WWII Romeo and Juliette

great stuff Skip, thanks!!!!

 

Thanks BigFun, It's a sad story. Whne Franz was based near LEHAVRE he got sick and was transferred to aLazerett near ROUEN until he recovered. His fiancé would visit him there. I don't even know how she made it so far (bike , train , hitchhiking?) . Whne Franz wa son the Ostfront he would be on duty until it was dark and had to write his love letters with candle light. When he was on transit he would sleep in barracks and officers would extinguish lights at 11pm, so no letters at all..

 

It's amazing how others perceive the study of military history to only be the study of conflict and man's inhumanity to man, yet so often it is the study of stories of love against the most improbable backdrop, or stories of friendship and sacrifice of the most noble kinds. And love and friendship and bravery happen on both sides of the conflicts.

Thanks again Skipper.
Michelle

 

I was most surprise that Franz's mother and daughter, immediately accepted the fiancée. Depsite the war. Christiane called Frau Fellering "mother" she would sign "mutti" , Hilde in turn would sign your "friend" (Freundin) and she would sometimes even write "sister". Thye were all worried relatives who had Franz in common and their grief must have ben terrible. Yet it was one among millions others. I must also stress the great solidarity of his fellow soldiers who would post the letter, lend their mailbox or felpost nummer, bring parcels, trade a felpost stamp for a pack of cigarettes. Without these guys, the correspondance would have been impossible because Christiane was not officially allowed to use the Felpost network. There would always be someone to help her. The last letter that got through to Normandy was on July 31st 1944. Useless to say that it must have been a risky business to deliver the very letter that told Christiane her lover had died in Romania on July 4th....

 

I like this letter a lot because it still has the unused return parcel stamp on it. The reason it wa saved is because it was stuck on the letter, probably by humidity. I could not be detached without pting the letter in water or making a hole in it. Therefore it is still intact. I still have other tabs that were used to stick stamps on the paper, but this is theonly copy of a complete relic.

The letter is very interesting it mentions the despair of a long wait, but alos the Saturday evening activites (cinema with friends). The films the Germans played = a train departs (Ein Zug Fährt ab) and the sunday off day which will allow Franz to write Christiane another love letter.

 

Hello All,

Very nice letters ! a great love for sure...

Sebastien.

 

Thanks Vestae, I have much many more letters to analyse and will post more in a near future.

 

It really is amazing the lengths people go to, the people who helped these two could have gotten into serious trouble over this, as you said Skipper! I really like these personal items, they give such a different outlook on the war.

thanks again my friend!

 

Christiane almost spoke German fluently. Sometime sshe would ommit a word and use French instead, but she would even wrtie letters to her family in law in perfect German . Sometimes Franz would correct her language mistakes and give a grammar rule here and there to help her out. It is also vey informative about the daily life of a cook in the German army. Those who had shifts would usually leave the kitchen way after these shift was over because of the cleaning. Same thing in the morning, but they would share and one guy would get up earlier sothat the others could get a few minutes extra sleep . During his first days at the Ost front Franz would woek during the day, miss the cineam and when he be off duty it would be dark , so he had to write with a candle light until electricity was finally installe din his barrack. Yet whatever happened, lack of light, bombings, lack of sleep, he never stopped writing.

 

I'm really amazed that no one caught on to this, wasn't it quite a chance for all those involved to be helping them exhcange these love letters?

 

Apparently it was a whole network. Some leters were posted by soldiers who wer eon leave in East Germany. This would get the letter a 1000 km closer. Others were sent to Austria and posted by the familly there. Others were mailed in Belgium. When Franz was on the move, he would drop them in a regular mailbox at any station (Paris, Berlin, Vienna, LE Havre) . Sometimes he would take letters from his buddies home and mail them in Germany or even bring them. Usually the whole pile was brought to a G.P.O. in a large town where the civilians (usually girlfriends from occupied countries would pick these letters up) . The problem is that by doing so, the population knew who was getting private mail from the enemy and after the Liberation they had names and addresses of these people who were considered as traitors. It must have been very difficult for Christiane after the war. Not only had she lost the love of her life, but she had to struggle for her own survival. I really hope she managed and that she eventually had a happy life.

