1.1

Chapter 1: Ferdinand and Auguste BloedowLeave their Homeland in 1880 and Come to America

They are the parents of Mary Bloedow Kuehl and her siblings

A Brief History

▪ Ferdinand Friedrich WilhelmBloedow was born January 23,1838, in Klein Silber, Kreis Arn-swalde, Brandenburg Province,Kingdom of Prussia (which yearslater would be part of Germany)

▪ Auguste Christine Tugenreich(Lueck) Bloedow, was born May18, 1844 in Klein Silber

▪ Ferdinand and Auguste weremarried in Klein Silber, Kreis Arn-swalde, October 6, 1865 andmade their home there

▪ Ferdinand, age 42, and Auguste,age 36, emigrated from Klein Sil-ber to the United States on July28, 1880

▪ Ferdinand became a naturalizedcitizen on February 4, 1897

▪ Ferdinand Bloedow died on thefarm in Willow Lake Township,Redwood County, MN on Febru-ary 19, 1900

▪ Auguste died in Lamberton, Red-wood County, MN, on October21, 1933.

▪ They are buried in St MatthewLutheran Cemetery, WaterburyTownship, near Wanda, MN

Our story of Grandma Mary Bloedow Kuehl begins in 1880.Mary was nine, just two months shy of her 10th birthday.

This is when her parents, Mary and her siblings emigratedfrom Germany to America. The Bloedow’s left the town ofKlein Silber, in the County of Arnswalde, Province of Branden-burg, Kingdom of Prussia, in the German Empire. Interesting-ly, the neighboring province was Pomerania, home of GrandpaWilliam Kuehl’s family. (Refer to the map, bottom left.)

In 1880, Mary’s folks were in their late 30s and early 40s andhad six children, ages 2-14. Europe was experiencing a lot ofturmoil, and subsequently, there was a lot of emigration to theyoung United States of America. Families were in upheaval -some staying to face war’s hardships, some leaving to face thehardships in a new land. Tough choices were being made. Thisis our history.

Briefly, the homeland they left

Klein Silber is approximately forty miles east of Stettin (Szcze-cin in Polish) and about 65 miles south of the Baltic Sea. AfterWorld War II Klein Silber became part of Poland and was re-named Suliborek.

Our ancestors’ home was a farming region, with sandy loamsoil that is good for growing a variety of crops such as wheat,oats, potatoes and sugar beets. Potatoes, a local industry, werea staple of life for the peasants.

There is more on Brandenburg and Pomerania at the end ofthis chapter.

Auguste Bloedow(Earliest known photo)

Ferdinand Bloedow1878

(One of two known photos)

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Mary said Motherdecided to move

Yes, Ferdinand needed to flee before being forcedto leave his family and join the military for yet athird time. But wait. At home, the nine year oldMary is saying it was her mother who forced theissue.

“Ma wanted to go to the new country.” [But it’ssounding like Pa wouldn’t budge.] “Beyer coaxedMa to sell the business.” [Perhaps Beyer is refer-ring to the livelihood made from 5 acres of land.][Johann Beyer was Auguste’s uncle. Johann, age67, his wife Albertine 44, and six children wereon the ship Suevia with the Bloedow family whenit arrived in the USA on July 28, 1880.]

“Ma says, ‘We don’t got money, we can’t getover.’ Mr Beyer responded, ‘Don’t worry. I have$10,000. I’ll help you.’ Course it was that Ma toldthis to Pa, he says, ‘No, we can’t go!’ ”

“Finally, Ma says to Pa, ‘I got two women here tobuy the house.’ Pa was upset. ‘OH MY GOD NO,WE CAN’T GO.’ But Ma already had kinda soldthe house without Pa knowing it.”

Mary’s Grandma Bloedow was vehemently op-posed and raged “NO, NO, YOU CANNOT GO.MOTHER DIES, MOTHER DIES.”

“To this Mother [Mary’s great-grandmother]says, ‘I have to die once anyhow. I might just aswell die today as tomorrow.’” [Mary is quietlychuckling, as she tells this.] “But,” says Mary,“we went."

New owners must have moved in quickly, be-cause before the Bloedows left the area “we rent-ed a couple rooms.”

