Arnold Morscher was my dad.   He passes away on December 6, 2020 at the age of 94.

He lived in Fairview Park, Ohio, and spent winters in Pompano Beach, Florida.

My dad was the son of Joseph Morscher (born 1893) and Paula Morscher (Nee Sturm, born Feburary 27, 1895).  My entered the world on July 17, 1926 and up in the German settlement city of Gottschee, which incidentally was the southernmost german settlement in Europe.  It was founded as a German settlement back in 1277.





Here is a photo taken around 1930.  Paula Morscher with my dad Arnold on the left and his brother Joseph "Pepi" Morscher on the right. (Max size)








My dad's late parents, Josef Morscher and Paula (nee Sturm) Morscher.  (Max size)






My dad's father ran a very busy meat business in the city of Gottschee.  They had a Metzgerei, and a slaughterhouse along with a many buildings and much property, all of which were lost during the war.  Here is my dad's father (in a dark suit with a hat) in front of one of his buildings with cattle and some employees.  The guy on the right is holding the giant sledge hammer, which is used to knock out the cattle for slaughter.  (Max size)



Here is the interior view of Morscher Metzgerei, photographed in 1926. The belt driven meat grinders seem threateningly near my dad's brother's fingers, (he is the little kid with his hand up in the machinery and had the nick name "Pepi").  My dad's father is furthest to the right.  (Max size)





Another view of the interior view of Morscher Metzgerei, as seen in 1928.  My uncle Joseph "Pepi" (my dad's brother) is the little kid.  My grandfather Joseph Morscher and grandmother Paula Morscher are behind the sales counter.
Joseph Morscher was trained in the Metzgerei business in Innsbruck, Austria. (Max size)

My dad was grew up in the Dutchy of Gottschee, in the city of of Gottschee proper.  Gottschee was incidentally was the southernmost german settlement in Europe.  The Gottschee district  is now located in Slovenia, near the Croatian border but it no longer exists as a German district.  The Germans were driven out during the disaster of the war.

The Gottschee district and surrounding areas suffered badly during the Second World War.  In an agreement early in the war, between the Third Reich and Italy, the german Gottscheer population was forced to resettle about 50 miles to the northeast in the Rann area, after the original inhabitants of Rann were forcibly evacuated elsewhere.  The city of Gottschee was to become part of the Italian sphere of occupation, while the area around Rann was to be set up as a German zone.  Villages and districts were uprooted and populations were hastily moved about several time, losing their livelihood and properties in the process.  All of this took place well before the war was completely lost.  The german Gottscheer population who chose not to relocate very often met deadly fates after the war ended in what now is Yugoslavia.


Here we see a welcome sign, presumably in Rann.  The sign roughly translates as "People of Gottschee, the homeland welcomes you".   Homeland can be interpreted as the Greater German Reich or Third Reich.



As the war went from bad to worse from the german perspective, the Gottscheer population in the Rann area lived under constant threat of Partisan militia atttacks and as the front lines collapsed, the remaining Gottscheer  population in Rann fled as best as they could in the winter of 1944-45 to Austria.  Those who fled too slowly were almost always tortured, enslaved and or killed by the victorious Balkan Allies.

Here is the city of Gottsche in late 1943 after a Partisan attack was repelled by the German Army:




My dad had the misfortune of being of the right age to serve in the military during the war.  For a while, he served as an anti-aircraft gunner in the Luftwaffe.  Along the way, he figured it would be safer to be a soldier up high in the mountains, protected by rocks and ravines, than to be someone riding a tank (like his brother) or planes into a battle.  So he joined the mountain troopers.  He served in the Edelwiess division and complained that as a mountain trooper, he was often deployed in the flattest parts of Russia.







Here is my dad is seated on the left, on a captured russian anti-aircraft gun. The russian gun needed two men to steer it.  One man controlled the vertical movement with a steering wheel thing, and another man controlled the horizontal movement with another steering wheel.





And here he is seated (furthest to the left) at the stearing controls on a german anti-aircraft gun.  On the German aircraft guns, one man controlled both the vertical and horizontal movments of the gun, using a pair of side-by-side steering wheels.  My dad does not mess around.  When he does something, it gets done.  Here we can see eight rings on the gun barrel signifying eight planes were shot down. 




Here is my dad on the left with my brother Roy Morscher, during maneuvers.  Photographed in the mid 1990's.  (Max size)



 


Here is my dad with his wife May and my son Hans in 2019.  (Max size)




And here is my mom and dad and Hans in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea in 2019.  (max size)




Dad liked to have beer.  He would borrow my beer just to sip "a finger" or two.  (max size)



In Pompano Beach, the yearly ritual is to go to the Peking Duck and order 2+2.  And then we would spend the rest of the dinner balancing plates on the small table.  (max size)



Mom loves desserts.  Dad would get mad when she ordered them, and then would happily help her eat it.  (max size)



And Mom would like to shop.  Here is my dad at Meisner Park, doing the classic husband routine "How long is she going to be shopping?"  (max size)



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