Uncle Leo and the Nazis

April 13, 2007 6:52 PM

This Sunday will be Yom HaShoah "Holocaust Martyrs' Remembrance Day" in Israel. A month ago Eric Muller, a law professor at UNC, went to Germany to find what he could about his great uncle Leopold Müller. Today he got something unexpected in the mail. (via)
posted by sotonohito (16 comments total)

Wow, I've already been to the Yom HaShoah page on Wikipedia today, with mathowie no less, after we were looking at some other blog and he asked me what it meant. Thanks for posting this, what an interesting little footnote.
posted by jessamyn at 7:06 PM on April 13, 2007

Nice gesture on their part. BTW, being a military buff myself, whats the medal for? I'd really like to hear more about that file too.
posted by winks007 at 7:11 PM on April 13, 2007

What does WWI have to do it with holocaust?
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:15 PM on April 13, 2007

Whoops, didnt see the second link.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:17 PM on April 13, 2007

d.d.a: It's the file of someone who faught for germany in world war one, and was killed in the Holocaust. At least, that's my understanding.
posted by delmoi at 7:17 PM on April 13, 2007

What an amazing thing - to get a piece of your family returned to you after all these years.

Thanks for the post.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 7:26 PM on April 13, 2007

That was amazing. And how weird to see that letter with his CB# 3380 address on it. That will probably be weird only to me, though.

(or leesh, if she sees this)
posted by pinky at 8:01 PM on April 13, 2007

.
posted by fandango_matt at 8:19 PM on April 13, 2007

Made my day.
thanks
posted by caddis at 8:44 PM on April 13, 2007

Sonohito, I was stationed in BK.
posted by winks007 at 8:51 PM on April 13, 2007

wow, amazing. Thanks for posting this.
posted by scody at 8:58 PM on April 13, 2007

I think it's amazing that they got back to him within a month - and apologised for the delay!
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:14 AM on April 14, 2007

One point: The Day is not honored just in Israel but also in the United States by many people through their places of worship.
posted by Postroad at 6:24 AM on April 14, 2007

Postroad I specified "in Israel" becuase that's the only place its an official holiday, didn't mean to imply that it was only observed in Israel.
posted by sotonohito at 7:08 AM on April 14, 2007

Some good further linkage in kirkaracha's double.
posted by cortex at 12:08 PM on April 14, 2007

Thanks for a very worthwhile post, sotonohito.

winks007, Regarding what the medal would have been for, there is a recent visitor's comment now posted below the original linked blog posting, stating in part: "The medal is known as the König Ludwig Kreuz, or King Ludwig Cross. It was founded on January 7, 1916 by King Ludwig III of Bavaria to recognize wartime merit through official or voluntary activities in the homeland in the service of the Army or the general welfare of the Kingdom ... It was not usually awarded to serving military personnel - it was for merit on the homefront - so it might indicate that [the great-uncle] was invalided out of active service after [his WWI] injuries ... but continued to serve the community."
posted by NetizenKen at 8:26 PM on April 14, 2007