The old custom was to have a wooden family cross as the cemetery marker and with new burials (name & dates) added after new interments. But, the family marker went out of existence after the government required periodic payments by the family in order to keep markers on graves.
Most of the following is from (1) a typed 2+ page manuscript by Ann Drafts Koch typed by her sister, Betty, 9/26/2005; and (2) a presentation by, and conversations with, his sons , Klaus & Hellmut, at my home, 13 March 2016:
Franz was born in Grieslack, East Prussia (now the area noted with dates, above) to parents who were farmers. After a university education in Koenigsberg, a very energetic & bright young man, he became a businessman with Pommern-Thompsen, a company wholesaler of salt, coal, herring, and fertilizer. Franz and Gertrud married in the mid-1930s. They had Klaus O. R., Hellmut, and Ellen. Representing the company, he traveled by train over a large area to deal with the various suppliers of the goods. Home for their children growing up was at 15 Bach Strasse, Koenigsberg, East Prussia (East Prussia being the eastern-most part of pre-WWII Germany) until 1944.
In World War I, Germany had pushed deeply into Russia and killed many, leaving the Russians with a renewed hatred of Germans. Adolf Hitler arose to power in Germany, and World War II started in 1939. In the meantime, the salt company family circumstances resulted in Franz forming his own company, Salz Koch, which was wholesaler of salt, coal, & herring and located in Koenigsberg. His sons indicate that the Franz Koch family lived a middle class life which included renting their home.
The German media (only print & radio) remained positive and painted a "winning picture" up to the end. As WWII passed into 1944, the adults of the East Prussian families saw much negative evidence and decided in great numbers that they finally had to flee westward with the threats of the oncoming Russians from the east. The brutality and rapes of Germans in the path of the Russian advance are thought to have resulted in many thousands of pregnancies, most being aborted but with a few births (there were no instances in the family). With Franz staying behind with the business, Gertrud fled in the fall of 1944 with the 3 children by train to kinfolk over 800 miles westward to Wurzburg with stops in Potsdam (home of Grandpa & Grandma Koch) and then Wesel (home of family friends). There were bombings and fires all along the way.
In January 1945, Franz left with a wagon and horse (taking several elderly female relatives...aunts?) and made it to Stendal. Franz ultimately arrived in Wurzburg alone on March 13, 1945. Wurzburg was bombed and destroyed on March 16, 1945! At the time, the Kochs (including grandmother Anna Post, Aunt Anny & Uncle Georg Nicklas) were living in the Main Post building in the center of the city. They escaped from the cellar into the the burning city. Carrying the important family papers, 8 year old Klaus was accidentally briefly separated from the family. On March 17th, 1945, after spending the night in a greenhouse on the Main River, The Kochs were fortunate to be able to move to a recently vacated, furnished home at Schelling Strasse #20, a Wurzburg suburb. Gertrud's parents were bombed out in Potsdam and assigned to Bad Seegeberg in northern Germany and joined the Kochs in Wurzburg in early 1946.
As the American Occupation of Germany began, Franz began rebuilding his business; and in late October 1947, Franz traveled to the Russian Occupation Zone (the region later becoming East Germany) with proper papers for a fourth trip into Russia from the American Zone into the Russian Zone on business (to discuss & arrange his business being a supplier of salt to the American Zone). Beginning in November 1947, he was held along with business partner, Mr. Schultz, for about a year by Russia in an interrogation camp on Leistikow Strasse near Potsdam/Berlin as the Russians tried to get a confession of his so-called anti-Russian political position. Prisoners also included people awaiting trial, and the conditions were very cruel. During that month, there were several communications with his wife. By October 1948, at the emotional "end of his rope", he signed a confession recorded by a Russian employee and was sentenced to 25 years of "re-education" (hard slave labor) at Workout, Siberia. While awaiting transfer (a couple of years) to Workuta, he was kept under terrible conditions in a former Nazi concentration camp, Sachenhausen Prison near Berlin. The four-month-long train trip to Workuta, Siberia (north of the Arctic Circle, near the Ural Mountains...one camp of the Russian Gulag system of camps) began in February 1949 (again, the conditions were terrible). Franz was there until mid-1953 (and then the long trip back toward Germany to be freed as 1953 became 1954).
