In 1930s Germany, a mother and father watched the lives of their fourteen (yes, fourteen!) children divide. The eldest children had left home for America. They immigrated to Connecticut; one of them is my great-grandfather. The younger children remained in Germany in the heart of World War II. None would live past the age of 37.
Between the prosperity of those who left for America and the destitution of the ones who remained to see Germany through the war, there is outlier in the family of fourteen - Ernst. The footnote on his records says, “drowned in the Rhine River”.
There are two, completely different, absolutely plausible stories that could have led to his ending.
The simple story is from one other detail in that footnote: “drowned in the Rhine River during a seizure”. During a seizure. Epilepsy runs in the family, affecting descendants even today in 2020. If this is the case, Ernst is the earliest known relative to have it - that’s over 100 years of epilepsy in one blood line.
Swimming (and baths) are one of the more high risk activities a person with active epilepsy can do, so it’s plausible to imagine 24-year-old Ernst in 1930s swimwear, leisurely floating the winding river, when an unexpected seizure came over him and left him unconscious under deep water.
The more complex story is to look more closely at timelines, history, and maps. It was June of 1938 - the rumbling beginnings of World War II. German troops already occupied Vienna, Austria and Hitler declared to destroy Czechoslovakia just one week before Ernst’s death. And as for maps? The Rhine River, where Ernst drowned, separates Germany from its famously neutral neighbor - Switzerland.
Could something have gone wrong in Ernst’s attempt to cross the river to safer borders? There’s no way to know, but when you consider the lives of his other German-residing siblings, you think maybe he had a hunch for what was coming. In the next few years, one brother would be killed in the Siege of Leningrad and another in the largest confrontation of World War II - the Battle of Stalingrad. Seven of the siblings would die in Germany within eleven years, all deceased before 1950, all before age 37.
Two plausible stories, no way to ever know the full truth. Maybe it’s the love of unsolved mysteries in me, that makes this particular family history tale stand out to me despite the lack of details. The contrast between the lives of the American-bound siblings, the Germany siblings, and Ernst - right in the middle with a sad ending in the middle of a river - brings World War II history to a much more personal level. I wish I knew more about Ernst and his fateful day in the Rhine, but for now I connect with him by paying tribute to his story through these pictures.
We went to a gentle, winding, river that maybe feels a little bit like the Rhine River meeting the Black Forest in Germany. With an outfit reminiscent of a 1930s bathing costume, we photographed until the sun went down without another soul in sight. The sunset, the warm glittery water with tiny fish, the forest, it was perfect!
If you’re wondering, isn’t Ernst a man? Yes, this is my great-uncle who I’ve chosen to portray with a female model. Through history, it has always been more common to preserve the records and stories of men. Female ancestors are equally important though often dismissed as simply “wife of so-and-so” or “daughter of so-and-so” with no other information. I am portraying male ancestors with women models, because every male ancestor came from a woman. And so I honor him. And I honor her.
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