On Jul 25, 2008, at 3:19 AM John Blankenbaker wrote: > She was Maria Sabina > Charlotta Barbara Volck. John Huffman called her Folg in his family > Bible > (Folg sounds much like Volck, her true name). John, as you know, the German "F" is pronounced as "V" in English. And the "V" is pronounced as an "F" in English. This reminds of an exchange trip I went on to Melle, Germany in 1989 with a group of constituents from New Melle, Missouri to Melle, Germany. The teenager daughter of my host parents and I were to give a small talk to the gathered citizens of the town and the many Americans in the group one evening. She had to give her talk in English, and mine was in German. Neither of us were what anyone would call fluent in the other's language. We both did pretty well except for the continual mix up between of "Vs" and "Fs". But we did practice, practice, practice beforehand. Still, those pesky "Vs" and "Fs" tripped us both up more than once. The one term I learned very well was, in English, "He was hung for stealing a horse." In German it was "Ferde Deifstahl gehangt worden war!" Sounds much better in German and I still laugh at it (and remember it) all these years later. At the end of the evening when we returned home to the host family (the young lady was the daughter of my host family), "Herman the German", the host, who spoke no English, said to me "DU VAR FANTISCH!" He was the like the proud father that night, as he had coached me over and over an over on the correct pronunciation, emphasis and wording. His poor wife had to re-write my script so many times because of him, but I tell you by the end of that trip I didn't even need her to translate his stories for me anymore. I understood every word he said. (Not that I could accurately answer, of course, without her help.) This man had been an enthusiastic young German in the pre-war years. Member of the Hitler youth, totally brainwashed as he was. He also gave this memorable quote: "Ich var nie ein hunert percent Nazi! Ich var ein tousandt percent Nazi!" He wasn't quite so thrilled with Der Fuhrer after he walked, under cover of night, from the Russian front back to his home in 1945.