Klein Silber - Birthplaceof the Bloedow Family

Ferdinand Bloedow’s parents were Gotlieb andMaria (Lentz) Bloedow. Grandmother Mary talksabout Ferdinand’s mother and grandmother beingunhappy about the Bloedow ‘s up-coming moveto America. (Auguste’s own mother had beendeceased for over twenty years.)

With Ferdinand’s grandmother and mother livingin Klein Silber, it’s quite safe to say that Ferdi-nand and his mother were both born in Klein Sil-ber. It’s likely his grandmother was also born inthe area of Klein Silber.

In the obituary of Auguste, and the obituaries ofMary and her siblings who were born in Germany,it states that Klein Silber was their birthplace.

We conclude: Bloedow’s came from Klein Silber.

Ferdinand BloedowFerdinand Bloedow, father of our grandmother Mary Bloe-dow Kuehl, was a farmer, likely of potatoes. But more thanthat, he worked for a big land baron and was, apparently, wellliked. In those days peasants could not buy land. Land wasowned by the gentry; ordinary folk worked the land for them.Ferdinand, however, was a rare exception. He must have beenin good stead with the baron, as Ferdinand was given - orgranted the opportunity to buy - land from the baron. Gift orpurchase, family oral history says Ferdinand owned 5 acres.

Coming to AmericaImmigrants in the 1800s came to America for various rea-sons. Grandmother Mary's Father, Ferdinand Bloedow, cameto escape war. Ferdinand had twice served in the Prussian ar-my. In 1880 he received notice that he was being conscriptedinto the army a third time. The Baron tried to intervene onbehalf of Ferdinand, but to no avail. Father Ferdinand neededto leave the homeland to avoid again being a soldier for thekingdom of Prussia.

And so in 1880 Ferdinand and Auguste sold their home andfive acres of land in Klein Silber. Together with their six chil-dren Wilhelm, Wilhelmina (Minnie), Marie (Mary), Auguste(Gustie), Hermann and Ferdinand, they started their journeyto begin a new life in the United States of America.

They budgeted wellFerdinand and Auguste used the money from the sale of theirhouse and their five acres of land to finance their voyage toAmerica and journey from New York to Minnesota. In Mary’sstory (see box on the right) she said a Mr Beyer would helpthem. We don’t know if this happened. However, Mary says“We only had ten dollars. Beyers helped us on. He borrowedus money to get to Springfield.” According to Verona and Ot-to, the Bloedows arrived in Springfield with five dollars.

Those left behindFor Ferdinand’s mother and Grandmother left behind, toknow they would never again see Ferdinand, Auguste andtheir precious grandchildren and grand-babies to be born inAmerica … it would be a terrible loss.

Our story is their storyOne senses from Mary’s stories, that Auguste was more thanready for the move. Some of her family had already moved toMinnesota. And with the Franco-Prussian war on his heels,his draft notice in hand, and America beckoning him to joinothers who had emigrated, it became evident this was an invi-tation Ferdinand couldn’t refuse.

Today Ferdinand might be considered a draft evader.

However, we descendants of Auguste and Ferdinand are herebecause of the war, and because Ferdinand avoided goingback into the military. Without these events and personal de-cisions back in time, there may never have been a family ofMary and William Kuehl.

Mary’s Words

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The Story of Ferdinand’s Military Photo

Ferdinand Bloedow in his Prussian military uniform - 1878with his children Herman (age 2) and Minnie (age 4)

The photo was taken in Berlin, as indicated by the nameon the back of the original. Herman, about two yearsold, was born in 1876. This means the photo was takenaround 1878. The sword indicates Ferdinand was a ser-geant or higher. The braid means he was mounted caval-ry. The significance of the sash is conjecture—perhaps

special assignment. Note the sword is too long to wearon a belt and walk with. It is made to hang from the beltof a horse-mounted soldier. Vernon Bloedow providedthe explanation of the photo, and gave Otto F. Bloedowthe original photo in 1996. Otto gave a copy of the pho-to to Phyllis Kuehl Zumach in 2009.

In the extended Bloedow family, there are just two photos of Ferdinand.

