Wednesday, March 27, 2013

WWII wieder neu Lester Schrenk und Hans Hermann Müller

Dear family,

      this evening the documentary on the meeting in Heidelberg of Lester Schrenk and Hans Hermann Müller has been sent on the Regional Danish TVMidtvest.  It was the result of Lester Schrenk's wish to find the pilot, who shot down his plane Pot O' Gold on February 22, 1944, on family property in northern Jutland, Denmark.

I initially met Lester during his trip to Denmark in 2008, and then visited him in Bloomington Minnesota.  Although I had not been around during the war, I found myself quite eager to help him find this pilot, perhaps in gratitude for him having risked his life for the freedom of Europe.

For more than 3 years, I researched information on this pilot.  Quite soon, I learned from one of the pilot's successors in Köln, that Hans Hermann Müller had passed away- as most probably his wife had, too. But there were to have been at least 2 sons.  I wrote, emailed, and called a lot of places in Germany to try to find the grave of Hans Hermann Müller, often nearly giving up.  But then the thought came to me: They in the war never gave up, no matter how dark and comfortless it musts have seemed to them.  Nikolaj, the war is over- don't make a fool out of yourself:  Keep your promise, and keep looking for that pilot's grave.

I wrote to Lieutnant Dirk Dieling at Bürgerservice in Bundes Luftwaffe in San Augustin- only to learn that the answer was classified. Right after receiving this letter, I called Herr Dieling and told him that I respected his answer, but that he might be interested in why I was looking for this grave. Herr Dieling was very touched.  I heard his voice tremble as he promised his support.

It was Dirk Dieling who found the "widow," Lydia Müller.  When he asked for Lydia's help to locate her husband's grave, she was able to say, that this former pilot was sitting right there beside her, alive and well!  The circle was almost complete.

Here the documentary of the meeting in Heidelberg  on April 22, 2012 is:
HERE IS THE DOCUMENTARY OF THEIR MEETING IN HEIDELBERG 
 ( http://frontend.xstream.dk/tvmv/?id=23555 )

Yours sincerely,
Nikolaj Bojer

Host's Note:  Both Nikolaj B. and Niels M. (who hosted Lester's 2008 visit on his property in Denmark) are cousins on my mother's side.  I recall hearing details of this crash, along with many other reminiscences from my mother's family visit to Denmark in 1948.  It then also became major news in our family when we learned of Lester's desire to tour where his plane had crashed in Jutland, and the local schoolhouse, where the Germans had held him captive.  Yes, we were excited too when we learned of the continuing finds on the property during Lester's visit to the crash site.  When Nikolaj visited Lester in Bloomington, Minnesota, he took two other cousins along with him.  This story wouldn't have been put together without Nikolaj, and it all warms my heart.  It's now my privilege to share it here.

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