotels around,. I had )ust barely enou!h money left to fly Iran Air bac% to =eheran7s $ehrabad Air#ort, where I could catch the wee%ly 'ufthansa fli!ht bac% to *ermany the ne"t day, and since I was worried that I mi!ht miss the fli!ht if I went the lon! way bac% by road or rail, I decided to ta%e the #lane. I wound u# s#endin! a full day and ni!ht at $ehrabad, sha%en by severe diarrhea and stomach cram#s, and unable to slee#, with no money left to !o anywhere else or buy food or medicine. I was still luc%y to !et a seat on the #lane out the ne"t day. 2hen I !ot bac% to Euro#e I felt that the little adventure had somehow chan!ed me in a fundamental way. I found it e"tremely hard to re-ad)ust to the wor%aday routines in 'u"embour!, even thou!h I had been away only 5 wee%s.

In ;e#tember 1945, a month after smashin! my first car in an accident on the &rench side of the border, I left my )ob at 'u"air and flew to Aayenne, the ca#ital of &rench *uiana, with my last free tic%et from the com#any. I thou!ht I mi!ht stay in Aayenne but found on my arrival that it would be very hard to !et a )ob or a #lace to stay other than in one of the rather e"#ensive hotels in town. In my #oc%et I had a letter from Ali invitin! me to $unich, where he thou!ht the two of us could do some business to!ether and ma%e a lot of money in the wa%e of the 1lym#ic *ames. I felt I needed more money anyway in order to !et started in ;outh America, so, after only three days in Aayenne I flew bac% to 0aris and hitch-hi%ed to $unich. I did wor% in $unich but also s#ent a lot of money at the 1%toberfest while I was waitin! for Ali to show u#, and less than 5 months later I was bro%e. I hitch-hi%ed bac% to 'u"embour! in -ovember, s#endin! at least one ni!ht out in the cold ne"t to a *erman Autobahn hi!hway where nobody was willin! to !ive me a ride until the followin! day. 2ithin a wee% or two after I !ot bac% to 'u"embour! I !ot a letter from Ali invitin! me on a tri# by car to 'ahore, 0a%istan, to visit some of his sisters and other relatives there. (e wrote that he and his brother $ahmood +D#seudonym, and $ahmood7s wife and their three small boys were comin! from En!land in two cars, and they needed me as a bac%u# driver because they were #ressed for time and would have to drive throu!h the ni!hts. It turned out that they had to #ic% u# their old and arthritis#la!ued mother at the air#ort in Eeddah, ;audi Arabia, on a certain day in early Eanuary 194C and to ta%e her to $ecca and $edinah for her first, and #robably last, (a) -- the full Islamic #il!rima!e. Accordin! to their tentative #lan, we would drive as 3uic%ly as we could to >uwait, where I would stay with their eldest brother $oazzam +D#seudonym,, then they would race across ;audi Arabia, #ic% u# their mother and #erform the (a) with her, see her off at Eeddah on the fli!ht bac% to 'ondon about a month later and come bac% to #ic% me u# in >uwait for the final le! of the tri# to 'ahore. I was !un!-ho, of course. =he two cars were a <ol%swa!en van with a bi! mattress and a !as coo%er in the bac%, and a #owerful &ord Aa#ri C000 *= s#orts car. 2e left 'u"embour! on 19 Fecember 1945. *ermany, Austria, Gu!oslavia, ul!aria, =ur%ey. 2e crossed the os#orus by ferryboat +there was no brid!e as yet, and sto##ed at the famous 0uddin! ;ho# near ;ultan Ahmed mos3ue in Istanbul. ;omewhere in the mountains south of An%ara, at ni!ht, with $ahmood and his family slee#in! in the bac% of the <2 and Ali far ahead downhill in the Aa#ri, I lost control of the van in a nasty curve and s%idded off the road to the ed!e of a dee#, blac% #reci#ice. I mana!ed to sto# at the very last moment, and I thin% one of the front wheels no lon!er touched firm !round. It was really a close call. I found Ali

