Andreas Lang

It was the mid 1930’s Hitler had already started his campagne in Europe and there as a result work was hard to find. Andreas Lang who lived in Walbersdorf, Burgenland, Austria was a carpenter by trade , and had to travel far and wide to find work and was away from the family a lot.

Pauline Lang 1898 – 1963 (my grandmother) worked in the fields on the family farm.

Andreas wanted to go to America to look for work , but Pauline did not want to go to America. Andreas then heard of the opportunities opening up in South Africa and left Walbersdorf in February 1937 on the ship “Julia Cesare”. Arrived in Cape Town 15 March 1937 . He made his way to Vereeniging where he found a job.

Pauline and daughter Pauline( my Mother 12 years old at the time)decided to go to South Africa to join her husband Andreas and make a new life. On 8th February 1938 they left Mattersburg by train to Genoa Italy where they boarded a ship “Guilio Cesare” which set sail for Cape Town South Africa. The journey took three weeks with one stop near Gibraltar.

The ship docked in Cape Town on the 26th February 1938, they were taken straight to the station where they caught the train to Johannesburg. Andreas was there to meet them at the station and took them to Vereeniging where they stayed for 6months. Andreas found a job in Johannesburg and they moved to a flat in Booysens. Andreas then bought a house 63 Height Street Doornfontein where Pauline Kirkpatrick (Lang) 1925 – 2008 stayed until she was married.

Pauline Lang and Andreas Lang’s son also named Andreas was left behind to complete his university studies and then come to South Africa towards the end of the year 1938.

Hitler invaded Austria in March 1938 and all the young men were drafted into the military and taken to the Russian front. He was never seen or heard of again and no one knew what had happened to him.

He has since been found . He was Killed WW2 outside Stalingrad, Rossoschka.Memorial