Irmi's Uncle Hans

Forsthausen, Germany  (1939)

Hans Ulrich Scharna  (1922-1951)

During World War II, Hans served on the Russian front, arriving in 1941 as an infantryman.

Within months, he was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class, for bravery.  In 1942, during

fighting in the city of Orel, Russia, Hans was severely wounded in the upper thigh and knee.

After months spent recuperating in a hospital, he was reassigned to a rear-echelon desk job

in Vienna, Austria, where he remained until the war ended.  When American troops occupied

the sector, Hans was initially interred as a prisoner of war; however, after only a few days,

he was released and allowed to go home.  But where was home?  While Hans had been away,

his native Forsthausen and the whole of East Prussia had been transferred to Polish control;

and his parents had fled to Gera, in the German state of Thüringen.  It took almost a month,

but Hans walked the entire way to Gera, ignoring the pain in his leg, and rejoined his family.

In Gera, he began employment as Chief Inspector in the local county Department of Justice.

Several years passed without incident, until, in 1949, Hans worked closely with a judge who

had unknowingly contracted tuberculosis, and he also became infected.  In the early years

of the East German regime, treatment for tuberculosis was non-existent.  The family urged

Hans to flee to West Germany, where proper medication was readily available, but he had

already grown too weak for such a dangerous journey.  He died in 1951, at age twenty-nine.