Small Hands Reach for Peace : Movement: Fountain Valley children write to German youngsters who respond as part of an international effort.

Genevieve Hokanson, 11, has a friend in Germany.

“My pen pal’s name is Katja Hahnel, and she’s also 11,” Genevieve said. “She writes me about what’s happening at her school in Germany, and I write her about what’s happening at my school here.”

Smiling shyly, Genevieve added that she is proud to be part of a new international movement called Hands Across the Atlantic.

“People in Katja’s town (Torgau) didn’t get to go many places because it used to be part of Communist East Germany,” she said. “They weren’t allowed to go on the other side (to West Germany). I knew there used to be a wall over there, but now that I’ve got a pen pal, I’m learning a lot more about Germany.”

Genevieve was among scores of fifth- and sixth-grade students at Ethan Allen School here who this week were writing either letters or petitions in connection with Hands Across the Atlantic.

The international-peace organization was launched about four months ago by Russ and Irene Rounds of Huntington Beach. Hands Across the Atlantic is an international network that currently links children in Torgau to their counterparts in Fountain Valley. Eventually the organization will expand to children in other cities and countries, the Roundses said.

But why was Torgau the starting point?

“This is a memorial to the work my father started,” Irene Rounds said.

Irene Rounds, a registered nurse, said her late father, Joseph Polowsky of Chicago, worked all his life to promote international peace. “My father was among the American soldiers who linked up with the Russian soldiers at the River Elbe in Torgau on April 25, 1945,” she said.

“They were crushing Hitler’s Third Reich. The soldiers swore never to forget. They pledged that the nations of the world would, and must, live in peace.”

Polowsky’s peace work in Chicago during the Cold War years made him controversial, his daughter recalled. “Some people accused him of being a communist sympathizer,” Irene Rounds said. “But he was only working for peace, and when he died (in 1983 at age 67), he asked to be buried in Torgau by the River Elbe.”

Irene Rounds and her husband last year visited her father’s grave in Torgau for the first time. She said her father is regarded as an international hero there.

“The city holds a big celebration on April 25, marking the day the Russian and American troops linked up there,” she said.

Russ Rounds said he and Irene took with them to Torgau friendship letters from elementary students at Ethan Allen School. Russ Rounds’ daughter from a previous marriage, Tara, 10, attends that school.

“The children in Germany really were impressed with the letters from the American students, and they wanted to start writing back,” Russ Rounds said. “So we helped start this letter writing, and now we’ve formed Hands Across the Atlantic to promote goodwill among children of the world.”

Irene Rounds said: “My father always believed that through the children and by the children we would have a chance for peace.”

Part of the Hands Across the Atlantic movement focuses on establishing April 25 as an international Unity Day. “April 25, 1945, was not only the day of the linkup on the Elbe, but it also was the same day the United Nations opened in San Francisco,” Irene Rounds said.

Some of the students at Ethan Allen School on Tuesday were writing petitions to the United Nations for making April 25 an international day of celebration.

Other students worked on letters to their pen pals. All of the participants at Ethan Allen School were carrying small American flags and wearing new Hands Across the Atlantic T-shirts. “We’ve also mailed shirts like these to the children in Torgau,” Russ Rounds said.

The German children have been writing all their letters in English. The Fountain Valley students do not know German, so they write in English to their pen pals.

Some Ethan Allen students are now interested in learning German. “I already know a few words in German,” said Adam Krueger, 11.

Other Ethan Allen students said they enjoy learning about the lives and interests of their German pen pals.

Russell Gleason, 11, and Johnny Nguyen, 10, sat in adjoining chairs Tuesday, working on letters to their pen pals.

“My pen pal’s name is Robert, and he writes me about things he likes, such as soccer,” Russell said “This is the fartherest away person I’ve ever written to.”

Johnny said his parents are from Vietnam but that he was born in Fountain Valley. “I’m writing to my pen pal, Kathrin,” he said. “I like having a friend in Germany.”

Shelli Henry, 11, said she doesn’t have a specific pen pal in Germany yet. Nonetheless, she was busily writing an open letter on Tuesday, asking a Torgau student to write to her.

Shelli said Hands Across the Atlantic has already expanded her interest in the world around her.

“By writing letters like this we can find out what people in other countries have in common with us Americans,” Shelli said.