Peter Kusel home near Bäkern about 1 mile from Lenzen.

A tributary of the Elbe River behind the Kusel home.

Back: Jürgen Kusel, Margaretha Meinke-Peters
Front: Jutta, Frieda von Bargen, Peter Kusel

Margaretha's great-grandmother was a Kusel and her maiden name is the same as my great-great-grandmother Kusel. We found out about her in Husum (I think) and she came along with us to meet the Peter Kusel family.

Frieda is Jutta's mother.

Now we start getting into the life-altering family history.
It all surrounds WWII.
Frieda's husband, was forced to fight in the German Army on the Russian Front and was never seen or heard of after that.
Jutta would have been around 8 at the time of his death.

It is hard for me and I would assume most of us living today, to understand how terrible it was for the von Bargen family to never know the when/how/where their loved one died, and what happened to his body. Maybe he was a prisoner of war and was tortured and starved to death by the Russian Army - I'm sure Frieda and her family had nightmares over their loss.