Dan D
06-04-14, 06:18 PM
[Excerpt:
In 2009 I made my first travel to Moldova, the country between Romania and the Ukraine.
My grandfather, medical NCO 6th German Army, 79 th Infantry Divison, Grenadier Regiment 212, dog number:" 20951SE Abt. 6" went MIA there in April 1944.
According to his comrades they had found his remains in June 1944 after a counter- attack to retake the old positions and buried him and 8 others of his unit at a road cross near Parliti.
That is something the official Wehrmacht register did not know because that piece of information was given in a private letter to my grandmother.
As it turned out, the war graves commission had exhumed that said war grave at that road junction based on information by some locals who had eye-witnessed German soldiers burying dead soldiers there in 1944. In 2007 the commission exhumed and buried my grandfather at the main military cemetary in Chisinau, Moldova as unknown soldier.
Result of that first trip in 2009 was that the unknown soldier was identified as my grandfather and no is no longer mia, but kia and buried in Chisinau.
Now comes the final chapter:
This month I will fly from Düsseldorf to Vienna to Iasi (Romania) with my father to visit the road junction and the final resting place.
In 2009 when we were at that road junction my father had no idea that this was actually the place where his father was buried between 1944-2007, because that conection was made the other day when the conclusion hit me like a thunder struck as I was looking a the letter with map again.
HERE IS HOW we passed the border to Moldova back in 2009. I am curious how it will work out this time.
In Moldova , the old Soviet Union is still intact. To get into the country you have to pass three control points. They want money and they are very serious about border control, checking your identity on windows 95 and searching your car, that takes several hours.
To speed things up the car of the war graves commission had some „extras“: first of all a car plate that gave us diplomatic status, second: the plate reads „T-SEX“ and third: the is a huge bumper sticker at the front of the car that reads: „Juri Gagarin on tour“.
The theory behind: I asked the commission guy what „T-SEX“ stands for. His reply: „Transport Speciale Exhumination“. That was a joke of course. His idea: Everyone in the world knows the word „sex“, so this is a reminder for border control agents: „Where did I have seen that car before“?
Same with the huge sticker „Juri Gagarin on tour“ : Juri Gagarin, the space hero, every child recognizes that name in Eastern Europe or what? „ Juri Gagarin“ is a band of Russian expats based in Hamburgo/Germany to be precise.
So, once again: diplomatic status with a plate that says „T-SEX“ and „Jrui Gagarin on tour“ on the engine hood.
What happened?
At the first check-point our driver just gave speed. This caused the guys at the second check-point to run around with guns and getting angry. You know that from computer-games: AI getting angry.
I did not feel comfortable at that point. The commission guy left the car and started shouting at those guys. My impression was that they were perplex because they were not used to such a response. I don't speak Eastern languages but I think our driver told them „bring us to your boss“, who showed up with a smile: „What do you want?“-“We are on the hunt for dead nazi soldiers“. They let us pass without an extra fee because we had been talking to the boss.
Same thing on our return: they searched the car and checked our identity on win 95 as if we would be smuggling remains of dead nazi soldiers out of the country, If there is one thing that border control does not like, that is transporting human remains from one country to another, Could be the scalps of Egyptian Pharaos."Whose remains are these? Those are that of my grand-mother, "No, you can't do that".
" I will try to take some pictures , here are some of the first trip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTUvQApSdNg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTUvQApSdNg)
In 2009 I made my first travel to Moldova, the country between Romania and the Ukraine.
My grandfather, medical NCO 6th German Army, 79 th Infantry Divison, Grenadier Regiment 212, dog number:" 20951SE Abt. 6" went MIA there in April 1944.
According to his comrades they had found his remains in June 1944 after a counter- attack to retake the old positions and buried him and 8 others of his unit at a road cross near Parliti.
That is something the official Wehrmacht register did not know because that piece of information was given in a private letter to my grandmother.
As it turned out, the war graves commission had exhumed that said war grave at that road junction based on information by some locals who had eye-witnessed German soldiers burying dead soldiers there in 1944. In 2007 the commission exhumed and buried my grandfather at the main military cemetary in Chisinau, Moldova as unknown soldier.
Result of that first trip in 2009 was that the unknown soldier was identified as my grandfather and no is no longer mia, but kia and buried in Chisinau.
Now comes the final chapter:
This month I will fly from Düsseldorf to Vienna to Iasi (Romania) with my father to visit the road junction and the final resting place.
In 2009 when we were at that road junction my father had no idea that this was actually the place where his father was buried between 1944-2007, because that conection was made the other day when the conclusion hit me like a thunder struck as I was looking a the letter with map again.
HERE IS HOW we passed the border to Moldova back in 2009. I am curious how it will work out this time.
In Moldova , the old Soviet Union is still intact. To get into the country you have to pass three control points. They want money and they are very serious about border control, checking your identity on windows 95 and searching your car, that takes several hours.
To speed things up the car of the war graves commission had some „extras“: first of all a car plate that gave us diplomatic status, second: the plate reads „T-SEX“ and third: the is a huge bumper sticker at the front of the car that reads: „Juri Gagarin on tour“.
The theory behind: I asked the commission guy what „T-SEX“ stands for. His reply: „Transport Speciale Exhumination“. That was a joke of course. His idea: Everyone in the world knows the word „sex“, so this is a reminder for border control agents: „Where did I have seen that car before“?
Same with the huge sticker „Juri Gagarin on tour“ : Juri Gagarin, the space hero, every child recognizes that name in Eastern Europe or what? „ Juri Gagarin“ is a band of Russian expats based in Hamburgo/Germany to be precise.
So, once again: diplomatic status with a plate that says „T-SEX“ and „Jrui Gagarin on tour“ on the engine hood.
What happened?
At the first check-point our driver just gave speed. This caused the guys at the second check-point to run around with guns and getting angry. You know that from computer-games: AI getting angry.
I did not feel comfortable at that point. The commission guy left the car and started shouting at those guys. My impression was that they were perplex because they were not used to such a response. I don't speak Eastern languages but I think our driver told them „bring us to your boss“, who showed up with a smile: „What do you want?“-“We are on the hunt for dead nazi soldiers“. They let us pass without an extra fee because we had been talking to the boss.
Same thing on our return: they searched the car and checked our identity on win 95 as if we would be smuggling remains of dead nazi soldiers out of the country, If there is one thing that border control does not like, that is transporting human remains from one country to another, Could be the scalps of Egyptian Pharaos."Whose remains are these? Those are that of my grand-mother, "No, you can't do that".
" I will try to take some pictures , here are some of the first trip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTUvQApSdNg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTUvQApSdNg)