The Story Without an Ending

Most of you know that I was drawn to Luxembourg in an attempt to find some answers regarding the MIA status of Marty's uncle, Pvt. Frederick W. Goempel, who, at the age of 19, joined the American forces in the ETO, but never returned.

I began with virtually nothing, but managed to piece a great deal of information together.  It took a lot of persistence on my part, and countless hours of reading, requesting, and waiting.  Years of work, sometimes put aside for a little while, but never put away, as something bugged me to pull it out again and look for new information.

Somewhere along the way, I was introduced to Ernest Kirpach, who willingly joined me in my search for information.

Ernest led me to Mike Boehler,  who eagerly answered my e-mail in Aug. 2009.  There were days where I did nothing but scan and send info to Mike, who reviewed each piece in search of clues.

Marty and I met with the DPMO on several occasions, and thanks to aerial photos supplied by these men, and a simple hand-drawn map from a man who was there in Feb. 1945,  JPAC finally took all of my research seriously, and sent a crew over in Sept. 2011 to this site.

Of course, I could not be there, but Mike and Ernest were, and thanks to the wonders of technology, I received first hand information within hours.  Despite the careful efforts of JPAC, no evidence was found to identify a spot where Fred may be buried.

But, there was a new development that Mike identified when he was on the field with JPAC.  It became quite obvious that there was an indentation in the ground that ran in zig-zag format from the bunker in the woods to another bunker further inland and somewhat up the hill.

Earlier this month, we headed all headed out to the site.

It may be difficult for you to see, but there is definitely an indentation in the ground that runs from the tree in the center, towards the bunker which would be on the right of this photo.
There's no missing it now that we know that it is there.  Mike has accumulated enough information to substantiate that Company F, 11th Regt. 5th Infantry Division was in this spot on Feb. 9, 1945.

When I first began my search, I could never have dreamed that it would come so far.  One could say that we have proven nothing regarding Fred's final resting place.  And that would certainly be a valid argument.

But those of you who have taken the time to read the story and review my work, know that we have a reason to believe that Fred lies here in these woods, more than likely within yards of this old tree.  We cannot prove it....but when you stand there in the woods....somehow... you can just feel it.

I am blessed to have had the opportunity to walk the ground where Fred once stood.  And although this search for information began as one frustrating obstacle after another, I can say with all honesty that this has been one of the most rewarding efforts of my life.

I have met two of the most awesome men who have made my dream a deliberate goal in their lives.  They receive no payment....only the satisfaction in knowing that they have offered some consolation to a family an ocean away who have wondered all of these years about the fate of their loved one.

I cannot thank these men enough.

I found this quote from a book that makes a statement far better than I could ever write:

"...26,694 American soldiers found their last earthly resting place in the cemeteries of Margraten (the Netherlands) , Henri-Chapelle (Belgium) , Neuville-en-Condroz (Belgium) and Hamm (Luxembourg) .  A further 3,006 fell in battle but have no grave , no cross , no Star of David .  Their remains lie desolate in foreign soil , far away from their homeland .  No human hand has been able to protect their secret grave from sorrowful loneliness .  No flower has ever adorned their last resting place .  No priest has ever walked around , blessing the graves .  No one has ever spent time at the grave in quiet remembrance .  There is no one who has stood there in silent conversation .  They have passed away without leaving a trace of them behind .
The blood of all these people was shed to free our homelands .  It is part of our duty to keep the memory alive of these Americans who died and this remembrance may never cease .  It is the duty of the living to remember the dead .  Whether we are from the Netherlands , Belgium or Luxembourg , we all have the Americans to thank for our national identity , our independence , our freedom and our well-being .
These sons of America , who fought for months or years here in Europe against an unrelenting enemy , have a right to our permanent appreciation and our eternal gratitude..."

Camile P. Kohn , Luxembourg .

(Excerpt from : Foreword War Graves .  Book :  " Im Schatten der Wälder . In the Shadow of the Forests . Dans l'Ombre des Forêts . In de Schaduw van de Bossen ." by Armand Blau 1996 , Imprimerie Saint-Paul S.A. , Luxembourg)

And, I, for one, am thankful for that eternal gratitude.

Last Day in Luxembourg

We began the day at Luxembourg American Cemetery.  As you can see, the weather was, once again, quite accommodating.

Our reason for visiting was to, once again, pay our respects to the men and women who lost their lives liberating Luxembourg from the Germans. 

There are thousands who bear their names on white cross markers.

And hundreds who are still missing, whose names are inscribed upon the Tablets of the Missing.

