I never know what treasure I will find whenever I dig through the countless documents, certificates and photographs left to me when my father died. There is documentation from both sides of my family, mostly in either German or Russian. But now and again I stumble across something in English,
„Gone, gone, the damage done“ are lyrics from a Neil Young song and, while the song is about drug addicts, the words could also describe the feeling my father, and I’m sure other Baltic Germans, felt when their properties were confiscated. I wrote about their estate, Nurmhusen, here and described
Last weekend I wrote about my family and their resilience here. After the family reunion I travelled to Neuruppin to research my father’s movements during WWII – more about that in another post, and then to Berlin for no reason at all, except that I love the city. Sometimes decisions
Sitting in a church in Germany, unable to understand most of the Sunday morning service, gave me plenty of time to think. I’m in Wiehl, Germany for the weekend, attending a family reunion and looking around at my extended family, I realise just how resilient we all are. The Fircks
I fly out tomorrow night, destination London for a couple of days before heading to Germany to attend my father’s family’s 2019 reunion. Every two years the Fircks family meet somewhere in Europe. They catch up on family gossip, tour the local area, eat, drink and talk about all things
Six photograph albums and a tub full of loose photographs sit in the wardrobe of my spare room. Most of the photographs are from my maternal side of the family. There are so many of them, I am daunted by the thought of sorting through them. One of them is