Family Letters

These are the letters that were written to Reinhard and Hans from their mom as well as a few others letters. I have included the original letters written in the old Gothic style as well as a rewritten version by Leni Froese so that we can all enjoy them.

Here is an interesting history of Montau, a Mennonite congregation in former West Prussia, near Neuenburg (Schwetz district).

A short history of our family in regards to Mama's letters by Eva...

The Willi Froese and Helene Pauls families had lived in Prussia (now Poland) for generations. When World War II (1939-1945) was turning many peoples lives up-side-down and the Russians were advancing and were actually in our house, we and many others, had to flee Prussia in the bitterly cold winter early in 1945. Both dad and Reinhard, who was 16 years old and the oldest of the 10 siblings, were called into the army. Dad deserted the army and was able to find us on our flight to western Germany. Reinhard was actually in a Russian prisoner of war camp for some months. He had been wounded in the foot and his elbow.

When we arrived in western Germany we lived with different families( because our family was so big) in a small village by the name of Bosse near the river Aller. This is where most of mom's letters were written from. In Dec. 1947 she gave birth to Friedhelm, her 11th child, but because of a birth defect he only lived for 1 month.

Uncle Franz and aunt Kaethe (dad's brother and mom's sister) also lived in Bosse with their 3 children. The older siblings in our family went to school in Verden but John and Willi went into apprenticeships. When Reinhard came home from the prison camp he worked at the YMCA (Young Mens Christian Association). In 1950 we were able to rent our own little family house, built especially for refugees, in Unkel on the river Rhine.

In Dec. 1951 the family emigrated to Canada (Langley, British Columbia) where Reinhard joined us a few years later.

Our family and relatives:

• Johann (born 1870) and Cornelia (born 1871) Froese (dad's parents)
• Johannes (born 1875) and Katharina (born 1870) Pauls (mom's parents)
• Ernst, Hans, Franz, Arthur, Willi , Paul, Cornelius, Lotte (dad's siblings)
• Kaethe, Helene, Johannes, Hermann, Heinrich (mom's siblings)
• Willi Froese - born Mar. 11, 1901 (our dad)
• Helene Froese (Pauls) - born Jan. 14, 1903 (our mom)

Their children:

• Reinhard - Dec. 13, 1927
• John (Johannes) - July 28, 1929
• Willi - July 20, 1930
• Magdalena (Lena) - Aug. 24, 1931
• Hanna - Feb. 1, 1934
• Christel - May 5, 1936
• Elisabeth (Lisa) - Jan. 20, 1938
• Walter - Mar. 27, 1939
• Eva (Evchen) - Mar. 25, 1941
• Karin - Nov. 1, 1942
• Friedhelm - born Dec. 11, 1947 died Jan. 12, 1948