1945

A dismissal document with a moving Detail

My father had spent the years of war in a bunker, decoding Russian codes. All this time he did not have to fight. Just a few days before the end, his office were ordered to join the armed forces. They were taken to Austria.

The morning he was to join a fighting unit, he slept late and missed the truck. He could have been shot for that. So he put on civil clothes, hid his passport in his shoe and walked to the front. He slept in barns and hid during days, then it was all over; he walked further west to reach the Americans.

Later he said: "I was very lucky I did not have to kill!"

After a long walk -- I don't know how long -- he reached an American prisoners' camp, where he took contact. He was questioned about his past. As he was a reverend, they did not keep him very long. May 28th, 1945 was the date when our father left the American war prisoners' camp. He started searching for his family.
They didn't have printed forms. They had to be typed. In the bottom line, a two-language form is promised.