Dan D
04-05-09, 09:28 AM
My father and I have booked flights to Moldova for June and we will explore the area a bit.
The trip could be interesting. I will try to take a couple of pics of people and countryside of Moldova and will post them here, if anybody is interested. To me, Moldova is a white spot on the map.
Background-story:
After her second husband had died, my grandmother gave all letters concerning her first husband,the love of her life, my grandfather, to my father. My grandfather was killed at the Eastern front in May 1944 when my father was 6 weeks old, as my grandmother repeatingly keeps saying when she talks about the war.
One of the letters contained a treasure map-like drawing by a soldier named „Fritz“ which reveals where they have buried my grandfather in Moldova.
The German war graves commission has told me that the grave is known to them. It contains the remains of estimated 60 soldiers.
The farmer who owns the lands wants 20.000 € to allow digging which is not the fair market price according to the commission. 20.000 € divided by 60, that is 333,33 € per soldier. It is not that much money, but the problem seems to be the unknown identities of the other soldiers, because otherwise other families could throw in some money, too.
The goal would be to transfer the remains to the German soldiers' cemetery in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, as a final resting place.
It seems that my grandfather lost his life during the First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Jassy-Kishinev_Offensive) by the Soviet Army against the German Jassy defense line, which according to Wiki „commenced with the First Battle of Tārgu Frumos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Tārgu_Frumos) and Battle of Podu Iloaiei (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Podu_Iloaiei), and culminated with the Second Battle of Tārgu Frumos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Tārgu_Frumos)".
On our trip we will be joined by a third guy, who has done some history projects for German television, e.g. about German WW I generals, which will be broadcasted over the next years.
He got a chance last year to visit the grave of his grandfather who had been missing in action in France since 1918. His grandfather was killed during an assault against British positions 10 days before the end of the war. When the war was over, the Brits buried him on a British cemetery.But then came WW 2 and in the years after WW2 war grave commisions on each side were busy with the dead of WW2. It took until last year for the German commission to inform the guy that the British commission had given them the the exact location of the grave.
The trip could be interesting. I will try to take a couple of pics of people and countryside of Moldova and will post them here, if anybody is interested. To me, Moldova is a white spot on the map.
Background-story:
After her second husband had died, my grandmother gave all letters concerning her first husband,the love of her life, my grandfather, to my father. My grandfather was killed at the Eastern front in May 1944 when my father was 6 weeks old, as my grandmother repeatingly keeps saying when she talks about the war.
One of the letters contained a treasure map-like drawing by a soldier named „Fritz“ which reveals where they have buried my grandfather in Moldova.
The German war graves commission has told me that the grave is known to them. It contains the remains of estimated 60 soldiers.
The farmer who owns the lands wants 20.000 € to allow digging which is not the fair market price according to the commission. 20.000 € divided by 60, that is 333,33 € per soldier. It is not that much money, but the problem seems to be the unknown identities of the other soldiers, because otherwise other families could throw in some money, too.
The goal would be to transfer the remains to the German soldiers' cemetery in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, as a final resting place.
It seems that my grandfather lost his life during the First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Jassy-Kishinev_Offensive) by the Soviet Army against the German Jassy defense line, which according to Wiki „commenced with the First Battle of Tārgu Frumos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Tārgu_Frumos) and Battle of Podu Iloaiei (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Podu_Iloaiei), and culminated with the Second Battle of Tārgu Frumos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Tārgu_Frumos)".
On our trip we will be joined by a third guy, who has done some history projects for German television, e.g. about German WW I generals, which will be broadcasted over the next years.
He got a chance last year to visit the grave of his grandfather who had been missing in action in France since 1918. His grandfather was killed during an assault against British positions 10 days before the end of the war. When the war was over, the Brits buried him on a British cemetery.But then came WW 2 and in the years after WW2 war grave commisions on each side were busy with the dead of WW2. It took until last year for the German commission to inform the guy that the British commission had given them the the exact location of the grave.