A DIFFERENT TYPE OF LOVE STORY: Malden soldier never even knew he left a daughter behind in Germany at the very end of World War II

This family’s quest for identity began nearly 80 years ago in Europe and was requited at Malden High

By Steve Freker

This is the type of story from whence Hollywood movies are made. It began nearly 80 years ago, in Russian-occupied eastern Germany, at the very end of World War II – a tale about a little girl who had never known her birth father. The Hollywood-like twist? The American soldier, who spent just nine weeks as part of the initial U.S. occupying force in that part of Germany, never even knew he left something special behind.

The father and daughter never met and the soldier never even knew he had fathered a baby girl during a brief romance with a young woman, just before he was shipped out to the Pacific to assist in the U.S. occupation of a second major conquered country, Japan. The story could have ended there, as surely, many other similar mini-sagas concluded in post-wartime Europe. But the German girl’s family never stopped researching and did not ever stop trying to find out what had happened to that American soldier, in those many decades after the war.

A triumphant, happy ending at Malden High School

But this quest went the other way, this search bore fruit. Nearly 80 years later, the hopes and dreams of the Frellstedt and Meister families realized a triumphant, happy ending – right here in the heart of our city – at Malden High School. On a recent May morning, three natives of modern-day Germany walked through the front door of Malden High School and made a simple request. They wanted to look through some old Malden High School yearbooks; they wanted to see some Maldonian yearbooks from the late 1930s and 1940, to be precise. Three Meister family members had journeyed across the Atlantic to see if they might be able to find one piece of evidence: to be able to possibly gaze on one face, for what would be the first time ever.

Leading this quest right to the doorstep of Malden High School was Conny Meister and his parents, Maritta (Frellstedt) and Jurgen Meister. Conny is the son of Maritta Meister, the youngest of three children. Maritta, who will be 78 this year, is that German girl from long ago who never knew her father. Jurgen Meister is her husband.

A lifelong mission to learn about her father

According to Conny Meister, his mother had made it one of her lifelong missions to at least get a glimpse of what her father looked like. “She had never even seen a photo of her father. Our family really wanted to make that possible for my mother,” Conny Meister said.

After many years of detective-like research, the Meisters’ quest brought them to Malden, and Malden High School, specifically. The trek to Malden came after the Meisters determined that Maritta’s father was none other than William John Voigt, a Malden man. William J. Voigt was that 25-year-old U.S. Army Private from long ago who was part of the American troops who became the occupying force in Germany in the last weeks of World War II, in the spring of 1945.

Voigt’s division was stationed about 150 miles southwest of the German capital of Berlin, in eastern Germany, near Mehringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, from late April to late June or early July of 1945. That was some of the farthest easterly push of American troops right at the tail end of World War II, Conny Meister noted. Russian troops were quickly coming in from the east as well – from Poland – and were attempting to occupy as much of eastern Germany as possible, and succeeded in many parts of eastern Germany, except in Berlin.

If not for fate, they may have never met!

“Had the American troops not arrived [near Mehringen] when they did [April 1945] – and it appears it may have been a week or less in front of the Russians – then my German grandmother and my American grandfather might have never met!” Conny Meister said.

Germany formally surrendered on May 7, 1945, and some divisions of the American military, including Voigt’s unit, were shipped to the Pacific in late June and early July to participate in the latter days of that region of the war, leading to the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945. Japan’s surrender came not long after atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, respectively.

Not long after Private William Voigt was shipped off to the Pacific, Russian troops indeed came in and occupied the region where the Meisters lived, in Mehringen, Germany. “It was considered deep into Germany, very close to the Russian troops, when American soldiers came to our town. Historians did not realize that Americans had initially come that close to Berlin.”

Grew up in Russian-occupied East Germany

The Meisters grew up in an East Germany with a Russian occupation that lasted nearly 50 years; from 1945 until even after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990; the Russians withdrew their nearly 350,000 troops and 210,000 civilians completely in 1994. After World War II, the Soviet Union occupied the northeast quadrant of Germany, which included the central parts of Prussia and the capital Berlin. The Soviet occupation zone also included the German states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt – where the Meisters lived – and Thuringia.

In 1947, the Allied powers dissolved Prussia and divided the area among these states. On October 7, 1949, the Soviet zone west of the Oder-Neisse line became the German Democratic Republic, also known as East Germany. The Soviet Union installed a communist state in East Germany and stationed a large military force there.