Franz' notes about Workuta: Summer, June-August; Winter, September-May. The area was Arctic Tundra with ferocious snow storms. A slave labor camp which processed about 500,000 prisoners during its time, the prison population was composed of 20-30 ethnic groups, about 10% being real criminals and 10% being Germans & very few Russians. All sorts of languages were spoken, but the official language was Russian (only Russian radio at all times and all print media was Russian with pro-Russian propaganda). Very mean-spirited atmosphere with coarse language and barbaric behavior. Wooden barracks for housing with 70-100 men per unit...often very warm in barracks. Monotonous food worth 1200 calories per day, without fruit or vegetables. Work was around the clock, 7 days per week, each man 10-12 hours per day and only 4 "rest days" off per month! Guards with dogs were at all times ready to shoot. Required to work fast and with certain production quotas. There was below-ground mining work and above-ground work on construction projects, road cleaning (of the fierce snow falls, etc), sawmill work, coal truck unloading, and burial details. At any time, about 10% of men were ill in clinics. His sons credit Franz' survival to his being always on above-ground work teams.
The Nicklas/Post family moved prior to 1950 to the Zellerau area of Wurzburg at Sedan Strasse. The Koch family remained at Schelling Strasse until 1950. The home owner sold the house in 1950. They moved to Valentin Becker Strasse 2 for some years, Klaus' room being in the attic. A few years later, the Kochs moved to a condo at Sanderglacis Strasse 2.
To recap: after October 1948, Franz was not heard from until he re-appeared home in Wurzburg 6 years later, 24 January 1954. Son, Klaus, had already emigrated to the USA in August of 1953. During his time in captivity, Franz memorized the names of German men and their towns of German citizen registration and visited as many of those families as he could while getting back into the business world (Gertrud had run the company in his absence).
Franz, having endured horrible conditions with the hope of another chance with family and the business if he survived the war, came back to a Germany that was profoundly different under the Allied Occupation forces. Eventually increasingly suffering emotionally, Germany arranged for him to spend time on a rest & recuperation leave at a place near relatives who lived on a farm in northern Germany. But, with health problems and in emotional despair, he committed suicide there by hanging. Son, Klaus, was a student at the University of Forida in Gainesville, Florida, USA, and would get back to Germany one month later (at age 21), last having seen his father when Klaus was 11 years old prior to his father's post-war trip to Russia in 1947.
That Potsdam Prison became a German State Sponsored Memorial dedicated in 2012. By way of work done by his son, Hellmut, the "rehabilitation of Franz Koch" was acknowledged by Russia in April 1997. A a copy of the rehabilitation document was received in June 2014 by his family after a request to Moscow. It included an apology from Russia but no financial reparations.
In 1953, Franz' eldest son (Klaus) would emmigrate to the USA and live with Heiner Stubbenhausen & wife, Anna, in Groveland, Florida.
On 27 August 2019, Klaus told me that he is buried in Engersen.
Most of the following is from (1) a typed 2+ page manuscript by Ann Drafts Koch typed by her sister, Betty, 9/26/2005; and (2) a presentation by, and conversations with, his sons , Klaus & Hellmut, at my home, 13 March 2016:
Franz was born in Grieslack, East Prussia (now the area noted with dates, above) to parents who were farmers. After a university education in Koenigsberg, a very energetic & bright young man, he became a businessman with Pommern-Thompsen, a company wholesaler of salt, coal, herring, and fertilizer. Franz and Gertrud married in the mid-1930s. They had Klaus O. R., Hellmut, and Ellen. Representing the company, he traveled by train over a large area to deal with the various suppliers of the goods. Home for their children growing up was at 15 Bach Strasse, Koenigsberg, East Prussia (East Prussia being the eastern-most part of pre-WWII Germany) until 1944.
