From the archives: 1912

     Here is a photo, taken in about 1912, of my mother’s family on her dad’s side: the Schultzes of Bärwalde, Pommern (in what was then the far eastern part of Germany—Prussian territory; see old map).
     Karl and Emilie, who are seated, had twelve children (!), but only six are shown here. My mother’s father is the boy at the right.
     Martha, the woman at the left, and Else, who is wearing the same outfit over at the right, both worked at the time for the Berlin Opera. Perhaps they were home for a visit.

     Aunt Martha (b. 1891) took in my mother, Edith, when Edith’s own mother died in the mid-30s. Edith’s father, shown below, died in a logging accident in 1939. That occurred in Stettin, a big city to the northwest.

     Else hanged herself in 1950. My mother, age sixteen, discovered the body. (She left Germany a year later.)
     I'm intrigued by the little dog.
     My mother knows absolutely nothing about him. She doesn't even know the names of two of the girls in the above family picture.
     Efforts to get this kind of information have thus far failed.
     When the Russians advanced, they destroyed a great deal (they raped all of the women, including young girls).
     I have not yet found any records from the town of Bärwalde, which is now in Poland.

Mom and Aunt Martha at father's grave, c. 1941