This is the last unit in the Luftwaffe to which Luise Senger (Rabideau) belonged.
all material which follows on this page © 1997-2005 Michael Holm
Chef des Stabes:
Formed 4.2.38 in München from Luftgau-Kommando XIV. More
Richard Senger was a successful German farmer (Landwirt) in West Prussia. He worked and cared for his family’s farm with the help of his wife (Frieda), children (Luise & Erich), his brother Rudolf (Onkel Rudolf, known simply as Onkel) and his sister-in-law Erna Recht (Tante Erna).
The homestead and lands had been in the Senger family since before 1893; when the home was built by Richard’s father and mother, Michael & Adelgunde Senger. The Senger farm was located on the banks of the Nogat River in Zeyervorderkampen (Kreis Elbing in Grosses Werder). At the time of the establishment of Freie Staat Danzig in 1920, the farm was the first farm inside of the Polish corridor as defined by the victorious allies of WW1.
Richard inherited the farm from his parents (Michael and Adelgunde) in 1920, the year of his and Frieda’s marriage. The 50 hectare Senger farm grew apples, cherries, plums, sugar beets, rye, and raised ducks, chickens, cows, pigs. During the Second World War, additional crops were grown as a requirement of the German government, these included rapeseed, poppies and wheat.
Both Erich and Luise were born on the farm; Erich in 1921 and Luise in 1923. Their births occurred during the hyper-inflation years of the Weimar Republic. The hyper-inflation was so bad in 1923 that it cost Richard and Frieda and entire wheelbarrow full of money to purchase a pacifier for Luise.
Luise and Erich were baptized at the Zeyer Evangelishe Kirche (Lutheran); Herr Doebel was Luise Senger’s godfather. Later Herr Doebel became an early member of the National Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiters Partei (NSDAP, Nazi); ultimately he was to become disillusioned and was imprisoned for his opposition to the NSDAP. It is believed that he served more than 5 years for his opposition (we continue to seek hard information on this event).
From the age of 14, Luise Senger lived with her Onkel Robert and Tante Olga in Elbing on 58 Wasserstrasse (today: Wodna 58, Elbląg, Elblag, Polska) . In Elbing, she attended the Elbing Handelsschule. Robert & Olga Senger owned a small Gasthaus and store on the waterfront of the port of Elbing. Luise had a small room above the Gasthaus. The Senger Gasthaus had 4 guest rooms and was described as being ‘plain’ but friendly. During her years in Elbing at the Handelsschule, Luise used to take long walks to a nearby park (in the city); this is where she watched and ultimately met some of the musicians and other members of the ‘artists’ community who befriended her. Some of these same “artists” were to protect Luise when they met once again, this time in Munich during the final collapse of the Third Reich.
“Onkel Robert and Tante Olga” were the family’s city dwellers. Throughout Luise’s youth, Luise and Erich Senger used to “smuggle” small amounts of food (fruit, wheat etc) from the Senger farm to Onkel Robert’s family, so as to avoid paying taxes to the government. One time, Onkel Robert reversed the trend and sent a bunch of bananas to the Richard Senger family in Zeyervorderkampen as a treat; Luise refused to even try the bananas; she had never seen anything like them before!
During the first years while Luise was living with Onkel Robert’s family in Elbing, her cousin Erika and Erika’s husband (Otto Grawert) and their son Karl-Otto came to live with the Robert Senger family. The Grawert’s came from their home on the Dutch border on a doctor’s recommendation. Erika, Robert and Olga’s daughter, had a severe case of TB and the cold, moist air of Elbing was supposed to help her heal. Erika especially enjoyed the Gasthaus and the customers who frequented it. She and Luise became very close friends.
From 1937 through much of the second world war (WW2), the Richard Senger farm was quite successful. The daily routines continued; the work was hard and the crops were quite good.