In World War I, Germany had pushed deeply into Russia and killed many, leaving the Russians with a renewed hatred of Germans. Adolf Hitler arose to power in Germany, and World War II started in 1939. In the meantime, the salt company family circumstances resulted in Franz forming his own company, Salz Koch, which was wholesaler of salt, coal, & herring and located in Koenigsberg. His sons indicate that the Franz Koch family lived a middle class life which included renting their home.
The German media (only print & radio) remained positive and painted a "winning picture" up to the end. As WWII passed into 1944, the adults of the East Prussian families saw much negative evidence and decided in great numbers that they finally had to flee westward with the threats of the oncoming Russians from the east. The brutality and rapes of Germans in the path of the Russian advance are thought to have resulted in many thousands of pregnancies, most being aborted but with a few births (there were no instances in the family). With Franz staying behind with the business, Gertrud fled in the fall of 1944 with the 3 children by train to kinfolk over 800 miles westward to Wurzburg with stops in Potsdam (home of Grandpa & Grandma Koch) and then Wesel (home of family friends). There were bombings and fires all along the way.
In January 1945, Franz left with a wagon and horse (taking several elderly female relatives...aunts?) and made it to Stendal. Franz ultimately arrived in Wurzburg alone on March 13, 1945. Wurzburg was bombed and destroyed on March 16, 1945! At the time, the Kochs (including grandmother Anna Post, Aunt Anny & Uncle Georg Nicklas) were living in the Main Post building in the center of the city. They escaped from the cellar into the the burning city. Carrying the important family papers, 8 year old Klaus was accidentally briefly separated from the family. On March 17th, 1945, after spending the night in a greenhouse on the Main River, The Kochs were fortunate to be able to move to a recently vacated, furnished home at Schelling Strasse #20, a Wurzburg suburb. Gertrud's parents were bombed out in Potsdam and assigned to Bad Seegeberg in northern Germany and joined the Kochs in Wurzburg in early 1946.
As the American Occupation of Germany began, Franz began rebuilding his business; and in late October 1947, Franz traveled to the Russian Occupation Zone (the region later becoming East Germany) with proper papers for a fourth trip into Russia from the American Zone into the Russian Zone on business (to discuss & arrange his business being a supplier of salt to the American Zone). Beginning in November 1947, he was held along with business partner, Mr. Schultz, for about a year by Russia in an interrogation camp on Leistikow Strasse near Potsdam/Berlin as the Russians tried to get a confession of his so-called anti-Russian political position. Prisoners also included people awaiting trial, and the conditions were very cruel. During that month, there were several communications with his wife. By October 1948, at the emotional "end of his rope", he signed a confession recorded by a Russian employee and was sentenced to 25 years of "re-education" (hard slave labor) at Workout, Siberia. While awaiting transfer (a couple of years) to Workuta, he was kept under terrible conditions in a former Nazi concentration camp, Sachenhausen Prison near Berlin. The four-month-long train trip to Workuta, Siberia (north of the Arctic Circle, near the Ural Mountains...one camp of the Russian Gulag system of camps) began in February 1949 (again, the conditions were terrible). Franz was there until mid-1953 (and then the long trip back toward Germany to be freed as 1953 became 1954).
Franz' notes about Workuta: Summer, June-August; Winter, September-May. The area was Arctic Tundra with ferocious snow storms. A slave labor camp which processed about 500,000 prisoners during its time, the prison population was composed of 20-30 ethnic groups, about 10% being real criminals and 10% being Germans & very few Russians. All sorts of languages were spoken, but the official language was Russian (only Russian radio at all times and all print media was Russian with pro-Russian propaganda). Very mean-spirited atmosphere with coarse language and barbaric behavior. Wooden barracks for housing with 70-100 men per unit...often very warm in barracks. Monotonous food worth 1200 calories per day, without fruit or vegetables. Work was around the clock, 7 days per week, each man 10-12 hours per day and only 4 "rest days" off per month! Guards with dogs were at all times ready to shoot. Required to work fast and with certain production quotas. There was below-ground mining work and above-ground work on construction projects, road cleaning (of the fierce snow falls, etc), sawmill work, coal truck unloading, and burial details. At any time, about 10% of men were ill in clinics. His sons credit Franz' survival to his being always on above-ground work teams.
