Thank you for visiting recordatio.com. This site is a placeholder for documents, images, videos and oral history relating to events which affected our family and its community in and around Freilassing between April 16 and April 25, 1945.
The story you will find here is based on personal recollections and official records. It started from a puzzle of photographs hanging on the walls during my childhood, vivid memories of my grandfather and grandmother, and flying machines that had no flag and little understanding. Each of my grandparents had been affected differently by the power and misery of war, destruction and guilt. Each of them had their own interpretation of things, whether that meant that we were not allowed to watch American movies on TV, or feeling remorse for something that had been witnessed. And of course, there were so many questions that had no answer.
While looking for these answers myself, more than fifty years after the events took place, I sensed in others not only a thirst for information, but also for healing. I am very grateful to these new friends. We closed circles and left lasting memories. This is why I ultimately decided to write something, and to tell the story of my grandparents, of my mother, of my aunts and uncle, of George and Peter, of Chester and Frank, of Pauline and Walter, and of other men and women whose names and faces I did not know myself until recently, and which I would like you to meet too.
I am still working on these pages and on the digital archives, which will be made available in high quality formats, with due credits. I appreciate both your interest and your patience. Thank you again to all who helped. In the meantime, feel free to contact me.
Mike
m at cloanto dot com
2009 Update: Video, Transcript
2008 Introduction: MP3 Audio, Transcript
Extracts from "60 Years Later - Reference Documents" (PDF, 2010)
Mein Amerikaner (A true Christmas story, written by my aunt Hedi)