Hans Jörg Rafalski reads from his book NIEDERFINOW on May 11 at 3 p.m.
The last weeks of the war around the Niederfinow ship lift
The excellently designed book NIEDERFINOW was published last fall. In this white book about the American air raid on Niederfinow and the last weeks of the war in the Finow Valley, Hans Jörg Rafalski devotes himself in great detail to the events surrounding the ship lift in the spring of 1945.
The author writes about his work on NIEDERFINOW: "The path to the book began with the question of whether Hitler's "Nero order" put the Niederfinow boat lift in danger of being destroyed by the Germans themselves in the final days of the war. Publications by the Eberswalde Water and Shipping Authority and the Eberswalde Town and District Museum have published conflicting views on this in the past. This question was followed by five years of in-depth research, during which I examined every available document and every opinion to see if they fitted into a continuously condensing picture of the events of the last weeks of the war in the area between the Oder and Eberswalde. The result is an almost complete documentation, which is authenticated by the juxtaposition of German eyewitness accounts and Soviet operational reports to form a white book. The book lists the events in chronological order and offers an extensive explanatory and analytical section, photos of the sites of the events and maps of the front lines."
In the reading, Hans Jörg Rafalski will describe in particular the crossing of the Oder by the 61st Army at Hohenwutzen, Altglietzen, Neuenhagen, Bralitz, Falkenberg, Niederfinow up to Eberswalde. In the subsequent discussion there will be time to go into individual questions in more detail.
As places in the museum are limited, we ask interested parties to register by Thursday, 09.5.2024. Please send us a short e-mail to info@oderbruchmuseum.de or call us on 03344 333911. thank you very much!
About the author:
In his books, Hans Jörg Rafalski primarily traces the history of his home on the Finow Canal. The author grew up on the Finow Canal and still draws on the memories of those who lived through the 20th century with all its ups and downs. His family origins are linked to the founders and managers of several industrial companies in the Finow Valley.
He is a structural engineer and has been working as a creative in many fields in Eberswalde and Niederfinow since 1990. In 2016, he combined his many years of professional experience in the fields of graphic design, photography and copywriting to found the publishing house Papierwerken, which has published five books to date. Since 2018, he has been organizing state fairs and exhibitions under the title "Beautiful Books from Brandenburg".
He was awarded the Brandenburg Art Prize in 2021 for his photographic documentation of his homeland.
This reading is kindly organized by
Supported by the Brandenburg Literature Council with funds from the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg.
Sat. 11. May 2024