Gallery Images
The Oath Ceremony, January 30, 1939. "Ich schwere Treue und Gehorsam fuer Fuehrer, Reich un Vaterland." Translated: I swear loyalty and obedience for leaders, kingdom and country.
It looks to me like Willi on the left behind the shorter guy.
Willi met his future wife Annemarie at Camp Wetzelsdorf, the second detention camp in which he was kept. She was confined there in the small women's section because of her membership and participation in the NSDAP. Willy was released in February 1947, before she was, and after meeting with her parents in Graz, he immediately began classes at the Franz Karls University in that city, adding to the credits he had already gained during the war. With a student grant from the governor of his home state Kärnten, he then enrolled in a doctoral program at the Univ.
Pilgrimage to the Fuehrer's private home in 1937 - the Berghof at Obersalzberg overlooking Austria.
Main Gate at Wolfsberg Detention Camp, which opened in October 1939 in Kärnten (former Upper Austria) to accommodate Polish Officer POW's. In 1941 French, Belgium and British POW's arrived. In Oct. 1941 Russian POW's came into the camp, bringing typhus with them. By March 1942 the typhus epidemic was under control. The camp was bombed by the USAF in Dec. 1944, killing 61 POW's.
In May 1945 the stalag was handed over to the British 8th Army, and by June it had become a detention center for what they called "ex-Nazis", run by British Intelligence.
A healthy, well-formed boy, born on Oct. 11, 1919 at the state hospital in Klagenfurt.
After the oath ceremony came the parade saluting the commander of the airfield (Fliegerhorst). Willi's company was made up of 80% Austrians (called Ostmaerker). He said:
After a few weeks of boot camp, we were able to march, salute according the the Prussian drill order of Gen. Gneisenau (1812), in front of the hangar at the airfield in Straubing.
As he writes: "Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Taucher, former secretary of trade and commerce, president of the Styrian chamber of commerce [Graz is the capital city of the state of Styria] and administrator of the Marshal Plan in Austria, sponsored my further advancement." With a letter of recommendation from Dr. Taucher, Willi was hired by the Chief of the American desk at the foreign trade commission in Vienna, Dr. Kafka, on 22 February 1949.
Thus began a time that he describes as hard work and a certain amount of unpleasant political intrigue, even though he was a "political neutralist."
A 1937 visit to the Catholic church cemetery at Leonding, Austria where Adolf Hitler's parents are buried.
Trude (bent down) and other BDM leaders getting water (?) n basins at July 1940 workshop/camp.
Willi's father was a talented artist who created this pen and ink drawing while being confined at Wolfsberg detention camp since spring of 1945, where Willi joined him after he finally reached home in September 1945. This drawing was inscribed by him to his wife, Willi's mother, whom he called Mitzi, as a Christmas greeting card. It reads: "My dear wife and _?_ mother (of our children) Mitzi, in memory of a hard time. Wolfsberg - Klagenfurt - on Christmas 1946."
Willi, standing, between his parents Ludwig and Maria Kriessmann, who is holding little sister Gertrude (named after a Valkyrie).
Another drawing by Willi's father, Ludwig Kriessmann, of two men sleeping in a top bunk at Wolfsberg Detention camp. It is titled "Emergency accommodation in the makeshift home." Note the artist's initials LK in the lower corner.
This view of the parade by Willi's company at Straubing Airfield on January 30, 1939 shows the airfield commander and the officer leading the parade. Rather impressive.
An attractive couple, indeed, in this 1954 photo of the young Kriessmanns dining out in Vienna. He writes of this time that "from 1950 on" they had a nice apartment close to his office, Annemarie had a teaching position at a public school in Simmering which she could reach by streetcar, and their daughter Brigitte, who was born in Oct. 1949, had a nanny who took her for a daily walk in the Belvedere Gardens.
From left: Willi, Father, youngest sister Gerhilde, and "Trude" playing with wooden blocks, perhaps.
This letter informs Willi's father that as of August 31, 1945 his employment as principal of the school in Kärnten is terminated because of his National Socialist affiliations.
Brigitte (left), Annemarie and second daughter Betsy in 1955. A son Walter was also born, completing their family. During this time, Willi got the coveted assignment to open the office of the Austrian Trade Commission on the U.S. west coast and left on February 1953 for New York. He later moved his family to Los Angeles and the children became "Americanized." In 1964, they moved to San Francisco and also spent a 6-week vacation with the children in Austria.