The Nicklas/Post family moved prior to 1950 to the Zellerau area of Wurzburg at Sedan Strasse. The Koch family remained at Schelling Strasse until 1950. The home owner sold the house in 1950. They moved to Valentin Becker Strasse 2 for some years, Klaus' room being in the attic. A few years later, the Kochs moved to a condo at Sanderglacis Strasse 2.
To recap: after October 1948, Franz was not heard from until he re-appeared home in Wurzburg 6 years later, 24 January 1954. Son, Klaus, had already emigrated to the USA in August of 1953. During his time in captivity, Franz memorized the names of German men and their towns of German citizen registration and visited as many of those families as he could while getting back into the business world (Gertrud had run the company in his absence).
Franz, having endured horrible conditions with the hope of another chance with family and the business if he survived the war, came back to a Germany that was profoundly different under the Allied Occupation forces. Eventually increasingly suffering emotionally, Germany arranged for him to spend time on a rest & recuperation leave at a place near relatives who lived on a farm in northern Germany. But, with health problems and in emotional despair, he committed suicide there by hanging. Son, Klaus, was a student at the University of Forida in Gainesville, Florida, USA, and would get back to Germany one month later (at age 21), last having seen his father when Klaus was 11 years old prior to his father's post-war trip to Russia in 1947.
That Potsdam Prison became a German State Sponsored Memorial dedicated in 2012. By way of work done by his son, Hellmut, the "rehabilitation of Franz Koch" was acknowledged by Russia in April 1997. A a copy of the rehabilitation document was received in June 2014 by his family after a request to Moscow. It included an apology from Russia but no financial reparations.
In 1953, Franz' eldest son (Klaus) would emmigrate to the USA and live with Heiner Stubbenhausen & wife, Anna, in Groveland, Florida.
On 27 August 2019, Klaus told me that he is buried in Engersen.
The old custom was to have a wooden family cross as the cemetery marker and with new burials (name & dates) added after new interments. But, the family marker went out of existence after the government required periodic payments by the family in order to keep markers on graves.
Most of the following is from (1) a typed 2+ page manuscript by Ann Drafts Koch typed by her sister, Betty, 9/26/2005; and (2) a presentation by, and conversations with, his sons , Klaus & Hellmut, at my home, 13 March 2016:
Franz was born in Grieslack, East Prussia (now the area noted with dates, above) to parents who were farmers. After a university education in Koenigsberg, a very energetic & bright young man, he became a businessman with Pommern-Thompsen, a company wholesaler of salt, coal, herring, and fertilizer. Franz and Gertrud married in the mid-1930s. They had Klaus O. R., Hellmut, and Ellen. Representing the company, he traveled by train over a large area to deal with the various suppliers of the goods. Home for their children growing up was at 15 Bach Strasse, Koenigsberg, East Prussia (East Prussia being the eastern-most part of pre-WWII Germany) until 1944.
In World War I, Germany had pushed deeply into Russia and killed many, leaving the Russians with a renewed hatred of Germans. Adolf Hitler arose to power in Germany, and World War II started in 1939. In the meantime, the salt company family circumstances resulted in Franz forming his own company, Salz Koch, which was wholesaler of salt, coal, & herring and located in Koenigsberg. His sons indicate that the Franz Koch family lived a middle class life which included renting their home.
The German media (only print & radio) remained positive and painted a "winning picture" up to the end. As WWII passed into 1944, the adults of the East Prussian families saw much negative evidence and decided in great numbers that they finally had to flee westward with the threats of the oncoming Russians from the east. The brutality and rapes of Germans in the path of the Russian advance are thought to have resulted in many thousands of pregnancies, most being aborted but with a few births (there were no instances in the family). With Franz staying behind with the business, Gertrud fled in the fall of 1944 with the 3 children by train to kinfolk over 800 miles westward to Wurzburg with stops in Potsdam (home of Grandpa & Grandma Koch) and then Wesel (home of family friends). There were bombings and fires all along the way.
