I don't have a document for this date, well I do, but it's dated much later. Opa reveals in a letter much later in this year that today is the day he officially became engaged to Grandmother. I kinda thought they were already engaged, but I guess it was more in theory than an official thing!
So on January 7, on Opa's bed in the Zimmerman's house, my Grandmother's said yes to Opa's proposal. On January 7, 1944 in the midst of a war, a commitment to love was made.
Beautiful.
At age 18, Tom Doeppner was smuggled out of Nazi Germany. He was 26 before he saw anyone in his family again. Tom was my Grandfather, “Opa.” Cleaning out my Grandmother’s desk ten years ago, I found a small box where Opa had kept letters from his family, written as early as 1938. When I opened that box, I found a story that I never knew. This blog tells the story of what happened to Tom and his family in that decade of separation.
Maybe she told him he had to get parental approval the first time he proposed. Or maybe she didn't take him seriously at first!
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