German siblings visit the sites painted by father in Occupation
TWO German siblings have been retracing their father’s steps around Guernsey, where he served with the German Army during the Second World War.
Gerhard Willi Kuckuk was a corporal in the infantry. He was 34 when he had to leave behind his pregnant wife in Nuremberg in 1942 to serve in Guernsey with the occupying forces.
His daughter, Ursula, was born in 1943, while son Peter was born in 1948.
Their parents rarely talked about the war and their mother died in 1982 and their father in 1996.
But he left behind a diary, which he had written for Ursula and her mother, as well as dozens of watercolour paintings of Guernsey from the Occupation.
Last Saturday, Ursula Moosler, nee Kuckuk, 75, and Peter Kuckuk, 69, finally arrived in Guernsey.
‘We are the last in our family,’ said Mrs Moosler.
‘For the last 10 years we have said we have to go to Guernsey. So this year, we booked.’
The pair came armed with their father’s diary and photocopies of his painted scenes, with no idea where they were. But slowly they are piecing them together, with the help of locals.
At Castle Cornet they met castle keeper Shaun Marsh, who is also a member of fortification group Festung Guernsey, who helped identify some of the sites.
Many of the views are of Fort George, when it was a working military installation.
There are also images of Cornet Street, Catherine Best’s mill, Clifton Steps and St James.
A country lane image shows one of the red road marking arrows used by the Germans, while another painting of the Castle Cornet lighthouse shows how the pier was lined with barbed wire.
The pair have been photographing their father’s paintings next to the modern day views.
The diary was written for Mrs Moosler and her mother – Mrs Moosler did not meet her father until she was four – and it focused on how much he missed them.
But it also gives a small insight into his life in Guernsey. He was billeted in a small house, where he grew potatoes and salads, as well as breeding rabbits, which he used to share with islanders.
Mr Kuckuk said his father was not a fighting man and his real love was music. He would play the piano to entertain people during the Occupation.
After the war, he was sent to York as a prisoner-of-war and was billeted with a family, where he taught the daughter to play the piano.
He returned to his family in Nuremberg in 1947, where he played the piano at an American club until 1950.
Then he went to retrain as a music teacher and taught music until he retired.
Mrs Moosler said the trip was going very well.
‘We are very happy to be here,’ she said.
‘It’s so emotional.’
The pair are in the island until Saturday.
