My paternal uncle, Josef Krings, was born 18 May 1914 in Düsseldorf, Germany and was killed 5 July 1943 during WW2 at the battle of Korowina, Bjelgrod, Russia. His parents were Wilhelm Krings and Maria Becker. I recently was able to obtain a copy of his birth certificate, which is now in the public domain, from Düsseldorf City Archives.
His birth certificate has two Randvermerke or side notes. One is for his marriage and the other one for the death certificate. I have copies of both.
Josef grew up in a large family with seven brothers and sisters. At one point he moved to Berlin. I don’t know exactly when and why. There, he married Antonia Sotola, 24 July 1940. She was born in Stockerau near Vienna, Austria. They had a son in 1941, named Georg, my first cousin. I have never met him.
Uncle Josef, probably with his wife Antonia and may be his mother in law. Location unknown, probably taken in Berlin, circa 1940.
Uncle Josef and cousin Georg circa 1942, location may be in Berlin.
Josef and Georg 1941 in Berlin
Cousin Georg 14 months old probably in Berlin, 1942
Josef was killed in Korowino, Russia in July 1943. The death certificate was issued a year later, in July 1944, in Berlin.
Josef’s wife, Antonia, together with their son Georg, moved back to Austria.
I gathered the information about Josef from several source.
- 1. Birth and death dates I learnt from my Dad who passed away in 2006
- 2. The pictures were given to me by his younger sister, Ursula, who also passed away in 2006.
- 3. Berlin death certificates are online from 1874-1985 at Ancestry. I didn’t know that my uncle had lived in Berlin, until I saw the certificate. From the side notes I learnt where to order the marriage and birth certificate.
- 4. His marriage certificate from 1940, which I did not post here, I ordered from the City Archives in Berlin .
- 5. I tried to look for his grave, but there is none. His body was never recovered. You can search for graves here at the German War Graves Commission.
A few tips when you search at the German War Graves Commission site. The spelling of the names have to be exact. I would start with just a last name. Birth dates also have to be exact as well. German dates are written differently. For example today’s date is 5-19-25. In Germany the date would be 19-05-25.
Every time you search the site, they want you to enter your name, address, email and so on. If you do find your relative, you then have the option of getting updates by email and/or also make donations to the website. I have never received any junk mail, only an occasional email every few years if there is something new on the battle/grave site.
You can order military records at the Bundesarchiv (Federal Archive) in Germany. The web site is in German and English. I ordered my Dad’s service record over 10 years ago. It took two years to get them. It might even take longer nowadays. If you are looking for WW1 service records, you will have no luck. They were destroyed during WW2. The only exception are the Bavarian WW1 Personnel Records 1914-1918 which are at ancestry.
Here is a map of where Josef was born (Düsseldorf), lived (Berlin) and died (Russia)
In a future post I will write about Josef’s brother who was also a soldier and died shortly after the war ended. I am still gathering facts and documents.
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Genealogy Is An Adventure 