The family history - Villingen and the German cousins
Photograph showing a gravestone or memorial with white flowers placed in front of it, surrounded by ivy or climbing plants.
Click the page to see it at full size
What the page says
I feel some of the things that happened over there were horrific. They knew they were wrong but their only alternative was to go along with them. They were going to be shot and the rest of the family was going to be shot.
Frederick, my uncle, was one of the family members who made a statement that he was going to escape over into Switzerland. It would have been possible since he was close to the border, he had relations in Switzerland and he could have done it quite easily but the family said, 'Hey, hey, what about us?' They knew it would be the end for them so Frederick had to buckle down and go into the army. These were great sorrows for the family to bear.
Same war I had an uncle out here in the Australian Army. He had been so long in Australia the government gave him a degree of certainty of being Australian. His papers were parked never to leave Australia and he didn't want to leave Australia either. My father was working in Melbourne at the time as a hairdresser and apparently making a lot of money. Father came here in the thirties.
People: Frederick
Places: Switzerland, Melbourne, Australia
Interesting facts
German graves are leased, not owned. A plot is rented for a term - commonly twenty to thirty years - and unless the family renews it, the grave is cleared and reused. It is why so many German family graves have vanished, and why a photograph of one can be the only surviving record of the dates.
