Decades later war still vivid for Helmut Nikolai and his family

By Sarah Baker

Oct. 27, 2020

Helmut Nikolai and his family were afraid.

Afraid of being caught by the Russians as they were desperately trying to flee to the west.

Nikolai was pushing a baby carriage while his sister and parents carried what they could when they saw the border.

On the other side of the border were American soldiers.

When they crossed some of the soldiers threw chocolate bars into the carriage. This wasn’t just the first chocolate Nikolai received, it was the first sign of compassion he’d witnessed after the Second World War.

Today, Nikolai is 79 and lives in Edmonton, Alta. The war and the Russian concentration camp he’d escape from, after spending half a year there, are a distant childhood memory.

This Remembrance Day Nikolai and his family won’t be attending any celebrations, but the memory of his experiences from the war and after are still with him.

“War itself is what is evil.”

Nikolai and his family first came to Canada via Halifax in 1948, not knowing any English.

The family knew they had to stick together.

There was still a great deal of resentment towards Germans at the time. When Nikolai was seven, he entered Westlock school.

The teachers looked at him and said he was not allowed to go there.

Nikolai and his family were also called Nazis.

Nikolai’s father got a job at Ziegler Lumber, a German-owned company, while Nikolai was sent to live with a family in hopes that by associating with the children, he could learn English.

The children were younger than Nikolai, and instead of him learning English, they ended up learning German.

Nikolai returned home still not knowing English, but when he was eight he was able to start school.

He went to school in a one-room schoolhouse where he was moved up from Grade 1 to Grade 3.

He and his family still depended on each other and because that he and all his siblings were able to get university degrees.

“The experience deeply implanted strong bonds of family and education in me.”

Nikolai became a teacher and even taught in Germany for a couple years as a Canadian citizen.

He has never returned to either where he was born, or where the camp was.  

Feature photo: Helmut Nikolai at his home in Alberta.