Peter Winston
Peter Winston was born in 1931 in Upper Silesia, the farthest western state of Germany before Poland. His family owned businesses, his father running a fabric store and his mother's family operating a mid-size department store dating back to 1871. Though the family was comfortable and Peter recalls few troubles as a small child, he remembers being struck by hoodlums and called a slur near his mother's store. When Jewish children could no longer attend public school in 1936, his father resolved to leave. Thanks to a friend he had met on a boat during a 1924 visit to America, the family obtained a visa and, when Peter was seven, sailed first class through Southampton to New York and on to St. Louis. Peter's grandparents and other relatives who remained behind are believed to have perished in the Holocaust.
In St. Louis, Peter attended Clark grammar school and went on to high school, enjoying Saturdays at the movies as a boy. His father rebuilt a fabric business, and Peter later studied at the Philadelphia Textile Institute. Facing the draft during the Korean War, he chose the Air Force, which offered education plus service. Trained in electronic countermeasures, he was stationed in Germany near Frankfurt and flew reconnaissance aboard B-25 aircraft, working to detect and triangulate enemy radar. After his service, from roughly the mid-1950s, he drew on his electronics training to work for Emerson Electric before eventually joining and expanding the family fabric trade.
Peter married his first wife, Louise, in December 1952, just after entering the Air Force, and together they had three children and were married 41 years. They opened their own branch of Winston's Fabrics in Clayton, a suburb of St. Louis, selling fine dress fabrics and doing well for many years; one son later carried on the business. After Louise's death, Peter married Carol, a longtime friend of his sister. In 2014 the couple moved to Dallas for the weather and to be near his son who worked in financial planning. Peter counted his marriages and honeymoon travels in Europe among the happiest times of his life, and took pride in his large blended family of children, grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.
Full Transcript
Peter 1931 Hindenburg Germany but then you gave it another name well these the state is called Upper Silesia it is the farthest Western state in Germany before you get to Poland what do you remember when you were just a little boy I remember not too many things obviously I was only seven years when we left I'm going to synagogue of a couple a few times I went to school also for a while so I remember my parents of course they came over to the United States the same time we did in other words my father didn't really have a major reason for coming until it started getting bad in 1937-38 and it was hard he was lucky he had been in the United States in 1924 and he'd met this fellow on the boat and this guy told him just come the st.
Louis and go around the country with my son who's about the same age you are and so they spent a month together I think going around to the major cities and at that time saying Louis was one of the major cities we were pretty high up there in it and in the population of the United States and we went he went to to Chicago and Detroit and New York and eventually New Jersey and back to the back to Germany now of course it was a horrible time in Germany starting when you were you know a young boy not a young boy no it wasn't a
horrible job her it wasn't bad we were quite well off and I don't remember too many bad things in Germany at one time I think I was hit on the hit honest walk into and near my parents store near my mother's store actually and so your first word somebody they were business owners their business owner right right my father started a fabric business and it was called my name was different in those days it was always Peter but my last name was vitamin WEEI CH ma NN and my father had a business called Zeidan house vitamin there was so cows wife fishmen and he did
fairly well for himself and it was pretty successful and my mother was even more successful came from a family of that I think in 1871 they started the business and what kind of businesses were these well the first one was just a fabric store right and I guess my mother's business was maybe a junior department store whoa okay and Bobby one of the bigger stores in this in the city and they were quite well-off and they had and basically my father was just going to forget about it and this they're not going to keep this idiot in the Hitler in in power very long and
so we was going to wait it all out but it got worse and worse and finally he decided that he had to leave so getting out was not so easy I mean getting out was easy finding a place to go was much more difficult and as I was saying luckily he had made a friend in the United States in nineteen 24 right and so he asked them for a visa and we got a visa from him and the whole family took off and we came over here actually in a luxury liner transportation paid all the way to st. Louis because you could only take out so much money but he we got out enough so that I think he was we were able to sort of support ourselves for about a year and st.
