In the past I've shared the story of how my maternal grandfather wisely fled Nazi Germany shortly after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor and began his journey that ultimately brought him to the U.S.  He rarely spoke about Germany and his history there during the rest of his life, never to my mom, and not much to anyone else.  In fact, he only opened up a little once for a school project I had in high school, but even then it was like pulling teeth.  As a result of that, and the limited family photos and relics that the rest of his family were able to keep when they bought their freedom from Dachau and fled the country, we unfortunately had very little in terms of my mom's family history to hold on to.  That is where the Internet comes in.

Later this month I'll be making my third trip to Germany over the past two years, but this time I'll be arriving a little bit ahead of my scheduled meetings so I'll have a day to kill.  I decided that since I have the opportunity, I'll drive the hour or so to my ancestors' hometown and explore.  In advance of my visit though I wanted to see if I could get addresses or other sites that may be connected to my family that I could make sure to visit.  A German colleague of mine offered to call the city archives to gather information for me, so I set about confirming names and dates with my mom, and scouring the Internet for any additional facts (my mom had never been able to find any).  

I found a virtual (no pun intended) gold mine.  The first critical item I found was this article from a local paper in my grandfather's hometown of Speyer: The Speyer-Kurier.  My great grandfather is #17 on that list, near the top, Carl Landenbeger.  I e-mailed the newspaper through its contact link and they kindly wrote me back, eager to connect with me and continue their efforts to document the history and legacy of the once thriving Jewish population in Speyer, Germany.  Even more incredible, they offered to schedule a meeting between me and Johannes Bruno, an Italian professor who lives in Speyer and is the foremost expert on the history of Jews in the region up to WWII.  He'd even show me around while in Speyer, bring me to places key to my family's history, and to Jewish history in town.  I of course jumped all over that opportunity and cannot wait to meet him and see all he can show me.

Inspired by this, and excited by how happy my parents were to hear what I had uncovered and done already, I dug further and found a picture.  As I mentioned before, my mom has very few pictures of her family from before my grandfather left Germany.  She did meet her grandfather and grandmother when they'd visit the U.S. from Colombia (where they ultimately settled after the war), but no pictures of them younger.  That is why I was even more excited to share this with her.  It is completely random, and he is somewhat challenging to see him as he is standing in the shadows of the doorway, but this is my great-grandfather, in front of his shoe factory.  Unreal, just a little searching uncovered so much, and I am so grateful that the people I am connecting with in Germany are going above and beyond to help me learn so much more, via e-mail, and while I'm there.  

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