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For me,  The story of "Somewhere in Germany" all began in the garage at the old family farm.  On the left is the farmhouse when Paul came back from his time in Germany during World War 2.  His mother had saved every dime of the money he had allotted for her out of his military pay and she bought this farm house, which was basically a shack with 70 acres of land.  The land was worth more than the shack, but it would be a permanent home for the Crook family for years and years.  I found the letters from Anna, written in 1946, and 1948 in the old garage near the farmhouse.  On the right is the older version of the garage, and on the far right is the garage as it stands today.  I would have never dreamed that it could hold such a secret that it would change our lives forever.

The letters stayed inside the house in Paul's bedroom in a hat box for 55 years.  After he died in 2001, the box the letters were in, along with his other things were placed inside this enclosed section of the garage and stayed there from 2002 until I found them in 2005. 

Again, the letters were from Anna in Fahrenzhausen Germany. It was where Paul was stationed after he was transferred to a new unit after the tragic battle of Appenrode Germany.  He had won a Bronze star for Heroism but he was never proud and never showed it to anyone, for during the battle of Appenrode, he killed 15 Germans, captured 21 and injured 1. He had also held these prisoners overnight by himself until the American truck came to take the prisoners off his hands.  It had been a tragic battle and all of his comrades in his unit had been killed except for Paul and Robert-but Robert was injured during the battle so everything was up to Paul. On the far right was the house after renovations when he returned home.  Everything seemed to take all his money that he was trying to save to go back to Germany to return for Anna.