waitin! )ust around the bend. (e must have realized how dan!erous the curve was, but he hadn7t seen the near-miss. $ahmood and his family didn7t wa%e u#, and I didnt7t tell them about it. After that we %e#t !oin! throu!h the ni!ht, to Ale##o in ;yria, where we arrived in the wee hours of 5. Fecember 1945, and then east towards the Ira3i border. It was a harrowin! drive in the ni!ht to Ha33a, some 500 %ilometers east on the Eu#hrates Hiver, with dozens of truc%s comin! towards me on the narrow road, one after another, blindin! me with their hi!h-beam headli!hts that they a##arently could not dim. At dawn )ust #ast Ha33a, the sun came u# ri!ht in front and blinded me com#letely. I had to !ive u# and let $ahmood ta%e over. 2hen I wo%e u# a few hours later, the windshield was !oneI a stone that fell from a truc% had smashed it. 2e had to im#rovise, ma%in! a new windshield with sheets of #lastic that 3uic%ly became covered with scratches. At Abu >emal on the border with Ira3 our )ourney ended for the time bein!. =he Ira3is refused to let us enter their country, insistin! we had to !et visas. $ahmood and his family stayed behind with the <2 while Ali and I raced the nearly ?00 %ilometers of mostly miserable road bac% to Ale##o in the Aa#ri. At Ale##o we found out that we had to !o to the Ira3i Embassy in Famascus, another .00-odd %ilometers away to the south. In Famascus we learned that it would ta%e about 5 wee%s to !et the visas. Im#ossible. -o way we could !et to >uwait and then Eeddah in time. =here was only one way to !oI directly south throu!h Eordan to $edina and then $ecca and Eeddah. ut that meant I could not !o with them, since I was not a $uslim and would not !et #ermission to travel with them to the holy #laces in ;audi Arabia. Ali said I could !o bac% to Euro#e on my own, or, if I a!reed, I could officially become a $uslim and !o with them. I chose to become a $uslim. 2e raced bac% to Ale##o and from there all the way bac% to Abu >emal, because we couldn7t reach $ahmood by tele#hone and the Aa#ri with its low !round clearance would never have made the shortcut across the desert via 0almyra. And a!ain we drove the two cars to Ale##o and then to Famascus. Ali and $ahmood became my witnesses at the ;audi Embassy, and I was !iven an official #il!rim7s visa for ;audi Arabia under the name 1mar (ussein. =his is how I became a $uslim. 2e drove to Eordan. At the border, before leavin! ;yria, we had to #ay a s#ecial ta" that we were told was levied on all #il!rims who had received their (a) visas in Famascus. In Amman, the Eordanian ca#ital, we met a friend of Ali7s whose name I don7t remember. 2e drove on to $a7an and then A3aba but found out that we wouldn7t be able to cross into ;audi Arabia from that Hed ;ea #ort. 2e had to bac%trac% the 100odd %ilometers to $a7an and then head for the border at Al $udawarra. $y #ersonal im#ression was that the #eo#le I met in Eordan were more sus#icious of me than the

;yrians had been, sometimes hintin! that I mi!ht be an Israeli s#y. =his is e"actly what ;audi officals at Al $udawarra did, too. 2e s#ent the ni!ht of 59-C0 Fecember 1945 at the ;audi border #ost. =he officials found a radioelectronics %it that I had bou!ht in 'u"embour! for a friend of Ali7s in >uwait. 2hen they realized that it was #ossible to build a tiny radio transmitter with it they refused to let me ta%e it into ;audi Arabia, sayin! that I mi!ht use it to transmit information to the Israelis. =hey didn7t even let me send it by mail, so we had to leave it at the #ost, where Ali7s friend in Amman could later #ic% it u#. .... to be continued .... A little more... -Excerpt from a message to a friend Jan. 2 !" ...

