We now had an heir (the sister’s descendant in Belgium), but what had happened to the legator’s brothers? Helped by one of our partners we learned that only the legator managed to escape the Red Army during the retreat of the German Armed Forces. Her ethnic German brothers were accused of collaboration with the Nazis and sentenced to 25 years of forced labour in Siberia.

The penalty of 25 years was reduced to 15 years. Once these 15 years were over, the legator’s brothers settled in Eastern Kazakhstan, close to the border with China, where they died a couple of years ago. All her life the deceased had tried, supported by the Red Cross, amongst others, to establish contact with her brothers, but unfortunately her efforts had been in vain.

After three months of extremely intensive research in Kazakhstan, our partners informed us that the descendants of the late brothers of the deceased meanwhile were still living in Russia in extremely poor conditions. We succeeded in finding them and, together with their Belgian cousin, they can now enjoy ownership of a flat in Vienna and a certain amount of cash. («)