Peter appeared on the ship manifest for the USAT Evangeline which sailed from Cristobel in the Panama Canal Zone.  the ship arrived in Tampa, FL on 22 May 1942 and was checked by immigration the following day.
   Peter's presence on the ship is not explained but he was probably an civilian employee of a government agency in order to travel aboard a United States Army transport ship.

Despite all the news coverage that followed Peter Rupeka's marriage in Frankfurt in 1947, there was little to-do when he returned to New York aboard the SS Marine Robin on 28 September 1946 (see line 13).
   Apparently he came home to be discharged and then returned to Germany where he worked as a civilian until his marriage was approved.

   FRANKFURT (UP) --- U.S. army authorities announced today that for the first time approval has been granted for the marriage of an American to a German girl.  Peter Rupeka of Hempstead, NY, was given a go-ahead to be married to Erika Schaefer, 21, Frankfurt.  Rupeka, 27, is a War department employee at army headquarters here.

   FRANKFURT, March 8 (AP) --- The United States army Friday gave its first official approval to a German-American marriage.  The authorization was granted Peter Rupeka, 25, and Erika Schaefer, 21.  The couple met while sightseeing in the Frankfurt zoo in September.

Mother Silent
On Vet's Troth
To Fraulein

   Hempstead, March 8 --- Mrs. Helen Rupeka of 217 Fenimore Ave., in the Uniondale section here, refused to say whether she approved of her 27-year-old son's decision to marry a German fraulein in Frankfurt  The son is the first former American soldier to win War Department authorization to wed a German girl.
   She said her son, Peter, who was a sergeant and now is employed by the War Department in a budgetary office in Germany, had written her about a month ago announcing that he would bring his bride, Ericka Schaefer, 21, home with him on May 1.  The army announced yesterday in Frankfurt it had approved the marriage.
   Mrs. Rupeka, a native of Poland, speaks little English, but she made it clear after a brief interview that she would not discuss the matter.
   "When my son comes home he will decide whether he will talk talk to newspapers," she declared.  "I will answer no more questions."
   Mrs.. Rupeka lives in two rooms of a five-room bungalow she is said to own, renting out the other three rooms.  Her son said in Frankfurt he intends to bring his wife to the bungalow.
   Peter said, according to Frankfurt dispatches, he intends to be married about March 27.  His bride-to-be, he admitted, knows little English and he is teaching her the language, but he can speak some German.  He said he hoped that  "in a cosmopolitan area like New York" people will soon forget that his wife is a German.

FIRST official approval from U.S. occupation headquarters for a German-American marriage in the European theater has been granted to Peter Rupeka, a War department employee from Hempstead, NY, and Ericka Schaefer of Frankfurt Germany.  The permit is effective March 26 after the 90-day waiting period has expired.  Rupeka must then leave the theater within 340 days.  Col. Mark Brislawn, who signed the application, is at right.

L.I. Vet Blazes
Trail. 1st  to
Wed in Reich

   Frankfurt, March 27 (UP) --- Peter Rupeka, civilian employee of the army, and Erika Schaefer were married in the city registry today in the first American-German wedding here since the war.
   The registrar went through the ceremony in English and then repeated it in German.
  By army order Rupeka must leave the European Theater in 30 days. He said he and his bride would fly to New York April 21 and live with his mother at 217 Fenimore Ave., Hempstead, L. I.
   Rupeka met his wife in Sept. 1945 while he was in the army at Frankfurt.

Mother Refuses to Talk
About Frankfurt Wedding

   Rupeka, who is 27, informed his mother, Mrs.. Helen Rupeka, in a letter less than two months ago of his intention to marry the German girl and bring her home.
   Mrs.. Rupeka, a native of Poland, refused to discuss the matter when questioned by reporters recently, declaring:
   "When meet son comes home he will decide whether to talk to newspapers."
   She lives in two rooms of a five-room bungalow in the Uniondale section of Hempstead and rents out the other rooms.
   Rupeka served as a sergeant in in the army and his present civilian post is in a budgetary office.

First Fraulein Wedding Approved

   FRANKFURT Mar. 28 --- (AP) --- Peter Rupeka, former U.S. Army sergeant from Hempstead, New York, married Fraulein Ericka Schaefer today in the first official approved American-German wedding in occupied Germany since the war.
   The army's ban on marriage between Americans and Germans was lifted last December.  The 27-year-old Rupeka and his 21-year-old bride were the first to complete the involved procedure still required for obtaining military government and State Department sanction for their nuptials.
   Military government officials in Berlin recently predicted 6,000 other Americans would follow Rupeka's lead in marrying Germans with a year.

Eviction Battle Looms
 Over German Bride

Hempstead, March 28 --- Mrs. Stella Sebeski, 28, will fight through the courts i necessary, she said today, any attempt to evict her from the apartment she occupies with her mother at 217 Fenimore St. "to male room for a German girl" and her husband, a former G.I.
   A threat of evict ion came after word reached her that ex-army Sgt. Peer Rupeka, son of Mrs. Helen Rupeka, owner of the house, had married a German girl in Frankfurt and that they were expected to arrive in the United States April 22.  Mrs. Rupeka, who lives in a two-room apartment in the Fenimore St. house and for the last five years rented a four-room apartment to Mrs. Sebeski and her mother, notified her tenants they would have to move so she would have an apartment for her son and his bride. 
   Mrs. Sebeski who works by the day in homes in the neighborhood said that even if she could find another apartment i probably would be far from the neighborhood and her means of livelihood would be affected.  But her objection was more on principle than on the inconvenience to her. She said:
   "Things are in a fine state if a German can force two Americans to be displaced.
   " What will happen if hundreds and hundreds marry German girls and bring them over here, where there isn't room to squeeze one in?  These women who were supporting their armies so strongly two years ago, are now coming over here and putting Americans our of their homes."

Soldier Gets Home
With German Bride

   New York (UP)  --- Peter Rupeka, 27, former U.S. Army sergeant of Hempstead, and his German bride --- whose marriage in occupied Germany was the first German-American union to receive an official army blessing --- arrived by planer yesterday.
   Rupeka and his blond, 22-yhear-old wife went immediately to his mother's homer in Hempstead.

EX-PARATROOPER Peter Rupeka, 27, and his German war-bride, Erika 21k, step from plane on arrival at LaGuardia Field, N. Y.  They were the first couple to wed in Germany under new U.S. army regulations permitting marriages of GIs and civilian workers to Germans.  They will live with the groom's parents in Hempstead, New York. (International)

EX-GI WEDS FRAULEIN:  Peter Rupeka, former U.S. Army sergeant from Hempstead, N. Y. , and Fraulein Erika Schaefer smile as they are married in Frankfurt, Germany, in the first officially approved American-German wedding in occupied Germany since the war.  This photo was received in New York via radio from Frankfurt.

NOTE:  Despite what should have been a timely receipt of the photo, the news article was published more than a year after they were married.