National Archives

The National archives in Bethesda, Maryland houses copies of the EWZ records captured by the US army at the end of World War II. These are the same ones housed in the Family Search Center in Salt Lake City. I didn't want to leave any stone unturned. Besides, I needed an excuse to visit Washington D.C., hopefully during a time when the weather was a little less repressive. This time, even though it was early May, the weather was still very accommodating. It also afforded me the opportunity to tour the National Mall and some of the Smithsonian Museums, then to knock off two more baseball stadiums - the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles.

Once I got myself acclimated to the facility and passed the exam which everyone had to take to obtain an annual pass (primarily do's and don'ts about security), I made my way to the floor where the documents were housed. I was first directed to where the Army records were kept, but soon found out I needed the next floor where the microfilm was actually housed. 

Sadly, the staff there consisted of summer interns who had little knowledge (or interest) in helping me find the appropriate records, so I took it upon myself to search through the drawers throughout the room trying to locate what I needed. After I found the appropriate drawer, I spent the rest of the day poring through microfilm records. Although I did find a few records I had not seen at the Family Search Center in Salt Lake City, I did not find the treasure trove I was looking for.  Of special interest were the "Lebenslauf" documents - essentially an essay written by the refugee describing his life's experiences. To date, I still have only the one document, from dad's uncle Wilhelm. Perhaps more time, or a more experienced assistant, could have turned up additional records. 

The originals are in the German archives in Berlin. I think that would be worth the trip. In addition to EWZ, they would have German military records, of which I have only those from my dad. I would like to see if there are any for his brothers.

The British Archives

In the summer of 2024 I decided to check a few European destinations off of my bucket list, visiting Barcelona and Palma in Spain, then Warsaw, Poland, Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen. After Copenhagen, I decided to take the opportunity to take a side trip to one of my favorite cities, so I booked a flight to London before coming back through the Chunnel and visiting Amsterdam, before spending a few weeks with relatives in Germany. I wanted to visit the town of Hay-on-Wye, a small town in Wales, knick-named "The Book Town" for its preponderance of used book stores. Hay-on-Wye is not on the beaten path, and after realizing that I just couldn't fit it in to my schedule, I decided instead to make a visit to the British Archives just outside of London to see if I could find any information about my dad's time there after World War II. I have a passport size photo of him stamped by the British Home Office, and I know that he worked in a coal mine either in England or in Wales. I searched the British immigration records and could find nothing of him entering the country. I looked for ship manifests and enlisted help from a research assistant. He speculated that records of those coming by ship were widely scattered throughout different ports of entry or simply no longer kept - not an encouraging answer.

I did, however, manage to find naturalization records and death records for his cousin Waldemar, whose daughter still lives in England. I believe dad went to England with Waldemar. I have reached out to his daughter but she had no recollection of her father's activities during the post-war era. 

All said, the archives, while an interesting travel experience, did not reveal anything I had not already known.

Visiting the Family Search Center

The Family Search Center in Plano turned up questions that could only be answered by visiting the Headquarters in Salt Lake City. I was planning a trip to Western Colorado, where Salt Lake City was only a four hour drive away. 

Across the street from the Mormon Tabernacle, the Family Search Center is an inspiring four story building filled with genealogical records and publications from around the world, and all free of charge.  I was greeted by friendly faces when I walked through the front door and directed to level one in the basement for international records. The second basement level held a library of international publications.

I was met again in the international section and given a brief tour of the facilities, which included row after row of computer terminals, many equipped with microfilm readers. The microfilm records were located in storage cabinets and were easily accessible. I was told I could print any of the records I needed or copy them to a flash drive. I suddenly realized I had forgotten my flash drive. "No problem," said my guide, "we give them out for free." Two minutes later he was back with a flash drive.

I had a list of the EWZ records I wanted to look at, and over the next two days was able to find the records I needed and copied them to my flash drive. I spent a considerable amount of time researching the records of Adolf Sablezki, the Lithuanian husband of my father's cousin, who has been somewhat of a mystery. At one point I had three different people working on it. It turned out Adolf had a prior marriage and I wanted to find out what happened to his first wife. It took a long time to find his ancestral village, since, as it turned out, it was now in Poland under a different name. Thanks to the Polish researcher for helping me on that. The birth records for Adolf and his first wife still eluded us, however, even after my Polish researcher had offered to call the Polish authorities in Warsaw. Further complicating matters is the fact that Poland and Lithuania were under Russian control. People were changing their names to sound more "Russian." Oh, how complicated and confusing were the times!

On my third and last day I spent the morning in the library perusing books pertaining to the Black Sea Germans. Some of them I was already familiar with, others I was able to scan sections of interest and copy them to a flash drive. Understandably, books are not allowed to be taken out.

I found my trip to Salt Lake City extremely rewarding and look forward to going again. I have already started a new list of questions.

Mysteries Explained - and more Questions

 The EWZ records revealed many surprises:

The first surprise was regarding dad's brother Fridolin. It turns out he was at the camp in Poland! There is no question as to the authenticity of the records - he listed his father and mother, and his two brothers (including my dad) - on the family tree form. Fridolin was seventeen in 1941 when the Germans invaded Russia. I had assumed that he joined, or was conscripted into, the German army along with my dad and his brother Eduard. I was told by my cousin - Fridolin's son, that he found himself in the city of Kaliningrad at the end of the war, had tossed his German army uniform and turned himself in to the Soviet authorities, whereupon he was sent to the mines in Siberia. The mines part is correct - he spent twenty-five years  there. But instead of fighting in the army like his two other brothers, he found his way to a Polish refugee camp in 1944. 