During the war years, the Sengers were required to host English prisoners of war. One PoW stayed the entire war; his name was Tommy (last name unknown). He had been captured at Dunkirk and arrived in Zeyervorderkampen at the age of 17. Tommy remained with the Sengers up until the time the Russians took possession of the farm in 1945. He escaped just ahead of the advancing Soviets and Poles by foot towards the North Sea (following the route recommended to him by Richard Senger).
Once the war began, Richard’s son, Erich, fought in the Deutsche Luftwaffe as a rear-gunner in a Stuka. He fought and was shot down on both the Eastern (including Georgia and Stalingrad) and Western (France) fronts. In 1944, Erich was taken prisoner by the British when his plane was shot down over France (it is believed). By the early 1940′s Richard’s daughter, Luise, was a administrative aide and Lieutenant in the Luftwaffe, ending the war assigned to Luftkommando 7 München (air defense Munich).
With all of Zeyer’s young people at war, the farm was managed and operated by the two ‘closest’ Senger brothers (Richard and Rudolf) and Richard’s wife Frieda and Frieda’s sister Erna. Finally in March/ April 1945, the family lands and property were confiscated by the Russians.
composite of verbal stories related by Luise Senger Rabideau to her children Linda & Mark
In late winter of 1944/45, the Senger’s farm was overrun and occupied by a command of the advancing Russian armies. The family furniture and possessions were stolen by non-Germans; the lives and history of the Senger family were unalterably, irretrievably changed.
Only the Senger farm and two other farms in the village of Zeyervorderkampen remained standing following the Soviet invasion and bombardment and artillery attacks which accompanied the destructive attack. Ultimately, the Senger farm was left as the sole ‘undamaged’ farm in Zeyervorderkampen. At first, the farm was used to house Soviet commanders; ultimately, possession of the farm, lands, buildings and few remaining possessions were given over to a Polish family.
By the middle of 1945, it was no longer the Senger family farm and lands. The farm had been confiscated by the occupying communist troops and retribution was never offered by either the invading armies or subsequent settlers; nor was any accepted by Richard when it was finally offered by the post-war German Federal Republic government. To his mind, there was simply no compensation adequate to cover the loss of his family’s lands and history. Ultimately, the German government did provide Richard a pension for both his WW1 and WW2 ‘participation’.
Having lost ownership and possession of his farm to the Russians in 1945, Richard was forced, at gun point and under explicit threat of death, to work as an involuntary servant (knecht) or ‘slave’ on his long-time farm. During this time, his wife, Frieda, was captured, incarcerated, and forced by the Russians to leave their home and was interred as a slave laborer in the Gulags of the Central Asia in Chelyabinsk ITL (Work Improvement Camp). Frieda was arrested and enslaved by the Soviet Army on March 17, 1945 (Her 47th birthday was two days later on 19 March 1945.). These hardships and travails were to continue for more than two years.
During this same time period, unbeknownst to Richard, his son (Erich Senger) was interred in an English prisoner of war camp; his daughter (Luise) had survived the war’s end and was working in the American Zone of Germany, in Bavaria.
Finally one day in June of 1947, at the age of 68, Richard could tolerate his situation and servitude no longer. He resolved to leave or die trying. To his mind he had nothing to lose; so far as he knew he had already lost everything except his life. He packed his few papers and possessions into a coffee can and set off on foot, to reach the West German border. As he left what had been his farm, Russian soldiers shouted, pulled their rifles, took aim at his back, and threatening to kill him. Unwilling to suffer his situation any longer, he walked on into his uncertain, unknown future.
He trekked alone on foot across ‘the new’ communist Poland, and then through the ‘new’ communist East Germany. During the weeks and months he walked, he survived by eating uncooked potatoes and vegetables he gleaned from harvested fields. In Poland, his official identification papers and bank books were confiscated by ‘officials’ at the checkpoints he encountered. Finally after an almost 600 mile ordeal, Richard arrived at Murnau in Bavaria (the American Zone).
