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...apologies for the strange title couldn't think of how to phrase !
Long storey short my mothers side was German her mother had a brother who faught in WW1 for the Germans (effectively my Great uncle) who died fighting on 30th December 1917. Fast forward to the 1930s my mothers family/her husband etc were lucky enough to escape to East Africa,Kenya where my mother was born.
My grandfather (mothers father) was very lucky indeed as he was sent to a concentration camp whilst his wife was on a boat to Kenya. Luckily my grandfather came from a very wealthy family who bribed camp officials for several family members to be able to escape...however the rest of the family were murdered in the camp...
So back to the WW1 great uncle after many years of family tracing etc we were able to find out more about him, this year my brother received official German records of where he is buried as German soldier in France.
He is buried with a cross and not Star of David, my next mission is to find out how to have this changed if its possible.
We're heading to Central France this summer, however plans have now changed for a 2 hour detour to visit his grave myself/wife/2 sons will be the first family members to ever visit his final resting place.
My mother died when I was very young somehow this makes it even more special to visit, I never met her mother...
emotional yes and I can't decide why...
As of last year myself brother sister and all of our children have German citizenship which took 3 years to obtain.
any ways over to you guys for emotional ww1/ww2 stories...
There's a War Graves body, isn't there? I'm sure they'd know how to go about it if it's not actually them that do it.
Edit: Ah - there's a specific German one. 🙂
I’m sure that will be an emotional visit. Amazing how these things can still resonate after so many years.
Only thing I have that can get close is my mums cousin (not sure what relation that makes me!) disappeared while flying a Hurricane in the defence of Malta. Apparently was last seen chasing a German aircraft out to sea, never seen again. Presumably ran out of fuel or was shot down by said aircraft. So no grave but he is remembered on the RAF memorial in Malta which I may visit one day! He was an only child so I doubt he has ever been visited before.
A quick Google in French yields:
https://www.operationbenjamin.org/
a contact adresse from the article below consistoire@consistoirecentral.fr which would be my first try in france.
Similar, I accompanied mother-in-law to visit the cemetery in Warsaw so she could pay respects to her grandparents who were killed in Ww2, grandfather killed by Russians at Katyn. Her mother fought and escaped from the ghetto (later received a bravery medal) as a young woman. Polished the plaques and laid candles but all very moving.
My great uncle joined one of the pal's battalions very early in 1914. He spent nearly two years in training, and was killed in July 1916. As there weren't too many people with his exact name I was able to identify who he was and what happened to him to at least some extent.
In 2019 we made a trip over. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial. Thanks to the very helpful Commonwealth War Graves folks there, we were able to get a copy of the war diaries from the day he went missing. And then to visit Trones Wood which he died trying to capture.
Trones Wood was described at the time as unmanaged woodland, with fallen trees and thick undergrowth through which progress was almost impossible. Very shortly after, and possibly while he lay there, it was absolutely flattened. Today it is again unmanaged woodland with fallen trees and thick undergrowth but without machine gins, shell fire and snipers.
I think we were the first and so far only people to visit in his memory. I don't think his family of the time would ever have had the means.
While we were there we also visited British, German and French graveyards. Today they are incredibly peaceful but the scale of the waste of life was shocking. The whole thing was very moving.
My wife is German. Both her grandfathers died in WW2. Her mothers father died somewhere on the eastern front, possibly Stalingrad. There was never a body or finality to his fate. Simply missing in action. He left Birgits grandmother pregnant so never saw his child. Her grandmother spent her whole life hoping he might one day return from some gulag or similar. It never happened. The only memory Birgits mum has is a very neatly letter written from the front in Russia a day or 2 before he was lost. The whole story (and that of her paternal grandfather who was in the luftwaffe) makes me extremely sad somehow, and has had a profound effect on how I see the whole history of the World Wars.
Welshfarmer - had a colleague once with a similar story - her father disappeared on the Eastern Front as so many did, and was presumed dead. But then turned up in 1955! The problem was that in the meantime her mother had met, and married a Welsh soldier. Father and mother never reunited and I think she saw him only a few times after his return…
While driving back from an Alps MTB trip I pulled off the motorway near Reims in order to have an picnic. Just took some random back roads parallel to the motorway looking for a nice spot to stop and came across this French WW1 cemetery. Had to stop and have a walk around.
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