Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. By the way, which was a commission--that is very
hard to explain to you. It is like midshipman in the Navy. That is what
it is. And since I did not pursue the military career, I remained a
candidate officer.
Mr. JENNER. All right.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I was not disqualified for any reason. On the
contrary, I was the best actually, if I may say so.
Mr. JENNER. Let me pass for a moment in this connection so we can get
it on the record here--your brother, Dimitri, 11 years older than you,
he also devoted his time to the service, but to the Navy.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Now, that was the Russian Czarist Navy, was it not?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. And tell us about that, please.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, he joined the naval academy when I think he
was 11 or 12 years old. That is what they have out there. They start
very young. Do you want a little bit of the background of my brother?
Mr. JENNER. Yes, sir; go right ahead.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. He is really a ferocious anti-Communist, so you
would be very happy to hear about that. He was in the Russian Imperial
Navy, became a midshipman.
Mr. JENNER. Give me some dates.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, he was a midshipman in 1918, in Sebastopol,
which is the headquarters there.
Mr. JENNER. Now, he was born March 29, 1902, in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes. I thought he was born in 1900.
Mr. JENNER. Well, his records at the passport office give his birth as
March 29, 1902, and he gives his birth in his biographical material at
Dartmouth and Yale.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, anyway, he was a young edition of a
midshipman. He was a midshipman in 1918, which is like graduation from
Annapolis here.
Mr. JENNER. And did he actually serve in the Czarist Navy?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. All the time you are in that school you are in
the navy, all the time--even when you are 12 years old, you are a
member of the navy. It is not like here.
Mr. JENNER. Did he participate in World War I, in the late 1918 period
of fighting.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall where?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I don't recall where. He joined anti-Communist
groups, was finally caught by the Communists, and sentenced to death in
a town called Smolensk.
Here we were coming back to our--we were already in Minsk at the
time, that was not too far. My brother was in Smolensk in jail, in
a Communist jail. My father also in jail. And I was the only one at
liberty. And my mother was running around trying to help both of them.
My brother was sentenced to be shot. He was put to the wall and they
told him, "You will be shot when they say three, and they would say
one, two--he was supposed to disclose the names of his accomplices.
Now, I do not recall; Yes, yes. The Polish Government exchanged him
against a Communist. They made an exchange. They had some Communist
prisoners, and my brother was with a group of Poles who were prisoners
of the Communists, and the Poles exchanged him against some of my
father's old friends. And I remember who it is. It was a Catholic
bishop in Poland.
Mr. JENNER. What was his name?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Lozinski. He was a bishop who was in jail with my
brother, also, and they wanted him, he helped my brother to get out.
Mr. JENNER. Did your brother join you in Wilno, Poland?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. He immediately--it looks vague. I think he joined
us for a little while, or he maybe went ahead of us and came to the
United States.
Mr. JENNER. My information is that he emigrated to the United States on
the 20th of August 1920.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes. A little bit ahead of us.
Mr. JENNER. Does that square with your recollection?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right. You see, there was an intermediate
year. The Poles had occupied part of Russia. I think we saw him just
before he departed for the United States. The Poles offered him to join
the Navy in Poland, and he decided to go to the United States.
Mr. JENNER. All right. I had digressed a moment because it was
appropriate to have your brother come in at the point we reached. But
we have you now in Belgium, attending the university.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Had your brother had a higher education while he was still
in Russia? That is, had he gone beyond the gymnasium stage?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No. My brother was a midshipman in the Navy. He
had only the naval academy education, and even shortened--short naval
academy education. I don't know what you would compare it to. Certainly
better than high school here.
Mr. JENNER. Junior college?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Junior college; yes.
Mr. JENNER. Now, you continued your studies, did you, in Belgium?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And did you receive a degree from the institute of higher
commercial studies in Antwerp?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes. I received what you called--master's degree,
probably equivalent, because they don't have bachelor's degree there.
You get immediately a master's degree--a license--in finance and in
maritime transportation--another year of maritime transportation.
Mr. JENNER. And you attended this institute for 4 years, did you not?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. For 5 years.