Tag Archives: Berlitt

Hans Rose’s Life & Legacy

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My dad couldn’t talk or stay awake much the last few months of his life but he was able to muster up the words, “I love you, Tammy” one more time and said, “They’re all waiting for me” before gently passing away in his sleep on October 17, 2018, at 9:30 A.M.  My mother & I knew exactly who he was talking about, his best friends, Jim Mueller, Bill Yellin & his grandfather, Hermann Rose who are already in Heaven.  I can hear them all say with laughter, the party has just begun.

I’ll always remember our last conversation which centered around the many trips my dad took me on, my favorite to this day is Disneyland in California. My dad lit up like a Christmas tree as we reminisced about our days at the Magic Kingdom. While I was excited to experience every ride, my mom shouted in fright while on Space Mountain vowing to never return.  My dad and I always got a good chuckle from that memory.  I was also able to show him through FaceTime one of his favorite travel spots in the Bahamas where my dad scored a bunch of silver statues before we boarded a cruise ship.

While I was afforded the luxury of traveling the world, my dad almost lost his life at a very young age trying to survive the aftermath of World War II.   After almost starving to death in the Traunstein Refugee Camp, his family immigrated to America in 1957.  I’ve always believed it was his humble beginnings that motivated him to make sure everyone else around him was taken care of. He never forgot his German roots and would often fly back to East Germany before the Berlin wall came down to bring his relatives’ basic necessities they couldn’t afford or get on their own.  Hans was like a Santa Claus to so many people taking loved ones on lavish vacations and offering up his home to anyone who needed a place to stay.

Ever since I was a little girl, my dad told me intriguing stories about our German heritage that would not only inspire me to write several books but launch my career as a journalist.  Thank you, Dad, for your love and support and teaching me to keep going no matter how bad things may seem.

Click on the video links below as we say goodbye to the greatest man I knew.

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Back in time with another former Berlitt homeowner

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I was recently contacted by Günter Waschke, whose family received my great-grandparents home in Berlitt, Germany following World War II. It means so much to me that so many people have reached out to me after completing my dad’s documentary. Here’s part of my interview with him from overseas.
 
 
 
 (Tammy Rose) “What can you tell me about my great-grandparents Helene & Richard Pein?
 
Helene & Richard Pein in front of their Berlitt home.
 
(Günter Waschke) “I was 4 years old, so I do not remember much. Helene loved me as little Günter because her son Günther was killed in the war.”
Lt. Günther Pein was killed while guarding a bridge in St. Polten, Austria.

 

Willy Rose & Lt. Günther Pein in their German military uniforms.
 
“From Richard, I have no rememberings other than he was the Mayor of Berlitt and was regarded as a bad Nazi by the upcoming Communists. They forced him to move to Granzow on his second farm.  Pein’s farm in Berlitt was expropriated and divided into small farms distributed to refugees from East Germany like my mother and me. The same process was conducted with the big farm of Earl/Graf Königsmark who had committed suicide before the Russians invaded. His castle was used as a school following the war and is located across the street from the Pein home near the Church of Berlitt.”
 
Earl/Graf Königsmark

 

Church of Berlitt
(Tammy Rose) “Thanks so much for the information. Why did your parents leave the farm? My dad thought our old farm was purchased by a polish couple who worked for my great-grandparents.” 
 
3 boys standing in front of the Pein’s Berlitt, Germany home.
(Günter Waschke)”No polish workers bought the farm. It was expropriated and the farm was divided into small pieces which were given to German refugees. The political idea was “Junkerland in Bauernhand”. If there were polish workers as prisoners of the Nazis they moved back to Poland after the end of the war.”
 
Richard & Erna Pein along with some friends in front of their Berlitt home.

 

(Tammy Rose) “What else can you tell me about that time period and our old house?”

Richard & Günther Pein

Erna, Helene & Liese-Lotte Pein in the backyard of their Berlitt home.

(Günter Waschke) “My mother and I fled from our original home near Poznan, Poland in January 1945 by foot and took only what we could carry. I cried because I forgot my doll called Ria. We lived after the war in the right part of Pein’s house, seen from the street side, until 1950. Then my mother and I left Berlitt because my father who was a prisoner of war was set free and we moved to West Germany. Additionally, it was better to go to the west because Berlitt had become part of the communist German Democratic Republic under the goodwill of Stalin. Last year, I have been in Berlitt visiting my cousin who lives still there.”
 
 
This was the last family picture of the Peins taken at Christmas before thier youngest son, Lt. Günther Pein was killed on October 18, 1944.
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Our ‘Buried Treasure & Family Secrets’ revealed 73 years later.

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Growing up my dad told me an intriguing story about my great-grandfather Richard Pein who was at one time the Mayor of Berlitt. A well-respected member of the community, Pein allegedly buried gold coins worth millions of dollars beneath his pig barn shortly before the Russians invaded his small community at the end of World War II. Now, 73 years later I’ve finished a journey my ancestors couldn’t make and return to the home of where the treasure was allegedly buried.  Click on the link above to see how the story unfolds.

This was the last family picture of the Peins taken at Christmas before thier youngest son, Lt. Günther Pein was killed on October 18, 1944.
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73 years later I’m finishing a journey my ancestors couldn’t make.

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Growing up my dad told me an intriguing story about my great-grandfather Richard Pein. A well-respected member of the community and head of the local bank, Pein allegedly buried gold coins worth millions of dollars beneath his pig barn shortly before the Russians invaded his small community at the end of World War II. Now, 73 years later I’m finishing a journey my ancestors couldn’t make, to go back to the house and see if our buried treasure is still there.

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