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Part one: from Saverne, he was sent to Sylt Island for Arbeitsdienst in the context of the Hitler Youth. He returned to Herbitzheim for Christmas, 1942. On 15 January 1943, he reported for duty in Augsburg, from where he left for Korosten to do his military service for six months. In July, 1943, from Augsburg, he was going to go fight on the Eastern front in Dniepropetrovsk. On 2 November 1943, he was wounded a first time in Franzowka near Tarnow. He was treated in Cracow, then in Schmalkalden, in the province of Saxony, Germany, from where he returned to Herbitzheim in order to complete his convalescence. Part two: in mid-January 1944, he returned for duty at the Tarnopol barracks and then returned to the front localised in the Carpathians. On 8 September 1944, he was once again seriously wounded at Krosno. He was repatriated to Rabka (to the north of Zakopane) in order to be treated. He remained three weeks on furlough at Neustadt at the home of a sister of his father. In order not to compromise his uncle and his aunt, he preferred to return to fight on the front. Since his unit had been decimated, he found the main body of the German army in Breslau. On 24 April 1945, he was taken prisoner by the Russians. He first spent three weeks in a camp outside the city. There followed six weeks of imprisonment in a cattle wagon, before he was transferred to Brest-Litovsk to a hard labour camp. In December 1945, he was liberated in virtue of being French. He was taken to Frankfurt an der Oder in order to be disinfected by the French Red Cross. In the evening of 24 December 1945, he saw his family again in Herbitzheim. |
