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The Secret Life of Anne's Mother: Was She a German Spy? | S1E6 | My Family Mystery

Life Through Time

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Anne, having grown up with only fragmented memories and documents regarding her mother Loretta's past, believes that her mother was involved in espionage during World War II. When Anne was a child, Loretta left the family in Australia, leading Anne to suspect that her mother was a German spy. After years of research, Anne's daughter, Kim, approaches Sonia with a box of Loretta's belongings, hoping to uncover the truth and bring closure to Anne.

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20 Comments

@rhizomove6631 6 months ago

She was trafficked by the German family. They knew she was smart because of learning French and the photographic memory, which helps in learning languages. And she was a beautiful child. Her wedding picture is a 16 year old girl and three years after she met the people on the train. The legal age for marriage was 12 for girls and would require parental consent, but the average age of marriage for girls was significantly higher. She was groomed as an agent. And her husband died so soon after she was married. There is no telling what she was made to do. Note they did not share Ulrich’s last names. She took it to her grave. But the internet is savage! Records are everywhere and accessible.

@janetshade1975 6 months ago

when they started talking about blackmail my first thought was that the mother stayed away to keep her family and especially her daughter safe.

@kgmorton 6 months ago

So far it sounds to me like she was groomed for that life. That sucks 😢

@sarahwolfmayr2116 6 months ago (edited)

Yes, the letter is written in the same style handwriting my grandma learned at school in Austria. Actually it looks a lot like her letters :) Also, spying during that time was a lot more common. Before my grandfather died here in Austria, he told us, that he was at 17 trained to be a spy for the Nazis (it explains i guess, why he hated them so much) and was sent to be trained in Romania. We were rather shocked by that revelation because he avoided talking about the war all his life. I guess he must have witnessed awful things and it was just too painful to talk about it, so we know very little unfortunately.

@marysheahan1458 5 months ago

As soon as Ulrich was identified as Stasi, that opens up much more info. Tht organization's records began to be available after the fall of the Berlin wall.

Anne, if you read this, write to the Hoover Institute at Stanford University-- one of their librarians was doing research into Stasi in that time period.

I also wonder if Markus "went missing" means he was still alive and Loretta was told she'd be revealed as a bigamist.

@carolbouchard8924 6 months ago

WOW, THIS WOULD BE A GREAT MOVIE!!

@harrietyounger6118 6 months ago

What a story. I do think that there was more because she told her daughter she would take it to the grave when asked what she was doing.
I feel she may have been trafficked. If she was a low agent i cant see her doing anything she wouldn't admit to other than being made to sell herself.
She was honest about alot.
I think it was shame not guilt stopping from admitting what they were doing.

@JustBecky5791 6 months ago

This is the stuff great historical ducudramas are made of... unfortunately, it's not lost on me her mother felt she must leave her young children and family behind. How sad.

@eshwayri 5 months ago

There has to be a lot more to this story. They are either censoring the story or decided not to go down the rabbit hole. The Stazi records are available; probably some Russian documents too.

@mramm9903 6 months ago

OMG that's Crazy the town the bakery in Switzerland is the town that Both My Great Grandmother and Grandfather are from!!! I know my great grandmother was born in 1885 they immigrated through Ellis Island and ended up in California then settled Washington as dairy farmers!
I still have family there!
❤❤❤

@candisfirchau3810 6 months ago

Ulrich was a human trafficker

@semperfidelis2970 6 months ago (edited)

Ann's mother was incredibly beautiful, what a gorgeous woman.

@guardianofthemoon 5 months ago

You get such a feeling of her mother had to cut off all her emotions to survive, and when her daughter wanted to meet her she probably also feared condemnation and rejection. We will never really know if that is true, but I want to believe that this mother was in over her head and wanted to protect her family. Once Ulric was dead she probably felt it was too late to have a relationship with her family, especially back when, times were so different.

@Trudyrulez 4 months ago

That Loretta spied for the GDR in the fifties seemed logical from the start, the West Germans at that time had little reason to spy in Australia. That Max was a German who had to fight, and that Loretta is staying in neutral Switzerland seems odd. One would think she would stay with Max's family in Germany, she was his wife after all? Why did Ulrich become a GDR spy after the war (as a Swiss national), and why would the paranoid GDR regime trust him with important work overseas? There are still so many questions. The Stasi were notorious for blackmailing people into helping them, I'm sorry for Anne, no child should have to go through this kind of hardship, and I'm sorry for Loretta who seems to have been very much a victim of an evil man and regime.

@jesshoskii 6 months ago

This is a very sad story 😢

@charityrocks 3 months ago (edited)

I have always believed that my great aunt and uncle were spies. 😂 They had a very unique and interesting life. They were spies for the UK and the United States though. They were on our side. I can’t imagine what it feels like to think your family member were spies for the other side though! Wow! 🤯

@rachaeldel8362 4 months ago

They could have done a lot more research. Ulrich surely has family in Australia still and could have more information. They could have traced living relatives through birth deaths and marriages, same for the German family there must be surviving relatives there.

@nadinebeck2069 5 months ago

If you got his name, there should be a file at the Gauck Behörde who collect all the old documents from the Stasi (GDR regime)

@Frank-rx8ch 6 months ago (edited)

Kia ora sister for the mahi you are doing. Your patience, courage, faith and quiet determination to seek and help Kiwis unfold the fundamentals of their whakapapa past and present.