Gabriele's story

Gabriele Lapp grew up near Ludwigsburg in Württemberg. When Gabriele was six years old, a neighbouring child named Marianne told her that her parents were not her “real” parents. At home, she learnt that Marianne was right and that Marianne was also Gabriele’s half-sister and likewise a foster child. They had the same German mother and different French fathers. Gabriele was sad and shocked. She found support in her good relationship with her foster parents, who never spoke badly about her biological parents. At age 17, Gabriele met her future husband Jürgen Lapp. She moved to Hamburg to be with him and they started a family there. During a summer holiday in France in 1977, Gabriele went to the last known address of her biological father, which her mother had given to her foster parents. She stood in front of the door, but did not dare to ring the bell.

After the death of her adoptive parents, she continued her search for her biological family. Using the internet, she found other half-siblings and her mother Maria Rogalski in the United States. However, their first telephone call in 1996 was disappointing for Gabriele, as her mother was not interested in meeting her.

The story of the parents

Gabriele Lapp’s mother Maria already had six children with her husband Wilhelm Dall’Osteria, an SS member stationed in Berlin, when she entered into a relationship with the French prisoner of war Paul H. in 1943. They had a daughter together, Marianne. A year later, Maria was sentenced to prison for “illegal contact with prisoners of war”. She was pregnant with Gabriele when she went to prison. The father was the French forced labourer Noël Q., who worked in a factory near her flat. Maria was released early from prison shortly before Gabriele’s birth. Noël Q. returned to France in April 1945. He married shortly after the end of the war. He never spoke to his family about Maria and their child.

List of foreign forced labourers employed at the Schumacher Factory in Bietigheim in the District of Ludwigsburg during the Second World War, 4 July 1946

Noël Q. had come to the German Reich as a forced labourer in July 1943. He was made to work in the Schumacher factory in the historic district of Bietigheim until 8 April 1945.

Stadtarchiv Bietigheim-Bissingen

Growing up as an outsider

Gabriele often felt lonely in her childhood and youth. Her social circle was aware that she was the illegitimate child of a Frenchman and a German woman. Parents forbade their children to play with Gabriele because of her background. At school, she had the impression that she received lower grades than others for the same performance. Gabriele was under the custody not of her foster parents but rather of an official guardian. Gabriele does not have fond memories of her guardian’s treatment. He prevented her from getting a higher school leaving certificate. He repeatedly called her in to accuse her of indecent behaviour. However, Gabriele received a lot of support from her foster parents, who repeatedly stood up for her at school and in relations with the guardian.