It was sincerely appreciated. As for the things I went through, I always tally it back to the circumstances that my parents had to survive through. Something we advantaged ones sometimes forget. No comparison at all. My grandmother had been in that Bohemian region since the 1600's.
Nothing is simple or politically correct.
Palestine is a good modern day example. My grandfather died near immediately after loosing his farm and home, his wife, my grandmother died six weeks later. Our own political mess is nothing as compared to most regions of the world and we should always be grateful for the stability it offers. Even as a Junior High Schools student I devoured every Russian author I could discover. Then the Gogol's and Kafka's.