“Lebenszeichen” postcard, 1944
Wilfried Sauer is born in 1931 as the first child of the teacher Kurt Sauer from Pomerania in Berlin, followed by his brother Manfred in 1938. When World War II begins in 1939, father Kurt is drafted as an Air Force officer – initially stationed in Berlin. In 1943, the Allies begin bombing the city, and women and children are evacuated. Wilfried finds refuge with his mother and younger brother at his grandparents’ home in Greifenberg, Pomerania. The life there, which initially remains largely unaffected by the war, comes to an end in 1945. The front, along with the Soviet army, advances closer. The mother flees with her two sons from Greifenberg and eventually finds shelter with a farmer in Bevern, Lower Saxony. Father Kurt, who is sent to the front in the last weeks of the war, survives his deployment and manages to reach Bevern. On Ascension Day in 1945, the family is reunited, having lost all of their possessions. With the help of the German “Lebenszeichen” postcards commonly used during World War II, Kurt Sauer notifies his evacuated family of his survival after enduring bomb attacks. The postcard is a personal memento for the Sauer family from a terrible time that they have managed to endure well in retrospect.