 

Look at this!

I got pictures from the Constanza cemetery from our member Masklin! I asked Masklin to look for Franz's grave. It wasn't an easy job as I wasn't sure of the spelling. But the grave was there: same date , same place, same first name, except the last name was slightly different, but if you check the handwritting at posting number 25 you will see he is our man! Thanks again Masklin, you know how much I appreciate! The correct spelling is FRANZ FELFERNIG . With this correct spelling I could find his record at the Volksbund and found out his Birth Place which is Austria and confirms once again the whole story. The place of Death says "Ortslaz Constanza". It took me a while to figure out Ortslaz was not a place, but the Ortslazaret in Constanza (the local Hospital). Also he died On July 2nd, which is almost immediately after the mining accident . I thought he died after two days of suffering, but in fact he was buried on July 4th 1944.

Some other details : Franz was born on Sylvester day.

He was born in a small Austian village called KLEIN St. PAUL.

Franz got promoted to the rank of HauptGefreiter in Feb 1944. This is the rank he had hwhen he died.

 

This is a remarkable story and a remarkable bit of sleuthing! It is wonderful that you could save all of these letters as a complete archive and that you could piece together the final resting place of one of the main characters.

You really should consider using the letters as the basis for a book or a screenplay. This is a story that would be compelling, and you could fill in all of the holes with general research.

I expect that the young lady survived the war, or these letters would likely have been tossed in a waste bin by someone. Perhaps she could still be alive?

 

Unfortunately I only have here first name and I imagine she would have kept this archive as long as possible . It would be a great surprise if she was still alive, but I believe I will try the Austrian villages mentionned in the letters. Franz had a sister Hilde, so she might stil be alive or her descendents.

 

It is true that the young lady in the letters probably held on to them as long as she could but if she is elderly, it is always possible that she was forced to get rid of them by one of her children

 

I still have many dozen letters to read. One mentions a leave that was cancelled. Franz was part of a catering service (on a schellboot?), which basically means he is the last one to leave and the first one to get up for the coffee in the morning. In May 1944, there was a large Iron Cross (first and second class) distribution for the officers who took part in the Battle for Sebastopol . Franz was serving the men drinks and it took him ages before he was allowed to get some rest again. The same thing happened to him when he was in Constanza : he would always miss the films because when he was done, the cinema would be closed. In the morning he would take turns with his Kamaraden and only one would get up really early to get a caldron with warm coffee for the troops, the others would get up an hour later, this is when Franz had time to wtrite his letters, oFten with candle light only (or late in the evening instead of going to the cinema).

 

Skipper, Do you have Christiane's last name?

 

Hi Michelle. No I don't. It has been extremely difficult to find her first name for a start. Franz would use nicknames and avoided using her real name. He'd call her "Mausilein" (little mouse), Braut (bride). The family would use "Monica" or "Moni" , but from time to time someone would use the real name or an abreviation somewhere. this is how I found out about Chrissi and even the full first name Christiane on a few covers.
These were sent via Feldpost to a soldier based near LE HAVRE called Willi Matthias. When Willi recieved a letter with Franz's name, he would not even open it, but forward it directly to the local civilian post office where Christiane could pick it up. it is possible that Willi worked at the German post distribution. Christiane would give her letters to Willi with a Fieldpoststamp sent by Franz . This way she could benefit from the Gemran postal service and get the letter to the front. This little trick worked until July 31st 1944 when the allies advanced into Normandy, but Franz had died a few weeks earlier anyway.

 

Skipper -- Have you asked the eBay seller how he or she acquired the archive? Is it possible that the seller was a relative of one of the letter writers?

 

I thought about that but, the adresses were hundreds of km from each other. Maybe I could give it a try, but I don't think so. I mean would you sell such a familly archive?