In January 1945, Franz left with a wagon and horse (taking several elderly female relatives...aunts?) and made it to Stendal. Franz ultimately arrived in Wurzburg alone on March 13, 1945. Wurzburg was bombed and destroyed on March 16, 1945! At the time, the Kochs (including grandmother Anna Post, Aunt Anny & Uncle Georg Nicklas) were living in the Main Post building in the center of the city. They escaped from the cellar into the the burning city. Carrying the important family papers, 8 year old Klaus was accidentally briefly separated from the family. On March 17th, 1945, after spending the night in a greenhouse on the Main River, The Kochs were fortunate to be able to move to a recently vacated, furnished home at Schelling Strasse #20, a Wurzburg suburb. Gertrud's parents were bombed out in Potsdam and assigned to Bad Seegeberg in northern Germany and joined the Kochs in Wurzburg in early 1946.
As the American Occupation of Germany began, Franz began rebuilding his business; and in late October 1947, Franz traveled to the Russian Occupation Zone (the region later becoming East Germany) with proper papers for a fourth trip into Russia from the American Zone into the Russian Zone on business (to discuss & arrange his business being a supplier of salt to the American Zone). Beginning in November 1947, he was held along with business partner, Mr. Schultz, for about a year by Russia in an interrogation camp on Leistikow Strasse near Potsdam/Berlin as the Russians tried to get a confession of his so-called anti-Russian political position. Prisoners also included people awaiting trial, and the conditions were very cruel. During that month, there were several communications with his wife. By October 1948, at the emotional "end of his rope", he signed a confession recorded by a Russian employee and was sentenced to 25 years of "re-education" (hard slave labor) at Workout, Siberia. While awaiting transfer (a couple of years) to Workuta, he was kept under terrible conditions in a former Nazi concentration camp, Sachenhausen Prison near Berlin. The four-month-long train trip to Workuta, Siberia (north of the Arctic Circle, near the Ural Mountains...one camp of the Russian Gulag system of camps) began in February 1949 (again, the conditions were terrible). Franz was there until mid-1953 (and then the long trip back toward Germany to be freed as 1953 became 1954).
Franz' notes about Workuta: Summer, June-August; Winter, September-May. The area was Arctic Tundra with ferocious snow storms. A slave labor camp which processed about 500,000 prisoners during its time, the prison population was composed of 20-30 ethnic groups, about 10% being real criminals and 10% being Germans & very few Russians. All sorts of languages were spoken, but the official language was Russian (only Russian radio at all times and all print media was Russian with pro-Russian propaganda). Very mean-spirited atmosphere with coarse language and barbaric behavior. Wooden barracks for housing with 70-100 men per unit...often very warm in barracks. Monotonous food worth 1200 calories per day, without fruit or vegetables. Work was around the clock, 7 days per week, each man 10-12 hours per day and only 4 "rest days" off per month! Guards with dogs were at all times ready to shoot. Required to work fast and with certain production quotas. There was below-ground mining work and above-ground work on construction projects, road cleaning (of the fierce snow falls, etc), sawmill work, coal truck unloading, and burial details. At any time, about 10% of men were ill in clinics. His sons credit Franz' survival to his being always on above-ground work teams.
The Nicklas/Post family moved prior to 1950 to the Zellerau area of Wurzburg at Sedan Strasse. The Koch family remained at Schelling Strasse until 1950. The home owner sold the house in 1950. They moved to Valentin Becker Strasse 2 for some years, Klaus' room being in the attic. A few years later, the Kochs moved to a condo at Sanderglacis Strasse 2.
To recap: after October 1948, Franz was not heard from until he re-appeared home in Wurzburg 6 years later, 24 January 1954. Son, Klaus, had already emigrated to the USA in August of 1953. During his time in captivity, Franz memorized the names of German men and their towns of German citizen registration and visited as many of those families as he could while getting back into the business world (Gertrud had run the company in his absence).
