Inge Goldberg  was born on the 10th July 1918. She was to be the oldest of 4 children.A younger sister called Susanne was born in 1920, followed by a brother Karl born in 1922 and another brother called Christian born in 1929.

Inge Goldberg had red hair, blue eyes and freckles.

Above in this photo with her parents.

Above in this photo she is on the right and her sister Susanne is on the left.

Above in this photo from left to right we have Christian, Inge, Karl and Susanne. The photo below is the back of this photograph which shows the children’s ages. Inge was 18 years old at this time.

Below is my last photo of Inge

Inge studied interior design in Danzig (Gdansk).

In 1945 towards the end of the second world war the Russian army were entering Dansk and refugees were fleeing Germany.

Full-fledged panic is erupting in East Prussia in January 1945.  Tales of Russian revenge for the Nazi invasion of the “Motherland” spread like wildfire all the way to the Wilhelm Gustloff’s port in Gotenhafen’s Oxhöft Pier.  Hundreds of thousands of German refugees continue to stream in to the Danzig , hoping for safe passage to the West.

A major offensive launched by the Soviets in mid-January accelerates the exodus from East Prussia .  Many Ethnic Germans cut off from the Danzig by Red Army troops negotiate passage across the frozen Frisches Haff, a freshwater lagoon on the Baltic coast.  Soviet planes circle in the sky, bombing defenceless refugees.  Direct hits are not necessary – weakening the ice is enough to send families with their wagons and horses through to an icy death.  To the many refugees streaming toward ports in the Danzig , escape to the West is the only hope of avoiding certain suffering and death.

Above a model of the Wilhelm Gustloff ship

On January 22, 1945 , the Gustloff begins preparations to accept thousands of refugees.  There are also obvious challenges involved in getting the ship running properly.  With the exception of minor test runs, the Gustloff’s engines have not operated in over 4 years.

Ships of all shapes and sizes are assembled and prepared for sailing West.  Joining the Gustloff for the evacuation will be other submarine training ships such as the Hansa, Hamburg. Unfotunately the Hansa Hamburg developed engine trouble and was unable to escort  the Gustloff ship.

The scene in Gotenhafen is panic-laced chaos.  Thousands and thousands of refugees – mostly women and children – jam the harbour.  You won’t find too many able-bodied men.  Those who can fight the Russians have already been procured for duty (feared SS Stormtroopers patrolling the crowds ensure none are overlooked).  Many are not well – having endured bitter cold and long distances by carriage or foot in unforgiving January weather.  Thousands do not make it to the Danzig ports.  Unimaginable death litters the roadsides and in places like the frozen Frisches Haff lagoon.

Despite the mass of pulsating humanity on the docks, boarding the Gustloff is relatively orderly in the early stages.  Armed sentries guard the gangways to keep out those without priority or privilege.  The ship’s printing press, once used to create colourful cruise agendas, now cranks out the coveted “ Identity Pass ” that allows access to the Gustloff.  The precious piece of paper with the Gothic type offers hope.

As expected, the first right to these passes is provided for the U-boat officers, crew members, and a few hundred members of the Women’s Naval Auxiliary (some members of which are accommodated in the drained swimming pool).  Wounded soldiers arriving by train are also given priority.  “Privileged” refugees then get their turn.  The first ones to receive passes are those with “connections” – to family and friends on board, or to those with local influence.  Of course, those with money attempt to buy them.  We will never know how many underhanded deals are made.  One thing is sure: as more and more privileged board, tension and envy mount in “ordinary” refugees crowded around the gangways.

Inge was a Marine Helper and was placed in he drained swimming pool area of the ship.

With less than two days until the ship until departure, 10 of the 22 lifeboats are missing.  After over four years as floating barracks, lifeboats have gradually disappeared fromtheir davits – requisitioned for other duties in the harbour such as creating smoke screens to obscure Allied air raids.  Hastily, 18 small boats are hoisted on and secured to the sundeck.  Numerous life rafts are added in strategic places around the decks.  Anti-aircraft guns are affixed to the deck to offer token protection – Luftwaffe control of the skies a distant memory.

According to an official list, only three thousand refugees are already loaded onto the Gustloff by the morning of January 30th, 1945 (they have stopped counting).  As it becomes more certain the ship will sail on this day, more crowds rush the gangways.  Mothers and children become separated.  Children and infants are handed to those going on board.  In terrifying manner, shoving on gangways throw some children overboard – disappearing into the ice cold water between the dock and hull.  Small boats pull up along side filled with mothers and children begging for a spot on board.  For some, persistence is rewarded as nets and gangways are lowered to take more on board.

On this bitter cold grey day in Gotenhafen, scattered with snow and sleet, exact numbers of those aboard will never be known.  By the time the Gustloff is ready to leave port, well over 10,000 anxious evacuees are crammed aboard the ship.

