Hello,
I'm quite impressed by your discussion on this subject.
I'm still living in Oldenburg and was born in 1935. As far as I know
-except for the town of Friesoythe, there was no major military ground -
combat in the duchy of Oldenburg
-british and US planes dropped a lot of bombs on Wilhelmshaven - one of the
major sea-ports of the 'Reich'.
-some bombs were dropped on Delmenhorst and Oldenburg.
As mentioned by others already, there was a small jewish population, which
suffered enormously. But it is not true, that the only remaining jewish
graveyard of Germany is to be found in Wittmund . There are other ones, one of them
being in Wildeshausen.
It might not be obvious to Americans, that the population of Oldenburg (town
and duchy) grew by approx. 50 % within one year after world war II, because
of all the people either fleeing or being expulsed from the eastern provinces
of Germany. This also caused a significant mixup in religion. Up to the end
of 1945, southern Oldenburg was almost 98 percent catholic, the northern
Oldenburg 98 percent lutheran. The 'Fluechtlinge' as we called them, reduced this
predominance of one religion in either part significantly.
After the end of WW II, some canadian troops occupied part of our house.
The chief of the group had emigrated to Canada in the 1930th. His brother was
fighting with the german army.
By the way, my father died in Berlin, May 3, 1945.
Gerold Diers
Thank you, Gerold, for a most interesting "eyewitness" account.
How tragic that you lost your father!
Marilyn
I recently was trying to ask old relatives if they remember trivia information on my ancestors....
My grandfather and his two brothers, all from Visbek/Damme, came to the US in 1931 for the 'opportunities' here. However, when the war was coming up in Germany, my grandfather's one brother decided the opportunities weren't that great, and that he would be better off in Germany. So he went back, fought and he died in the war. My grandfather stayed in the US and lived until he was 90!
Also during the second war, my grandmother sent tobacco to her sister, a nun, somewhere around there and in Cologne. She labeled it candy! It was so her sister could pay off the guards (Nazis I think) for protection.
I'm enjoying these stories, so I thought I would give my very meager 2 cents.
Annette
mstulken@wi.net wrote:
I love these old stories.
My German-born grandparents died or became demented before I was of age
to ask them about the old country and old times. I do remember my
grandfather telling me that the inflation was so bad in Germany, 1920 or
so I'd guess, that he had to load a wheelbarrow with German marks to buy a
loaf of bread.
According to my uncles and father, Grandma and Grandpa spoke very little
of their old life as apparently it was very difficult and folks were very
poor there. My grandma went back to visit in about 1960 and told of the
German family having to put heated bricks in bed at night as there was no
central heat. When I got a chance to visit the old family farmhouse in
Erlte a few years ago, still occupied by my second cousin, there was no
running water and only an attached outhouse. My grandfather had been a
wagon wheel maker before he emigrated in the 1920s and one of his wagons is
still sitting there in the barn, 80 years later, along with a huge beer
wagon that I hope was put to good use.
Chris
A good friend of mine grew up in Danzig. She told us that her family had
moved there from another place in Germany. The father sent the mother and
children on ahead to Danzig, planning to follow after he had sold their
house. Between the time that he sold the house and made the trip to
Danzig, money devalued so badly that he didn't have enough from the sale
of the house to buy a train ticket to Danzig.