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Ferdinand and Auguste Bloedow, plus six childrenAuguste pregnant with the seventh child

Emigrate from Brandenburg, Germany to America in 1880

Sailing on the ship Suevia from Hamburg, Germanythey arrived in New York City on July 28, 1880

IMMIGRATION RECORDS SHOWINGARRIVAL OF THE BLOEDOW FAMILY IN 1880

Ferdinand is listed as worker (written in printed book as laborer)

Hamburg to France to New York

From Klein Silber, Ferdinand, Auguste and theirsix children traveled to Hamburg, Germany wherethey boarded the ship Suevia. Their ship thensailed to LeHavre, France before beginning it’sjourney across the water to America.

According to family history, the trip across the At-lantic Ocean took three weeks (see note below).During the journey, Mother Auguste was in herlast month of pregnancy. Our Grandmother Maryspent a great deal of time being sick.

The Suevia arrived in New York on the 28th of Ju-ly, 1880. Suevia Ship (See the Suevia story later in this chapter)

Sources: Ancestory.com. Microfilm Serial May 237, List number 948 (researched by Otto F).Also found in “Germans to America”, by Glazier and Filby, Vol. 36, July 1880-November 1880, pages 62 and 488.

In this printed book (Germans to America) showing the immigration of the Bloedow family, FerdinandIs listed as “laborer” while the microfilm version lists Ferdinand as “worker” (researched by Phyllis).

Note on time to cross the Atlantic Ocean: Otto F. found data on four Atlantic crossings by the Suevia in 1874-75.The time ranged from 14-16 days. Data source was North Atlantic Mail Sailings, 1840-1875, by Walter Hubbardand Richard F. Winter, pages 192-194.

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Discrepancy in ages of Ferdinand and Auguste Bloedow’s childrenupon arrival in US July 28, 1880

Comparing ship manifest ages with ages based on birth dates(There is no discrepancy in parent's ages)

Person

Age listed onJuly 1880 ship

manifest

Children’s birth yearcalculated using

ship manifest

Children’s birth datesusing death certificates

and obituaries

Children’s age on July1880 calculated from

death certificatesand obituaries

Ferdinand 42 1838 February 22, 1838 42 yearsAuguste 36 1844 May 18, 1844 36 yearsWilhelm 12 1868 July 26, 1866 14 yearsWilhemina 9 1871 August 18, 1868 11 years, 11 monthsMarie 8 1872 September 1, 1870 9 years, 10 monthsAugusta 6 1874 October 16, 1872 7 years, 9 monthsHerman 4 1876 December 7, 1874 5 years, 7 monthsFerdinand 11 months 1879 February 22, 1878 2 years, 5 months

Why the Discrepancy on Children’s Ages?

There is a discrepancy in the children’s ages when the ship’smanifest is compared with birth dates on obituaries anddeath certificates. In general, on the manifest the childrenare written as two years younger than their actual age. Thequestion is why?

It could be intentional. The policy for some immigrant shiplines was that the ticket was half price under the age of four-teen. If this was the policy for the Suevia, the parents couldsave this extra cost by listing William, age fourteen, astwelve. Ages of the five other children would then be adjust-ed accordingly.

Or it’s likely that the ship’s purser made a clerical error onthe ship manifest. He looked at the oldest, guessed twelve,then calculated the ages of the others in descending order.It’s possible that children’s ages, more times than not, wereestimates.

?

?

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Coming over on the SueviaStories told by Grandma Mary Kuehl

Suevia avoids catastrophe“Only this one time they [the ship’s crew] hadproblems.” [Here Mary turns away from thetape recorder and “hit, fan belt, we got stuck”are the only words easily understood.] “Thenthey came and locked all doors. No one couldget on deck. I was awake. Mother too. Pa wassleeping by the wall. All were sleeping butmother and me. Next one over was the shoe-maker. He says, ‘Keep still. Keep still don’t saynothing.’”

Mary continues. “That was something. Theyhad that kind of a call y’know, a signal. Wecould hear them blow and blow [blast theship’s horn.] It took a long time.”Apparently, the ship heaved quite a jolt when itrestarted: “Around four in the morning things[the ship’s problems] were fixed. When they gotthe boat back, everything flew. All junk andboxes were down on the floor.”

