This topic has been fairly mute for a long time but perhaps a refresh
is appropriate. A Heimatsortskartei was set up and used to try to find
people from one's home town and family after the war. People were
scattered all over the place and folks didn't know who survived and
who had perished in the ethnic cleansing process. Somewhere between 1
and 2 million people died and most simply disappeared. These files may
not be available in Germany because of the famous Datenschutz but the
LDS has them here.
Fred
Hi,
Many months ago I promised Wolfgang Neujucks a report on what is to be
found in these films. Below is a sample of the contents of the film
available at the LDS
for two particular houses in Elbing, West Prussia as of January 1945.
The following residents were found in a film obtained from the FHC in Salt
Lake City entitled: Heimatsortskartei Danzig-Westpreussen. It particularly
references certain streets in Elbing, Westpreussen among which is the one I
was born on, namely Tannenberger Allee. Some background and
recollections are included in this report which I just wrote while
travelling across the US.
In my visit to Elbing in 1995 I found #97 still standing and in need of
some maintenance like most other houses in the area. The old red brick
which I still remember was now gone and again, like most other houses, was
now stuccoed which patchy gray cement. I don't have too many memories of
my childhood or Elbing. This is rather strange to me since I lived there
then I was eight years old and should really have very vivid recollections
of earlier times. What exists is not fluid but rather come in bits and
pieces mostly of times when I got into some kind of trouble. Other
memories are confused as to whether they are from stories told by my
mother, other relatives or from pictures I've seen. It bothers me greatly
that I don't have better recollections of my pre-1945 childhood. Time
seems to have started with our flight from the Russians and everything
before that is very blurred and fragmented. I suppose what I know is a
mixture of things. I will never know what is real from my experiences and
what came to me from other sources later in life. In any case, my youth
and size influence the pictures I have formed at the time. Things simply
used to be much bigger and more impressive from what I saw in 1995.
I remember the front steps. I sat on them quite often and the individual
steps were much higher. I had to climb up three individual steps to get
into the house. Today these same steps went down. They were also very
normal in size. The street had been raised as the rubble of the
destruction of the city was simply used to elevate many streets of the
city and then resurfaced by the new occupants of the city after the war.
The big chestnut trees were also gone and smaller trees now stood in
different locations. Those chestnuts provided much fun as my sister and I
created little figures out of them by joining various sizes with little
sticks and carving eyes into them.
The other major change to my view of the street was the missing house next
door (#95) where my Aunt and Uncle, Erna and Fritz Gro( lived among other
residents. Their children, Waltraut (Traute)+ and Erwin, today live in
Eschweiler near Aachen. I suppose that house was bombed or burned and
never restored. We lived right across from a railroad freight yard and I
expect that quite a bit of fighting was going on there along with bombing
of the railroad. There used to be a path, the width of a small driveway,
which permitted access to the rear of both properties. It was in back of
#95 where our huge garden was located. How small it had gotten.
The garden is where the Stachelbeeren (gooseberries) grew. There were
fruit trees back there and many delicious items could be retrieved in the
summertime. I had always dreamed of this vast garden of my childhood and
here in 1995 it was but a small patch of nothingness. It is possible that
a couple trees still standing dated to pre-1945 but they looked nothing
like the large trees of delicious magic which I thought had stood there.
The garden was a big, big disappointment to me. What did they do to my
garden?
Turning to the rear of #97 there was another set of steps there. This time
they still went up just as I remember them. My grandfather's work shed was
still there too but it used to be so neat and always seemed to be freshly
painted. There was no evidence of any paint ever having touched it left.
Back to the front of the house I look up to what used to reach to the sky.
Three stories of windows had shrunk to just a normal house. An old lady
with one gold tooth looks out the bottom floor window and smiles. What a
view!
It is difficult talking to her but I suppose she knew why we were there.
Most people know that the Germans who come to visit used to call this
home. The current residents are almost embarrassed at the set of
circumstances but are friendly and open to the situation. We get a drift
of complaints from our one- tooth lady. Nothing is ever fixed in the
house. It belongs to the city now. We try to get away from her as
communications is not going well. I walk down the front steps into what is
the Treppengang (stair entrance to the various apartments).The tiled floor
is still the same. That seems odd to me. I rush up the steps just to see
if the door to our place is where I thought it was. It's still the same. I
try to take a picture but the camera does not want to flash in the dark
and I'm too nervous to fix the problem. I have to leave and go away.
I shoot some outside pictures and promise myself to reconnoiter the
railroad on the other side. That's where the near empty drum of tar used
to be were I just had to climb in to see what was there. One of those
eventful happenings a boy tends to never forget. Of course there are many
other recollections mostly of the 'getting into trouble' kind but these
will be written up in a section of my growing up.
