In July of last year, I noticed that there was an entry for Clara Bauerle on Find-a-Grave. The creators of that memorial had run with the idea that Clara was, in fact, Bella in the Wych Elm. I sent a note to the folks responsible for the memorial suggesting some corrections but heard nothing back.
I then decided to create an accurate memorial for Clara. Given that her full name was Hedwig Klara Bauerle, I struggled a bit with how to enter her name in the First/Middle name fields.
If I stuck with rigid accuracy, no one would ever find her memorial. So, I have created a memorial for Clara Bauerle and noted her full birth name in the biography section.
It would be nice, at some point, to perhaps discover her burial location. It might be a long shot for a number of reasons:
- She died during World War 2 in a city that was heavily bombed. Graves and cemeteries might have been disturbed.
- The district in which she died later became part of East Berlin. Hard to say how the Soviets and/or East Germans managed cemeteries.
- Most graves in Germany have an expiry date after 20 or 30 years. Unless there is family around to renew the grave “subscription”, the remains are exhumed and disposed of, while the stones are destroyed.
One option for research would be to search for her funeral records with the Protestant church. My experience suggests that the Protestants are fairly organized with their baptism, marriage and funeral records, so it might be possible. A project for the future, perhaps.
N.B. 2021 05 27 – It would seem that the two memorials on Find-a-Grave for Clara have been merged into one with an even more confusing mish-mash of Bella information and Clara Bauerle information.