I will save my bad German grammar by writing in English.
Firstly thanks to individuals such as Jan Textor, Tom Stangl, Dave Obee, Jerry Frank and Donald Miller without whom, my journey back to my familie's ancestral home would not have been possible!!
My Father was born in the Warthegau region in 1940 and was orphaned. Jan Textor was first to help by providing me with the village names in Polish and I, along with my cousin Peter (from Hamburg) made our first visit to this region in 2003.
After two years more research and an epic breakthrough with the discovery of the EWZ files in the USA, courtesy of Tom Stangl I found my Grandparent's birthplaces, residence and their parents details.
Last year I travelled by car from the UK (My Father settled here in 1967) via Cuxhaven-Hamburg ferry to Germany where I met my cousin Peter once again and another cousin Sylvia, who also wished to travel with us.
On the way we met a great aunt who lives in Spremberg, who was not able to give us much more information. From there we travelled onto Poland and stopped in the town of Kolo (WARTHBRUECKEN). There, we were extremely fortunate to meet a middle aged couple who live in the region. Mannfred was a German who married a Polish lady by the name of Elizabeth. They, along with their daugter Joanna assisted us over the next couple of days. Without their assistance our interaction with the local Polish population would have been difficult. We revisited the village in which my Grandparents settled from Volhynia in 1940 (Glebokie or TIEFENTHAL). We also discovered a new village, in which my Great Grandparents were resettled (Ujma Mala or ULMERSDORF). These villages straddle the town of Kolo (WARTHBRUECKEN). We brought with us small gifts and were surprised to hear the Polish residents speak highly of the Germans that were resettled in the region, although we heard many upsetting stories from both the German and Polish perspective.
Once we were satisfied we ventured further east to Volhyn region of the Ukraine. However, there was one last place to visit on the way and that was the birthplace of my Grandfather EMIL CIECHOCINSKI, which is the village of Stanislowow Lipski (STANISLAWA). My Grandfather was recruited into the Wehrmacht in WWII and unfortunately died in the war and is buried in the German cemetery at Champigny St Andre near Evreux in Normandy.
We experienced a bit of a drama at the border between Poland and the Ukraine but were eventually allowed to cross! I had been given the name of a Ukrainian University professor who, along with his daughter acting as our interpreter offered to assist on our arrival. We had no mobile phone connectivity and combined with our arrival time in LUTSK in the early hours we had to fend for ourselves. We subsequently slept in the car that night! The next morning we found a hotel in the centre of LUTSK and the Professor's daughter found us.
With their assistance and over the next four days we relocated the villages of our ancestors which lie to the south and the east of the city of LUTSK. The village names are Kadischte (KADISCHE/KADYSZCZE), Nowiny Dobrodinski (NOWINA) and Puddubtsi (PODDUBITZ) where our family lived until resettlement under the EWZ scheme in 1940. On location we saw few buildings that remain from that era. To our disappointment the German cemetery at Kadische was destroyed in the 1950's. We were told that it had been a governmental order to destroy any cemetery bearing non cyrillic writing. We did however meet locals that remembered the family and one elderly woman pointed at me and told me that I look like my Grandfather, which gave me goosebumps. Another local informed us that our Great Grandfather had built a well in the mid 1930's. We retrieved ice cold water from it and it tasted great.
On the last night we invited the Professor and his family to dinner with us at our hotel. We ate Borscht and toasted as our ancestors may have done and the vodka was very unforgiving!
It was then a three day journey back to Hamburg and the ferry back to the UK. On the journey I made about 11 hours of video and I am now in the process of cutting a DVD, to capture all the highs and lows of the journey. The DVD has been inspired partially by 'THE LONG WAY ROUND' EWAN McGREGGOR & CHARLIE BOORMAN.
My next journey is to Eugeniow/Stuzno in the Opoczinski region of Poland to discover the roots of my Grandfather's surname Ciechocinski.
Any comments or questions welcome, after the amount of assistance I have been given, I would be most glad to offer any assistance to anyone wanting it!
Thank-you once again to JAN TEXTOR, TOM STANGL, DAVE OBEE, JERRY FRANK, DONALD MILLER, DR MICHA KOSTIUK, YULIA KOSTIUK, MANNFRED, ELIZABETH AND JOANNA. Sadly, Mannfred died of an illness recently, he will not be forgotten.