Franz, having endured horrible conditions with the hope of another chance with family and the business if he survived the war, came back to a Germany that was profoundly different under the Allied Occupation forces. Eventually increasingly suffering emotionally, Germany arranged for him to spend time on a rest & recuperation leave at a place near relatives who lived on a farm in northern Germany. But, with health problems and in emotional despair, he committed suicide there by hanging. Son, Klaus, was a student at the University of Forida in Gainesville, Florida, USA, and would get back to Germany one month later (at age 21), last having seen his father when Klaus was 11 years old prior to his father's post-war trip to Russia in 1947.
That Potsdam Prison became a German State Sponsored Memorial dedicated in 2012. By way of work done by his son, Hellmut, the "rehabilitation of Franz Koch" was acknowledged by Russia in April 1997. A a copy of the rehabilitation document was received in June 2014 by his family after a request to Moscow. It included an apology from Russia but no financial reparations.
In 1953, Franz' eldest son (Klaus) would emmigrate to the USA and live with Heiner Stubbenhausen & wife, Anna, in Groveland, Florida.
On 27 August 2019, Klaus told me that he is buried in Engersen.
Most of the following is from (1) a typed 2+ page manuscript by Ann Drafts Koch typed by her sister, Betty, 9/26/2005; and (2) a presentation by, and conversations with, his sons , Klaus & Hellmut, at my home, 13 March 2016:
Franz was born in Grieslack, East Prussia (now the area noted with dates, above) to parents who were farmers. After a university education in Koenigsberg, a very energetic & bright young man, he became a businessman with Pommern-Thompsen, a company wholesaler of salt, coal, herring, and fertilizer. Franz and Gertrud married in the mid-1930s. They had Klaus O. R., Hellmut, and Ellen. Representing the company, he traveled by train over a large area to deal with the various suppliers of the goods. Home for their children growing up was at 15 Bach Strasse, Koenigsberg, East Prussia (East Prussia being the eastern-most part of pre-WWII Germany) until 1944.
In World War I, Germany had pushed deeply into Russia and killed many, leaving the Russians with a renewed hatred of Germans. Adolf Hitler arose to power in Germany, and World War II started in 1939. In the meantime, the salt company family circumstances resulted in Franz forming his own company, Salz Koch, which was wholesaler of salt, coal, & herring and located in Koenigsberg. His sons indicate that the Franz Koch family lived a middle class life which included renting their home.
The German media (only print & radio) remained positive and painted a "winning picture" up to the end. As WWII passed into 1944, the adults of the East Prussian families saw much negative evidence and decided in great numbers that they finally had to flee westward with the threats of the oncoming Russians from the east. The brutality and rapes of Germans in the path of the Russian advance are thought to have resulted in many thousands of pregnancies, most being aborted but with a few births (there were no instances in the family). With Franz staying behind with the business, Gertrud fled in the fall of 1944 with the 3 children by train to kinfolk over 800 miles westward to Wurzburg with stops in Potsdam (home of Grandpa & Grandma Koch) and then Wesel (home of family friends). There were bombings and fires all along the way.
In January 1945, Franz left with a wagon and horse (taking several elderly female relatives...aunts?) and made it to Stendal. Franz ultimately arrived in Wurzburg alone on March 13, 1945. Wurzburg was bombed and destroyed on March 16, 1945! At the time, the Kochs (including grandmother Anna Post, Aunt Anny & Uncle Georg Nicklas) were living in the Main Post building in the center of the city. They escaped from the cellar into the the burning city. Carrying the important family papers, 8 year old Klaus was accidentally briefly separated from the family. On March 17th, 1945, after spending the night in a greenhouse on the Main River, The Kochs were fortunate to be able to move to a recently vacated, furnished home at Schelling Strasse #20, a Wurzburg suburb. Gertrud's parents were bombed out in Potsdam and assigned to Bad Seegeberg in northern Germany and joined the Kochs in Wurzburg in early 1946.