Shortly after his arrival in Bavaria, Richard began a search for his son Erich via open letters he placed in German newspapers. He only searched for his son Erich because he thought Erich might have survived the war; he was certain that Frieda (Richard’s wife) had died in the Gulags and that Luise (Richard’s daughter) had been ‘lost’ in the final defense of Munich (where Luise was serving as a Lieutenant in Munich’s Air Defense with Deutsche Luftwaffe- Luftkommando 7.). Fortunately, Erich, having returned from his incarceration as a British (Prisoner of War) PoW in 1947, read one of his letters and they were reunited. During late 1947, Luise found and rejoined her family through the good offices and assistance of her employer- the American Army.
Late in 1947, his wife, Frieda weighing a mere 60 pounds, returned from her two plus year ordeal in the Russian gulags. Miraculously, the family had found each other.
Along with their son Erich, the Sengers built a new life for themselves in Bavaria. While in 1950, Luise went on to live with her American husband (Fred Rabideau) and their soon-to-be new family in the United States.
a composite of verbal stories related by Luise Senger Rabideau to her children Linda & Mark, as well as Russian, German and American Documentation
As the Russians invaded West Prussia near the end of World War 2, they rounded up abled bodied Germans to ‘work’ a slave labor in their Gulags. These ‘unlucky’ Germans (some three million) were shipped by train to forced labor camps in the far East. Frieda Senger, along with her friend and neighbor, Edith Ebel, were among those shipped by rail into the Russian Gulags; in her case trip was to prisons some 1700 miles or 2700 kms east. She, like many others, was deported from her and her husband’s lands (which were now in the hands of the Russians) and forced into slavery; she was not seen or heard from again for some 2 and one half years.
She was taken a prisoner by the Soviet Army on March 17, 1945. She had been a member of the Reichsluftschutzbund (RLB) since 1935 (see note 1 below).
On July 7, 1945 she was transfered from the camp 507 (Cheljabinskaja region/ Satkinskij district/ village Bakal) to the working battalion No.1083 (Cheljabinskaja Region/City Kopejsk/ Station Potanino) of mobilized Germans. She was discharged for repatriation on July 1, 1947. Her diligence, hard work and energy made it possible for her to be one of the first Germans released from the camp. Her friend Edith Ebel was not so lucky- Edith died in the camp. Frieda’s two plus years were spent mining rock salt, cleaning the camp floors with broken glass (an activity which left her hands permanently scarred). Her diet consisted of water, cabbage and potatoes.
On 9 October 2011, I received an additional insight into this time from the niece of Frieda Senger, Frieda geboren Wedhorn: [Frieda Wedhorn] [...] mentioned that the deportation of Frieda Senger might have been the result of a mistaken identity, that the Russians were looking for some other Senger, but they went to the wrong farm where they found Frieda Senger and they did not want to continue searching. Frieda Wedhorn remembers her Tante Frieda telling her that the Soviets probably were looking for Johanna Senger who was also called “Tante Hannchen” because she supposedly had not been nice to some Poles. Johanna was the wife of Julius Senger who must have been neighbors of Richard and Frieda Senger. The Soviets just went to the wrong house and discontinued their search because they had found a woman with the name Senger. This Johanna Senger later died of “Fischvergiftung” (fish poisoning) while still living in Zeyersvorderkampen, Westpreußen.
Based upon research conducted on our behalf by the Deutsches Rotes Kruez we finally know the names and location of the Gulags in which she was interred. Until we find better photos, Perm in the Urals provides a reasonable example.
The photo is of Frieda Senger in 1951 following the marriage of her daughter Luise to Frederick Rabideau. She is wearing a coat sent to her by Leona Rabideau, mother of Frederick Rabideau.
Note 1:
The Reichluftschutzbund was placed under the authority of the Luftwaffe and performed mainly non-combat support roles such as ground crew training and search and rescue. The group remained relatively small and, as a paramilitary organization, was overshadowed heavily by the National Socialist Flyers Corps.
