Return To Germany

During father's free time in Portland, Oregon, he spent most of it visiting with mother's family on the houseboat.  Grandmother thought him charming and often commented in her later years that he was quite the "talker", ie: "real smooth".  Mother's brothers all hung with him and probably appreciated the male companionship, as their father had left them when they were all young.  As for mother, well, if she had been mine, it would have been over the knee with her!

She is now 14 years old and decided that my father was "it" and father had no problems with that idea.  But, he was after-all up for deportation.....

So, father was returned to Germany and faced court-martial hearings for his part in the mutiny of the SS Riviera.  In the end, the court ruled the mutiny to have been justifiable - however, his role as the leader of the mutiny was found to be inexcusable - he was after-all a German officer.  He was stripped of his captain's rank and removed from the seaman's listing.  So, he would never sail again.  It is interesting to note that they also had the power to remove his German Naval rank of Captain and did not do so.  Which he spoke of with pride - at their backhanded approval of what he did.

Father with Edi and Udi in Buchholz

Father returned to Buchholtz, to his wife Monika, Fritz and Irma. It must have been some reunion since my half-sister Martha was born in 1954.  As to whatever happened in Buchholtz, father would never say.  Fritz and Irma continued in their role as his friend and members of his "family".  Monika was to continue to write him weekly for decades - leaving me to assume he was writing her back.  And, again, one must remember that there was no divorce filed I could find in the German archives.  Did father turn over his bank account to her to keep her happy?  Even in his 80's he was still harping about having "lost" all of his money.  Makes one wonder what the real truth was.....

Back in Portland, mother set herself to raising the $100 immigration fee for allowing father back into America - she was determined to get her "man".  And let me tell you, when I found that out, me and Grandmother had a very long talk about where she had failed with my mother.  But, what I did not know was that mother was - uhm - a bit of a problem child it seems.

Internment

Internment was not at just one camp for the little group of teenagers, they were split up - each sent to a separate camp in the Hamburg region.  I know that it would be six years before the four of them would be together again.  And even then, conversations were still very guarded and switching between the various German dialects was performed based upon whom was near - for the rest of their lives!

Wöbbelin, when liberated.

Father was sent to Wöbbelin, a part of the Neuengamme complex, an ex-Nazi concentration camp. For father, camp life was very hard.  He was in poor health by the time of his surrender and were it not for the care of a "foster mother" probably would not have made it.  Her name was Irma and I was to know her as one of my aunts.  I will write more on her and her family later on, an interesting rabbit trail.

There was little food provided for those in the repatronization camps.  I doubt there was much in the way of food for the troops guarding them either!  So, there was great incentive for those able to, to work.  The local farmers were contacted by the British to see if any of them would be willing to hire the inmates during the day.  Father was sent to a potato farm to work in the fields with three others.

Father cutting firewood in the Buchholz area.

He was transported each day with another inmate of some stature, Curt Jurgens (in English).  Jurgens had a daily radio program he did and the potato farm was on the way to the radio station.  Father was angry that Jurgens did not have to labor and was given better rations than everyone else.  Jurgens also was not housed with the rest of the inmates.  So, it seems there was a bit of a class warfare problem the British, in their typical fashion, managed to create.

Of course, being a prisoner, and given a little freedom, you will seek other opportunities.  Father was a very good swimmer and loved to dive.  The farm owners of the area all capitalized on this and used him (when the British guards were not around) to retrieve their firearms they had sunk in septic tanks, sewers, ponds and lakes back during the firearms confiscation of 1936.  And they paid him very well.  Farther quickly managed to amass several thousand in new German Marks this way!  With some of those diving tales, I am amazed he survived or was not covered in some form of weird hideous skin disease!

Father remained in the camp for a year.  His release was only due to the release of Irma - when her husband came to claim her.  He had been in an African POW Camp since the surrender of Rommel's army.  I am not sure how well Fritz welcomed the idea of having a teenager, but he was a life long uncle to me and must have accepted the situation with grace and dignity.