The photo shows
my visit to Werner Max Mittelstedt in the nursing home in August 1986.
Werner Max was the second child of Max Arthur Adolf. He told me he was
a "Fallschirmjaeger"
(paratrooper)
with "der Gruenen Teufel" (the Green Devils) in
1942-1946 and saw action in Greece, North Africa and Italy, and was
among the 90 German paratroopers who rescued the Italian dictator
Mussolini in September 1943. Werner Max was a
prisoner of the Americans from 2/1945 to 7/1946.
According to history books, in autumn 1943 Hitler sent his 1st and
4th Parachute Divisions to reinforce the Italian front. On
September 12, 1943 the 1st Company of Fallschirmjaeger
Lehrbataillon (training batallion) rescued Mussolini
who was held on the Gran Sasso plateau near Rome.
On February 15 1944 American bombers destroyed the monastery above the
town of Monte Cassino. The 1st Parachute Division promptly occupied the
ruins and from
March 15 to May 17 fought off attacks by New Zealand, Indian, Polish and
French divisions, and earned the title "The Green Devils of Cassino".
Werner Max married in Cottbus (29/12/1951) but his wife died in 1955.
He
moved to West Germany in 1956 because, " I did not want my children to
become Communists." He had three children, a daughter and two sons.
Illona Thronicker (born 1947) lives in Munich,
Hasso Mittelstedt (b. June 20, 1950) in Villingen-Schweningen, and
Werner
Mittelstedt (b. May 3, 1952) in Niedereschach (East of Freiburg).
In 1980 Werner took up residence in the home for the aged in
Schwenningen, where I visited him in 1986 -- see top photo.
Illona, her husband, and her son Michael in August 1986
Right to left: Werner
Mittelstedt, Iris his wife, Eila their daughter, Daniel their
son, and Hasso (Werner's brother) in 1986