Trude was a German teacher in the area of Slovenia, south of Austria, where her mother grew up.
The cadets spend a quiet evening with a beer during flight school training at Straubing Air Base on the Danube in Bavaria. Willi, seated at far right, went through A and B school at Straubing; from there to bomber school Thorn in occupied Poland.
Willi's father posing with his school class and other teachers. That is daughter Gerte standing to his left. You can see that many of the village children were quite poor, even barefoot, as Austria became a poor country following the war and the Treaty of St. Germaine.
Request by Maria Kriessmann to release her husband from detention after one year is denied in Sept. 1946.
In March 1938, the population were glad to see German Police arrive in their main city.
Like all boys who emulate their fathers, it looks like Willi is playing teacher with his two sisters, little Gerhilde raising her hand and Gertrude on the right giving him her full attention. Trude is the one who did become a teacher.
Letter to Maria kriessmann dated 10-8-1946 says that her request of 9-4-46 for the dismissal of her husband cannot be approved.
The "German" and "Austrian" police and military worked together with civility and common purpose.
After completing A and B school training, Willi was enrolled in C school. This picture is labeled March 1940 Flugzeugfuehrerschule C6 Kolberg-Ostsee-Pinow. Willi's C school training began on January 5 and ended June 17, 1940. Arrow is pointing to Willi standing behind the bench.
Willi on far right in this lineup of local boys. They all wore shorts, summer and winter.
Wilhelm, still a cadet, visiting Kolberg on the Baltic Sea after graduating from C school, June 1940.
Letter from Willi's mother asking for the release of her husband from Camp Wolfsberg after 1 1/2 years of confinement.
The Klagenfurt Hitlerjugend openly pose at the entrance to their headquarters in 1938. Trude is second from left in front row, wearing white skirt, dark stockings.
Around the time of the Anchluss in 1938, everyone is happy. Someone is joking with Trude, at right.
Another refusal to release Willi's father in May 1947. Also a visiting card for Maria Kriessmann and a 3-day release for Ludwig to visit home.
This letter of 8 March 1940 from the Bürgermeister confirms that the school principal Ludwig Kriessmann has been nominated to be town councilor (Gemeinderat) for Feistritz in Rosental
With the tables moved out of the way, it's time for a group dance ... which is also good physical exercise after a meal.
The hard-working National Socialists in the Kriessmann's village of Feistriz are given a KdF trip already in the summer of 1938. Frau Kriessmann is in dark dress with the arrow pointing to her. Herr K. is standing behind her.
Willi is on the left, with classmates at the Bomber school in Thorn on the Vistula River in the Generalgovernment, 1940. Man in center is Koenig who became a pilot in Willi's squadron and was killed during the dangerous January '43 Welikije Luki mission. From Life of WLK:
On December 10, I fly with Lt. Koenig on my starboard side in bright sunshine over white glaring ground, not higher than 60 ft., and experience heavy anti-aircraft gun fire. Koenig steers off and nearly collides with me.
Notification dated Sept. 1947 that criminal proceedings against Ludwig Kriessmann will not be pursued.
Below, photo of Willi's uncle Robert Kriessmann of Frankfurt-Oder and his wife Elisabeth. In April 1945 he was at Seelow Heights (along with Willy Wenger!) as a Colonel commanding a Volksstürm regiment.
On October 10th, Willi's underground (illegal) Hitlerjugend marched, camouflaged as Landdienst (Farmer's Support) or Grenze Jugend (Frontier Youth). Top: Oberst Barger and nationalists march, in uniform and out; Center: Young men march in shorts and white shirts & socks (Willi is somewhere in the middle); Bottom: Young women (mädels) march (Willi's sister Trude is third from left). On the top right: Willi's 1937-38 Gymnasium class; bottom right: HJ group in winter 1937.
The young ladies dance with each other and show off their fancy footwork, on July 31, 1940.
A notification that the prior dismissal of Ludwig Kriessmann as teacher and principal has been "offset" due to his not being found guilty of any crimes.
Willi's "illegal" Hitlerjugend friends from Feistritz are in Klagenfurt on the big day March 12, 1938. Willi is the tallest one in center, Trude is second from right, looking back. Left to right: Minko, Pepi G., Herta, Willi, Sepp, Pepi W., Anni, Trude, Ilse.
The Klagenfurt Hitlerjugend members help the local farmers. Willi is at the far right.