While stationed in Mehringen, Saxony-Anhalt, in 1945, just before the war ended, the Meisters recalled, Private Voigt met Hertha Frettstedt, an 18-year-old young fraulein, and the pair struck up a brief romance. “Two young people were together for a short time and something wonderful happened,” Conny Meister said. Nine months later, in March 1946, Maritta Frettstedt was born. Conny Meister explained that, as Hertha was an unwed teen mother, his family did not fully reveal the details of the birth, with townspeople under the impression that Maritta was a later in life offspring of his great-grandmother, Hertha’s mother.

Meanwhile, with the war over and communications coming out of then-Russian-occupied East Germany certainly no easy task, the yearning to discover the full identity of Maritta’s birth father would have to be put on hold. The Meisters did research for years and revealed that Private Voigt – who apparently added an “h” to his last name for more common surname spelling, “Voight” – was sent to Japan after Germany, then discharged. The new Army veteran returned to the United States, first back to Malden, where he grew up, and then to Stoneham, where he spent a greater number of years of his life.

Mr. Voight, as he now spelled his name, did marry, but he never had any other children. He passed away in Stoneham in 2007 at the age of 87. He was employed by the Town of Stoneham for many years before his retirement and left his wife, Edith “Cookie” (Martucci) Voight. Edith passed away in 2012 in Stoneham.

The road for the Meisters led to Malden High in May for one main reason: Maritta simply wanted to see the face of her father, William Voigt, Conny’s grandfather. That is when I met them and became fascinated by their story, hoping to help them see their wish granted.

William Voigt entered Malden High in 1938

The Meisters knew that Mr. Voigt entered Malden High School, then just grades 10, 11 and 12, in 1938. We scoured the Maldonian yearbooks of 1938, 1939 and 1940, searching for his photo, figuring he would have been in the Class of 1940. Unsuccessful on finding a named photo, Conny and Maritta kept looking. We enlisted the help of longtime Maldonian advisor and Malden High English Language Arts educator Jim Valente and still could not locate a photo or Voigt’s name.

Then, a “Eureka” moment – still in existence at Malden High School is the “old-school” (literally!) index-card-like “Cardex” record-keeping system. Going back well over 100 years, there is a file cabinet that holds an index card for every student who ever attended Malden High School, in alphabetical order. So, what was burrowed in the tried-and-true Malden High School Cardex files? Voilà! William Voigt’s information – most importantly, William Voigt’s photo.

Holding the Voigt Cardex card, with photo, aloft like it was pure gold, I walked out to the front of the office and beckoned the Meisters into a nearby conference room. For the first time ever, Maritta Meister could look at a photo of her birth father, William Voigt (Voight), and Conny Meister could see his grandfather. Yes, some tears of joy arrived with the monumental “Mission Accomplished” for the Meister family.

A touching moment for the German girl in search of her father

It was certainly a touching moment for Maritta and Jurgen and their son, Conny. “My mother was so happy,” Conny said. “So many years, never knowing what her father looked like, then to be successful in her search all of her life.”

With the Cardex, we also discovered why he was not featured in the yearbooks. He never finished his time at Malden High, leaving the school after the third quarter, we believe, so he could go on to enlist in the U.S. Army.

The Meisters stayed a few extra days, met some former neighbors of Mr. Voight in Stoneham and then returned to Germany, where Maritta and Jurgen live in Michelstadt, Hesse. Maritta has three children, including the youngest, Conny, and seven grandchildren. Conny lives nearby in Tubingen, Germany. Before they left, the Meisters shared some family photos from the 1940s and also took a photo of their family gathered in front of Malden High School, the school of their father and grandfather.

“We enjoyed our stay around Boston/Malden/Stoneham, Mass.,” Conny said in a recent email he sent to me.

“We were lucky to meet so many friendly and open-hearted people like you and really appreciated the help and hospitality,” Conny wrote. “Moreover, I would like to thank you all again for giving us the opportunity to have a look at the Yearbooks (and records) and thus to finally have a look at our father/grandfather.”

What a tremendous story, and everyone loves a happy ending. Maybe someday we will see it on the Hollywood screen. One never knows.

See more photo highlights at: www.Facebook.com/advocate.news.ma