George

George Richard Krause born 23rd December 1925 in Reichau Germany.  The youngest child of Richard Heinrich Krause and Martha Emma Krause (Ne Drossel).  His sister Clara already dead but his brother Willi is 90 and still alive.  Remarkable really as he was a medic in WWII and was shot in the leg by an exploding bullet which erupted in 5 tears.  He was told that he must have it amputated else he would die.  Willi chose death rather than to be an invalid and reliant on others for the rest of his, probably short life.  He is still living and walking around as well or better than any one else of his age.  Understandably, this has left him with a deep mistrust of doctors.  A little knowledge is a dangerous thing but it seems to have worked for Willi.

George’s father Richard Heinrich was one of 4 children born to Karl Heinrich Krause and Karaline Luise Krause (Ne Aust).  His eldest brother Adolf married in Reichau into a 70 acre smallholding while his sister Mina also married into a smallholding in Rot Neudorf, 2km away.  His eldest sister Martha married a civil servant and was the first one to get a share of the inheritance, 10,000 Marks.  In 1914, Richard inherited his fathers house where he was already post master.  After the first World War in 1918, Richard took over the post office again.  He bought another 18 acres of land and 10 acres of ploughing fields.  In 1922 he arranged for electricity to be brought into the village.  Between 1922 and 1935 he rented out the pub and post office.  For several years he was church warden and between 1929 and 1933 he was registrar for several villages.  He then became Burgomaster (Mayer) and got the roads surfaced around Reichau.  From 1935 to 1945 he took over the shops and pub again.  The shops sold everything that was needed for the villagers from clothes, food, toys, drugs etc.  Following the Second World War they had to leave everything to the Polish and could only carry away a few things.  They were put in a camp for refugees in East Germany. They later moved to Martha’s sisters apartment in Berg, Hoyerswerta where they both worked in the forest until 65 years old and they were allowed back into the West again.

George’s mother, Martha Drossel worked and lived on a farm after leaving school at 14.  When she was 16, she moved to Reichau to work for Richard’s Mother, Karaline Luise where she had good food and a nice room.  She eventually married Richard.

George’s paternal Grandfather, Karl Heinrich Krause lived at 24 Dorfstrasse in Reichau where he doubled the size of the house on the left side.  This became the shop which was 8m long with two counters.  He also sold clothes, materials and food from a covered wagon drawn by two horses.  The original building on the right became the pub and general stores.  The smallholding he increased by 18 acres where he built a barn and stables for pigs and cows.  Immediately behind the barn, by the lake, was the brewery and a brick built well for drinking water.  Behind this was a 3 acre orchard with apples, pears, plums, cherries and sweet grapes.  On the right side of the barn he built 2 houses which he rented out.  On the right side of the shop he built a flat roofed building where his son Richard was post master for 18 years.  Karl’s brother, who lived in Schmitzdorf about 200m lower than Reichau, also sold everything around the villages from a horse drawn wagon.  He also bought things from people on his travels around the villages and sold them in the towns.

George’s paternal grandmother Karaline Luise (normally known as Luise) came from Raatz which was about 2km away from Karl’s house.  If he stood on the hill (Lerchenberg) behind his house you could see the village of Raatz.  Luise was a pretty girl with dark brown curly hair and when she was 20 she married Karl.  Reichau with a church stood in the middle of 7 small villages.    A Baron from Burgsdorf who lived in a castle near the Krause’s house, sold Karl 7 acres of land.  In return, Karl paid 7 parts corn to the Parson and 2 parts to the teacher.  He also suppled them with wood.The church tower was renovated in 1942, where the big copper dome was placed on top.  Inside the dome was kept all the documents from the surrounding farm owners.  I wonder if the Polish ever found them?

George’s maternal grandfather Julius Drossel, one of 7 children, worked in Jordansmuhl in a steam mill as a carpenter.  He worked long hours and walked to work in the dark and walked home in the dark.  He earned 10 Marks a week.  All his life he lived in a very small rented house near Zoptenberge where his six siblings also lived.  Although Zoptenberge was 45km from Reichau, you could see it on a clear day.  If Zoptenberge looked blue you could expect rain but if it looked grey you wouldn’t need your umbrella.  The children would go out into the fields after the harvest to collect the remains of the corn and potatoes.  They also worked in the kitchen garden, fed the chickens and rabbits and collected wood from the forest.  His brother Herman, wore his shoes out so quickly, he learned the cobbler trade.  Gustav and Otto were the youngest and learned carpentry.  All three brothers joined the army during the First World War.  After the war there were no jobs so Gustav and Herman collected scrap iron with a hand cart.  Later though, they found a job in a farm in Petriksch, Nimptsch. Gustav worked as a carpenter on the farm while Herman worked with machinery and made shoes in his spare time.  The farmer built new family houses for the workers with electric and running water.  Gustav’s house was near the forest and had 96 bee hives.  He built a big shed where he kept 3 or 4 pigs, goats, 20 chickens and 100 rabbits.  Later, both boys got married and their wives worked on the farm.  Although they did not earn much money, they did get corn, potatoes and milk free so they did not go hungry, like most other people.  Herman lived at the side of the castle and was allowed to keep goats and pigs.  He also sold drinks to fellow workers.  He had a centrifuge to separate the milk from the cream.  He sold the butter that he made from the cows but they ate the butter that he made from the goats.  In the 15 years that Gustav worked on the farm he saved 30,000 Marks, just before the Second World War he bought a shop and a pub.  Of course, this too was lost to the Polish following the war.

