from 1937 till our escape 1945 

Köslin

nowadays: Koszalin / Polen

Thanks to → Verein "Heimatkreis Köslin"
They provided me the postcards of the old town

Köslin: market, town hall, St. Mary's church

Köslin? Where can I find it?

My way to school: Along the town hall

In April 2012 I was in Köslin/Koszalin for 48 hours. It was the first time that I came back since we fled in 1945 from here.
I visited the places of my youth.

the main station before the end of the war

|2012| In my youth we lived in the first yellow building on the right side. In the background you see the new building of the station (pale yellow)

|2012| Except the new overhead line, the platform is the same as I remember it from 1945

In the winter 1944/45 I was 14 years old. I had to work as aide, to lead fugitives to a shelter etc.
I remember still some terrible situations.

Market Place with the Monument of Friedrich Wilhelm I

|2012| ...in nearly the same viewing direction you find now the town hall

|2012| Market Place with St. Mary's Church

Click the left-hand picture!

Bank of Pomerania

|2012| ... Nowadays there is still a bank. The street is broadened, righthand there is no more any building from the old days till 1945

repairing a motor-cycle

automobile trade and repairing

master and assistants
in front of a Krupp truck

Buchwaldstr. 93: This was the place of my parents' firm
|2012| nowadays there is another automobile trade

I went to elementary school in this red building
|2012| guess that still nowadays there is a school

One day the teacher in my elementary school ordered us to write an essay about the post office and animated us to visit and explore it. Indeed the employees showed me (nine years old) all the rooms, and explained their tasks. I remember intensively how they cancelled the stamps, swinging the punch between stamp-pad and letter and back.

|2012| And now, 73 years later, I stand again in front of the post office. Except the Polish writing the building is exactly the same as I remember it.

|2012| Post Office. How do they cancel the stamps nowadays?

|2012| secondary school

|2012| The "Gollen", now named Góra Chelmska, nowadays is a holy place with St. Mary's sanctuary

|2012| the observation tower

|2012| The old city wall

|2012| ... and Groß Mölln, today Mielno

|2012| place of the former synagogue

When I went to school on 10th of November 1938 I saw a building on fire. Someone told me, that it was the synagogue of Köslin. At that time (eight years old) I did not yet know, what is a synagogue.

But what I saw on that day, I remember it exactly.

Here you can click the → English Website of Koszalin
 
Here you find the → Tourist Guide of Koszalin