The following is the true story of a man who was born during World War II in Kreis Kolberg-Körlin. While it has been difficult to find many personal accounts of the flight and expulsion from Pomerania, especially in Hinterpommern, Martin Bonneß was willing to share his life’s story.

During the war, a large number of his family members perished. If that wasn’t bad enough, his family endured the Russian front pushing through. They would not leave with the mass droves of the expulsion during the first years and would endure mistreatment by the Polish. He survived the years of abuse.

If the expulsion didn’t wear enough on his soul, Martin would be imprisoned for trying to escape the DDR dictatorship in East Germany. His story tells the true experience rarely recorded in this much detail. He writes this, “To commemorate the generations of our parents and grandparents but also to our children and grandchildren.” As Martin so elegantly puts it: “Against the forgetting.”

My goal in helping him share his story with the readers of My Pomerania is to bring people to remember the atrocities that occurred after the war. As a student in Berlin, I learned that the Germans were not only the perpetrators of the Second World War; they were also the victims of the largest forced mass-migration in modern history. Countless families were destroyed, separated, and torn apart. As the Poles were resettled by the Russians, so too, were the Germans forcibly removed. The rapes, the murders, and all of the unspeakable things hardly taught in American classrooms must be remembered. In the coming weeks, I will do my best to translate pieces of his memoir from their native German into English as truthfully and faithfully to their original text as possible.

1. An Introduction to Martin Bonneß
2. Childhood and Years of the War
3. My Parents, Family, and the Flight and Expulsion

If you are able to understand German, Martin’s original texts can be read below. They have been posted with his permission and all rights are retained by Martin Bonneß.

1. A-1- Deckblatt
2. A-1- Kindheit – Kriegsjahre Neu
3. B.1 – Kindheit Meine Eltern, Familie Flucht und Vertreibung
4. A-2- Deckblatt
5. A-2- Neubeginn n.d.Vertreibung 1947
6. A-3- Deckblatt
7. A1 -3- -Meine Schulzeit 1 + Geändert
8. A2 -3- -Meine Schulzeit 1 + Geändert
9. A-4- Deckblatt
10. A-4- Meine Kindheit+Jugend
11. A-5- Deckblatt
12. A-5- -Jugend+Ausbildung
13. 1.1 Deckblatt.
14. 1a. Ursachen + Gründe meiner. Flucht
15. 1.3 Chronologie m. Flucht
16. 1. Fluchtversuch -1
17. 2. Fluchtgedanken ü.d. CSSR
18. 2. Fluchtversuch -2.1
19. 2. Fluchtversuch -2.2
20. 3. gel. Flucht -3
21. Flucht aus der DDR Diktatur
22. A -1.Chronolgie – Berlin – Görlitz
23. B -1.Chronologie – Probstzella
24. C -1. Chrono. Saalfeld
25. D -2. Chrono. Gera
26. E -3. Chrono. Dresden MP
27. F -4. Chrono. Löbau
28. G -5. Chrono. Stasihaft Bautzen
29. H -6. Chrono. Dresden Bautzener Str
30. I -7. Chrono. Halle
31. J -8. Chrono. Torgau J.Wh.
32. K -9. Chrono. Torgau-Fort Zinna
33. L . Chrono. Rostock
34. Teil 4,1 Start in der BRD
35. Teil 4,2 Start in der BRD
36. 1 Die Sowjetisierung Mitteldeutschlands
37. 2 Die Ostgebiete des Deutschen Reich unter fremder Verwaltung seit 1945
38. 3 Die Entwicklung in Polen seit 1945
39. A .4.3 + 4.4 Reise in die DDR – 1980 +1987
40. A. 4.5 Reisen in die DDR – 1987
41. Hochzeitsfoto von Ida Martha Maria Bonneß und Otto Albert Gustav Maaß
42. 7.1 Familie meiner zweiten Ehefrau, Gabriele Werner: Vorfahren von Gabrieles Vater
43. 7.2 Familie meiner zweiten Ehefrau, Gabriele Werner: Vorfahren von Gabrieles Mutter

Martin Bonneß

My name is Martin Bonneß, born 1941 in Zernin / Kolberg. My job: architect ... 1947 ... after the expulsion of my family from Pomerania ... accommodated in the GDR / Neugersdorf. There I went to school and learned the profession of bricklaying and plastering. 1958-1959 imprisoned for two attempts ... Republic escape by the State Security Service ... the GDR. 1959 successful escape from the GDR into the FRG ... (NRW) Here become architect and now retired I deal with genealogy. German: Mein Name ist Martin Bonneß, geboren 1941 in Zernin / Kolberg. Mein Beruf: Architekt... 1947... nach Vertreibung meiner Familie aus Pommern... in der DDR/Neugersdorf untergekommen. Dort zur Schule gegangen und den Beruf des Maurers und Putzers erlernt. 1958-1959 wegen zweifacher... versuchter Republikflucht durch den Staatssicherheitsdienst... der DDR inhaftiert. 1959 geglückte Flucht aus der DDR in die BRD... (NRW) Hier Architekt geworden und jetzt im Ruhestand befasse ich mich mit Ahnenforschung.