Last years in Germany: 1950-1954

Last years in Germany: 1950-1954

Horst returned to West Germany in October of 1949, and began working near his sister Hilde’s town of Mörsen in November 1949.

It is unclear when Horst and Elly reunited; Elly was living in Bünde at the time, only 80 km away.

They must have found each other relatively quickly, because Horst Eigenfeldt (age 27) and Elly Bendig (age 22) married in Bünde on September 8, 1950.

Horst and Elly’s marriage certificate, September 8 1950 in Ennigloh, West Germany

Prior to the wedding, Elly was living with her parents and sister’s family in a two bedroom attic suite. Helmut, Elly’s nephew and son of her sister Charlotte, remembers that Horst “suddenly appeared” in 1950. After the wedding, Horst moved into the attic suite as well. There were now three families – nine people – living in two rooms.

Post-Wedding

There are several undated photos of Elly and Horst from between 1950 and 1954.

My theory is that when Horst was in Berlin (1948-49), he could not afford a camera (his wartime camera was obviously lost during the war), but when he returned to West Germany in the fall of 1949, he bought a new one. German soldiers received minimal pensions by this time; either that, or he used his first earnings from the steelworks to buy one. In any case, it seems all these photos date from late 1950-1954.

Stamps on the back of the photos indicate that the photos were developed in and around the bigger city of Herford, a city close to Bünde.

Elly in spring/summer, around 1950, age 22. Probably on the Else River in Bünde.

Oma demonstrating her back bridge; summer picnic.

Oma in Bünde, photo dated 1950, probably after the wedding in September.

Family portrait, circa fall 1950, probably after the wedding of Elly and Horst. Gerda, born 1941, looks about eight years old.
Left to right: Gerda, Dora, Charlotte, Hans, Elly, Horst, Herr Rentel. Front: Helmut, Koyus, Julius, Grete

Horst (ever dapper) and Oma’s father, Julius. Bünde. Possibly 1952.

Something on Opa’s sister, Ula, living in Bünde as well by this time…

Elly continued to work as a seamstress after their marriage. The is a Textile Union card from 1953 which lists her job as “seamstress”. Interestingly, it is dated December 1, 1953, only a few months prior to Horst and Elly leaving Germany.

Leaving Germany

By 1954, Horst and Elly had been married for almost four years, and working in jobs close to their home in Ennigloh. However, they were still having to live with Oma’s parents and her sister Charlotte and her family – husband, and three children aged 14-16 – in a two room attic suite. There were not enough living accomodations West Germany for all the refugees, even nine years after the war.

Sometime in the spring of 1954, they decided to emigrate to Canada. It seems that the possibility of their own home and well-paying jobs lured them away from their families and everything they knew.

September 1954 Train Station, on the way to Bremen to leave Germany. Left to right: Julius, Dora (14), Koyus, Gerda (13), Elly, Helmut (16), Charlotte. This is everyone that was living in the two room attic suite.

Horst’s German passport April 1954 listing his occupation as baker.

The passport stamped as active as of April 22, 1954 (left). Another stamp for the previous day (April 21) indicates they had received permission to leave Germany for Winnipeg.

The next page indicates they passed a health check on April 30 (top left), and arrived in Canada on June 25 in Quebec City. The page at right indicates they received permission (in Hannover, Germany) to arrive in Winnipeg on May 17.

The next page of the passport indicates they had $157 on June 15, 1954, authorised by the North German bank in Bremen (the port city from which they would leave). The page at right shows their exit stamp from June 16, 1954.

The final entry on the passport shows an official change of address, that Horst emigrated from Germany and would thereafter be living in Winnipeg, Manitoba (until at least January 1959.

The speed of the entire process – the passport was issued in April and they arrived in Canada in June – suggests a lot of very fast planning preceded this move.

Remember that they had had tremendous upheaval in their lives following the war, and had been able to reunite with their families, and they had finally found some stability. However, they decided to give that all up and move to a country that spoke a language that they didn’t speak, that had a culture (Anglo-Saxon dominant) at the time, where they had no family or friends.

They left Bremen, Germany, on June 16 and arrived in Quebec City on June 25, 1954. Customs lists that they arrived with $157, the equivalent to $1100 in 2023.