=al%in! about the $iddle East, I wonder if I ever sent you my little story of how I went on the (a). I haven7t written the whole e"#erience down yet but I have the be!innin! of the tale in some autobio notes I wrote a few years a!o and may continue someday. I !ot only as far as late Fecember 1945, on the border between Eordan and ;audi Arabia. Gou can read it in the attached te"t file. I s#ent over a month in ;audi Arabia after that. $y friends wanted me to marry a 16year-old 0a%istani !irl by the name of -oha +D#seudonym, in F)eddah and then try to !et a scholarshi# to study at the Islamic 6niversity in $edina, etc... ut I was not ready for that and wanted to continue travelin! with them. 2e then s#ent 9 days with their eldest brother $oazzam +D#seudonym, and his friends in >uwait +in the villa of the Hadwan +D#seudonym, family - former #ostmaster !eneral of >uwait,, then Ali dro##ed me off in Abadan, Iran, to fend for myself, sayin! I could not come with them to 'ahore because I was not serious enou!h about bein! a $uslim and their family there would not li%e that. ;o I /celebrated/ my 55nd birthday alone +and nearly bro%e, in Abadan, then tried unsuccessfully to !et a )ob wor%in! on a shi# in nearby >horramshahr, and finally somehow made my way bac% to Euro#e by train and hitch-hi%in! via =eheran and Istanbul, etc. at the end of &ebruary 194C. =his was a little over 5 years before I met $oon7s 6nification Ahurch in -ew Gor%. In the summer of 194C I went to En!land and wor%ed at (eathrow Air#ort, then as a bus conductor in """, 'ancashire, where I rented a room in a house that belon!ed to Ali and his family -- and s#ent a lot of time with them. =hey were not mad at me for not bein! a !ood $uslim -- they actually didn7t ta%e it all that seriously themselves. I still %ee# in touch with them, and Ali still lives in """ but travels a lot on business. (e has visited me in 'u"embour! twice in recent years. ################################################# Journeys $%&' - $%% s

Adapted from a 1999 e-mail exchange with a former Unification Church (founded by Korean Sun Myung Moon member in !riti"h Columbia#Canada whom $ %new in San &ranci"co '( year" earlier) ... Gou %now, when I came to America in $arch 194?, the #lace I wanted to !o was actually ritish Aolumbia. I never made it to A because I met the 6nification Ahurch in the ;tates. I never even crossed the border into Aanada. I have some distant relatives in <ancouver, who have lived there since the mid-?0s. In 194.-4? I believed that modern civilization would be wi#ed out by a nuclear war in 1949 and that the only land areas of the world that would be more or less s#ared from the dan!erous fallout would be in the southern hemis#here, because it contained few worth-while tar!ets for nuclear stri%es. ut only very tou!h #eo#le used to survivin! in a rou!h and wild environment could ma%e it. ;o my #lan was to #ut myself throu!h a testI try to survive for at least one year alone in a wilderness area. =he #lace I wanted to do that was an area somewhere to the north of (azelton or -ew (azelton in central ritish Aolumbia. 2hy that #laceJ I don7t %now -- I )ust selected that s#ot when I loo%ed over a detailed ma# of A. If I survived, then I wanted to !o south to 0ata!onia +Ar!entina-Ahile, and basically wait there for the end of the world as we %now it. 99=hin%in! bac% to $arch 6, 194?, the day I arrived in -ew Gor% on my first tri# to -orth America -- I wrote the followin! lines in A#ril 199.I ... Ges, this bi! city really con)ured u# the feelin! that it was doomed, and the entire civilization that created it was doomed. It would all be annihilated in the nuclear war that I saw comin! within a few years7 time. =hat holocaust had to ha##en -- and I actually wished for it to occur. ecause I felt that somethin! was fundamentally wron! with this civilization. $ore than that, somethin! was fundamentally wron! with human%ind. In my view the earth and in fact the entire universe was a harmonious whole, li%e a !i!antic or!anism within which every #art #layed a certain role and all #arts were com#lementary to each other. 1nly man did not fit into this harmonious whole. $an was li%e a mali!nant cancer that, thou!h ori!inatin! from the whole, s#read uncontrollably and destroyed other #arts of the or!anism. $an alone was !oin! a!ainst the #ur#ose and desi!n of the universe, and modern human civilization re#resented a cancer that had !rown to such #ro#ortions that it threatened to overwhelm an entire #lanet. It had to be destroyed. Actually, because of its inherent contradictions it was bound to destroy itself. ut I believed there could be, there had to be, a new be!innin! -- because the universe had brou!ht forth human%ind and it was meant to e"ist, but it clearly had somehow !one wron!. $odern civilization would be destroyed but there would be survivors in

