Katzer Families

Grave of Josef Katzer from Schodelwitz (Siodlowice) Kreis Frankenstein (Zabkowice Slaskie) found!

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Jan Cornelis de Mik from the Netherlands reports:

"In the former battlefields of the First World War in Northern France, my Dutch friend Maarten Otte found a unknown grave of 5 soldiers in the wood of Gesnes-en-Argonne.
My friend, who lives in Nantillois (near Verdun), is, like me, a collector of military stuff of soldiers of the First World War. 
He has a museum in Nantillois: https://www.facebook.com/1418Nantillois/timeline?ref=page_internal

The reason that this grave is unknown until now, might be that the area is thinly populated and that it is forbidden nowadays, to search in the woods and fields of the former battlefields of Northern France.

Even the German “Volksbund” does not know of the existence of this grave and they do not know these soldiers, so we can assume that the soldiers are still in the same grave where they have been buried in 1914.

 

Because the Schlesien I.R. 156 was a Prussian Regiment, there are no archives from this regiment, for these archives were in Potsdam (near Berlin) and they were destroyed during the bombardment of Potsdam in the Second World War. "

If you know any of the soldiers mentioned, please contact us.

Jan Cornelis de Mik has managed to obtain Joseph Katzer's birth certificate. If you are interested, please contact us. We will forward your request to Mr.de Mik.

The magazine Schlesischen Nachrichten published an account of Mr de Mik's work.
It also includes an interview with the genealogist.
The articles are in German and can be downloaded here, by kind permission of the author Damian Spielvogel