I was so moved by a movie I watched recently called ‘The Pianist’. It’s about a Polish-Jewish composer who survived the Holocaust. By the end of the movie, tears were flowing freely down my face. Even though we all know how the story ends, with six million Jews murdered, there were so many twists and turns that kept me glued to the screen. There was a small glimmer of hope near the end of the show where a German soldier helped the musician by giving him some food and not alerting other nearby soldiers to his whereabouts. His actions more than likely saved this strangers life. My imagination always makes me wonder if maybe some of my German ancestors would have done the same thing.

After writing several books, I decided to travel to Germany to do a documentary on my family in 2017. What I found is that my great-grandparents as well as my great-uncle were allegedly heavily involved in the Nazi Party as well as the SS, according to one of their then, 90-year-old neighbors. My research also led me to Günter Waschke, whose family received Richard & Helene Pein’s Berlitt home following WWII. Click on the link below to follow my ‘Buried Treasure’ journey.

My interview with Günter Waschke in 2019.

(Tammy Rose) “What can you tell me about my great-grandparents Richard & Helene Pein?

(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.”

“From Richard, I have no remembering 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.”

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

(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.”

Once my family was sent to Granzow, my grandfather Willy Rose was in and out of prison for allegedly speaking out against the State, leaving my grandmother, Liese-Lotte to raise my dad, Hans Rose by herself. It was during this time, my grandmother was raped by Russian soldiers, putting into question my aunt and uncle’s lineage.

While understandably the United States and our Allies needed to defeat Adolph Hitler from his atrocities, war unfortunately brings out the best and worst on both sides. I loved my grandmother Liese-Lotte Rose with all my heart and could relate to her assault. I am also a survivor. My perpetrator would spend 10 years behind bars unlike her assailant. Many people including a now disbarred Arizona Prosecutor accused me of lying during a deposition in order to discredit me during a high profile murder case. A common thread that sadly withstands the end of time. Victims are afraid to speak up for fear of not being believed or retaliated against like myself.

As a Journalist, it’s important to get both sides of the story, no matter where the path takes you which leads me to another member of my family, Werner Pein. Click on the link below to listen to his son, Wolfgang talk about his perspective regarding his father as a Nazi war criminal.  https://youtu.be/v0VLAFANM_8?si=ZZ2Trfe1CPtHFHS1

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for Nazi War crimes, serving only 7 because a nurse testified on his behalf. I often look at our old family photos and wish I could just jump back into time to see what actually happened and whether my great-uncle should have been let out or even if our property was rightfully confiscated. A lot of my cousins still living in East Germany feel it was unfair and received compensation later on from the government.  If the neighbor I spoke with as well as the family who first lived on our old property statements are true, then I don’t believe we should have ever received compensation. And if everything they said were true, should there have been a more severe punishment? If that happened, I may have never existed.

Another one of my great-uncles, Günther Pein was killed on a bridge in Saint Pölten, Austria at the end of World War II. I often wonder how much he might of known about the Holocaust and to what extent he may have participated. My other grandfather, Howard Leo Thompson from Milton, WI also fought in WW II which makes things even more complicated. Did he encounter any of my German relatives?

The answers finally arrived to my lineage claim thanks to the technology of DNA. Both my aunt and uncle are thankfully indeed Roses, not that it would have mattered if they weren’t, because I love them both. However, I know my dad and grandmother are smiling a little bit brighter from Heaven knowing what matters most to them can never be taken away. 

Most of my cousins dispute any negative claims made against my ancestors but I just can’t ignore the mounting evidence. Below is a picture of our Berlitt home where allegedly gold coins worth millions of dollars were buried beneath our pig barn before the Russians invaded at the end of WWII.  My great-grandmother, grandmother and great-aunt are posing with 3 soldiers wearing swastika armbands putting into question again how much they knew.

As far as another old family legend of ours, which is mostly folklore sprinkled with some factual evidence. The legend goes Nazi Gold was buried beneath our Berlitt home. After more research, it certainly makes sense. You see, Richard Pein was a banker and the Mayor of Berlitt at that time so obviously he had access to money. The Pein family dressed very well, rode around in fancy cars and lived on a 300 acre farm. After my dad immigrated to America in 1957 with 6 other family members, they had a professional photographer remove many of the Nazi symbols from most of their photos. I was able to uncover a few of those left untouched.  It’s also important to note that all of my ancestors are wearing Wehrmacht (German Army) uniforms, not SS uniforms.

Richard Pein holding his niece Ursula next to an Audi with an “IE” prefix, It’s a military vehicle registration code used by the German armed forces (Wehrmacht) during World War II. Following the war, the Soviet occupying power requisitioned and dismantled Auto Union AG’s production facilities in Saxony.