Marty's uncle is remembered at the top of this column: 

Goempel, Frederick W. Jr.    Pvt.    11th Inf. 5 Div    Pennsylvania

And there are the markers of those whose bodies were never identified.

While we were gazing upon the markers, we heard a Glockenspiel chime out the tune to our national anthem.  A memory not soon forgotten.

We left the cemetery and headed to Pettingen where a 10th century castle ruins still stands.  Our GPS decided to take the long way and we soon found ourself in downtown Luxembourg City, at the height of lunch hour traffic.  So, what should have taken 20 minutes ended up taking an hour.  

We were happy to have finally reached our destination.

Although the ruins are lovely and the town of Pettingen quite charming, our stomachs were growling by now and we headed into Mersch to have some lunch and enjoy the scenery. We weren't disappointed.

What a picture perfect day we were blessed with on this last day in Luxembourg.

Dinner was at a restaurant of Ernest's choice:  Sieweburen.  All I can say is that it was FABULOUS!

We had such a marvelous evening and every morsel was delicious.  We had an extremely entertaining waiter with the cutest French accent whose main purpose was to make us happy.  When he saw my camera, he immediately asked if he could take our photo.  How could we resist?

The man was so excited with his picture taking abilities, that when we ordered dessert, he insisted on taking another photo!

I think he said he summed up our trip quite well when he looked at the view finder and said, "Ooh la LA!"

You're Just to Good to be True

Can't take my eyes off of you.......
Forgot to mention the outside musical entertainment that we heard while leaving Echternach last evening.  At a cafe on the edge of town, there was a man playing his guitar, with a synthesizer in the background, singing this familiar tune.

You might not find that to be unusual, except that this is Luxembourg.  They speak Luxembourgish, German and French.  A few speak English, but they are not the norm.

What became very obvious was that this man actually did not understand what he was singing.  When it came time for the chorus, "I love you Baby".....it came out "Eye luvuebeebee" at which point Amy and I cracked up laughing.  The guy reminded me of Peter of "Peter, Paul & Mary" in his looks, but definitely NOT in his vocal ability.  But the crowd didn't seem to care, which made it all the better.  What a great memory for us to have on our last evening in Echternach.

Today we began our day at the Patton museum.  Don't let the name of the museum sway your opinion.  Although much credit is given to the military accomplishments of Gen. Patton during World War II, the museum is far more about the history of the people of Luxembourg during the German occupation.

Luxembourg was invaded in 1939, just after celebrating its 100th anniversary of independence, by German forces under the direction of Hitler.  The people in the country were forced to speak only German.
The young men were forced to join the German army.  Anyone who did not agree to conditions set out by German authorities were removed to concentration camps.  More than 4000 citizens were deported to Eastern Germany.  The Jewish population was nearly completely annihilated with only a dozen families surviving.

Ernest had told me the story that his father fled the country and joined the Luxembourg forces in France.  As a result, Ernest's grandmother was sent to a concentration camp for four years. Can we even imagine this?

791 Luxembourg Citizens were killed in these German concentration camps.  1250 Luxembourg soldiers who had been forced to join the German army and were sent to Russia to fight on the front are Missing in Action.

I read one sad story after another and began to realize just why the people of this country are so eager to meet Americans.  Believe it or not, they continue to hold our country in high esteem for risking lives of American soldiers to liberate Luxembourg.  And that is what this Patton museum reflects.

About 360 meters from the museum stands a memorial to Patton, overlooking the Our river.  His face is pointed to Germany.

We left Ettelbruck and headed to Clervaux where a Benedictine Abbey stands on a high hill.
But there is much more to this lovely town than the abbey on the hill.
The castle was built in the 12th century and serves as a museum now.

 The church is relatively modern, having been built in the early 1900's.

And, not unlike many towns in Luxembourg, it has a tribute to American soldiers during World War II.  Note the American flag flying next to the Luxembourg flag.

We stopped for lunch in the town before heading to the abbey. I just have to share a photo of Ernest's lunch with you.

Can you guess what that is?


Octopus. When he was finished, his plate was clean.

After lunch, we headed to the abbey.  It stands on a high hill, and still has an active Benedictine community.  The area is calm and serene, and we enjoyed our visit there.

Before heading back to our hotel, we stopped for some refreshment in Larochette.

Marty and Ernest enjoyed a beer.

Amy and I preferred some ice cream and strawberries:

Everyone was happy.....as it should be.