Within 9 hours, 3 torpedoes will hit the Wilhelm Gustloff.  It will sink to the bottom of the Baltic Sea , taking over 9,500 souls with it.

Below deck, thousands of passengers attempt to settle in to their assigned areas for the journey.  Last minute arrivals carve out any reasonable living space they are lucky to find.  Every possible space on the ship is occupied.  All are instructed over the loudspeaker to wear the lifejackets provided to them.  Under no circumstances are they to remove them.  Above deck, wind, snow and hail pelt the Gustloff.  The seas become rougher as the Bay is left behind.  Seasickness begins to set in for many.  Unable to relieve themselves overboard, on board toilets become clogged and the stench nauseating.  Even so, for many it is a small price to pay for the hardships endured recently.

On board the escape ship, cheerful music resumes its tinny resonance from the ship’s speakers – accompanied the whimpering of discontented children and adults alike.   On the bridge, there is a cautious sense of relief among the four captains now that they’ve reached the Stolpe Bank.  They share a sentiment that the most dangerous waters in the journey are behind them.  In addition to their first meal since departure, a round of cognac is poured to toast good fortune.  Captain Weller remains on duty on the bridge.  And then…

At 9:16PM , the first torpedo strikes the front of the ship, blowing a gaping hole in the port bow.  Moments later, the second hits further astern where the swimming pool is located.  Finally, the third scores a direct hit in the engine room below the funnel.  Passengers and crew are thrown off their feet with the thunderous booms.  Those near direct points of impact are practically vaporized and perhaps spared the ensuing panic and suffering.

Upon first reports of damage, the watertight doors are ordered shut to seal off the forward part of the ship.  Unfortunately, this area contains the crews quarters.  Many off-duty crew members (especially those trained in lowering lifeboats and emergency procedures) are sealed to their doom.

The scene of the second torpedo impact is greatly distressing.  The drained swimming pool (and cabins in the immediate area) had been makeshift accommodations for many of the Women’s Naval Auxiliary.  The torpedo blast creates airborne missiles out of splintered tiles which just moments before decorated the pool area with lavish mosaics.  Girls in the direct area are cut to pieces by flying tiles and twisted metal.  For the first time in years, water rushes in to the pool.  But this time, floating corpses, body parts and empty life jackets swim in its water.  Only two or three of the 373 girls are able to escape.

With that, the total number of survivors rescued number approximately 1,230.  Over 9,000 go to their deaths – trapped at the bottom of the Baltic or floating frozen on its unforgiving surface.

Today, the wreck is officially designated as a grave site and is off limits to divers by order of Polish authorities.

Above an image of the wrecked ship

Inge Golberg perished on this ship at the age of 26, such a tragic loss especially to her family and younger sister Susanne.

In the 1960’s Susanne’s  mother had a studio doll made in Inge Goldberg’s likeness with  Red hair, Blue eyes and Freckles. The studio doll was given to Susanne as a gift from her mother in memory of her older sister Inge.

The doll is called Inge and now lives with me.

Inga’s freckles go right up into her brow. Her outfit is all original and she is a B11 type face with cloth body. She is in excellent condition having been looked after very well by her original family.

Inge is wearing her new shoes from Brigitte.

I would like to thank Uli Goldberg who was Inge Goldberg’s Nephew and son of her brother Karl for all the photos and information he and his 90 year old mother were able to tell me about Inge Goldberg.

her memory will live on forever in this wonderful studio doll Inge.

Brigitte and I boarded the Train to Zurich. It was great fun to travel on a double decker train. We made our way to the buffet car to have our breakfast on route to the Zurich  Toy Fair.

A wonderful start to the day with a tasty breakfast, while we relaxed  on the way to the Zurich toy fair.

We arrives at Zurich train station and then travelled by tram to the Zurich Toy Fair.

Once we arrived at the Toy Fair we waited patiently in a queue for the doors to open, into an Aladdin’s cave of toys. I am primarily a Sasha Doll lover so, I cannot tell what all the dolls are that were for sale so, I will let the photos do the talking.

Some Sasha outfits for sale to the right of this photo.

Above a course doll, 2 early Gotz sasha’s and a baby.

Above a beautiful Lenci doll

Above 2 more beautiful Gotz sasha’s

Above a number of Sasha babies and a later Gotz boy.

Above you can just see an early Gotz sasha.

Above a gorgeous soft body studio doll in great condition.

Another beautiful course doll

Above this exquisite hard bodied studio doll really pulled at my heart strings, however the  little lady was bright green and I decided that as I will not have the funds for an abundance of Studio dolls, that my first one would not be green. The seller was asking £4000 for her and at the end of the day she had not sold.

