Anna Tschoepe, 97

Anna Tschoepe, 97, passed away Friday, Dec. 4, 2009, at her home near Bonners Ferry.

Funeral services were held Tuesday at Bonners Ferry Funeral Home with interment at Grandview Cemetery.

Anna Piplack Tschoepe was born on July 14, 1912, in Eberswalde, a small city close to Berlin in Germany. She was baptized into the Catholic faith. Her father was Catholic and her mother Lutheran. She was one of six children.

Anna’s parents were very poor; they had a small apartment with a kitchen used also as the living room, and two bedrooms — one for the parents and the other for the six children.

When World War I broke out in 1914, Anna’s father was drafted into the army. After the war ended, he came home and was unemployed for seven years. He had to take various small jobs to survive.

Since Anna’s father was good in wood carving, he made various products to sell. He made kindling and firewood to get some income to support his family.

Around 1936, Anna met George Tschoepe, who served in the German army under Hitler at that time.

A son, Walter, was born in 1937.

George served in the military for about 10 years, so he was gone a lot during the war. He ended up as a prisoner of war in Siberia where he spent 3 years until 1948.

During that time, Anna went through a lot of hardships, including escaping from East Germany and raising her son alone. They lived in Berlin while the allies were bombing that city on a daily basis. Many nights were spent in a bomb shelter.

Then George arranged for the family to move to Silesia to stay for several months with an uncle on a small farm, which was a safer place. 

The battle was raging between the Russian and German armies, shooting each other and the family was in the middle. Anna was praying the Rosary all night, asking the Lord for protection and He graciously protected the family during the war.

Finally the day came when they had to leave the farm to head west. To make a long story short, several months later the family ended up in Bavaria, where they were assigned to a family with a small farm in a small village with 11 homes. In exchange for food and lodging, Anna worked on the farm until the end of the war, when finally George came home from prison camp in 1948.

A couple years later, the family moved to Stuttgart to George’s sister’s place, where the family accepted the Advent message and joined the SDA Church, one of the best decisions of their life.

After Walter immigrated to the United States in 1959, his parents followed in 1960, moving to California.

They lived about 10 years in Los Angeles and Lodi. Because of the information, the family found in the Spirit of Prophecy through the Lord, leading Anna and George to move to Bonners Ferry in 1968, where they stayed and joined the local SDA Church and loved it. They were actively involved.

Since George passed away on Dec. 1, 1996, Anna had lived in a small home on their property. She was always in good health and very active, tending her garden, which was her hobby.

Anna read her German Bible a lot, and her son used to copy many programs from ABN so she could watch them on TV. Anna especially liked the children’s programs and some of the speakers.

When she got weaker, Anna had more and more the desire to go to sleep for good and she wondered every day saying, “why am I still here” because she found no reason to live without being active in her garden.

Walter said he is personally very thankful and was very privileged to have his mother for so many years. She was a very good mother at all times. She did accept Christ as her Savior and was looking forward to a new life on the earth made new.

Anna is survived by her son in Bonners Ferry; grandsons David Tschoepe of Spokane, Wash., and Mark Tschoepe of Knoxville; granddaughter Andrea Buechner of Anchorage and five great-grandchildren.

Family and friends may sign Anna’s  book www.bonnersferryfuneralhome.com.

Bonners Ferry Funeral Home handled arrangements.