Erika Heppner
Photo: Heppner family |
CWS Refugee Stories from Across the Decades:
Erika Heppner, Germany -- 1957
Erika Heppner was a four-month-old babe in arms when her parents came to the United States as refugees from Germany in 1957. Gerhard and Margot Heppner had fled the Russian army as it took over East and West Prussia. CWS secured First Presbyterian Church in Fairbury, Illinois, as the young family’s sponsor. Gerhard found work as a bricklayer.
“I was the first one in my family to speak fluent English,” recalls Erika, now teaching oral communication to non-native English speakers at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, New York.
Heppner recently contacted CWS as part of research for a documentary she is producing about her family's resettlement.
“I thank the church for all they did for us,” she said, commenting that growing up in Fairbury, population 3,500, “really gave me a sense of place. We stayed there 25 years. My mother is buried there, and I’m still in contact with people there. It’s still home.”