Testimony – Willie’s Story

It was near the end of the war and it was survival time. Germany was in ruins and I had to find my wife and four children who had fled from the east to Western Germany. I wrote a letter to my wife’s aunt in Berlin and asked the whereabouts of my family and found out that the Germans who had lived in East Prussia had all fled.

Testimony – Trudel’s Story

The year was 1945 and the end of World War II was nearing. Like many others whose lives were war-torn and shattered, Gertrude (Trudel) Kowarsch dreamed of escaping with her family to Western Germany. She and her husband, Willie (testimony in LandMarks, January 2011), owned a 100-acre farm in Eastern Germany about 60 miles from the Polish border.