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From the Eastern Front to Alpena: Ossineke resident shares his life story that began in Germany, 1928

Courtesy Photo Bloedow is seen looking out at the Atlantic Ocean while sailing to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

OSSINEKE — Hans Bloedow, 96 years old and current resident of Ossineke, has a life story most can’t imagine. His tale begins in Berlin, Germany, meanders through Europe and Canada until he landed in Alpena with a bakery and an American dream.

ON THE EASTERN FRONT

Bloedow was born in Berlin, Germany in 1928. He lived in Berlin with his mother and father throughout the years that Adolf Hitler was in power.

In 1942, Bloedow was working in a bakery to learn the trade. In 1945, Bloedow passed his apprenticeship test, but it wouldn’t be until years later that Bloedow would own his own bakery.

During this time, Bloedow was 16 years old and up for the draft in Germany. He decided to volunteer so that he could choose where he would be placed, and he chose to enlist in the German Air Force.

Courtesy Photo Bloedow and his wife, Ingeborg, in Berlin, Germany.

“And in 1945, January the 2nd, I made my test, the written test and practical in another bakery, and of course, that went well,” Bloedow said. “But instead of celebrating, two days later, I already was in uniform and on my way to the Eastern Front.”

According to Bloedow, in January 1945, Russia began an offensive campaign against Germany. The German Army needed more men to defend the Eastern Front, so Bloedow was sent to a fort in Poland.

“Ridiculous, you know, because I mean, we were mostly 16- to 18-year-old people. We had no training, no experience whatsoever,” Bloedow said.

Bloedow explained that when the German soldiers and he arrived at the Polish fort, he could tell that the Russians were already nearby.

“When it was evening and you could look on the horizon, you could always see gunfire,” Bloedow said. “But we were in that camp for about five nights and then they called an emergency.”

Courtesy Photo Bloedow baking bread at a bakery.

Bloedow and a fellow soldier he knew from Berlin took the chance to grab food before leaving.

After grabbing some bread, salami, and a cold beer, Bloedow and his friend left the building as soon as they could. But once outside, Bloedow came face to face with a Russian tank.

“I see that thing (the tank) even in my mind, I can still see it,” he said. “I was standing about 30 feet in front of it. I had about a second-and-a-half to decide what to do. Either to stand there and wait to either be shot or become a prisoner of war.”

In a split second, Bloedow and his friend ran from the tank and to the tree line behind the camp. Bloedow explained that they had only been outside of the building for maybe five minutes when the building exploded.

After the explosion, Bloedow and his friend were separated from the rest of their unit. They kept walking, to avoid capture, through deep snow in a strange country. Neither of the young men knew how to speak Polish.

Courtesy Photo Doughnuts being prepared at Alpine Bakery by Bloedow.

Eventually, Bloedow and his friend found another German camp on a hill past a small village.

There they found a place to rest.

“So we were tired like you would believe, naturally,” Bloedow said. “I mean when you’re out in the cold, you know, for 10, 12 hours. Nothing warm to eat or drink. You’re tired, you know. So we hit one of the empty bunks there and fell asleep.”

As soon as they were asleep, however, Bloedow explained that the Russian Army had already caught up to them. The German Army wanted to defend the camp and the village from the Russians, however, Bloedow and his friend saw it as a pointless fight.

“Well, I had no desire to do that,” Bloedow said. “I never even had a gun. We had no whatsoever training, nothing. What the hell am I going to do … I mean, it just didn’t make sense.”

Courtesy Photo Bloedow baking bread at a bakery.

With some creative thinking, Bloedow forged a general’s letter saying that Bloedow and his friend were supposed to reach Berlin by any means possible. With this letter, the two young men hitchhiked their way back to Berlin.

Once in Berlin, Bloedow’s father, a police officer, instructed Bloedow to report back because if he didn’t, he would be considered a deserter.

Bloedow did as his father instructed, and afterward, Bloedow and his friend were swiftly shipped off to another military camp in Germany.

While serving at the camp, Bloedow knew the Americans were on their way, and his unit was eventually captured by the Americans with 60,000 other soldiers.

“The first two, three days … we had nothing to eat, nothing to drink,” he said. “I didn’t blame the Americans for not feeding us. They never were prepared to take that many prisoners. And just like me, every other German soldier at that point, had enough.”

Courtesy Photo Bloedow making bread at Alpine Bakery.

After about six weeks, Bloedow explained that he and the other POWs were taken to France. There, Bloedow said, the French Army treated them badly and only gave them rotten food.

In search of better food, Bloedow and his friend signed up for a program to work for farmers in the area, thinking it would offer them that chance. But when they got there, they weren’t tasked to farm but instead were assigned to clear landmines from fields.

While working one day, Bloedow said he stepped on one and it did not explode. At that moment, he decided he was done with the war.

“I figured I got to do something,” he said. “I didn’t want to stay there any longer. I wanted to go home… my friend and I and there were a couple of other guys by that time … we decided to escape.”

Through some more ingenuity and clever thinking, Bloedow and his fellow soldiers cleared a path of landmines and marked the path so that only they knew where it was. When they found the right opportunity, Bloedow and the other soldiers ran through the field riddled with landmines to freedom.

COMING TO ALPENA

After the war, Bloedow worked as a police officer in Germany and married his wife, Ingeborg. Bloedow said that being a police officer was one of his favorite jobs.

“Every day was different,” Bloedow said. “There were no two days alike.”

In 1953, Bloedow traveled to Canada to start working and to save up money to bring over his family and eventually move to America. While in Canada, with minimal English-speaking skills, Bloedow worked as a janitor in a children’s hospital and then, for a while, put antennas up on people’s houses.

Eventually, Bloedow interviewed for a position managing restaurants in Detroit and was hired. Bloedow and his family were able to move to America once his employer agreed to sponsor him for a visa.

Bloedow managed the restaurants for five years, then managed a chain of Burger Kings in Farmington. After doing those jobs for a number of years, Bloedow received a loan from a friend in Presque Isle to open a bakery that was once located on the corner of Chisholm Street and 3rd Avenue.

Bloedow ran his bakery there for five years and then moved to his location on Miller Street in Alpena. There, Bloedow opened the Alpine Bakery. Despite not being on a busy street then, Bloedow had a strategy to keep his business thriving.

“And everybody said, ‘Well, that was a bad move because that is not a very busy area…’ I figured, of course, it’s not a busy area, but then maybe I should go to the people, and then it’s going to be like establishing a wholesale,” Bloedow said. “All the little grocery stores … everywhere. We delivered bread and doughnuts and everything.”

Bloedow’s bakery delivered bread to grocery stores from Alpena all the way to Onaway. He owned Alpine Bakery for 30 years.

Now in his 90s, Bloedow spends his days reminiscing on the past and the incredible journey that took him from Berlin, Germany all the way to Ossineke, Michigan.

Courtesy Photo Bloedow is seen sitting next to a lifeboat on the deck of a ship headed to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Courtesy Photo Bread cooling at the Alpine Bakery.

Courtesy Photo Bloedow is seen here with fellow police officers in Berlin, Germany

Courtesy Photo Bloedow’s paczki for sale at the Alpine Bakery.

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