Imagine your family settles into a new country during a war. You are living in your house, going about your daily lives the best you can. Then all of a sudden you are uprooted and forced to leave simply because of your nationality. Well this is the situation that Rudi Schlattner found himself in when he was just a young boy. WWII had broken out, and with the conquering of surrounding nations, German citizens began to move into Nazi controlled territory. Rudi and his family lived in Czechoslovakia during WWII. When the war finally came to a close in 1945, German national were forced out of Czechoslovakia. He and his family fled the country and left their house and all their belongings behind. This would be incredibly difficult for anyone to do, especially a young child. Rudi is now 80 years old, and one of his wishes before he passes away was the to see his childhood home one more time. He made the journey all the way back to Czechoslovakia, and visited his old house with his entire family. Rudi had a sneaking suspicion that his father may have stored some stuff away in the house for a later date, but was never able to get back to it. Check out these pictures to see if Rudi was right.
This is the house that Rudi grew up in. Rudi is 80 years old and wanted to see it one more time before he died.
Rudi also believed that his father may have hidden a valuable stash of items inside the house. He wanted to be the one to find it.
While they were searching the attic, Rudi noticed a loose board along the wall with a string attached to it. This small piece of evidence had gone unnoticed for years, even after the numerous renovations the house has gone under.
This compartment was located behind the door. It was full of wrapped packages and boxes. Even though it was a small space, it took hours to retrieve all the items out of the attic.
After they had pulled all the items out of the attic, they started the tedious process of unpacking all of them.
A group of representatives from a museum in the city of Usti nad Labem came and helped put dates to the items and catalogue them.
Rudi was absolutely ecstatic about finding so many items from his childhood. Can you imagine being reunited with things you hadn’t seen in well over 50 years?
As excited as Rudi was, the museum staff were also extremely excited about the find. This was definitely a good amount of WWII memorabilia.
These items are not worth much, but just having pieces of history like this so well-preserved should be enough to get anyone excited.
All of this technically belongs to the Czechoslovakian government. Rudi said he isn’t worried about getting any of the stuff back though. He is just happy to finally have closure to a tumultuous time in his life.
This really is an incredible find. The historical value of the objects that were found is pretty incredible, and the value to Rudi and his family can’t even be measured. These were things that Rudi grew up with. So many memories had to have flooded back to him when the museum representatives started to unwrap all these memories from his childhood. I’m glad that Rudi got the closure he was seeking, and that the museum has some valuable pieces to add to their collection.