Pa woke up, ‘What’s happening?’Ma: ‘Everything’s all right. Everything’s allright now.’

Pa: ‘Why didn’t you wake me?’Ma: ‘You couldn’t do anything anyhow. We’reall locked in.’

Pa: ‘What was that?’

Ma: ‘They won’t let anyone out.’Pa: ‘I’ll show them. If I couldn’t get upstairs ….’“You could see in the morning they had a lot ‘a[life] boats out. They were empty. They hadthem hanging there. If something should hap-pen, they could get into the boats, y’know. Itwas no fun.”

Ending her story on an upbeat note, Mary said, “There was no

wind at all. We had nice days, wonderful times. The band

played in the afternoon, and they danced up there. But when I

could get up, I wouldn’t dare go near ’em, y’know.”

Three weeks in steerage

Mary’s son Bill asked his mother, “Doyou still remember going to the boat?”Mary responded, “Oooh yes, I shouldsay.” She was asked, “was the boatcrowded?” According to Mary, “ It wascrowded. There were about 600 peopleon the ship. There was upstairs and wewere downstairs. Down, yah. in steer-age. The rich one’s they were up, poorpeople below.”

Mary was asked if she liked the tripover to America:

“No, I didn’t like it. I was sick all thetime. I couldn’t go upstairs at all. I hadto be downstairs in bed all the time.They had to carry me up every morn-ing. They fumigate every morning,y’know. Everybody had to get out.”

[If Mary was sick all the time, one canonly imagine how difficult it musthave been for Auguste carrying herbaby in it’s final month and keepingsix children in tow.]

Mary’s brother Herman always had alot of fun, his time on the boat being noexception.

“Herman was a crackerjack! Therewere Gypsies, no, what were they …Russians [in Mary’s part of the ship.]They laid on the floor and ate on thefloor. Herman would pull their hair.He had a lot of fun with those girls,even wrestle with them. Mother saidhe shouldn’t go there, you might ….”[Might what? Catch lice?]”

And that’s all Mary had to say aboutthat.

Mary’s Words Mary’s Words

Mary’s Words

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New World Animals

Apparently cattle and pigs

were taken on board ship

for the new country. Some

were brought along as fresh

meat for the passengers.

There were milk cows, too,

on the ship. Said Mary,

“there were cattle on the

bottom, way down below.

They butchered too.” Mary

recalled that when theyreached NYC, “the cattle

were the first to leave the

ship. They rowed in a lot of

milk cows too.”

No Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island

We think of the thrill of seeing the Statue of Liberty ourBloedow family must have felt when they arrived in1880 by ship in the New York Harbor. But in fact, theywere six years too early. It didn’t yet exist. The Statue ofLiberty didn’t become part of the New York harbor un-til 1886. And Ellis Island didn’t open to process immi-gration until 1892.

So let us tell you about:

Battery Park: Castle Gardenwhere the Bloedow family registered

as immigrants of the USA

In 1880 the Bloedow family first stepped foot in Ameri-ca at Battery Park. And it is in Castle Garden that theywere accepted as immigrants with the right to live onAmerican soil. With this honor came the hope of oneday becoming citizens of the United States of America.

In the 35 years between 1855 and 1890, in addition toour Bloedow Family, two out of every three immigrantsto the USA (more than 8 million immigrants) passedthrough Castle Garden. It closed on April 18, 1890.

Castle Garden is a fort and national monument locatedin Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan inNew York City. The structure has served as a fort, the-ater, opera house, and aquarium. But most importantlyto us, in 1855 Castle Garden became America’s first im-migrant receiving center.

Source: about.com - genealogy “Castle Garden - America’s firstofficial immigration center”

“We rowed in” and gotlost in New York City

From the ship Suevia, theBloedow family was rowedashore in smaller boats towhat later became knownas Battery Park. The familytook a walk through NewYork City. According toMary, everyone was awedwith the height, the manystories of the buildings. Sowhen they finally decided toretrace their steps they werelost. Mary, however, savedthe day. Her preoccupationhad been at ground level,the store fronts and occa-sionally peering throughwindows to notice what wasinside. So she guided themback to their belongings.