George did his apprenticeship as a butcher from the age of 14 to 17 following which he was called up into the German Army during the Second World War for training in signals doing Morse code.  George didn’t know it then, but this would be the last time that he would live in his family home.  He wouldn’t even see it again for another 60 years when his son Philip and his wife Claire would take them over in 2009.  These were tough times for the Krause family left in their home as they were given just 2 hours to collect and carry what they could in the middle of the winter to become refugees and never to see their home again.  George’s mother, Martha kept the family alive with her insect and nettle soup.  Rape was rife around this time, especially with the Russians around so the family gave Klara (Georges sister) the little money they had and packed her off to live with an Aunt.  Klara and Georges’ brother Willi, recovering from his bullet wound managed to stay in West Germany while the rest were taken behind the iron curtain.

George, in his platoon, travelled around Belgium and France, digging his hole to put his signaling equipment.  It wasn’t long before the rest of George’s platoon were all killed leaving him as the only survivor hiding in his signaling hole.  he lived off the land for 4 days digging up potatoes and stealing from farms then found another German unit but they were more interested in the local women than their own men.  As far as George was concerned, this was the end of the war for him; from now on he would look after himself.  He found a British unit and gave himself up.  He was very pleased to get de-loused and to eat some proper food again.  He was imprisoned locally and then taken to Wales to a prisoner of war camp until the war had ended.

Following the war, they selected the 5 most trust worthy prisoners to work on a farm in Buckminster, Leicestershire.  George, with his farming background was selected as one of these.  George met Betty Childs, a land girl working on the same farm and living in the same village and they were married in 1951.  Each prisoner was given 40 Marks to go back to Germany where they could decide wether to stay there or come back to England.  George found his brother and helped him best he could.  Willi told him that if he had food and shelter, to go back to England as they were all starving over there.  With nowhere to stay, George returned to the farm in England.  The farm job came with a cottage once Bet and George were married but they earned very little so it was a struggle to save enough to live outside and get a better paid job.  George managed to find a butchers job in Melton Mowbray that came with a flat but the butchers soon closed down leaving George and Bet homeless.  A German friend of George’s, Horst Langer, found an old cottage near Scalford, that they could rent in turn for help during busy times and the harvest.  George worked in Holwell works for a while but hated coming home covered in black soot.  It wasn’t long before he got a job as a process worker at Chappie’s which later became Pedigree Petfoods where he worked for almost 30 years.  George and Bet saved hard and George would cycle to work rather than use petrol in his motor bike.  The cottage had no electric or gas.  Nor did it have running water, so Bet had to draw water from an outside well, light a fire and heat some water before they could even have a wash.  This wasn’t too bad while they were young and on their own but in 1955 when their only son Philip was born they looked for alternative accommodation.  Bettie’s cousin, Daphne took leave and came to stay and help Bet after she had given birth, for two weeks.  She later told Philip that she didn’t know how the pair of them managed to keep him alive as neither of them had a clue about babies, especially in such grim conditions.  When Philip was 6 months old, george and Bet had saved enough to buy a terraced house in Doctors Lane, Melton Mowbray, where they lived until Philip was 14.

It was 1958 when George finally got to see his parents and other family again following their retirement and release from behind the Iron curtain.  The family made the trip on Georges motorbike as he had bought a second hand sidecar where Bet and toddler Philip sat.  Although Philip was little and only turned 3 while they were in Germany, he can still remember the horrible, plastic window, leather and fuel smell that made him sick inside the sidecar all the way there.  Georges parents, Richard and Martha came to visit George twice while they lived in Doctors Lane.  George, Bet and Philip drove over to Germany every year to visit his family until they died.  George worked extra shifts whenever he could but still managed to teach Philip how to play chess using the hand carved set that he had made from old floorboards whilst he was a prisoner of war.

When Philip was 14, they all moved into a detached house with a large garden where George cut down all the trees and planted, apples, pears, plums and cherries.  They lived there until January 2012 when they moved into a bungalow just down the road.  George had got progressively ill following this move.  He visited hospital where he underwent investigation where they found that he had a large cancer on his right kidney.  His heart was very weak and he had already had two small strokes so the doctors decided that he had a better chance of living longer without treatment.  George died peacefully of heart failure on 9th May 2013 in bet with Bet beside him where she had been for well over 60 years.  Philip arrived a few minutes later thanks to an accident on the motorway.  George died with no pain as presumably, the cancer had not grown sufficiently to cause him pain before he died.  Rest in peace George Richard Krause.

George once told Philip that just prior to the Second World War starting, his father recognizing the signs from the First World War, hid sacks of grain in the barn and buried three milk churns full of old German coinage between the cherry trees in his garden.  Two large churns were filled with solid silver German coins whilst one small one was filled with gold coins.  George didn’t think they would be worth much because they all had the Swastika sign on them.  I wonder if the Polish ever found the Krause family buried treasure?