Louis before he was able to start a another fabric store eventually in st. looks now did you know at the time any sense of urgency on your vote I personally did not like I think I remember getting smacked down one time by some hoodlums in the street right and called it a dirty Jew yeah but that only happened once and it that's all I see little remember from that period and your folks are going this synagogue in fact that's also what finally got my father moving because it was time in 1936 for me to go to school and by that time Jews couldn't go to public school of course my parents had both been nicely educated and in the
public schools of of Germany and when he knew I couldn't go there what's going to happen to my children if they can't get an education right oh that's when he decided he had to leave luckily he had this friend and saying Lord that he had made quite a few years before now were they able to sell the business or do they just leave I'm trying to think now no actually he sold his business to his partners who weren't Jewish and he never complained about what he got for his business my mother of course I don't think we got anything that I think the school board
of Germany somebody someplace in Germany took it over and I think they got anything from for that store now is your sister younger or older than you my sister was four years younger okay she's passed away now five six years okay now what about your grandparents do you remember them at all let me think no I I really can't think that I remember them at all and the dog Oh they lived across the hall from us and Friday nights we went over to my grandparents they had told you they had a midsize department store and upstairs were apartments and we had one of them and
my grandparents my grandmother and great-grandmother were the only ones alive at that time now was this in st. Louis you know the German okay and this was your mother's parents or your mother's parents and and grandparents were they able to get out - er - this thing no they didn't get out and I really have no idea what happened to him I imagine they died during the Holocaust yeah yeah now what about on your dad's side no remembrance she he was an he was sort of like an orphan and he was so he had very few relatives and I was never discussed as to what happened they had Jewish friends and they were concerned about them after we came and of course we tried to get some of them to come on the United States but you know we didn't become citizens until 44 or something 44 43 now you're a kid on a big ship coming to a new country was just fun it's just fun I remember playing on the deck shuffleboard and things of this sort yeah and like I say we came we had tickets first class tickets all the way to st.
Louis yeah did you go through New York at all yep we can do you remember it was no I don't remember very much of it I remember we we stayed a very short time in fact I remember almost more that we flew we flew to Paris and we were there for a few days he was you know finishing up some business I was trying to maybe get some more money out I don't know anyway we finally get on a went to what's the major port there in Germany got one on this boat right that went past Southampton and do New York yeah now did your folks ever talk to you about leaving what it was like what what they were thinking the urgency they might have felt I know you were you were insulated as a young boy yeah and like you say it was fun but did they ever talk about what their feelings well I I can imagine they were sad of leaving their friends right more so than relatives because they didn't have many relatives so I don't remember them talking further about those sort of things yeah tell me about st.
Louis now what did you do for fun as a kid oh of course Saturday was movie day went to the West End theater on Del Mar and watched two or three serials and and so on so that was always looking for 10 cents that they could cost for the day but therefore there from the show that day yeah where the kids show they had some cartoons and they had main feature plus the second feature and you two or three hours what was the name of the grammar school you went to oh the karaman school in st. Louis was Clark school and then we went to then I went to Seoul day in high school and that's when I graduated that of course then I became draft bait it was a Korean War and I had gone down for physical and I had gone down for mental exam and if I'm sure other people have told you that mental exam was very simple if you got less than a 95 out of a hundred a hundred questions you got less than 95 you weren't too small and I was shocked when half the class failed that mental exam and at that point I made it sort of
some decision for myself that I wasn't going into the as a draft and the draft I couldn't stand to be with people like that but even the two years that draft was only for two years so I quickly looked around and we had there was a Navy deal but the Navy deal fell through why because I wasn't just a half an inch short of five foot six they had a minimum four officers five foot six so I couldn't get the Navy deal and I looked around and there was an Air Force bill of course they had no height restrictions because actually and maximum heights if
you wanted to be a pilot right anyway the deal was education and then three years of service so that was I think 52 to 55 56 and you know 55 57 I think I got out all rightie Air Force right now where were you stationed oh I was also strangely enough I was stationed in Germany while stationed near to the air and in Germany that's in sort of it you have not too far from Frankfurt right right now did you ever go to Korea no no fortunate never to have to go to juvy so what did your parents think when you're telling them I'm stationed
in Germany didn't bother them I don't think no I don't think but now it's the end of the war you know it and actually Germany was really very good to its refugees yeah I got I think paid $1,000 for loss of education and my parents and my father my mother so much my father all of a sudden got German Social Security as well as the American Social Security so we're relatively well-off yeah Germany and then the United States now in the Air Force in Germany what what were you guys doing and what was your job TM electronic countermeasures I frankly when I signed up for
