A Daughter’s Search for her Father
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This book is not about what happened during World War I or II but only the role the Bauer family played in them. This book was written by me to help my wife, who spent most of her life searching, find her biological Father. My wife Margaret was born in Amsterdam during World War II the result of a loving relationship between a young Dutch lady and a German man. Her Father being a German, during World War II the enemy of the Dutch people, is the reason nobody in the Family wanted to talk about her birth. The shame of her birth was why we were only given small bits of information. Her Mother only gave Margaret’s Fathers name as Wilhelm Bauer and the fact that her Mother and other family members were not willing to give us any more information made Margaret very unhappy. Most people will say that there are lots of people that don’t know their Father which is true. However in Margaret’s case it is more the silence, including the pretending they didn’t know, that hurt Margaret more and who said many times why can’t I be told who my Father is, everyone else seems to know, what is wrong with me. Only after we received Margaret's original birth certificate did I become interested and started my research by writing this book. I’ve never written any books but this story really interested me so made up my mind to write, in a way I believe it happened, the history of the Wilhelm Bauer family. A family of which I believe my wife Margaret is the sole survivor. Other families can obtain lots of information from various relatives however we have only a couple of dates on her original Birth certificate, which we received only a couple years ago. With only very little information it was very difficult to trace Margaret's Paternal heritage. However with the help of the Internet started searching the name Wilhelm Bauer and found someone who had invented the submarine but he was to old. Then I stumbled on the name Gustav Bauer, whom I believe to be Margaret’s Grandfather, who quickly got to be noticed when he established the first Union of white collar workers. Later he became chairman of the General Commission of Trade Unions for all of Germany. Gustav Bauer was also the first Minister of Labour in Germany. And to top it all he attains the top job in Germany when he became the 11th Chancellor of Germany in 1919.
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About the Book
Margaret was already twenty years old, married and had her first child, when she found out from strangers that the man she called Dad was not her biological Father. She was told her biological Father was a German, during the second World War, an enemy of the Dutch people therefore neither her Mother or any of her Family were willing to talk about her birth. Then on a trip to Amsterdam the Netherlands the Author was able to obtain Margaret's original Birth certificate. This Birth certificate contained some important dates which sent him on a trip through two World War’s and believes he discovered what happened to Margaret’s Father.
About the Author
Bruce Eekma immigrated to Calgary Canada in 1958 from The Netherlands. He met Margaret, who had immigrated as a young girl from the Netherlands, a few years later and they were married in 1962. They now have two Sons, two Granddaughters, and two Great grandchildren. Bruce and Margaret still live in Calgary where Bruce has a full time job as a maintenance worker and Margaret keeps busy looking after her Great grandchildren. If after reading this book anyone can provide Bruce with any information please contact him at moeekma@shaw.ca.