different #laces. =hose #eo#le would have to live in nature and start anew, but they would have to avoid the ori!inal mista%e that made man !o in the wron! direction. I felt that those survivors had to become com#letely one with nature, one with the s#irit of the whole, the essence of the universe. And they should never as% the 3uestion /whyJ./ =o me, this was the root of all the #roblems. 2e had to attune our hearts and minds to the harmonious whole of the universe without ever as%in! why thin!s were the way they were and why we were what we were. As%in! /whyJ/ somehow meant that we se#arated ourselves mentally from the whole -- and that was what caused human%ind to !o astray. 1ur ancestors in ;tone A!e had made this mista%e, and the survivors of the e"#ected nuclear holocaust would have to !o bac% to ;tone A!e to try a!ain. I was on my way to ;tone a!e ... :: I was alone. I told #eo#le, includin! my #arents, about my idea, and of course everyone thou!ht I was crazy. In early $arch 194? I said !oodbye +forever, I was sure, and flew to -ew Gor% +chea#est fli!ht across,. I #lanned to ta%e a train to $ontreal the ne"t day and hitch-hi%e west from there, loo%in! u# my relatives in <ancouver for a brief visit and then headin! u# to the woods north of (azelton. ut in -ew Gor% Aity I ran into lots of 6nification Ahurch street #reachers, and even thou!h they seemed really crazy I acce#ted an invitation from one of them, a Ea#anese lady 10 years older than I, to listen to a lecture. I thou!ht their idea of unitin! reli!ion and science sounded %ind of interestin! and, since I had time +and I %new it would be !ettin! warmer in Aanada,, I a!reed to !o to a C-day wor%sho# at a farmKtrainin! center +now seminary, in arrytown on the (udson Hiver northeast of >in!stonK-G. 2ell, after C days came the 4-day, then the 51-day wor%sho#, and I was hoo%ed, more or less. I com#leted a .0-day wor%sho# as well, then wor%ed with the movement in oston and -ew Gor% Aity, went down to Atlanta a cou#le of times in a bi! truc% to #ic% u# fundraisin! #roduct +#eanut brittle, mostly,, which we dro##ed off for mobile fundraisin! teams in the Aarolinas, the <ir!inias, =ennessee, >entuc%y, 1hio and 0ennsylvania. =hen I wor%ed in a churchowned #rint sho# in 2ashin!ton, F.A. After C wee%s there, in the first half of -ovember 194?, I felt I needed a brea%. I wanted to travel to the west coast and around the world, and re)oin the church somewhere else. I told my friends I would re)oin within 5 years, and I #romised to visit a church center on my way in Aalifornia. ;o I left, with about L .0 in my #oc%et and no #lane tic%et home or anythin! li%e that. All I had was the address of a friend in ;an Hafael, $arin AountyKAalifornia, who had left the church and whom I wanted to visit. I hitch-hi%ed down to -orth Aarolina and across the 6; +-orth Aarolina, =ennessee, Ar%ansas, 1%lahoma, =e"as, -ew $e"ico, Arizona and Aalifornia, to the 'os An!eles area on Interstate .0, then north

