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Preserving Family History

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Examples

04.07.2026

examples - 1 - Documented examples from private estates, archives, and oral histories:

Documented examples from private estates, archives, and oral histories: Everyday Life Under the Regime of Extermination – Eyewitness Accounts – The photograph shows the chance discovery of a “Jewish star”  in a sewing box in Berlin in 2008. The people who were supposed to wear it took it off and survived in hiding in Berlin, […]

03.07.2026

examples - 2 - I was born in the Gulag

I was born in the Gulag –  “My father comes from the German-speaking minority in Czechoslovakia (CSSR). My paternal great-grandparents were of Hungarian descent. The Z’s had been watchmakers since the 14th or 15th century. On my mother’s side, my family descends from the German Swabians of the 16th century and were Volga Germans. Virtually […]

13.01.2026

examples - 3 - Memories of Bohemia in North America

Memories of Bohemia in North America This little teddy bear, holding a pile of objects in its arms, symbolizes the loss of the many countries where one once felt at home—the loss of families and landscapes that one misses and whose memory one cherishes. That can be a painful burden. a bohemian parlor in North […]

13.01.2026

examples - 4 - ethnic cleansing

ethnic cleansing –  In North America: a portrait photograph of a Bohemian miner, alongside his original mining lamp and meerschaum pipe—objects that bear witness to life in Central Europe before the world wars and were brought along during emigration to North America in the 1990s. The German-speaking Bohemians were resettled in 1947 by a state […]

13.01.2026

examples - 5 - Exile - Structures of a Refugee’s Fate

Exile – Structures of a Refugee’s Fate – “We always set ourselves a goal and tried to achieve it together with others. Stability was not a category we considered.” At nearly 98 years old, N. has a crystal-clear perception. Inner realities sometimes push themselves in front of outer realities. “You’re in Canada,” she told me […]

06.01.2026

examples - 6- Seamless transitions between this world and the next

N. is in regular contact with her family in the afterlife. There, the behavior of family members is subject to a collective judgment. “The people from Egerland are always complaining: What do you want? You’re almost a hundred now!  “It doesn’t matter whether I turn a hundred or two hundred, as long as I’m doing […]

06.01.2026

examples - 7 - the matriarch ensures the life of the family members

The Matriarch ensures the Life of the Family Members This generous and cheerful matriarch, pictured here with her grandchildren, was named Elisabeth. The children adored her. Whenever a social issue arose, Elisabeth would resolve it discreetly and in a socially acceptable manner. And such a resolution could take many years. Elisabeth und her grandchildren in […]

06.01.2026

examples - 8 - the easter walk

The easter walk – when I sit alone at my desk in the evening, I write down the conversation, taking in once again the people I’ve heard about or the landscape that was described. Everything I’ve experienced in my interactions with people takes up space within me. It’s now late in the evening, and I […]

06.01.2026

examples - 9 - Erhard

The boy did not survive, but 80 years after his death, N. never missed an opportunity to speak of her playmate as if he were still there. Once, when I was about to leave the room after a long day, she called out after me a sentence that should not be forgotten: “He was still […]

06.01.2026

examples - 10 - Uncle Rudolf's sad eyes

Uncle Rudolf’s sad eyes Our thoughts lingered on the photograph of the Wehrmacht soldiers. “Take good care of it!” N. said to me. “It’s the only photograph we have. And yet he was completely apolitical,” says N. “Karlsbad was world-famous, after all. Princes and emperors were there. Goethe was there. It was a whole different […]

06.01.2026

examples - 11 - The homecomer Josef K.

The Homecomer Josef K. Josef K., a Bohemian chauffeur, was sentenced in 1946 by the so-called People’s Courts of Czechoslovakia to ten years of forced labor, which he was forced to serve in various prisons throughout Czechoslovakia (CSSR). He returned to his family in a strange city in 1956 and took his own life six […]

06.01.2026

examples - 12 - shifting of borders and a miners house

shifting borders and a Miner’s House – In 1886, German miner Heinrich Müller and his wife Liesbeth emigrated from Hesse to the steel town of Rombas on the Moselle. They were strict, but honest and decent people. They built a two-story house in the town of Rombas, a French territory that had been annexed de […]

06.01.2026

examples - 13 - shifting of borders in the Muellerhouse - german occupation

shifting of borders in the Muellerhouse  –  occupation by the german Wehrmacht In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles formally ended World War I, and Alsace and Lorraine were reintegrated into French territory. B. Müller, daughter of Lisbeth and Henri Müller and a telephone operator by profession, married Charles Schneider in 1920.  The entire family—whether French […]

06.01.2026

examples - 14 - Zeitgeist and Milieu in the steelworkers city Rombas

Zeitgeist and Milieu in the steelworkers city Rombas –  Born in 1960 in the Federal Republic of Germany, I think in terms of the categories that totalitarian systems gave rise to in the 20th century. When I observe family dynamics, I ask myself what background led people to act in certain ways. But then one […]

06.01.2026

examples - 15 - A cozy get-together in Gotha in 1941

A cozy get-together in Gotha in 1941 The photo on the right shows a German family sympathetic to the Nazis enjoying a cozy get-together in 1941 in the city of Gotha, Thuringia. While outside, war, forced labor, deportation, and the extermination of people—often neighbors and family members—were the new norm in Nazi society, German living […]

06.01.2026

examples - 16 - Cultural Genocide Practices in Western Europe

Cultural Genocide Practices in Western Europe A closer look at a photo: During the German occupation of eastern France’s steel-producing region in 1941, children were taken from their families to Germany under Hitler for “re-education” in the city of Gotha in Thuringia. “We were supposed to stay for just one year,” she told me, “but […]

