An 87-year-old southwestern Michigan woman became a U.S. citizen last week — six decades after arriving and surviving perilous, puzzling times in Nazi Germany.
The South Bend Tribune reports Selma Satonica of Berrien Springs was sworn in last week. Satonica says she was a lawful permanent resident, but the citizenship process was confusing.
The German immigrant lived in a town formerly in Poland, now the Ukraine. Her family, who was Seventh-day Adventist, was moved to a camp by Nazi soldiers and then another town.
She says they fed and helped Jews and German soldiers because "we fed everyone that was hungry."
As the German front collapsed, soldiers helped them and others escape hours before Russians invaded.
Satonica is grateful for her delayed citizenship and hopes to "live a little bit" longer.