we didn't know what it was we finally asked some people and they said well I think they flusche metal out of the windows you know chaff the windows too few to confuse enemy radar right right so that was sort of all I knew about ECM electronic countermeasures were they preparing you to go to Korea not really and I was in probably too late think oh that yeah yeah career but I was able to be near the top of the class while I was going in the airforce and that of course gave you an advantage you had your first choice of assignments and that's why we
were I was very fortunate that my class of maybe 20 people 10 20 people most of them were being sent to Germany and you got to choose that right so I got to choose to go to Germany others didn't want to leave the country what was the aircraft you flew on b25 325 which were two engine bombers light bombers and in the on those aircraft there were two reconnaissance seats were you listened and you look listening to the enemy radar honed in on it found out what the direction was then we go a little further and we'd homing on again so we could triangulate on
the enemy radars in those days I guess it was Russian radars yeah and what type it is by the frequency and the characteristics of the radar beam we could tell what type of radio it was also and these things were all recorded and the Air Force kept track of them now you come home and you leave the service what do you get into that was a little difficult and luckily I learned electronics because of ECM and the work we did so I went to work for Emerson Electric meanwhile my father started the business again and of course he started a fabric business again now in
st. Louis and it was almost immediately successful that I was planning to go into it's for my father's business which never really happened because I like the elec electronics well when did you meet Louise I met Louise when I was at school I went to Philadelphia textile Institute because in those days you did what your parents told you to do and my father asked enough questions while he was in business which is a good textile school and they said well fall off your textile it's probably than been the best so you met Louise before you left for Germany we got married in 52 right after I was drafted I got married in December 25th because it was one day you could get a place to get married at and so I married Louise just a few minutes after I got into the Air Force yeah yeah so when you return home where did you guys settle down well of course we went back to st.
Louis and by this time I was ready to go into my father's business this got good enough so I could start our own store in the county the original Winston's fabrics was downtown and in Clayton when Louise and I started our branch of Winston's fabrics we started it in Clayton mazui Clayton was right right which suburb of st. Louis how long did you have that business a long time doctor that's quite a few a long time made pretty good money for many years in the fabric business yeah yeah and you and Lee Louise were married for 41 years you had three children three children one of them got the business and the other one went into finance into financial planning and he's been quite successful in that so actually the people that have anything to do with a business did wealth wealth that's better for themselves one of my sons ended up in California Fullerton California he's got to be an ophthalmologist okay now your son that took over the businesses he still had their business today he has the S he's moved it a few times he's now in the st.
Louis County and it's still still going yeah although it's changed to mostly sewing machines machines and quilting machines quilting we had almost nothing to do with with that sort of fabric we sold dress fabrics mostly right not men's were either just luxury dress fabric my father believed selling the best which was silk and when did you meet Carol okay Carol was a good friend of my sisters in st. Louis and she went to the same high school I went to and we got married fairly mysurvey my sister by the way married a doctor and lived up in Albany New York and so I went when Louise and Carol and I got closer we got married and in fact we had a we got married in Albany in New York and my sister's place because my sister had MS and so she got sicker and sicker slowly so in 2014 you guys decided to move to Dallas because of the weather weather and also that my my son that's in the financial planning lived down here but he had he was planning various the my my savings he knows investing them and what was the happiest time in your life boy that's a good question the happiest time was after we got married we went we again went to Europe on a honeymoon we're there for at least a couple of weeks and that was very pleasant we went to went to New York and oh no we were actually we went to dijon flew and flew into New York took a train to Dijon took a boat up the up the river and and then got back to the airport and back to back to st.
Louis was there an invention in your lifetime that came along that you went Wow how did we ever get along without that well the automobile of course TV of course there a Joe was always big in our family for many years we didn't have it TV but eventually we got a TV and a bigger TV and so they started out a little bit smaller than they are today a lot of smaller yeah yeah yeah now in your lifetime you've lived through so many momentous occasions of course World War two the Kennedy assassination oh yeah Martin Luther King assassination something good the moon landing in 69 for the first time you know the tragedy of 9/11 was there something that really stuck out in your mind that really affected you you know exactly where you were when it happened I guess our marriage our getting married we knew I knew where we were and we like I say we went over back over to Europe for our honeymoon and that was wonderful time there we went ended up in New York but we didn't stay in New York anymore my home was st.
Louis now you and Louise had three children and five grandkids you and Carol carol has two children yeah and five of our own grandchildren and a great grandchild yeah so you basically have five kids ten grandkids one great grandchild with the extended family I've only got one grandchild married yeah good job today man thanks for doing this well I'm glad to do it you