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Pierre Berton, in his excellent book 'Vimy', writes of a German who claimed that while the English and French fought for glory and honor, the "Canadians fight for souvenirs". This is one of those souvenirs taken home by a Canadian after WW1. It's a paybook that belonged to Karl Dreuske. The story [of course] is that the man who killed him took it off his body and brought it back to Canada after the war. This guy's great-granddaughter ended up with it and she gave it to a friend of mine.
Karl was born August 23, 1883 in Eberswalde, Germany. He was with the 7th Company, 1st Reserve Infantry Regiment at the time of his death. He may have joined the Army in 1904 (page 6). He was definitely serving from 1914 to 1918. His mother, Louise Faudree, was born in Berlin in 1851 but it seems his father was no longer living. He had a wife and 2 kids ... I think ... my German's not that good. If anyone can read this book properly, I would appreciate any
I can get.
(click on the images below to see them close up)
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UPDATE: I've had a German gent tell me some infos which he found out. Some of the details about each page [which will be there now]. He also did a little research but unfortunately, I cant find his email at the moment but the general idea was that the Dreuske family living at his reported location denied his existence, leaving my friend with the impression that this paybook was fake. I'm not sure if I agree with that though, as it looks authentic in every way, and, perhaps more importantly, why? Since it's probably not worth much, I can only think of one reason why someone would go through the trouble. Fake papers for a POW escape attempt. However, that's a better story and probably would have been used had it been true.
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