During World War II, my great-grandmother (Luise P.) from Züllichau (Mark Brandenburg → today Poland) fled to Wemding with her little daughter (Gudrun) covering a distance of almost 700 km. They joined the spinning factory, where my great-grandmother’s younger sister named Martha worked. My great-grandfather (Richard P.) was at the Russian front at that time. The family had agreed to keep in touch with their Berlin relatives. In Wemding the refugees were accommodated in different families first, among them the families E. and H..

At that time life was very hard for refugee families, as most of the them were women with children and they could not work because they had to look after their children. My great-grandmother earned some money by knitting. They were very fortunate to spend time with the H. family because they were well-disposed towards them and supported them a lot. The relationship remained close also in later years. In a letter from a Berlin relative, my great-grandma learned that her nephew, Walter Weiss, had escaped from his boarding school to Neuburg on the Danube.

So she and her sister decided to take the nephew in. Martha set off to pick up the youth. In order not to be a burden to his aunts Walter earned some money by taking up small jobs. My great-grandfather had come into Russian captivity after he was injured. He came to Wemding only after the end of the war. Here he found work in the hard stone factory. Since my grandmother went to school now, my great-grandmother could also go to work. She was the head of the hard stone factory canteen, whereas my great-grandfather worked in production. Richard P. remained there until his retirement. My grandmother had to learn that a protestant refugee was still bullied at school even after living here for several years.

The Catholic priest Johannes F. said to her: "Go away, you Lutheran rascal!" In the 1950s, my great-grandparents built the house in the Sandfeldsiedlung, where I still live today. The fact that there were many protestant refugees in Wemding after the war made it necessary to build a church there. The Bu. and Bi. families, who were the owners of the hard stone factory, supported the construction of the Protestant Christ Church. My great-grandfather helped with the construction and he supported the community all his life. Although they were refugees, they gained respect, my great-grandfather was a church administrator and a member of the parish council for decades. After his death, my grandmother was also elected to be the woman of trust in the parish council. My great-grandmother died half a year after my birth, and I never met my grandmother since she already died in 1990. I only met Walter W., who was like a grandpa for me until his death seven years ago.