On Monday I challenged myself to find wild flowers and perhaps some ripe berries within an area of just a few square metres. The light in the dense growth was not too harsh in the late afternoon sun. I accidentally deleted a couple of good close-ups, but I was quite satisfied with the four I had selected earlier. Enjoy.
Heinrich Himmler, the Reich’s SS leader, had decreed that all members of his organization had to produce evidence of their aryan ancestry in order to retain their rights and privileges of their membership in the SS. By a good portion of luck and conniving Georg von Waldenfels managed to establish a personal connection to the special SS elitist group, which was sworn in as the one and only bodyguard responsible for Hitler’s limb and life. This personal connection was no other than the leader of the bodyguard, Sepp Dietrich. Georg had calculated in wise foresight that he could use his like-minded wedding guest as an influential person in his attempt to conceal his Jewish ancestry.
Georg had been unable to provide sufficient evidence for his aryan descent for the officials in the department for racial questions in Berlin. They had no issues with his ‘pure aryan’ wife Ilse Jannink. Himmler, who personally took care of such questions, granted the marriage licence without any reservations. Yet, feelings of relief for Georg were premature. One cannot fail to notice on his family records the blue stamps behind the various names of his forefathers, indicating a negative response by the agency’s officials.
In addition, the data which Georg had submitted did not go farther back in time than his great-grandfather Friedrich Wilhelm Bauer born in1818 in Groß Ottersleben. A very suspicious gap remained in Georg’s records. Indeed, SS officers had to provide evidence for their aryan genetic background all the way back to 1750.
Also puzzling for the government race experts was the noble character of Ludwig von Waldenfels, who 12 years after Georg’s birth and one week after the wedding with Anna officially declared himself the father of this child. Obviously, such a declaration even in writing does not prove a blood line to the von Waldenfels family. Fortunately for Georg the officials did not investigate this matter any further.
In the meantime Anna von Waldenfels was sitting on pins and needles. Should she reveal the name of her son’s real father? Would such a revelation not make her son’s situation worse? Would the Nazi investigators not get really suspicious when eyeing the old Galician-Austrian Jewish sounding name “Grasmück”? Such thoughts occupied Anna’s mind and must have caused many a sleepless night at castle Panwitz. It was lucky that there was not sufficient time to turn the focus on grandmother Emma’s ancestry. The family kept her until her death (1941) in her tower room away from the public eye to make sure that the friendly old lady’s tongue would not let slip out an incriminating word or two.
To be continued …
My wife and I travelled to Vancouver to attend our son’s wedding at the Vancouver Rowing Club. On Sunday after the wedding my wife and I spent some time at the English Bay, where many people were going for a late evening stroll to watch the sunset. Here I posted a few of my impressions of this very popular beach area. Enjoy.
The Peter and Gertrud Klopp Family 