Vytautas's Death

I'm attempting to piece together some of the story of my grandmother's time in Germany after The War, including the death of her first husband, Vytautas Apanavičius. According to the documents I received from the ITS in Germany, Vytautas was treated in a hospital in Bamberg and died in Klingenbrunn / Spiegelau. Another document shows that he died specifically in house number 167 of Spiegelau. From what I remember of močiute's story, she was not there when he died. By the time she got back, "he was already gone". One of the ITS documents shows that she was still in Bamberg. I don't know why. Two others with the Apanavičius name are listed in Bamberg as well, but the dates do not overlap, so I don't know why she was there longer. Nor do I actually know if the other two (Evaristas and Birute) are connected.

Treatment in Bamberg
(doc from ITS)

Death certificate, 13 Dec 1944
(original in German; docs from močiute)

Močiute remains in Bamberg until 5 Jan 1945

Grave registration from ITS

Contact with Apanavičius Family

Now that I'm (reluctantly) back in the United States and living in Philadelphia, I decided to reach out to the family of my grandmother's deceased first husband, Vytautas Apanavičius. As I explained previously, Vytautas died shortly after the family fled the Soviets after WWII. Eventually everybody settled in the United States and, despite re-marrying (to my grandfather, Vacys Matulis), they kept contact with the Apanavičius family, who settled in Ohio. I was never aware of any of this when I was younger - perhaps they didn't think we'd understand - but they used to visit each other. A couple years ago I jotted down an address for Raimundas Apanavičius from močiute's address book. Raimundas is Vytautas's youngest brother. I sent a letter earlier in the week explaining who I was and was contacted by his daughter, Rima, on Facebook.

It was very nice to make contact. Rima, inspired by this blog, is actually planning to start one herself. I'm really looking forward to hearing some of her stories! Hopefully it will even fill in some of the gaps in my story of močiute's life. Facebook conversations have already helped me to identify the people in one of her pictures. Jurgis also apparently had three brothers (Jonas, Juozas, and Zigmas) and a sister. They possibly remained in Lithuania. Birute is actually a cousin, not a child, of this family group.

Apanavičius Family

Despite only being married to Vytautas for about a year before he died, my grandmother kept his memory close for her entire life (some 70 years beyond his death!). She carried his photo with her until the day she died, and spoke fondly of him once I began asking questions. I have some of that recorded. For now, here is a clip of her telling the (somewhat spooky) story of their wedding day and how some expected he wasn't going to live a long life.

From the wedding ceremony.