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Austria (1920)
Source:
Rosa Reisinger (sister) / Graz
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Karl Josef Mihun was born as the second child of parents Adelheid and Karl Mihun on October 4, 1920 in Graz in the Austrian state of Styria. He lived with his two sisters Adelheid and Rosa in his parents' house at Göstringerstrasse 350. When he was ten years old, the family lost his mother. Karl Mihun was then taken into the care of his grandparents. He moved into his grandparents' house and was thus separated from his siblings. Karl Mihun attended four classes of elementary school and four classes of secondary school in Graz and then began an apprenticeship with a butcher at the age of 14. He enjoyed working as a butcher; after all, it had been his own wish to take up this profession. In 1938 he signed up for labor service and the following year, after volunteering and passing an aptitude test, was accepted into the Navy for a twelve-year period of service. Karl Mihun completed his basic training with the 13th Schiffsstammabteilung in Saßnitz on the island of Rügen. There he met fellow countryman August Reisinger. The two got on well and became best friends. During a joint visit to Karl Mihun's sister Rosa, she also became friends with August Reisinger, which later developed into a marriage that has lasted to this day. In 1940, Karl Mihun and August Reisinger were given their first shipboard command on the cruiser Karlsruhe. This was torpedoed and sank off Norway on April 9, 1940. Both were rescued along with most of the crew. In the same year, Karl Mihun was sent to the battleship Bismarck for construction instruction and assigned to the anti-aircraft division. This time, his friend August Reisinger did not come on board after unsuccessful efforts to stay together.
During his only vacation, Karl Mihun enthusiastically reported to his family about his new ship and was sure that nothing would happen to him on the Bismarck. But things turned out differently: in May 1941, the battleship sank, killing most of the crew, including twenty-year-old Karl Mihun. The family, or rather the father, received the sad news in a letter dated July 4, 1941, with the certainty of their son's death. "After we received this news," reports Karl's sister Rosa: "I, together with my friend August and his friend at the time, tried to contact Karl's girlfriend at the time, who we knew lived in Hamburg. However, we only managed to get in touch with the girl's mother (since the girl was very young - 16), who also knew Karl and liked him very much. Towards the end of the war, contact was lost - we don't know whether the family moved away or perhaps died. I loved my brother very much and even as children we felt very close. This warm relationship remained even when Karl was an adult. His death hit me hard and also my friend, who was Karl's closest friend and who was far away from me at the time of this tragic event. As always, such an event is initially incomprehensible and it takes many years to get some distance from it. In 1942 I married Karl's friend, August Reisinger, and we named our first and only son, who was born in 1943, Karl Heinz after my brother.“
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