After the Toy Fair had finished Brigitte and I met up with a few other doll lovers, for a cup of coffee and a chat,  which was great fun.

Above from left to right me, Brigitte, Dora, Gertrude, Renee and Thu cuc, we also met up with Madeline Foong, Laura Knüsli and Michael O’Brien.

The pamphlets for next year were handed out.

(Below is a rough translation  of the newsletter on the right)

The zurcher speilzeugmuseum shows from March 2016 in changing exhibitions dolls and objects from the original collection Sasha Morgenthaler. The collection is the property of the city of Zurich. In the last four years over 70 dolls were exhibited in the museum Lindwurm in Stein and Rhein. Now they have returned to Zurich. The work of Sasha Mogenthaler is characterized by individual creativity and craftsmanship as well as the highest possible quality. A special characteristic of her doll art is the law of the asymmetry of the human body, which she considers to be very important. The artist has consistently implemented this insight in the design of the dolls.

(Below a rough translation of the newsletter on the left)

We invite you to visit our little special “Sasha Morgenthaler and Migros”. 50 years ago, the affordable Sasha dolls appeared on the sales stands and became a huge success. Immerse yourself in the fascinating world of toys. We look forward to  seeing you.

After  leaving the Toy Fair we walked through Zurich taking in some of scenery.

Above views of the Lake in Zurich

Above a street sculpture.

Above Heimatwerk the first place to sell Sasha Studio dolls

Above Franz carl Weber store where years ago Sasha  Gotz Serie dolls were sold.

Above this church of the Hermits of St. Augustine was built in 1270 on Zurich’s western city walls. During the Reformation, the church was transformed into a coin workshop.  Zurich’s Catholic church reclaimed the building in 1841. When the community rejected the dogma of the First Vatican Council, it was excluded from the Catholic church and became known as a Christian Catholic community. The Augustinerkirche remained the local place of worship.

Renovation work undertaken in 1959 gave the church its current appearance. The simple choir area, crucifixion scene, block altar, baptismal font by Franz Fischer and stained glass by August Wanner are well worth a visit.

As the museum in Zurich was closed on Sunday I was unable to visit, so Brigitte and I made our way home to play with our purchases.

I purchase this lovely early Gotz girl before I went to the toy fair. But I purchased her wonderful outfit from the toy fair, which is very well made and suits her very well.

I purchased this lovely Unisex Gotz at the Toy fair. I was showing Michael O’Brien my purchases and he told me that the shirt this doll is wearing is very rare. in fact, he said that this is only the 2nd one he had ever seen. If anyone has Michael O’Brien’s book if you turn to the page with the red haired unisex doll in the school uniform you will see that it is wearing the same type of shirt. Normally this fabric was only used to make aprons from.

I also learnt something else that I would like to share with you. The term unisex that we use to describe these dolls may not be correct. Indeed the dolls have short hair so they can be either a girl or a boy. However, when  they were dressed originally they would have been dressed as a boy or a girl. Mine has fastenings  on the left so she would have been a girl.

I just love this little lady which, I also purchased at the Toy fair. She is a saucer eyed early Gotz Sasha. She is unusual as she has a small head and most saucer eyed girls have big heads. she has long thick hair too.

These 3 look ready for the winter.

I was also lucky enough to purchase a very minty Elke toddler complete with her original tube.

I also purchased this handsome young man who I have decided to call Peter.

I had a fantastic time at the Toy Fair and will be posting a story about my studio doll Inge soon.

On the 3rd day of my visit to Switzerland, Brigitte decided to take me hiking in the mountains. Now I do have a fear of heights, so I was not expecting to go too high.

We boarded the train and headed  from Domat/Ems to the area of Disentisl. Normally the train would take you quite high up into the mountains, but as there were engineering works being carried out on the track, there was a bus replacement service in place for the last part of the journey.

Once on board the train I realised we had a stow away on board. Julius a sharp nosed early Gotz boy had joined for our mountain trip.

The views from the train as it wound its way up the mountain side were spectacular

The Autumn colours were beautiful and the weather was very sunny and mild for the time of year.

Switzerland has its own Grand Canyon.

The next part of trip was by bus up to The Oberalppasse

Just before we started our mountain hike i took a couple of photos of a little lighthouse and other  informative signage.

Brigitte and I commenced our walk. The plan had been to walk down the mountain to the train station. However, we took a wrong turn and ended up going up the mountain instead. The views were fantastic.

I could see snow on top of an opposite mountain.

Julius was having fun and taking in the views too.

As we made our way up the mountain the views became even more spectacular. As the path we were walking on was solid on one side I hadn’t really noticed how far up we were.

