Lorenz Hemicker

I never met Ernst, he became my grandfather because he died five years before I was born.

The only thing we had in common was that we were born on the same day, on the 27th of July.

My father talked with me about Ernst the first time when I was five years old.

And we were talking about the Second World War.

We did it very soon.

I was interested in military issues already as a child.

And on a car drive from Cologne to our hometown in the Sauerland, he told me that

Ernst was involved in atrocities close to Riga in Rumbola, where he was a gravedigger for more than 25,000 Jews.

This was the one side.

And the other side was that he told me narratives that are typical for Nazis who had a big debt.

He said he didn't want to.

He was a technician and he tried to help Jews at the end of the war.

Yeah, that's exactly the case.

He wasn't able to deal with the issue.

He tried to defend his father, to understand him on the one side.

On the other side, it was absolutely obvious that he was involved in the atrocities in Rombolam.

Well, I think distance and time is the one thing, though on the other side, I am and you are the same generation.

We are still close enough to be personally involved to a certain extent.

But the other thing was definitely the sudden death of my father in 2011.

He died two weeks before we wanted to fly to Riga on our own to start our search for traces.