06.01.2026

examples - 17 - So the Russians just shot him - brainwashing

So the Russians just shot him – brainwashing I’m looking at a photograph. In a forest clearing, you can see two middle-aged men dressed in suits. They’re smoking. One leans toward the other and lights his cigarette. As he does so, we see the back of his shaved head. He is a German employee of […]

06.01.2026

examples - 18 - The perpetrator at the center of the family

The perpetrator is always at the center of the family – The perpetrator in the family acts as a magnetic pole in the family’s collective memory, attracting some and repelling others. Yet the silence surrounding the perpetrators remains firmly entrenched within the family. At the height of his power, Schneider seemed literally untouchable. The dark […]

06.01.2026

examples - 19 - Soviet Prisoners of War in France

Soviet Prisoners of War in France France, November 4, 2019: I drive to the town of Boulay-Moselle and wait at the old train station, which has long been closed, for local historian and human rights activist Becker. He tells me: “After a week-long journey from the East, the Soviet prisoners of war arrived at the […]

06.01.2026

examples - 20 - Forced into slave labor and exterminated

Forced into slave labor and exterminated If you look more closely, you can see that the entire region of deep Western Europe under German occupation was littered with torture camps, secret camps, prisons for the people of the resistance, and barracks for people forced into slave labor. Memorial stone for the Ukrainian forced laborers killed […]

06.01.2026

examples - 21 - Nazis - not eyewitnesses in the family

Nazis—No Eyewitnesses in the Family –  When conducting private research, photos that prove guilt are generally not found in Germany. But even if you do have a photo, you have to do a lot of convincing within the family that family members were involved in war crimes. They were murderers. Every family is different, but […]

06.01.2026

examples - 22 - The Investigation File

The Investigation File of the french war criminal Schneider As a researcher, coming across this file in the archives was a soothing, emotionally relieving experience for me, because I was finally able to connect with a historical place and a historical reality. I hear the archivists joking in the hallway, while outside swifts fly through […]

06.01.2026

examples - 23 - The Schneider File in the Public Archives

The Schneider File in the Public Archives –  I was utterly fascinated by the cover of the Metz file, which was repeatedly used to document Schneider’s subsequent years in prison. On it markings, crossings-out, and comments; reference numbers outlined twice in red and blue; travel and translation costs for the witnesses added up; witness lists […]

06.01.2026

examples - 24 - Dogs - The Radikalization

Dogs—Radicalization – Analysis of a Group foto  Something happens while sorting and archiving in the various repositories of knowledge. At night, I suddenly have terrible dreams that leave me waking up drenched in sweat: a dog playfully jumps at me. There was a strange development in the Schneider family in Rombach regarding the dogs. At […]

06.01.2026

examples - 25 - Deportations, torture, murder, and looting

Deportations, torture, murder, and looting I spoke with J. on the phone today and told her about my research in the archives and the looting by Schneider documented there during the German occupation. He looted the homes of neighbors who had been deported. He is said to have used vicious dogs to do so. She […]

06.01.2026

examples - 26 - The Dark Cloud

The Dark Cloud –  Convicted war criminal Charles Schneider is permitted to write and receive letters to and from designated individuals while in prison, subject to censorship, a limit on the number of letters, and approval from prison authorities. There are 160 letters from 1945 to 1955 that Schneider wrote to his child. The poor […]

06.01.2026

examples - 27 - the little Angel - A Young Child's Memory of Pain

The Little Angel – A Young Child’s Memory of Pain This little cherub lying on the open book led me to the quiet, wordless grief of the child over the loss of its mother. The camera sees more than the eye. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered the kneeling child in the photograph. […]

06.01.2026

examples - 28 - Aphrodite - forbidden Love

Aphrodite – forbidden Love  The female figure, modeled after the Greek goddess Aphrodite, stands on the landing of the staircase in her house. She wears a garland of flowers draped over her shoulder. At her feet and by her head lies a brown plush dog, a German Shepherd, nestled against the woman’s face. “Up there […]

06.01.2026

examples - 29 - the wayside shrine at the Grande Rue

At the top of the Grande Rue in Rombach, there was a soup kitchen in the 15th century, a pitancerie, run by the monks of the Saint-Pierremont monastery. Nothing remains of this monastery—which descended from an 11th-century Augustinian monastery and was reformed in 1622 by the French priest Pierre Fourier—nor of the soup kitchen, except […]

06.01.2026

examples - 30 - The most Holy Virgin Mary -

The most Holy virgin Mary The yellow stone, known as Jaumont stone and dating from the Jurassic period, is a type of sandstone that is still quarried today in Malancourt-la-Montagne near Metz. Many significant buildings in the Moselle department—such as the old train station, the Metz Palace of Justice, and Metz Cathedral—were built with this […]

06.01.2026

examples - 31 - coming home

And now she appears before me: the little girl running up the steep Grande Rue toward Guissebonne, heading for the Müllerhaus. When her gaze falls on the weathered face of Jesus, carved from yellow sandstone and set into the wall of the house, she hastily crosses herself three times and keeps running. The color of […]

06.01.2026

examples - 32 - lost childhood

Lost Childhood – In the early winter of 2012, I traveled to the countryside to stay with J. for a few days and ask her about her childhood in France during the 1930s and 40s. She put me up in the attic, which had been unoccupied for a long time. She rarely had visitors anymore. […]