Along the way we spotted some red berries growing on the side of the mountain. Brigitte told me that they were used to make jam and were very tasty. So we had a little feast of tasty berries.

We also spotted  a wild star flower, which would have been a beautiful yellow when it bloomed.

And also a little blue mountain flower

more spectacular views

We came across an information point

Julius insisted on having his photo taken

We continued up the mountain.

It was around about this time that the mountain path changed to a goat track and as we approached the summit, my fear of heights kicked in. I had a bad panic attack. I literally sunk to the ground and told Brigitte that I did not think I could go any further, but with her encouragement I carried on. I did try to run up the mountain, but as the air was thin, this turned out to be a very bad idea. so shouting out “oh my God” all the way to the top  and Brigitte saying “Do not worry he is with you”we carried on.

When we reached the top I was ecstatic

I hugged the cross at the top of the mountain.

Julius reached the top safely too.

Brigitte had prepared a lunch for us and what better place to eat it than sitting on top of a mountain.

Whilst we were eating lunch the mountain rescue helicopter came past. At first I thought, blimey, I hope I wasn’t shouting that loudly, that someone had called for help. As it turned out it was rescuing someone on an opposite mountain.

After eating our lunch we made our way down the mountain, again taking in the scenery as we went.

The building below is used for storage

On the way down the mountain a man passed us on a buggy with his 2 children. They were checking a blue machine that I had not seen before. Brigitte told me that the blue machines, were in fact snow blowers. Their function is to create snow to get the skiing season started if there has not been a snow fall. Amazing !!

Safely back down the mountain we waited for the bus and then the train to take us home.

Tomorrow is another day.

.

As you may or may not know. I travelled on my birthday. After I arrived a Brigitte’s home, I had a lovely meal followed by a surprise birthday cake and a glass of bubbly. It was wonderful.

This must have been a special candle a it would appear all my wishes came true.

On waking the next morning the view from my window was spectacular. I could see a beautiful little church and had heard the bells chiming.

Brigitte took me to visit the church, which was called The Church Of John The Baptist.

We walked through the village on the way to the church.

Some of the houses were older than others with arch ways where the horse and carriage would pass through before cars were available.  Brigitte explained to me that the Swiss houses in the village, did not have front gardens like those in England. The garages and gardens were at the back of the houses.

I love the metal chicken in the garden above.

We passed by a shop window with a very unusual  coat hook stand for sale

Some of the houses were very big and Brigitte explained that if a house had 3 floors then 1 family would occupy 1 floor, so if the house had 3 floors, then 3 families would live there.

We passed under an archway with cobbled floor and proceeded up the hill towards the church. the weather was beautiful and sunny.

Taking in the view on the way.

A wonderful wooden carved owl

You can see the bigger church down below that was built when the population of the village grew.

Beautiful biblical scenes adorn the wall on the way up to the church.

When we reached the top the view was spectacular.

The parish church of S. Gion Baptista/St John the Baptist was built on the Tuma Turera tower. This large guard tower was integrated into the church from the initial construction. In the early 16th Century it was rebuilt in a late gothic style  and the extensive wood carvings of the  altars were added at that time.

In the grounds of the church there is a Beinhaus which means bone house in English. I have never seen one of these before and it is where bones of old buriels are kept. after a number of years in Switzerland the bones are removed from the graves and moved to the Beinhaus.

As you can see it is beautifully decorated.

Also in the Beinhaus there is a statue of Jesus depicting the time after he was taken down from the cross and before the resurrection .

In another part of the grounds there is a tiny little chapel I believe is for baptism. Once again this was ornately decorated.

After  taking all the delights of the church in, we descended down the hill.

Passing more beautiful homes, some of which were decorated according to the region the owner had lived in.

I noticed that some of the houses had a little window at the top, which I presumed was an attic window. Brigitte informed me that in the older houses these little windows were known as soul windows. If someone were to die in the house the window would be opened enabling the soul to ascend to heaven.

Once we had made our way back fro the Church, we headed off to the train station for some retail therapy in Chur.

Whilst we waited for the train to arrive I spotted another couple of interesting houses.

The train arrived and off we went.

In Chur I spotted this unusual piece of art on a roundabout.

I love goats but this is a Stein bock and no ordinary goat.

The Alpine ibex (Capra ibex), also known as the steinbock is a species of wild goat that lives in the mountains of the European Alps It is a  species with larger males who carry larger, curved horns. The coat colour is typically brownish grey. Alpine ibex tend to live in steep, rough terrain above the snow line They are also social, although adult males and females segregate for most of the year, coming together only to mate. Four distinct groups exist; adult male groups, female-offspring groups, groups of young individuals, and mixed sex groups.

The water above gushes out of a disused mill.

At the end of our day out we headed home to relax and prepare for the next days adventures.