Darka Zachorska was born in Poland in June 1925. She was the youngest of five children born to Anton and Helena Zachorska, a carpenter and a seamstress, with whom she lived until World War II would tear her family apart when she was only 15.
One fateful day in 1939, as she walked home from school with a friend, the Nazis drove up and collected all of the children, who were taken to a work camp in Germany. For the next several years she would only know the inside of a concentration camp. After the war ended, and the Americans liberated their camp, most of the prisoners had nowhere to go and so the camp was converted to a refugee camp where the liberated prisoners could live while they searched for surviving family or a direction to go.
After years of searching, Donna was never able to locate any surviving members of her family. As a young adult, she had not had the nurturing of loving parents to guide her into her adulthood – only the day to day routine of work to provide a daily purpose.
During the restoration, the USO would throw parties and invite bands to come play for the American servicemen and women. Red Cross nurses showed her how to apply lipstick and nail polish, and to style her beautiful black hair, and invited the newly liberated refugees to join the festivities. In attendance at one of these celebrations was an American from Indiana, who would become the father of her first child.
Paul Kavitz would be born in December 1948, right there in Winterburen, Germany where the refugees had been held captive all those years. When the planned trip to Indiana never materialized, she realized that she and her son were alone in the world.
Half a world away, Catholic Hearts Charities were organizing to help the refugees. Catholic families around the country were volunteering to sponsor the re-settlement of WW2 refugees in their communities. One family in Wisconsin agreed to sponsor Darka and Paul, but backed out at the last minute.
Then, Leo and Creta Mullenmaster of Deerfield, MN, arranged to sponsor Darka and her baby son, and bring them to Minnesota to work on their farm in exchange for a new home. Though many families wanted to sponsor men who could work on their farms, Creta fought for “a woman” because she needed help with her many children.
So Darka set out to bring Paul, now 15 months old, across the Atlantic Ocean to America. On May 30th, 1950, she and Paul left Bremerhaven Germany and sailed to Ellis Island, where the new immigrants were processed on June 9, 1950.
Darka would become known as Donna, and the Mullenmaster family would grow from 8 children to 16. She learned to speak English with only a Polish to English dictionary, and her love for reading. She enjoyed radio, and eventually television and classic movies, but instrumental music would always be her favorite. Though she spoke with a thick accent, she self-taught herself well enough to read novels and complete crossword puzzles throughout her life.
The Kavitz family lived on the farm to the east, and it wasn’t long before Marvin Kavitz noticed the black-haired beauty. They married (in 1952) and brought up Paul and four more children on their farm in Deerfield. Paul was immediately welcomed to the family by new Kavitz family cousins Laurel (Lolly), David, Linda, and Cheryl.
From 1953 to 1961, Paul was joined by siblings Dale, Robin, Dolly and Todd. After marrying Marvin and having the children, she continued her energetic life of work. In addition to raising the children and helping on the farm, she took a job serving food at Hoff’s Bar, and later worked factory jobs at EF Johnson’s factory and the Owatonna Canning Company.
1925 - 2019 (93 Jahre)