On the immigration form, Fridolin's previous residence is shown as the town of Lostau, in the state of Hohensalza, bordering Wärthegau on the north. His medical form shows that he had his medical examination on November 11, 1944. Correspondingly, Wilhelm's medical exam, and his wife's, took place on June 28. The Reichert's and Heinrich's family were  on September 14. How it was that Wilhelm and his wife got their papers in June and the others not until September or November is speculative, but in the case of Fridolin, one might speculate - along with the fact that he listed a village in Poland as his previous residence - that he may have arrived later, and not alongside the other Rohrbach families in June. So where was he in March, 1944 when Rohrbach was being evacuated? And did he somehow travel to Kaliningrad when the Polish camp was later evacuated? More speculation is that perhaps he was hoping to escape Russia via one of the Baltic Sea ports, including Kaliningrad, which was at that time still under German control (for centuries Kaliningrad was known as Königsberg while under Prussian rule). More questions.......

I've been curious as to how it was that, when it was time to evacuate the Polish camps ahead of the Red Army, some of the residents managed to get on a train to Germany, while others made an overland trek which eventually came to halt at the Oder River, where, the bridge having been destroyed, they were overtaken by the Red Army. The immigration forms indicate if the person has become a naturalized citizen, stamped on the form as "Eingebürgert", or naturalized citizens. All of our families show this designation, even Fridolin. Was it simply a matter of choice for some to continue overland or had the German authorities enforced a quota? Accounts of the times describe scenes of mass panic at the rail stations, making it conceivable that there simply wasn't room for everyone.

The next surprise was a real shocker. This regards my dad's cousin Irma and her husband Adolf. They have been a mystery up until now. All I know about Adolf is that he was a German from Lithuania, born August 13, 1913. We don't have a date for when he and Irma were married. They immigrated to the United States in 1952. Irma's mother Emma followed in 1956. The story I had gotten was that Adolf's real name was Sableckas, but that somehow the immigration officer twisted it into Sablezki.  It appears that this is not correct. I finally found Adolf and Irma in the UNRRA records, both listed as Sablezki, therefore implying that they were married. Unfortunately the UNRRA record is only a listing of names, with no biographical information, therefore no date. So I don't know whether they met at the UNRRA camp or prior to that. 

On to the EWZ records. Here comes a man named Adolf Sabletzki, from Lithuania, same birthdate. This could easily have been shortened to Sablezki later on. There are some village names, his birthplace and last residence, typed on to the form, but I cannot locate them in Lithuania - not unusual as village names were changed. There is a lot of handwritten information on the forms, which can provide additional information. Unfortunately, I cannot make out the handwriting. I have a contact with Adolf's nephew who may be able to provide more information. 

Is this our Adolf? The birthdate agrees and the fact that he is from Lithuania. There is a picture of him on the EWZ family tree form, so perhaps his nephew or granddaughter could identify him. In addition, the EWZ form shows that Adolf was married, but not to Irma! A bit hard to read, it looks like Michalene. Whatever the spelling, it doesn't come close to Irma. So, if this is our Adolf, what became of Michalene, how did Adolf and Irma meet, and when did they get married? And why did Adolf change his name?

Another door to unlock. Are there records for Lithuanian Germans as there are for Ukrainian Germans? Are there any marriage records? 

Relocation to Poland

When the Red Army began their thrust westward, it was only a matter of time before they reached the German heartland. German refugees in eastern Europe loaded up whatever possessions they could take and began a desperate march westward. To be captured by the Russians would mean relocation to Siberia, years of hard labor, or even execution. The Russians regarded all Germans, wherever they were living, as the enemy. 

The village of Rohrbach was evacuated on March 11, 1944, just as the Red Army was closing in. They were evacuated eastward into Romania, then turned north through Hungary and Austria, until they arrived in western Poland, known as the Wärthegau, or Wartheland region, where the former inhabitants had been forced out early in the war through horrific acts of ethnic cleansing. The hope was that the Eastern European Germans would become the foundation for an ever-expanding German homeland, the first step of Hitler's promise of more "lebensraum".

Upon arrival in the Wärthegau, the ethnic Germans were processed and screened as to their ability to qualify to become German citizens, since none of them were born in Germany, having lived for generations in other countries of Eastern Europe. To qualify for German citizenship, one had to prove  suitable German ancestry and loyalty to the German state. The German agency that was tasked with this process was the Einwandererzentralstelle, or EWZ. 

After I made my presentation for my book Orchards on the Steppes to the North Texas Chapter of Germans from Russia, one of the village coordinators mentioned to me that there was a Family Search Center, run by the LDS church, in my city, and they have access to the EWZ records. I knew of the existence of the EWZ records because my cousin Alex had sent me a few of them which he had obtained from the German archives, and I had referenced them in my book. Up until then, I had assumed that they were available only in the German archives. As it turns out, the records of the EWZ can be found not only in the German archives, but also in the national archives of the United States, located in College Park, Maryland and in the archives of the Church of Latter Day Saints - an indispensable go-to for any genealogical research. 

I decided to visit the Family Search Center to have a look for myself. What I found in their system are digitized microfilm images of the personal records of all of the refugees processed in the Polish refugee camps. They cannot be accessed through a smart search, but fortunately they are alphabetized. After scanning through thousands of images, I found hundreds of Ridingers and Riedingers, many of them even from Rohrbach. I now have records for nearly all of dad's relatives that were evacuated from Rohrbach. A few are still missing. In particular, I cannot find the "Lebenslauf", essentially an autobiography written in the refugee's own handwriting, one of which Alex had sent me for dad's Uncle Wilhelm. The original microfilms - those so far not digitized - are believed to reside in the headquarters of the Family Search Center in Salt Lake City. I'm going to visit my daughter in Grand Junction, Colorado in a few weeks. After that, I'll plan a trip to Salt Lake City to see if I can find the missing records.