Weiser resident never knew she had an uncle in Austria, Part II

Published by admin on Fri, 01/07/2022 - 5:16pm
by Philip A. Janquart
 
Editor’s note: The following is part II of a story first published Dec. 29, 2021, about a family that learned of a close relative and Austrian native, Gottfried Jirkal, who spent a lifetime looking for his biological father, C.W. Harris. Harris served in Europe during World War II and is the grandfather of local resident Jennifer Miller.
 During World War II, a handful of American soldiers fell asleep in a hay loft on a small farm outside St. Mere Eglise, France.
 By morning, to their horror, the area was crawling with Germans.
 It must have been nerve wracking: hunkered down for four days, in constant fear of being discovered, as German troops operated an improvised communication command post in the space below them.
 C.W. Harris, born and raised in Sugar City, Idaho, was part of the allied forces making their way to Germany following the much-anticipated invasion of Europe (Operation Overlord) on June 6, 1944, which ultimately spelled the demise of the Nazi war machine.
 Hollywood immortalized the invasion in its 1962 blockbuster film, “The Longest Day,” which depicts characters representing C.W. Harris and his buddies as they waited patiently for help to arrive at the French homestead.
 The men survived and the Germans either fled or were captured.
 It is one story Weiser resident Jennifer Miller already knew about her grandfather, but what she and her family did not know was that he bore a son with an Austrian woman while occupying that country. At the time, fraternizing with the locals was strictly forbidden by the U.S. Military and may explain why the son was never mentioned.
 It was an offense that could have led to a dishonorable discharge and the loss of accompanying benefits, according to Miller.
 Today, the family has no idea whether C.W. Harris was aware that he had a son, but it’s not important to them now, Miller and her mother, Brenda Edwards, and other family members, making the trip to Austria last August to see the brother and uncle they never knew existed.
“We went for 14 days, and it was absolutely amazing,” Miller said, adding that Wayne Harris, her uncle, was not able to make the trip due to poor health. “We flew into Germany, and they picked us up, and then we drove [to Sankt Martin, Austria] from there. My husband, Todd, speaks German. They speak German in Austria, but it’s a little different, so it was a little hard, but my cousins, his (Jirkal’s) children, speak English pretty well, so the communication barrier was not hard at all. We were really blessed with that.”
 The Jirkal family took them on site-seeing trips, specifically to an ancient castle in Salzburg, but the real enjoyment was getting to know Gottfried, according to Miller.
 “We learned a lot about him,” she said. “We were able to see where he was born, where he walked to school, and we were able to see the home, the farm where my grandfather actually stayed when he was stationed there, the barn they all stayed in; it was just awesome.”
 A woman, whose family still owns the homestead, related a story she remembered from the time the Americans stayed on the property.
 The unnamed woman said that C.W. Harris saved her younger sister, who was five-years-old at the time, from being sexually assaulted by an American soldier.
 “The girl was pulled into a barn, but my grandfather and another soldier caught him and beat him to a pulp,” Miller said. “She remembers because she was a little bit older than her sister. She knows it was my grandfather because his name is Charlie. A lot of the soldiers were just referred to as Charlie back then, but my grandfather told her that his name really was ‘Charlie,’ so that’s how she knows. We had never heard that story.”
 It turned out to be just what Miller’s mother needed to hear, a woman who, since finding out about her brother Gottfried, had been experiencing mixed emotions, which included a little anger and some doubt about her father.
 “It was a really good story for my mom because she felt like, ‘how did he not know about him (Gottfried),’” Miller said. “She felt like her father just abandoned him, but now she feels that maybe that’s not what happened. Gottfried said his mother was, kind of, a horrible person and that it’s possible she didn’t say anything, so it was good for my mom to hear that story and walk away still believing that her dad was a good person.”
 Gottfried Jirkal said he lived a good life, spending nine summers hiking with his wife, Roswetha, and their kids to the top of an Alpine Mountain, which was only accessible by trail, where they managed a small hotel for hikers during the warmer months.
 He worked for the county as a road maintenance worker before retiring, plowing roads in the winter, and operating heavy machinery. Though she apparently didn’t always treat him well, Gottfried built a home next to his mother’s, who took in abandoned children.
 “They were kind of like stepchildren and he (Gottfried) said that most of the time, his mother treated them better than she treated him,” said Miller who added that Gottfried never held a grudge against his father.
 “He has no ill feelings whatsoever,” she said.
 Gottfried and his family visited the U.S. in 2018, unwittingly driving through the area where his father was born and right by his brother’s house while traveling on the higway through Rigby. Amazingly, that was before he knew who his father was and that he had relatives in Idaho.
 “They drove to Canada, rented RVs and ended up driving right into Rigby, right past his brother’s home,” she explained. “He lives right off W. Yellowstone Highway. You can see his house right off the highway. Then they drove through Ontario (Ore.), went up to Washington State and then followed the coast all the way to California. It’s crazy to think how close they were to us here in Weiser, only 20 minutes away, yet we had no idea.”
 Gottfried was supposed to make a return trip to Idaho for Miller’s daughter’s wedding but was not able due to COVID restrictions.
 “It was absolutely worth it,” Miller said of the trip to Austria and learning about her uncle. “It’s been so amazing. I think my grandfather would be happy that we have been brought together.”
 

 

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18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
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