My mother inherited both properties from her father upon his death. My
parents paid the other children their appropriate shares as my grandfather
had wanted. My parents were deeply hurt when after the war some of my
mom's sisters had casually forgotten these payoffs and now claimed equal
shares of the little money my parents received from the German government
under the term: Lastenausgleich. The idea was to provide a small amount to
start anew and also to relinquish what was now in Polish hands. Luckily
the legal papers were found and the entire matter was cleared up but the
hurt remained. I had often wondered as to who all the people were who
lived in our houses. My parents often spoke of such and such and I never
paid too much attention then. >From a friend I met on the internet
(Wolfgang Naujucks) I found out that the LDS has films of the
Heimatortskartei which were collected by the various refugee groups in
order to find lost relatives. I ordered these films back in November of
1997 and did not get to see them until May of 1998. I do not know if the
list includes everyone or is just a listing of those who had an inquiry
posted about someone. In any case, for the sake of history here are the
listed residents of #95 and #97 Tannenberger Allee. We start with what was
found in house number sequence for #95:
Ausgestellt (submitted) 3.4.53, (by) Erna Gross, nee Robiller; born 4.3.04
in Elbing, nach (went to) Finow/Mark (Brandenburg), Kastanienallee 23;
dann (then) Emden, Auricher Strasse 23, dann Eschweiler/Kr Aachen,
Kreichsburg 16. Sucht (is looking for) Gross, Fritz, 24.3.05, Elbing,
Maschinenschlosser bei Schichau. +31.12.45 ?
Ausgestellt 1.6.56, Erwin Gross, 9.11.31 Elbing, dann
Ludwigshafen-Friedenheim, Hindenburg Str 2, Suchdienst fuer Fritz Gross am
19.3.45 von Polen verschleppt.
Waltraut Gross 15.1.30 Elbing, Angestellte, Eschweiler Eisenbahn Str 16,
Phoenix Str 16
9.5.57 Gustav Fischer, 7.7.91 in Falkhorst, Pr. Holland, dann
Barchel/Bremerfoerde; Flucht am 23.1.45
Bertha Fischer nee Rossmann 9.11.90 Siebenhufen, Pr. Holland [Frau von
Gustav?]
Edith Eichler nee Fischer 30.12.18 Guhrenwalde, Kr Pr. Holland, Flucht
23.1.45 dann Barchel/Bremerfoerde [Tochter der obigen?]
Eva Bindig, 19.9.25 Elbing, (Kaufmann) nach Russland verschleppt 12.3.45
sucht Frieda Pfal nee Bindig 10.9.12 Elbing wohnte, 1.9.39 Saarlanderweg
35
Neuhoff, Hans 18.5.15 Mohrungen (kath), Lobberich, Ostdeutscher Weg 8
Neuhoff, Hedwig, nee Wedtke (Schneider) 24.10.17 Neukirch-Hoehe
Neumann, Maria nee Laur, 23.6.14 Melkerin, Wiesbaden-Bergheim, Hauptstr 3
(1960) Flucht 24.1.45; Kinder: Hans Juergen 8.11.38 Elbing, Erika 26.2.42
Elbing; Braunsfeld, Friedrich Schmidt Str 50, Oberaussern, Keusterstr. 23
Stiever, Elisabeth nee Gottschalk 16.6.79 Succase, Helzerheide
Thimm, Aloysius 9.3.10 Elbing (kath), Postfacharbeiter, Postschaffner,
nach Hamburg?, 20.6.46? Frau: Thimm, Ella nee Aust 4.12.12 Lauenburg,
Elbe; verheiratet 25.3.30, Flucht 1.7.45, verstorben im Lager /4 Kopeisk
Juni '45; Kind: Karin 23.4.41
Winkler, Paul 20.7.94 (Klempner) Unna/Westf, Kl. Burg Str 3
Gertude, nee Marx 12.9.97 Elbing
Ausgestellt 4.8.55 unter #95/97
Gemeldet von 99526 DRK W. Gro( (Tannenbergerstr 95)
Ehefrau Elisabeth geborene Robiller 17.9.08 Elbing
Kinder: Anneliese 17.8.33 verh. Merder
Wolfgang 1.12.39 [wrong birth year s/b '37]
Werl, Soest, Baeckerstr
Under #97
Heinz Borowski 16.9.29 Elbing (Dreher)
Duisburg, Stauerstr 58 (Kriegsgefangener '44 bis 18.2.48)
Anna, nee Gottschalk
Sachsenhausen, Kr Oranienburg, Thaelmannstr 3
Hredina, Martha, nee Makowski 6.12.21
Erkenfoerde, Holstein, Prinzenstr 45
Kuelper, Anna, nee Kneff 24.7.84 Gr. Warzmierz
Hammeln-Pyrmont, Galgenberg 35
Ehemann: Willi 28.6.97 Marienburg
Kinder: Werner 6.10.31 Elbing
Waltraut 10.1.24 Elbing
Makowski, Johanna 15.4.95
Eckernfoerde/Holstein, Prinzenstr 45
Unbekannt verzogen
Salome, Alfred 1.5.18 Elbing
1947-56 Wismar, Mecklenburg
Amoneburg, Kr. Marburg, Hessen
Saloma, Gustrav 29.1.92 +13.8.61 [Z,F]eyer, Kr Elbing
Emma, nee Liedtke 17.1.95 Elbing
Sommer, Anna, nee Borowski 14.6.98 Frauenburg
Fred