More of Mary’s stories

Castle Garden National Monument

Battery Park - Manhattan Island

New York City

Mary’s Words

Mary’s Words

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History of Ship Suevia

The iron-hulled Suevia was a passengersteamship built for the Hamburg-AmericaLine by Caird & Co. of Greenock, Scotland. Itwas completed June 1, 1874 and commis-sioned October 21 of the same year. It servedthe Hamburg-America line for twenty years,from 1874 to 1894.

It was assigned to transatlantic crossingsfrom Hamburg, Germany, to La Havre,France, then on to New York City, USA andplayed a role in German immigration to theUnited States. The Suevia had accommoda-tion for 100 first-class, 70 second-class and600 third-class passengers

The ship had two masts, one funnel, screw(steam) propulsion, double-expansion en-gines, was 3,609 gross tons at a length of360.3 feet. It reached a speed of 13 knotsand had a crew of 115. In 1884 it got newsteam boilers and served for the Hamburg-America Line 10 more years until 1894.

On April 13, l889 the Suevia collided in densefog near Nantucket with the US pilot boatCommodore Bateman which sank and twopersons died. The Commodore Bateman wasjust launched in 1888.

In 1896 the Suevia was sold to Schiaffino, Ny-er & Siges in Algeria and renamed QuatreAmis.

In 1898 the ship was stranded in the RiverScheldt (Netherlands), refloated and towedto Marseilles, France where she wasscrapped.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suevia

The Bloedow FamilyTraveled in third class

Traveling in "steerage" was a nightmare

[The following is an excerpt from “The ImmigrantJourney,” Ellis Island National Monument website]

For most immigrants, especially early arrivals, the ex-perience of steerage was like a nightmare (at onetime, the average passenger mortality rate was 10percent per voyage). The conditions were so crowded,so dismally dark, so unsanitary and so foul-smelling,that they were the single most important cause ofAmerica’s early immigration laws. Unfortunately, thelaws were almost impossible to enforce and steerageconditions remained deplorable, almost beyond be-lief. As late as 1911, in a report to President WilliamH. Taft, the United States Immigration Commissionsaid:

“The open deck space reserved for steerage passen-gers is usually very limited, and situated in theworst part of the ship, subject to the most violentmotion, to the dirt from the stacks and the odorsfrom the hold and galleys... the only provisions foreating are frequently shelves or benches along thesides or in the passages of sleeping compartments.Dining rooms are rare and, if found, are oftenshared with berths installed along the walls. Toiletsand washrooms are completely inadequate; saltwa-ter only is available.

“The ventilation is almost always inadequate, andthe air soon becomes foul. The unattended vomit ofthe seasick, the odors of not too clean bodies, the reekof food and the awful stench of the nearby toiletrooms make the atmosphere of the steerage suchthat it is a marvel that human flesh can endure it...Most immigrants lie in their berths for most of thevoyage, in a stupor caused by the foul air. The foodoften repels them... It is almost impossible to keeppersonally clean. All of these conditions are natural-ly aggravated by the crowding.”

In spite of the miserable conditions, the immigrantshad faith in the future. To pass the time - a crossingcould take anywhere from a week to more than amonth, depending on the ship and weather - theywould play cards, sing, dance and talk... talk... talk...By the time the tiring trip approached its long-await-ed end, most immigrants were in a state of shock:physically, mentally and emotionally.

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Who claims Klein Silber now?

In 1880 when Ferdinand and Auguste emigrated to America the village of Klein Silber1 was located at the in-tersection of two German Provinces - Brandenburg and Pomerania (Pommern). Brandenburg is a land-lockedprovince. It’s neighbor to the north is the vast province of Pomerania, lying along the Baltic Sea. The map be-low shows the German provinces of that era. Klein Silber - marked with a red dot - is in Brandenburg. Bothprovinces are important in theBloedow and Kuehl histories.

For many years both Branden-burg and Pomerania were part ofPrussia and Germany. But afterWorld War II both provinceswere divided between two coun-tries. Land west of the Oder Riv-er - marked with a red line -became part of Mecklenburgprovince, which was part ofEast Germany (the GermanDemocratic Republic, GDR).Pomerania and Brandenburgeast of the Oder River were givento Russia, who handed them overto Poland.

