Does anyone know of a village formerly called “Tempel” located in Poland? 40-50km East of the Oder River? The baby is my Opa and he wants to go back one last time before he dies. The text below is what he sent me.
The Allied powers had decided to punish Germany for starting the war and all land east of the river Oder was going to Poland or Russia. That was about 25% of Germany in the 1937 borders and all Germans to be driven out, about 11 million People. Germans were very much afraid of the RED ARMY of Communist Russia and some fled before the arrival of the Red Army if they could. But the majority was told to start walking in summer 1945 and take only what you can carry.
On the 30th of Jan 1945, winter, a German train came into our village Tempel and off loaded Volkssturm Troops, the fighting front was just a few km east of us. Tempel is about 40 to 50 km east of the river Oder and Frankfurt/Oder but the Red Army had reached the river Oder already north and south of Frankfurt on that day. The Locomotive rider told the Temple village people to get on the train if they wanted and about ½ of the population did go on the train. It made it all the way to Frankfurt. All the French POWs who worked on the farms went also.
My father was drafted in 1944 like most old and young men into the Volkssturm and was not in the village. He is missing as of the 17thApril 1945 from around Berlin where he wrote his last letter that reached us, so he is declared dead now, for legal purposes. 2 of my 3 uncles also died in the war, the young brother of my mother, a career Officer, fell on the 10th of May, 2 days after the war. One Uncle was discharged by the German Army because of mental problems and survived.
Remember this was winter, I was almost 3 years old, my next sister almost 2 years and the 2nd sister Erika, who still lives, was only 4 month old. But my mother managed to reach the farm of her friend in Deinste, Lower Saxony, near the river Elbe and Hamburg. I don’t remember anything of Tempel or my father. But I do remember some things in Deinste 1945. People watched the bombers streaming over Germany at night and watched the flares they used. I remember going into the cellar because of Allied Fighter bombers strafing the landscape. And then the day the British Army arrived and a tank looks awful big to a 3 year old.
The rest is History.
Warm greetings, Opa