During World War II, the Reichluftschutzbund performed in air defense support manning anti-aircraft emplacements in Germany’s major cities. In 1945, the Reichluftschutzbund ceased to exist with the fall of Nazism. The Reichluftschutzbund, however, was not condemned as a criminal organization since the group was technically a branch of the Air Ministry and not a paramilitary group of the Nazi Party proper.
-source Wikipedia
In order to classify our early Canadian forebears, we have decided to use the descriptions of The Filles a Marier developed by Peter Gagne.
Note all those without links will soon have information pages for you to read… please be patient while the information is added to our site. All others have their tales described on this site. We certainly appreciate all the work of those who provided us with their stories! More
Based on the data we have at our disposal on the date of this writing, we know that the following women were our family’s “Filles du Roi”.
Based upon the research we have done, it appears that the Rabideau’s are descended from a number of the Carignan-Salières Regiment. As you will note, none of our forebears held particularly high rank. They were, instead, the ‘backbone’ of their units! You will see the various men highlighted in blue on the posting containing the names of all ‘known’ and assumed members.
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This site and effort is dedicated to all my forebears. Without them we (my family) would not exist. Their lives, their loves and their journey has made us who we are and who we will become.
Special recognition however is merited to:
Mark F. Rabideau (temporary custodian of this information)
The following information was sourced from: http://www.fillesduroi.org/src/soldiers.htm and is presented here to facilitate our genealogical research. All rights belong to the original author. This is being used under the laws of ‘fair use’.
This listing is a copy of one the original to be found at the following link:
Alphabetical listing of the Carignan-Salières Regiment Officers and Soldiers (who settled in Canada). Those highlighted are Rabideau ‘family forebears’.
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Michael Senger History -as related to Mark Rabideau by Luise (Senger) Rabideau (Michael’s grand daughter) Jan 2006
Note: additional source materials are currently being obtained.
Johann Hermann Recht History -this is an account that has evolved significantly from what began as an oral history related to Mark Rabideau by Luise (Senger) Rabideau (Hermann Recht’s grand daughter) on 9 Jan 2006; today this history is augmented with numerous additions and amendments from Mark Rabideau’s subsequent research as well as family information and stories from Otto Wedhorn family descendants most notably Frieda (Wedhorn) Mimietz.
- His second wife’s name was Else Auguste Recht (geboren Nahme / maiden name Ekrut).
- She is said to have once been a consort of the Kaiser.
- Frieda geb. Wedhorn recounts that Frieda geb. Recht once held a temporary job near Danzig. While in Danzig, Frieda Recht visited Fräulein Else Auguste Ekrut, before Else’s marriage to Herman Recht (as his 2nd wife). Frieda attempted to talk Else out of this marriage, without success. Much to the surprise of Hermann’s daughters, Else Auguste did not let herself be ordered around by Hermann Recht. Once, she even walked out on him. Hermann had to travel to Danzig to get Else to come back.
- Else Auguste Recht, reportedly, never went out to work on the fields. Instead, she took care of the house, milked the cows and was an excellent cook.
- Else’s brother Wilhelm Ekrut was a “Baumeister” in Danzig (it is thought that he either was an architect or owned a building company), constructing one- or two-family houses in a district or suburb of Danzig. Wilhelm himself supposedly lived in one of those houses and Else Auguste lived there, as well, before she married Hermann Recht and came to live in Pietzkendorf. Frieda Wedhorn also remembers that Wilhelm Ekrut and his wife Emma (maiden name unknown; she is the woman in black who is on Hermann Recht’s 1939 birthday photo) had a car, which at that time was fairly significant.
- Else’s death/ disappearance:
- Otto Wedhorn reportedly said that after the end of WW2, when the Soviets turned governmental administration in Westpreußen over to the Poles and ethnic Germans were being expelled from Poland, Else Auguste Recht (geb. Ekrut?) did not flee with the remaining members of the Wedhorn family to Fichtenwalde, near Berlin. Rather than joining Otto Wedhorn’s sisters in Fichtenwalde, she is believed instead to have fled to Danzig where she likely still had family or friends. It was at this time the Wedhorns lost contact with her.
