Interesting Heer officer research project

[tenoriodj]

Perhaps the folks here will enjoy this thread. The photos should be visible to all, as I use a hosting service for the images.

http://daggers.infopop.cc/eve/forums...3/m/4150046805

[Petrus]

GREAT work!
Petrus

[Larry deZeng]

Absolutely outstanding, Gustavo!
How in heaven did you manage to find him in Germany? His name is not common, but you still must have hit it lucky finding one with the right first name, as many people only give an initial for their first name, in this case "E". Truly amazing that he is still alive and well at 92 after spending the entire war in an infantry regiment in Russia. That's what we would call defying the odds!

--Larry

[SurvivingPanzer]

That is an amazing story. What are the odds that you speak to the man that owned that piece of history so long ago. Please keep us posted on further developments.

[RaymondG]

Tremendous work, Gustavo and a thread that shows what can be achieved with effort. I bet that has brought a big smile to your face after your hard work

This forum is about people starting the research process, but it would be great to hear about other success stories you have all had.


Raymond

[tenoriodj]

Thanks guys, the major breaktrough came from BA-MA, my good friend there and the Karteikarte from the Kriegsreserve files he sent me, showing there was in fact a Lt d R. Groke in IR 50, and his name was Erwin and his date of birth was ... I checked the volksbund database and confirmed the name was extremely rare. With this i began googling, and after some time I found the reference to the Erwin Groke, a former architect, who, in 1995 was 80. My heart started pounding when i double checked the date of birth shown on the karteikarte

I looked up the name in the online Deutsche Telekom white pages and there was one Erwin Groke, who actually lives near Hamburg, the location of the exhibition mentioned in the article. So I gave him a call, but could not communicate. Thankfully Dr Mehrle took over from there for me. I think its likely that I will meet him soon.

The internet makes all this possible



The next best experience for me came with my very first named dagger, a kriegsmarine piece from 2 years ago, when I managed to speak to the son of the officer, who told me an amazing story about him. You can read that here if youre interested. http://gustavodaggers.spaces.live.co...7F68!121.entry This hobby is addictive

[F L Clemens]

I question how appropriate it is to post a map to someone's house on an internet forum, especially for someone in retirement age. You should seriously consider deleting that information.

[tenoriodj]

You are completely correct, deleted. Thanks for pointing this out