The L2 trail in Larochette, Luxembourg

The weather today was FABulous, so we headed out to Larochette, a lovely town in the Mullertal valley.  This area of Luxembourg has numerous hiking trails that highlight much of the beautiful terrain of Luxembourg.  I opted for the "easiest" trail which was 8.8 km in length and involved hiking up and down some hills, it really wasn't stressful, and the scenery was gorgeous.

The natural make up of the land is very unique, with cliffs rising out of nowhere.

But there were benches along the way for some people who felt the need to check co-ordinates.

But it wasn't long before they were out on the trail again.

You can see just how fabulous the day was.

After stopping for lunch in town, we headed out to a special waterfall, not too far from the town of Larochette.

Just a little walk down the road, and here you see:

Such tranquility!

After we rested up a bit, we headed into Echternach, to meet Ernest so that we could hear the Glockenspiel played at St. Willibrord's church.  Ernest was so excited to hear the performance, but once the music began to play, he was very disappointed.

The rest of us thought it was pretty cool.  There we were, sitting in this ancient quaint town, listening to the playing of bells that hung in the tower of the church. What a unique and different experience for us!

After listening to several songs being played, we decided to head down the lane and stop into the Caffe Vicenza for an ice cream treat.  That was probably one of the best decisions that we made today.

In case you are wondering, it actually tasted BETTER than it looks.

Lovely Luxembourg City

Here you gaze upon the lovely Old Town Luxembourg City, taken as we walk across the bridge from New town. The weather was quite beautiful today and we enjoyed walking around the old town and seeing many of the interesting sites that the city has to offer. Of course, we had our tour guide, Ernest along which made things so much easier for us.,

Once in the Old Town, we stopped into the Cathedral of Luxembourg, known as the Church of Our Lady.

It is discretely located off of side alley.

In Constitution Plaza, there stands a statue to William II.

It stands in the middle of the square surrounded by unique buildings.

Our first venture was to the Casements, underground tunnels dug into the cliff in the late 1800's. They were built for protection purposes, and one can only imagine the manual labor that went into digging out the maze of rooms. 

 This structure is considered to be one of the world's Unesco heritage site.

Above you can see the canon holes.

And the views over the city were quite impressive.

After visiting the casements, we decided to stop for lunch since we had time prior to our scheduled tour of the Ducal Palace.

Lunch was at a well known local restaurant called Bacchus. Ernest went to see if they could accommodate us with a table, and we were told that it would be a few minutes. Well, time went by, and the owner spotted us waiting patiently by the door, and the next thing we knew, we were being ushered to the back of the restaurant, to wait a few minutes more, but we were each given a glass of cold sparkling prosecco by this man, compliments of the house, as a thank you for waiting.

   

I found it to be quite refreshing myself, but noticed that Marty downed his before we even got a picture!  We handed him Amy's glass so that it wouldn't look like he had an empty glass.  But, now you know that he did!

We enjoyed a delightful lunch, although Amy's pest gnocchi was way too heavy on the basil, and she ended up eating a only piece of tiramisu for lunch. Not the most desirable lunch, but certainly better than nothing!

After lunch we walked to the spot of the Golden Lady statue which stands over the Old Town.

She was originally erected in honor of World War I victims, but the Germans decided that shse must be taken down in the late 1930's when the established German rule over the country. The statue was then hidden by some local townsment, and discovered nearly 60 years later. It was referbished and mounted again, at the insistence of the locals.

At last, it was time for our tour through the Ducal Palace. It was NOT disappointing. In fact, quite the opposite. There were so many beautiful things to see in the recently restored palace. No photos were permiltted, so you'll just have to take m yword for it. The guide was great and the tour was fantastic.

We drove back to Echternach, and met up with Mike, who met us at the crossing site where Marty's Uncle Fred was last known to be in Feb. 1945. It was interesting walking through the woods once again, only this time seeing the remarkable discovery by Mike.

If you know the story, you remember that I located a man who hand drew me a map, 60 years after the battle, pinpointing the spot where a "new recruit" suddenly disappeared by stepping onto a landmine. We realized several years ago that this map was extremely accurate in details.  You can find it on the website that I mentioned yesterday.

In analyzing this map, Mike has been able to substantiate nearly the right spot where Fred would have last been seen. He located the large tree  which was drawn on the map,(it is the only really old tree in the forest in the area around the bunker)  and suddenly, he noticed that a trench runs along the woods from pillbox #2 to pillbox #3. After a lot of time putting all of the pieces together, Mike strongly feels that Fred fell into a trench between this tree and the bunker, after he had stepped on a landmine.

In walking through the woods tonight, it is easy to agree with his opinion. Since the trench is 6 feet deep and is filled with barbed wire, it doesn't seem feasible to start digging and looking for Fred.

