My name is Karl, born in 1968 the son of a German sailor who first came to the UK in the early 1960's. He met my Mum and decided to stay. Growing up in the '70s was difficult for me as I had an unusual surname which not even the teachers could pronounce. Once I came of age I'd discovered that my Dad's older brother was born in a place which is now the Ukraine. This, combined with my Polish surname in a German family fuelled my desire to learn more of my roots. As my Dad was orphaned at a relatively young age he didn't know a great deal and I suppose just after the war's end people just wanted to forget and rebuild their lives.
I started by using the name of the village in which my Father was born in 1940 by using his passport. I discovered this village did not exist in Germany but existed in the Warthegau region of Poland after Germany invaded and changed all the names. After much research on the internet and with the help of people from Denmark, USA & Canada I discovered the Polish name of the village in which my Father was born. In 2003 my German cousin Peter (2years older than me) and I travelled to Poland to find my Father's birthplace and we found it along with some great friendly people but communication was a problem. We did not speak Polish and they did not speak English or German.
I'd caught the bug and started to uncover more evience of my families existence, fortunately for me the Nazis had detailed papers on my ancestors as they originated from Russia and left in late 1939/early 1940. These detailed papers were called the EWZ files and I discovered them through an American historian in an Archive in Washington DC. They were copied and posted by this very helpful individual and arrived complete with b/w photos of the applicants. I was dumbstruck, not only did it have so much information on my ancestors but a photo I discovered of my pre-war grandfather seemed chillingly familiar. I'd never met him and my Dad can't remember him, my Dad was only 4 when he died. I even discovered a 2nd cousin using a Ukrainian website!
Late last year I'd made contact with a Ukrainian university professor who agreed to help. Then in May of this year I travelled with my car to the East England port of Harwich and crossed to Hamburg and met my cousin Peter and my long lost 2nd cousin who had made a considerable journey to meet. The three of us travelled east and found the village in which my Dad was born again. This time we had the help of some lovely local people who spoke fluent English, German and Polish and they acted as our interpreters. We also discovered Peters grandfather's house (my great grandfather Otto) some 40km north and had a tremendous interaction with the locals there. A son of the family that lived in that particular farm before and after my family recalled events from the Polish perspective. They gave us such a warm reception.
The three of us then headed further east a few days later to the Ukraine. The roads were not as good in Eastern Poland as the West and we had a bit of a drama at the border as my car was new and I was not in possession of the Registration document, only the buyers supplement. The Polish border guards being new into the EU take their roles very seriously indeed. After several HOURS we were free to go, until we drove 500 metres or so to discover that we were just short of the Ukrainian border, and a very long wait. Subsequently, and with the time zone going one hour ahead we arrived in the Ukraine at 3am. That night, we drove off the motorway into a field and slept in the car. We were awoken by a shotgun at dawn by a couple of hunters. We then proceeded to our hotel and to make contact with our very worried hosts. The Foreign Office doesn't advise travelling unescorted at night in the former USSR!
The professor utilised the services of his daughter as our iterpreter and we found three villages of significance. In one village we found an old woman who looked at me and pointed saying "I know your face-your grandfather used to live here!" thinking back on the EWZ file of my Grandfather and his picture at that same time was quite chilling and I felt all the hairs on my back stand on end.
We discovered plenty on our journey east and we intend to go back and meet all our new found friends again someday. At the moment I am working on a book about the subject of the Germans from Russia as very little is known about them and the Dutch, Poles and Czechs who all lived amongst the local Russian population in harmony. I will be looking for a publisher next year.
For those who are interested more can be found on the following websites -
http://www.inthemidstofwolves.com/
http://www.sggee.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volhynia
http://www.wolhynien.de/
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