This meant that Klein Silber wasnow part of Poland. You can seethis clearly on the map on thenext page.

And since WWII province and county maps have been redrawn and renamed various times. The name Pomer-ania (Pommern) still exists but as part of a lengthier title. Brandenburg that was part of East Germany is nowpart of the reunited Germany. Klein Silber remains in Poland.

Politics changed who ruled our ancestors

For hundreds of years in northern Europe, national, state, and county boundar-ies changed frequently. Wars, power divisions and consolidations led to politicalmaps being redrawn fairly often. If relatives emigrated from a town in a certainyear, it’s possible that a few years later - or just months later - the same townmay be in a different country, or in an expanded or reduced region, or in a re-named area, etc..

In the section below there is a general outline about the part of Europe our an-cestors came from. We (Phyllis and Allen) researched this information. Giventhe volatile period in history, we found it difficult to keep track of all the chang-es. Below, we’ve briefly outlined some of the major forces that affected our rel-atives homeland. Some of the facts may not be perfect, and some things arerepetitive, but we think the broad impression of that history will come through.We’ll also briefly discuss some of the the difficulties that war and power shiftscreate in doing genealogical research. Chapter 5 will have more details aboutour relatives “Old Country.”

Source: www.google.com/search?q=map+german+empire

Poland

Czechoslovakia

1 Much of this section comes from Wikipedia articles on Pomerania and Brandenburg.

Oder River (approximate)

Klein Silber

Suliborek

Pomerania?

?Brandenburg

Poland

Prussia

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Klein Silber - from ice age to war

Brandenburg and Pomerania Provinces are part of the North European Plain. Thousand of years ago the areawas scraped by glaciers, leaving a terrain that varies from level land to gently rolling hills, interspersed withnumerous woodlands and shallow lakes. Other than a few urban areas, the region is rural, characterized byfarmland and numerous small villages. The sandy soil deposited by glaciers is good for growing rye, wheat,oats, barley, potatoes and sugar beets. The land looks surprisingly like parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

For many years afterWorld War II, commu-nism held back progressand development. Thismeant that you could seethe land and villagesmuch as they were in ear-lier German times. Nowsince the fall of the IronCurtain in 1991, manypeople have had moneyto fix up the old andbuild anew. Still, it canbe a surprise to the visi-tor to see an old crum-bling barn next to a rowof brand new homes.

And what about the cem-eteries? In many instanc-es, the old Germancemeteries are now usedas Polish cemeteries. Fewold gravestones remain,many destroyed by waror neglect.

Researching Genealogy in the “old country”

Tracing family history in Brandenburg and Pomerania can be difficult for several reasons:

● When you do run across an old record it is usually in old German script this is hard to read. You’ll seethis in chapters 15 and 16 - the birth, baptism and death records of William Kuehl’s ancestors.

● When a family no longer renews payment for a cemetery grave site, one is fortunate to find the monu-ment still standing. It is general practice for cemeteries in Germany to remove the monument and re-sell the plot as a new family grave site. So one is lucky to find a very dated monument broken or col-lapsed.

● Much of the territory now belongs to Poland which involves yet another language to deal with, as wellas Polish bureaucracy.

● Damage to many towns and churches created a scarcity of records. Any records that exist are usuallyonly in archives and/or microfilmed by the LDS (Later Day Saints - Mormon) Church.

A good source for researching German ancestry is the Germanic Genealogy Society of Minnesota (GGSMN).Their library collection is housed at Concordia University, Hamline and Marshall Avenues, St Paul, MN. Thewebsite is: www.ggsmn.org. The Society sells books and has internet links that are useful for doing research.

This Wikipedia map shows how Brandenburg and Pomerania were divided intoPoland and East Germany. The Oder and Neisse Rivers are the dividing linebetween Germany and Poland. Unit 2 (both green and yellow sections) wasBrandenburg. Unit 6 (both green and yellow sections) was Pomerania. The lo-cation of Klein Silber is indicated with a star.