on (i!hway 101, always slee#in! outside. In ;an Hafael, north of the *olden *ate rid!e, I s#ent a few days with this e"member friend, and he later dro##ed me off in ;acramento, from where I wanted to travel north to A, !oin! bac% to my ori!inal #lan. I tried to hitch-hi%e north for C days -- no success. =hen I met some hobo at the local sou# %itchen and he tal%ed me into !oin! south with him to Indio, near 'os An!eles, where he was sure we could !et )obs durin! the winter +I could always !o to A later on,. Anyway, we wound u# ridin! frei!ht trains but !ot only as far as ;toc%ton. 'ater, not far from there, he !ot badly hurt on one train, brea%in! his hi# bone, and I had to ta%e him to a hos#ital in =racy. I couldn7t stay with himI I was an ille!al alien +that7s another #art of the story,. 'ater the same day, =han%s!ivin! Fay, I was robbed of all my #ossessions e"ce#t my #ass#ort and a few dollars near 'ivermore, then a fundamentalist Ahristian !uy !ave me L 60, and I was about ready to loo% u# the church a!ain. I couldn7t find the church center in er%eley, but in the evenin! I ran into two youn! !uys who invited me to a free =han%s!ivin! Finner at a #lace on (earst ;treet near er%eley cam#us. =hat turned out to be the 6nification Ahurch, under a different name +Areative Aommunity 0ro)ect,.... After s#endin! more than a month at the church7s farm in oonvilleK$endocino Aounty and another month /recruitin!/ and sellin! roses in ;an &rancisco I was sent with a !rou# of over C0 other members on a bus +the /Fumbo/ the ele#hant bus, which we had used as a mobile coffee sho# at &isherman7s 2harf to invite #otential recruits, to -ew Gor%. 2e drove south and then east alon! Interstate (i!hway 10. &rom El 0aso we went northeast to Fallas via Abilene. In Fallas we started the icentennial *od less America cleanu# cam#ai!n by #ic%in! u# !arba!e in one or two streets and doin! our best to !et some television covera!e of our efforts +we had done the same earlier in ;an &rancisco,. 2e did the same in irmin!hamKA', Halei!hK-A, HichmondK<A, 2ashin!ton FA and -ew Gor% Aity, then headed to arrytown for a 51-day wor%sho#. 9(ere comes a very lon! sentenceI: ... I stayed in the movement throu!h $oon7s bi! Gan%ee ;tadium +Eune 1946, and 2ashin!ton $onument +;e#tember 1946, rallies, )oined =he -ews 2orld +a new daily news#a#er founded by church members, in -ew Gor% Aity in late 1946, came bac% to my country 'u"embour! for C months in 1949, traveled some B,000 miles by train from here to -a%hod%a in eastern ;iberia and then by boat to Ea#an in 1ctober 1949 9throu!h the northern ed!e of ;u#erty#hoon =i# for 5. hours off the 0acific coast of (onshu Island: to visit my s#iritual mother +the Ea#anese lady I had met in $arch 194?, there, went down to an!%o% to try wor%in! as a corres#ondent, was called bac% to -ew Gor% a few months later, s#ent half of 19B0 and all of 19B1 in -ew Gor% wor%in! for =he -ews 2orld and &ree 0ress International, then in 19B5 traveled around 'u"embour!,

