We cross the Oder River and up a hill called Seelow Heights. This is both the border and the setting for the final months of World War II, when the Russians had advanced to within miles of Berlin. The Germans were stationed on this hill, and western border of Pomerania with 9,000 pieces of artillery. Because of rain, the heavy Russian infantry became bogged down in the muddy Oder wetlands, making easy pickings for the German’s above. But the battle waged, with the Russians having shear numbers on their side. And Pomerania’s borders would change again. Nazism to communism.
Grandfather had been asked by the Nazis to operate the flourmills of the Ukraine region. His instructions to Grandmother - if things went bad - were to flee Pomerania for a town called Einbeck. In his jail-time letters to Grandmother, he wrote of his post-war dream to build a chain of bakeries across Northern Germany.
Grandfather’s decision for the family to flee to Einbeck was a lucky one – Einbeck was west enough not to make the cut of East Germany. Although Grandfather’s bakeries never came to be, he stuck to grains. Grandfather retired the manager of a flourmill. He never returned to Pomerania until forty years later.
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