Jan. 13 marks a special anniversary for Elizabeth Berting.
For the 75-year-old Humboldt resident, it has been 61 years since she traveled from Yugoslavia to Canada.
At the age of 4, Berting, nee Pape, was taken to an orphanage in Yugoslavia with her sister, Barbara.
It was 1944.
With her mother dead of starvation along with her two younger brothers, and her father fighting in Germany, there was no where else for them to go.
Their father had no idea of their whereabouts when he returned from the war and died in Hungary in 1950.
At the age of 14, Elizabeth and Barbara received fantastic news; they had a grandfather, grandmother, and uncle living in Canada who were looking for them.
Anton Pape and his wife came to Canada in 1930 with one son, Mike, and one daughter.
The last they heard from Elizabeth and Barbara’s mother was that they were starving.
After that, they did not hear anymore from their relatives in Yugoslavia except from Elizabeth and Barbara’s father saying that he did not know where his family was and later learning that their granddaughters were in alive in a Yugoslavian orphanage, says a previous Humboldt Journal article.
Through a year and a half correspondence with the Red Cross, they were able to get permission to bring the girls to Canada.
In order for them to come to Canada, Anton and Mike had to pay for their travel costs.
“They say it was tough to get us out because they couldn’t afford it.” Says Berting.
But they were eventually able to get the funds together to bring them over to Canada.
Their journey started on a train to France and a ship to Halifax. Then it was a long train ride from Halifax to Humboldt on the CNR.
“We were excited,” says Berting. “Wherever we went, they treated us nice.”
Elizabeth and Barbara wore name tags so people recognized them right away.
“That’s the most traveling we did, was by the train.” She laughs.
Their journey to Canada, as well as updates about how they were doing in Canada were well documented.
Berting kept numerous clip outs from papers from Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Humboldt.
From the Star Phoenix out of Saskatoon, Barbara and Elizabeth are pictured with a Red Cross worker at the train station in Toronto. Elizabeth says she remembers her being very nice and taking them to the store to buy them winter parkas and ski pants.
Arriving in Humboldt, they received a very Canadian welcome with a very cold day and the Christmas tree still up at her grandfather’s farm.
Unfortunately, they never got to meet their grandmother because she died the spring before they arrived.
Growing up in Yugoslavia, neither girl could understand English. Arriving in Humboldt being surrounded by everyone speaking a different language was very strange, says Berting.
The girls then started school at St. Augustine shortly after arriving and went to grade 8 and started their own families.
Looking back, Berting says she has had a good life in the Humboldt area, getting married in 1961 to Bernard Berting and farming between St. Gregor and Muenster before his death in 2000.
Barbara also married in 1960 to Arthur Kienlen and started a family but died in a car accident on her way to work on Sept. 14, 2000.
“When Barbara was living yet, we were really happy to be in Canada.” says Berting.
Berting still enjoys fishing with her family and coffee with the girls, she laughs.
When asked if Berting ever thinks about what her life would have been like if she had not come to Canada, she says she does not really think about it much.
“I know it would have been pretty tough.” She says.