- Another family story reports that Soviet occupation troops “beat, assaulted and threw Else into the Nogat river” near the Senger farm in Zeyersvorderkampen, Westpreussen.
Note: additional source materials are currently being obtained.
Adelgunde Kiehl History -as related to Mark Rabideau by Luise (Senger) Rabideau (Aledgunde’s grand daughter) Jan 2006
She was born to a family of barge owners (the Kiehl’s)– her birth record we know her birth to have been on the 6th of October 1850 and baptized on 9 October of 1850 near Graudenz Mittelbezirk Westpreussen.
The Rabideaus are descended from a large number of original Quebec Pioneers.
The histories such as we can find them, are to be found here. Please note that many people have contributed in the generation of these stories. To the extent possible, we have noted the web locations, etc. for the materials. Where we have directly quoted the sites we owe a debt of gratitude to the original authors.
Christening: 1640
Ste Marie, Galice, Burgos, Spain
Burial: 1 Apr 1678
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Came to St. Lambert, LaPrairie, Quebec in 1670. Andre was part Spanish and of dark complection and was sometimes called the Spaniard. The 1666 census for the town of Quebec shows Andre as a sailor and employed by Eustache Lambert, a prominent interpreter, settler, and fur-trader. Employees were paid 10 cents a day with board and lodging.
Thanks to the diligent research of Guy Rabideau we now have a bit more detailed history of Andre and his life.
- Circa 1636-1640- Andre is born in Sainte-Marie, Spain, the son of Manuel Robidou and Catherine Alue. (Notes: Sainte-Marie is noted as a parish, and also as being in Galicia in the Diocese of Burgos).
- circa 1645 or later- Jeanne Denot is born, the daughter of Antoine Denot and Catherine Leduc. She is baptized at Saint-Germain-L’Auxerrois, Paris, France.
- prior to 20 April 1661- Andre works as a sailor in Nantes, Brittany (now Loire-Atlantique, Pays-de-la-Lorie, France).
- 20 April 1661- Andre, now in La Rochelle, Aunis (currently Carente-Maritime, Poitou-Charentes, France) enters a contract of engagement with Antoine Grignon, on behalf of merchant Eustache Lambert, obligating Andre to go to Nouvelle-France (New France) and work for 3 years.
- late spring and summer 1661- Probably working as a member of the crew, Andre sails from La Rochelle, France to Ile-Perce (on the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec), Acadia and finally to Nouvelle-France (New France) aboard La Marguerite, a ship originally hailing from Dieppe, Normandy, (now Seine-Maritime), France. late summer 1661 Andre arrives in Quebec, Nouvelle-France.
- between late summer 1661 & prior to 15 June 1664- Andre is an engage to merchant Eustache Lambert in Quebec.
Engagés were nothing more than indentured servants. An indentured servant was bound to his employer for the duration of his contract which was usually three years. Most of the men who went to New France were “engagés or indentured servants. The “engagé’s employer whether a farmer, a religious order, or a merchant, paid for their transportation from France. During the tenure of his contract, the “engagé could not become a citizen, get involved in the fur trade or marry. Some were servants, but the majority performed hard labour such as clearing land. He earned a paltry sum of 75 livres a year, with food, lodging and clothing deducted. After three years of toil, he usually only had the shirt on his back, a gun and his freedom. His labour could be bought and sold without his consent. In 1665, a quarter of men over the age of 15 who lived in New France were “engagés.
- circa 1664- Andre receives a concesion of land in what is now Sainte-Laurent on Ille-D’Orleans, Nouvelle-France.
- 15 June 1665- Andre receives a concession of land on Cote Lauzon (now Levis, Quebec), Nouvelle-France.
- 13 May 1665- Andre works as a sailor aboard the royal galiotte (type of ship) sailing from Quebec.
- circa 1665- Andre gives up his concession of land on Cote Lauzon and Ille-D’Orleans.