As the American Occupation of Germany began, Franz began rebuilding his business; and in late October 1947, Franz traveled to the Russian Occupation Zone (the region later becoming East Germany) with proper papers for a fourth trip into Russia from the American Zone into the Russian Zone on business (to discuss & arrange his business being a supplier of salt to the American Zone). Beginning in November 1947, he was held along with business partner, Mr. Schultz, for about a year by Russia in an interrogation camp on Leistikow Strasse near Potsdam/Berlin as the Russians tried to get a confession of his so-called anti-Russian political position. Prisoners also included people awaiting trial, and the conditions were very cruel. During that month, there were several communications with his wife. By October 1948, at the emotional "end of his rope", he signed a confession recorded by a Russian employee and was sentenced to 25 years of "re-education" (hard slave labor) at Workout, Siberia. While awaiting transfer (a couple of years) to Workuta, he was kept under terrible conditions in a former Nazi concentration camp, Sachenhausen Prison near Berlin. The four-month-long train trip to Workuta, Siberia (north of the Arctic Circle, near the Ural Mountains...one camp of the Russian Gulag system of camps) began in February 1949 (again, the conditions were terrible). Franz was there until mid-1953 (and then the long trip back toward Germany to be freed as 1953 became 1954).
Franz' notes about Workuta: Summer, June-August; Winter, September-May. The area was Arctic Tundra with ferocious snow storms. A slave labor camp which processed about 500,000 prisoners during its time, the prison population was composed of 20-30 ethnic groups, about 10% being real criminals and 10% being Germans & very few Russians. All sorts of languages were spoken, but the official language was Russian (only Russian radio at all times and all print media was Russian with pro-Russian propaganda). Very mean-spirited atmosphere with coarse language and barbaric behavior. Wooden barracks for housing with 70-100 men per unit...often very warm in barracks. Monotonous food worth 1200 calories per day, without fruit or vegetables. Work was around the clock, 7 days per week, each man 10-12 hours per day and only 4 "rest days" off per month! Guards with dogs were at all times ready to shoot. Required to work fast and with certain production quotas. There was below-ground mining work and above-ground work on construction projects, road cleaning (of the fierce snow falls, etc), sawmill work, coal truck unloading, and burial details. At any time, about 10% of men were ill in clinics. His sons credit Franz' survival to his being always on above-ground work teams.
The Nicklas/Post family moved prior to 1950 to the Zellerau area of Wurzburg at Sedan Strasse. The Koch family remained at Schelling Strasse until 1950. The home owner sold the house in 1950. They moved to Valentin Becker Strasse 2 for some years, Klaus' room being in the attic. A few years later, the Kochs moved to a condo at Sanderglacis Strasse 2.
To recap: after October 1948, Franz was not heard from until he re-appeared home in Wurzburg 6 years later, 24 January 1954. Son, Klaus, had already emigrated to the USA in August of 1953. During his time in captivity, Franz memorized the names of German men and their towns of German citizen registration and visited as many of those families as he could while getting back into the business world (Gertrud had run the company in his absence).
Franz, having endured horrible conditions with the hope of another chance with family and the business if he survived the war, came back to a Germany that was profoundly different under the Allied Occupation forces. Eventually increasingly suffering emotionally, Germany arranged for him to spend time on a rest & recuperation leave at a place near relatives who lived on a farm in northern Germany. But, with health problems and in emotional despair, he committed suicide there by hanging. Son, Klaus, was a student at the University of Forida in Gainesville, Florida, USA, and would get back to Germany one month later (at age 21), last having seen his father when Klaus was 11 years old prior to his father's post-war trip to Russia in 1947.
That Potsdam Prison became a German State Sponsored Memorial dedicated in 2012. By way of work done by his son, Hellmut, the "rehabilitation of Franz Koch" was acknowledged by Russia in April 1997. A a copy of the rehabilitation document was received in June 2014 by his family after a request to Moscow. It included an apology from Russia but no financial reparations.
In 1953, Franz' eldest son (Klaus) would emmigrate to the USA and live with Heiner Stubbenhausen & wife, Anna, in Groveland, Florida.
On 27 August 2019, Klaus told me that he is buried in Engersen.
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