Thursday, August 07, 2014

Aubach im Breisgau



Our journey took us to a region in Germany called Schwarzwald-Breisgau which happened to be the general area where my Mothers family the Frankels lived until their lives where disrupted by the persecution of the Nazis. 
Aubach was the small town where the family house stood.  We decided to take the hour long drive from Munzingen to Aubach to trace my roots. 

Aubach is a tiny dot on the map and in reality hardly much bigger.  Gone were the old houses and in its place were residences that looked like a typical suburban sub division.  The iconic German architecture  pictured above was nowhere to be found. 

We went to the next town which was somewhat larger and spoke to the postal workers who explained that all the old homes were destroyed some 30 years ago, updated to more modern structures. 

Most of the Frankels either fled or were taken away to the camps and were killed.  However my Grandfather David a German WW1 veteran died from war a related illness before the regime change and was most likely buried in a Friedhof(cemetery) nearby.  We searched but only were able to locate more recent places of rest. Later we learned that the old burial grounds no longer existed. Not sure what happened in this case. 
Too frustrated and tired we decided to give up the chase and return back to the farm for dinner. 

Satisfied in knowing that it is the journey not the results that matter however for some reason I did not sleep well that night. 


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