Klein Silber

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As we’ve stated, both Brandenburg and Pomerania provinces are key regions in the Bloedow and Kuehl family histo-ries. In 1880 Brandenburg and Pomerania were Prussian (German) provinces. After the Second World War, theprovinces were in the Russian sector. Russia split both Pomerania and Brandenburg between East Germany and Po-land. The Bloedow homeland in Brandenburg was now in Poland. With boundaries redrawn, the village formerlyknown as Klein Silber could no longer call Ger-many her homeland. The little village was forcedto swear her allegiance to Poland, which was un-der Russian control. You can’t help but wonder,what happened to our remaining relatives?

In those post-war years many people of Germanheritage were killed, or they fled, or were forciblyexpelled from the territory. Names of all the cit-ies and villages were erased and each was given anew name - a Polish name. Klein Silber was re-named Suliborek.

During WWII atrocities and persecutions hadbeen committed by both sides. Post-war ten-sions, seeking of revenge, desires to start anew,and privileges of the victors led to the Russiansand Polish wiping out anything that remindedthem of Germany (Prussia). As a result, as theRussians took over they swept across the coun-tryside destroying churches, executing pastors,burning church records, and running rough shodthrough cemeteries, burying stone markers andmonuments.

So it was too with Klein Silber. The village, which stood at a crossroads, was essentially obliterated, as were anysigns that this was where Ferdinand and Auguste Bloedow were married and began their family.

There will be more information on changes in village names in the Klein Silber area in Chapter 5.

Recently tracingKlein Silber

Recent visitors to Suliborek,Poland find little trace of KleinSilber, Germany.

Ancestors of Father Hackert, aRoman Catholic priest fromNew Ulm, hail from an area inPomerania near Klein Silber.In conversation with Otto F.Bloedow, Father Hackert talk-ed about having spent time inPomerania. He said that when he inquired about land his family had owned, the local people quit talking and werenot willing to discuss that period of history. He corroborated the fact that everything familiar to our ancestors hadbeen destroyed, that Germans not able to escape were executed – especially clergy – and all records burned andcemeteries covered over and headstones destroyed.

Bob Bloedow and Otto’s brother Don Bloedow and wife have been to Klein Silber on separate occasions. They con-cur that it’s as if Klein Silber and the people of those days had never existed.

Klein Silber - changes after World War II

See the following website for additional photos of Klein Silber.http://www.pommernfotos.de/Suliborek%20(Klein-Silber)/index.html

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www.klein-silber.de/index.php/dorfplan www.maplandia.com/poland/zachodnio-pomorskie/choszczno/suliborek/

Maps of Klein SilberComparison of the past with today

While most of Klein Silber was destroyed in World War II, remnants remain. The 1939 map on the left belowshows names and plots of families living in the village, while it is yet a vibrant commity. The 2014 Google sat-ellite map on the right below, with the new Polish name Suliborek, shows that only a few homes remain. Tohelp orient you, the location of the river, church and cemetery on both maps are identified.

Source: www.klein-silber.de/

= River= Church= Cemetery

Klein Silber, thoughsmall, managed to build anice church. However,fighting in World War IIleft the church in ruins. Asis typical of European cul-ture, the ruins have beenleft rather than torndown.

To give perspective on thephotos, arrows point tothe same parts of thebuilding. The rest of thesteeple is gone.

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Klein Silber (Little Silver) was once a village of 500. After World War II, very little re-mains. The village had very bad luck because it was so beautifully situated. Rolling hills(glacial moraines) of 300-400 ft were left from the last ice age, and the river Ihna cutthrough the area. This was a site where the Russian Red Army could not easily win con-trol, like it had for so many other villages. While in some places everything still looks asif time stood still since before WWII, it is in Klein Silber the fierce battle over 3 weeks,with changing area gains and losses, practically everything is ruins.

On Thursday, February 8, 1945, a day of very heavy frost, the Russians for the first timetried attacking Klein Silber. They pushed close to the Ihna River bridge. This was the be-ginning of a three weeks fight in and around Klein Silber.