- 13 May 1666- Jeanne Denote leaves from La Rochelle as a Fille Du Roi aboard Le Saint-Jean-Baptiste, a ship originally sailing from Dieppe.
- 1666- Census records show Andre works as a sailor and lives with merchant Eustache Lambert in Quebec.
- circa 11 August 1666- After first stopping at the Gaspe Peninsula, the ship carrying Jeanne Denot arrives in Quebec.
- between circa 11 August 1666 & 17 June 1667- Jeanne Denot resides at a house on the grounds of the Ursuline monastery, Quebec.
- 16 May 1667- Andre and Jeanne Denot contract for marriage in Quebec.
- 17 June 1667- Andre Robidoou dit L’Espagnol and Jeanne Denot marry at Notre-Dame-de-Quebec, Quebec.
- 11 July 1669- Marie Romaine Robidou, daughter of Andre & Jeanne Denot, is born, and is baptized the same day at Notre-Dame-de-Quebec. She is named after her godmother Romaine Boudet.
- circa 1671- Andre, Jeanne Denot, and Marie Romaine Robidou move to the seigneury of LaPrairie, Nouvelle-France, acquiring property within the village of LaPrairie.
- 10 November 1671- Marguerite Robidou, daughter of Andre and Jeanne Denot, is born, and is baptized the same day at Saint-Francois-Xavier-des-Pres, LaPrairie. She is named after her godmother Marguerite Tenard.
- 15 January 1672- Sepulture (burial) for Marguerite Robidou (age 2 months) at Saint-Francois-Xavier-des-Pres, LaPrairie.
- prior to 02 June 1672- Andre acquires property on Cote de la Riviere Saint-Jacques, LaPrairie.
- 04 December 1672- Andre exchanges with Jean Caillault the property on Cote de la Riviere, Saint-Jacques, LaPrairie, for property on Cote de la Tortue, LaPrairie. He also sells the property in the village of LaPrairie to Pierre Lefebvre.
- 22 January 1673- The prior concession to Andre by the Compagnie de Jesus of the property on Cote de la Riviere Saint-Jacques, LaPrairie, is confirmed.
- 20 September 1673- Jeanne Robidou, daughter of Andre and Jeanne Denot, is baptized at Saint-Francois-Xavier-des-Pres, LaPrairie. She is named after her godmother Jeanne Roinay.
- circa 1674- Andre receives a concession of land on Cote Saint-Lambert, LaPrairie, from the Compagnie de Jesus, and gives up his concession of land on Cote de la Tortue, LaPrairie.
- 08 December 1674- Andre’s concession of land on Cote Saint-Lambert, LaPrairie, is confirmed by the Compagnie de Jesus.
- 28 November 1675- Guillaume Robidou, son of Andre Robidou and Jeanne Denot, is baptized at Saint-Francois-Xavier-des-Pres, LaPrairie. He is named after his godfather Guillaume Brunet.
- 08 November 1677- The Compagnie de Jesus, as seigneur of LaPrairie, inventories all of the concessions, which inventory lists the 08 December 1674 concession to Andre.
- 15 January 1678- Joseph Robidou, son of Andre Robidou and Jeanne Denot, is baptized at Saint-Francois-Xavier, LaPrairie. He is named after his godfather Joseph Boyer.
- 01 April 1678- Sepulture (burial) for Andre (age between approximately 38 and 42 years) at Notre-Dame, Montreal, wherein he is noted as residing at LaPrairie. He had fathered five children. (Note – the priests records his death, but no cause is given. Kim)
- 16 August 1678- Jacques Suprenant dit Sanssoucy and Jeanne Denot marry at Saint-Francois-Xavier, LaPrairie.
All tales are true. Some are parables and some are fact. Every fact is interpreted and filtered with the perspective of the viewer. This story is no exception. There are facts; there are truths; there are aspirations; and there are interpretations. This story is intended to relate a very personal set of experiences and history. It is shared to honor my predecessors and successors. It is also shared in the hope of indicating that my story and yours are intertwined.
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