*ermany, ;witzerland, Austria and Azechoslova%ia +)ust C days - in #rison in Aes%e ude)ovice + udweis,M,, did research in -ew Gor% Aity for an 8mi!r8 Hussian writer for C months, was arm-twisted by church member friends in the 6; and 'u"embour! to !o to >orea in 1ctober 19B5, where I was matched and blessed to a Ea#anese sister, then went to Ay#rus at the be!innin! of 19BC to hel# start =he $iddle East =imes wee%ly En!lish-lan!ua!e news#a#er, went to 0a%istan in 19B. and over the hills into Af!hanistan +I had first visited that country from Iran in $arch 1945, when it was at #eace, with a bunch of mu)ahideen warriors fi!htin! the ;oviets there, did the same a!ain in 19B?, also went alone u# the hi!hest mountain +10,000N feet, in then very much war-torn 'ebanon that year, and to Israel, then moved to Athens, *reece with $iddle East =imes in 19B4, then s#ent a month with my wife in Ea#an, where we !ot married both le!ally and in a ;hinto ceremony at a tem#le near her tiny hometown in $iyaza%i 0refecture of >yushu Island, then I went off to 0a%istan and she bac% to her wor% in =o%yo, wor%ed as corres#ondent for both $iddle East =imes and ;e%ai -i##o in Islamabad and 0eshawar, went a!ain into Af!hanistan with mu)ahideen +came under artillery fire every time I went,, then s#ent some time in the winter in wild and dirt-#oor altistan +home of 5B,000-foot >5 mountain,, went bac% to Ea#an in late Eanuary 19BB, started my family there, too% my wife bac% to *reece in late $ay, wor%ed for $iddle East =imes in Aairo, E!y#t, in early 19B9, then our first child, a son, was born outside Athens, and we went off to Aairo a!ain, where I wor%ed as mana!in! editor of the local edition durin! most of 1990, then we s#ent 10 months in 'arnaca, Ay#rus, and finally, at my wife7s insistence +u#on Hev. $oon7s instruction to all /blessed/ families,, we came here to my country in 1ctober 1991, and I was a lowly forest wor%er for C months before I !ot my #resent )ob as custodian-!uide +now officially Aemetery Associate, in the 'u"embour! American Aemetery, a ?0-acre burial !round for ?,046 American soldiers who died in this re!ion in 2orld 2ar II - includin! =hird Army commander *en. *eor!e 0atton - and maintained by a small a!ency of the E"ecutive ranch of the 6nited ;tates *overnmentO a second son was born to us here in 199. and a dau!hter in 1996. 1ur two boys have what is called fra!ile @-chromosome syndrome and are seriously mentally retarded. =he !irl is #erfectly normal. 2e didn7t find out about the ori!in of the boys7 #roblem until late 1994. About 199B, after several years of soul-searchin!, I sto##ed believin! in $oon and his teachin!s. I have develo#ed my own ideas about *od, the universe and human%ind, and about life and death. I remain connected to $oon and his movement only throu!h my wife, who continues to be a faithful follower.

(rief note about my trip across )iberia to Japan in *ctober $%&%

;e#. 5009 Aomment by me on ;teve F.7s &aceboo% 2all where he had a #ost about com#letin! a 3uizI /which country hates youJ/ 2ith the resultI /Hussia hates you./

Erwin &ranzenI (ello ;teve. 2ere you actually %ic%ed out of Hussia - or is that only somehow in this 3uizJ I traveled all across by train, from 'u"embour! to -a%hod%a north of <ladivosto%, in 1ctober 1949, and didn7t !et the im#ression that they hated me - even thou!h they confiscated an /anti-;oviet/ boo% I was readin! and once cau!ht me in a forbidden zone by the Amur Hiver in >habarovs% +northeast corner of $anchuria,. I also observed dozens of armored #ersonnel carriers on a s#ecial train near -ovosibirs% and realized a few months later that those may have been #art of a contin!ent !ettin! ready to invade Af!hanistan that Ahristmas... If you were indeed %ic%ed out, what ha##enedJJ ;e#tember C at 9I?0am P Felete Foris A.I Erwin, weren7t you scared J. It was not /friendly territory/ at that time. 2hat were you doin! in Hussia in 49J ;e#tember C at CI0.#m Erwin &ranzenI I was on my way to Ea#an, to visit my s#iritual mother, and then on to an!%o%, for =he -ews 2orld. I was not in a hurry and thou!ht this would be a more interestin! way to travel to Ea#an than )ust flyin! there. Also, I wanted to see for myself what the ;oviet 6nion loo%ed li%e - what we had learned to re!ard as the /evil em#ire/ before Hea!an #o#ularized that term. - =he tri# to Ea#an too% a full 5 wee%s, includin! over 5. hours on a ;oviet boat off the 0acific coast of (onshu in very heavy seas caused by ;u#erty#hoon =i#, the bi!!est tro#ical cyclone ever recorded +loo% it u# in 2i%i#edia,... ;e#tember C at 10I50#m P Felete Foris A.I =his must have been a most memorable tri#M