All of the information leads to the conclusion that Fred is buired in the woods in the location between the tree and the bunker and we can pinpoint an approximate area where he probably lays.  

We all agreed that we can say with strong certainly that we know where Fred's final resting place is. We cannot say for sure exactly where he is buried, but we feel at peace that we can say that his body is located in a certain section of woods in Germany, just across the Sauer River from Luxembourg.

The full moon over the horizon seemed to shine upon us as we said one last good-bye to Fred. He was one of the many who died way too young, defending the freedom of Luxembourg, and the family can e proud to know that the citizens here are grateful to Americans for his efforts. Never have we received more gracious welcomes than from the citizens of Luxembourg.

Lovin' Luxembourg

Many of you who are new to my blog might question, “Why Luxembourg?” And who are Mike and Ernest?  

Well, just to give you a quick synopsis: twelve years ago, I began searching for information on Marty's uncle who went Missing in Action in February of 1945. My persistence in attempting to find some closure for his family led me to Ernest Kirpach in Luxembourg. Ernest was willing to devote time and energy to help me with the numerous questions that I would send to him. I don't want to go into too many details here, but I welcome you to take a peek at my website which describes the years of effort that I put into this search.  

http://home.comcast.net/~geisler27bam/The_Search_for_Private_Frederick_W._Goempel/Welcome.html

Mike used to work for the Museum of Military History and he is the “hands on” man who has actually unearthed several German soldiers while searching for military artifacts for the museum. I contacted the museum curator about four years ago, asking if he could put me in contact with Mike. I'll never forget the e-mail: “It's me. How can I help you?”

Well, that was the beginning of an interesting relationship, and Mike and Ernest have been working together since, in the hope of locating Marty's uncle's remains. My years of research, in combination with the help from these guys, led to JPAC sending a search team back in September to analyze the situation. Believe me, that never would have happened without these guys actively working on my “dream”.

Marty and I visited with these guys in May 2010, but we only stayed 2 days in Echternach. So, we decided to come back and visit this beautiful country for a week this time. Both Mike and Ernest were excited to hear of our plans, and we have been having a blast since arriving. I have to admit that it has been interesting watching the two of them come up with ideas of things that we need to see here in Luxembourg. We've had some great laughs at some of the suggestions.

On a serious note, we do plan on going back out and visiting the crossing site, since Mike seems to have come up with some new information. I'll keep you posted on that.

In the meantime, today found us back at the Museum of Military History in Diekirch. 

 I forgot how huge this place was, and Ernest told us today that it holds an original of every single piece of World War II military equipment from American and German forces. It is primarily devoted to the Battle of the Bulge and believe me when I tell you that it bursting at the seams with military items.

There are numerous dioramas set up in the museum, and what is really interesting about each of them is that they are accurate interpretations of particular events that occurred. Every one of these dioramas features a scene that was either taken from an original photograph, or it was put together under the direction of one of the soldiers who would have been in the scene. Every piece of clothing that is worn, and every item in the diorama is original to World War II. There are no copied uniforms. 

 Ok, so the turkey in the Thanksgiving scene isn't original, but you get my point.

Here you can see this famous photo looking out over Echternach:

And here is the diorama that features the photo:

And, let me share just one more thing with you.  The museum has a photo of St. Willibrord's Church in Echternach taken in 1945:

Amazingly, here is how the church looks today:

I still get chills when I think of what the civilians must have endured during this difficult time.

After several hours of walking through the museum, we lunched at the Grille in Diekirch. The meal was fabulous, and we were all very full when we left the restaurant.

After a quick walk through the main plaza in town, Ernest drove us off to Vianden to see the restored castle there.

Upon approaching the town of Vianden, one comes around the bend and suddenly this beauitufl structrure comes into view.

Amazing, don't you think?

Ernest parked the car and we walked down into the town only to realize that the entrance to the castle was in the opposite direction. But, I was glad for the detour because the town is enchanting, and except for the high traffic along the road, I enjoyed the sheer beauty of this town.

Once at the top of the castle, we realized that there was a lot more going on than what we had anticipated. Apparently there is a Medieval festival going on, and believe me when I tell you that there was just way too much commotion going on.

The castle opens its doors to vendors selling their wares, and although they attempt to maintain an aura of the medieval atmosphere, I didn't enjoy the crush of people or, as Ernest put it, the “made in China” items available for sale.

So, the castle in itself, was a bit disappointing, but the day as a whole was, indeed, remarkable.

This evening, Marty, Amy and I took a walk around this lovely village of Echternach.

Yep! We sure had a great time!