When my mother in law died we cleaned a lot of old stuff out of her house. She had been born in 1944 and never knew her father who had also been drafted in ‘44 when the Germans were down to drafting essential personnel (a 38 year old railroad worker in his case — same as my grandad on the opposite side!).
Anyway we found a trove of letters her mum had written to the Red Cross every single month from 1945 to 1963 asking about her husband, and stack of responses that said “we have no info”.
The last letter simply read “<his name and ID number> died in such-and-such-a-town in Siberia 1956.” There was no other info.
Anyway we found a trove of letters her mum had written to the Red Cross every single month from 1945 to 1963 asking about her husband, and stack of responses that said “we have no info”.
The last letter simply read “<his name and ID number> died in such-and-such-a-town in Siberia 1956.” There was no other info.