+ote about ,he +ews -orld and my one and only experience of prison in .zechoslo/a0ia 1arch $%22
From an email to an ex-UC member friend at the University of Illinois: .. efore I came to the 6; and met the church +in $arch 194?, I had been #olitically left-leanin!, stron!ly anti-<ietnam 2ar, and I actually believed the 6; would start the nuclear war I e"#ected. =he church in the 6; turned me into a #ro-American anticommunist. After )oinin! =he -ews 2orld +a -GA daily founded by 6nification Ahurch members, I started readin! other news#a#ers such as =he -ew Gor% =imes, which we thou!ht were dominated by liberals and leftists. 2hat I read in those #a#ers challen!ed both my intellect and my ac3uired sense of morality because it made me feel increasin!ly uncomfortable with the church and our #a#er7s #osition a!ainst what was derisively called /secular humanism./ Eimmy Aarter and his #eo#le were always tal%in! about human ri!hts but our church did not seem to a!ree with this, and we

embraced 'atin American fascist dictators )ust because they were anti-communist. $ost of my time on =he -ews 2orld I was an assistant editor in the international news de#artment, mostly combinin! and rewritin! wire dis#atches and re#orts from our own forei!n corres#ondents +almost all of them church missionaries,. I also wrote a number of articles under the #seudonym Aaron ;tevenson, which Aarol '. of the 1#inionKAommentary de#artment had chosen because my first #ublished #ieces were commentaries. 1ur first #ublisher was actually Fennis 1. $i%e 2. came a little later. If you wor%ed in circulation you must have %nown Eoachim . and -ic% .. =he only time I used my real name in the #a#er was when I wor%ed in 2ashin!ton F.A. with Eosette ;. in 1949. In -ew Gor% we were worried about the I-; #eo#le comin! to chec% whether we em#loyed ille!al aliens -- and of course I myself was one and there were 3uite a few others -- but there was no such concern in F.A. I received many re#orts from the 0enta!on over the years includin! all the ;ecFef annual re#orts to Aon!ress from Fonald Humsfeld7s last one under &ord to those by Aarter7s ;ecFef (arold rown and the first ones by Hea!an7s man Aas#ar 2einber!er. =hey sent them to me in -ew Gor% for free. In Azechoslova%ia in $arch 19B5 five soldiers too% me off the <ienna- erlin train at =abor, south of 0ra!ue, where I was thorou!hly searched +stri##ed na%ed, and then %e#t under !uard +two soldiers with >alashni%ovs ri!ht behind my bac% even when I went to the toilet, for several hours until two men from the Interior $inistry in 0ra!ue arrived. ;ome of the thin!s they found in my lu!!a!e had made them sus#icious, includin! some of our anti-;oviet material and one or two of those 0enta!on annual re#orts +a diary they found also contained contact info for a man I had called a few times from -ew Gor% for informationI former -avy Aa#tain (erbert (etu, who o#ened the AIA7s first 0ublic Affairs office under then-director ;tansfield =urner -- I found him a!ain not lon! a!o, hereI htt#IKKwww.arlin!toncemetery.netKhehetu.htm ,. I was ta%en at ni!ht to a bi! office buildin! in Aes%e ude)ovice + udweis in *erman, that turned out to be a hi!h-security #rison and interro!ated +without any violence, for hours throu!hout the ne"t day. 1n the third day they decided to send me bac% to Austria, too% me to the border at Aes%e <elenice and #ut me on a s#ecial train +I was absolutely the only #assen!er on that train,, with two soldiers with >alashni%ovs watchin! as the train headed into the forest towards *mQnd on the Austrian side +I !uess they thou!ht I mi!ht )um# off before the train crossed the border,. .. .;ome of my old collea!ues on the 6A news#a#ers are still out there fi!htin! the bi! enemy we fou!ht in the 1940s, only now it is called /terrorism/ instead of communism.
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