Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. The first name was Valentin, and the second one
was Bob--they called him Bob. So which one is right, I don't know. But
I liked Bob better.
Mr. JENNER. What was his last name?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. His last name was Bogoiavlensky.
Mr. JENNER. And you were married when?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I believe we were married in 1932, in the fall.
Mr. JENNER. In what business or profession was your husband engaged
when you were married?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, at the time when we were married, he
was--we were both working, making designs and constructions--making
plans and building houses together.
Mr. JENNER. Were you associated in business?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. It wasn't exactly business. I don't know--it
is not done like it is done in the United States. We just knew how to
build houses, we knew all the measurements and everything, and we had
the project--somebody wanted a house of such and such dimensions, we
would design it, make all the blueprints, and then we had worked with
contractors and had the building constructed. And then I believe he was
also working in the--the Japanese were building their airport.
Mr. JENNER. Where?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. In Harbin. And he was helping and surveying
the grounds or something. This I don't know, because I wasn't
present--something on this order. And that is what really actually made
us leave north in a hurry and go south, because the Japanese started to
grab all the people that knew anything at all close to those plants.
They wanted to keep everything very, very secret. So quite a few of our
friends just disappeared overnight.
And then in a couple of weeks they may appear again half dead already,
completely beaten to a pulp and so on. Quite a few things started to
go on. And then somebody mentioned that they didn't like the idea that
we knew too much about the plants or something of the airport and said
we better leave, and we just left with very, very few things. We took
a train and went south, and went to Shanghai, and lived in Shanghai,
until we were ready to come to the United States.
Mr. JENNER. While you were in China, were you and your husband--did you
engage as a dancing team?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; I was dancing quite well.
You see, when you travel like that you cannot just get another job
somewhere. So he was helping me. He helped me as a partner. And I
danced a solo.
We did that in Tientsin. And then Shanghai.