Much attention is put into creating quality BDM leaders. Trude is 3rd from left.
The School Association in Klagenfurt reinstates Ludwig Kriessmann as head teacher in the high school in July 1948.
From Trude's scrapbook: a ballot from the 1938 election to approve the Anchluss of Austria to Germany, and a newspaper picture of the Führer with a group of young supporters which includes Willi's sister Trude. He has identified her in the upper left. Willi was 18 yrs old at this time. Hitler's press chief Otto Dietrich is standing above and slightly to the right of Hitler, looking on.
When Willi was in Bomber School at Thorn, he visited the town and took these pictures in July-August 1940. Is this a German-built town? You betcha, although today it belongs to Poland.
On the same day as the previous picture. Willi is on left in front with Trude next to him.
Trude (center), Willi (right) and friends celebrate the holy season in December 1938.
Willi and friends at the Massurian Lake district in East Prussia in August 1940, while attending instrument flight training in Königsberg. Left to right: the dentist Guenther from Schlesien, Viennese friend Bertele von Grenadenberg, and Willi, who called this "in the Spring of our age." My comment: "what a hunk on the handlebars."
In early October Willi's squadron was ready to join the Battle of Britain but they were too late for that. It had already ended. So, after a home leave, he spent the next 6 months flying target pattern for the anti-aircraft batteries around Berlin.
From Willi's scrapbook: Top left: His Hitler Youth marched in Linz an der Doneau in March; top right: camping in Mallestig in June; center: his group arrives in Nuremberg; lower left: marching through the city; lower right: the stadium at the rally grounds; all three September 10-11-12.
Trude, at left, back row, poses with her fellow leaders at their August 1940 summer camp in Klagenfurt.
In the summer of 1939, we find Trude as a teacher at a National Socialist camp for young women in the mountains of the Ostmark.
This picture was taken during the "Farmers Help" in Bärental in summer 1938. The Hitler Youth go out to help the local farmers harvest their crops. Willi listed on the back the name of each but they are hard to make out unless the names are already familiar to you. They are:
Left to right: the forester, the teacher Füser, two boys with the last name Kraigher, Pepi, a Kraigher girl named Luze, Trude, Ilse, Anni, and Willi with the accordion.
Trude (farthest left) with friends or co-workers on an outing in the Ostmark in 1941.
Trude is seated to the left of the man wearing white socks and glasses.
No amusements here, but Willi manages to smile while sitting outside a hut in what looks like pretty cold weather.
Willi kept his 1938 train and bus schedule, which also contained maps of the city of Nuremberg and of the Reich Party Congress Grounds, as a souvenir of his participation in what he considered a truly unforgettable experience. He wrote:
The League of German Girls was part of and under the auspices of the Hitler Youth organization.
Pleasant surroundings and guest quarters in 1939, plus some men are observing and perhaps speaking.
In September 1938, Willi was privileged to attend the NSDAP annual gathering in Nuremburg, representing Klagenfurt with his Hitlerjugend comrades. They travelled by train and had a glorious few days, standing at attention for the Führer as he walked slowly past their formation on the "Day of the Youth". This is the souvenier program for the following day that he brought home with him and managed to save. In October he turned 19 and was "called to the colors."
Willi was later recognized with a special certificate and medal of remembrance for his participation in furthering the success of the Reunification of Austria to the German Reich.
From Willi's scrapbook: The Heinkel 111, an early German medium bomber with a top speed of 250 mph, was extensively used but became obsolete later in the war. Willi is in the cockpit in this June 8, 1943 photo. Bottom left: Willy, center, and his crew lunching outside of their huts on a warm day. Right: A visit to the mother of one of the crew, in Marienburg Sept. 1942. Willi is on far left.
Willi has written on this picture, of which I only have a zerox copy, "Take off with Walther rockets 19th Feb. 1945 from Hildesheim to Buoy (?) #140 586-12:59
Another outdoor setting for a teaching-learning session, with, it appears, some younger visitors.
Newspaper clipping showing the restored Arado 234B Jet Bomber at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. It says "over 200 of the jet-powered aircraft entered service in 1944 after the Normandy invasion." Notice the name W.L. Kriessmann on the wall, presumably as one who piloted this plane.
This photograph was taken by a flying magazine journalist who was interviewing Kriessmann at his home. We can see that Willi kept his war medals and badges in a frame under glass, and some of them had come loose.
Fitness is a top priority in the BDM; this is evident at this 1942 camp performance.