In the early morning of February 8, 1945 the command comes to the foreclosure of aRussian advance to Ziegenhagen and Klein Silber. When encountering a strong enemygroup on the ridge of the Ihna east, carried the supply of two more tigers II, and about10 other assault guns, and a company. Around noon the attack, carried out from themovement, direction Zigenhagen, which was joined by the assault guns. After fighting onthe outskirts of Ziegenhagen, carried the advance of the paratroopers, both sides of theroad, over the small bridge on Ihna Zigenhagen. Follow heavy urban warfare, while itcomes to the launch of another, the third Russian tanks Josef Stalin II. Towards eveningthe battle group was at the south exit of Klein Silber.

As of Monday, February 12, 1945, the enemy attacked the entrenched place in the ar-mored infantry and armored thrusts tried night. While Reetz and the county seat Arn-swalde were already burned a few days in Russian hand and the front line was largelysouth of Little Silver at least until February 25, 1945.

Locals reported that was fought on the Ihna-position in Klein Silber hard. The Russian was thrown back here three times. 19farms of the village were destroyed by fighting. The church had been blown up by German soldiers for enemy intelligence. Here10-15 people were shot at the Church of the Russians from foreign treks.

On March 1, 1945 then broke the long-awaited breakthrough of the Soviet Army on the whole width of the front. Good 1000tanks rolled to a total of about 70 German Tiger tank. The remaining units of the Wehrmacht in the room Klein Silber and Kon-raden lost by the attacks at dawn, first all the communication opportunities with other organizations and then fled the afternoon,while rain and snow showers, located in the space Falkenwalde, west of Klein Silber. On the evening of March 1, the Division re-ceived orders to withdraw to Pomerania. The battle for the Arnswalde was now ended with the fall of the last lines of defensenear Klein Silber.

All German positions were then withdrawn to the west bank of the Oder on 20 March and the battle for Berlin began ... Pomera-nia was now in Russian hands.

And Little Silver? Almost all the houses in the village were destroyed. The church in ruins. A single dwelling house and a few out-buildings in the village stood still. Roofs have collapsed, rubble piles former houses are overgrown, and the cemetery is as suchvirtually unrecognizable. In recent years, very few houses were built in Suliborek and almost nothing restored from the remain-ing substance. There is almost nothing left of Little Silver ... except wistful memories of a beautiful little village on the idyllic Ih-na.

The end for small silver came in early February 1945, when the Red Army here for days heavy fighting with the Wehrmacht andled several breakthroughs took place in both directions. Alternating field losses led to this severe destruction. Much of the re-maining population fled in the night of 06 February 1945 in the icy cold north towards Nörenberg.

Virtually everything had to be left behind. The land on which for generations ancestors had lived, the house where you wereborn, the cattle, the screaming was left in the stables of hunger, the church where you were baptized, the tombs of the parents in

the village cemetery, the memo-ries of childhood ... the home.

Klein Silber’s long historyAfter more than 1000 years of historyand colonization, today there is hard-ly anything left from the village of Lit-tle Silver. The first indications of thevillage’s age is on the southwesternoutskirts of the so called castle wall.Excavations and tradition say thatone of several Slavic castles existedon the hill by the river Ihna. It proba-bly was of the West Slavic (Wendish)tribe of Polans.

These people populated and builtsuch fortifications at some settlementsites roughly from the 7th century un-til about the 10th century.

The pre-World War II Kleine Silber(little silver) and Suliborek, the Polishname it acquired after the war, likelywere not named after a precious met-al. Rather, both of the village’s namesprobably were derived from a Slavicnobleman named Zilbur or Sulibor the“brave fighter”.

Source: www.klein-silber.de/index.php/geschichte

The war that destroyed Klein SilberParaphrased by Allen Zumach from a 2008 website: www.klein-silber.de/

Translation from original German by Google; some awkward translations were left as is

Klein Silber before World War II

Rooting for (which)home team?

As you read this were youaware of the irony of rootingfor the Germans in defendingKlein Silber. In World War IIAmerica and Russia are allieshoping to crush Hitler and theThird Reich.

In the end, weAmericans to-gether with Rus-sia and otherallies won thewar. And yet, welost Klein Silber,the home of ourancestors. It isno more.

Klein Silber was destroyed in battle just 49 days beforethe war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945 with the captureof Berlin by Soviet and Polish troops.