A refugee story

 A refugee story
Ernst Karl Willi Jensen was born in East Prussia Germany in 1913. He married Waltraud Anni Emma Klingbeil in 1942 when she was 18. His father ran a dairy and he worked on the dairy and eventually became the owner. When the war broke out he was not initially drafted into the army, because his work was considered essential to the war effort. Later he was drafted into the military and was sent to Romania. Because the Russians were moving toward East Prussia Ernst and his wife had a plan for her to leave and go to west Germany.

In 1945 they moved to Osnabruk and then to Barsel and 1952 they moved to Hildesheim. Where Ernst worked for a dairy, because in East Prussia they owned a dairy. It was two years later that the missionaries knocked on their door and introduced them to the restored gospel.

Waltraud and her sons were baptized and three years later Ernst followed. He later became the branch president and later a sealer in the Bern Temple and a patriarch. He and his wife had two boys one of which became a regional representative and along with his brother served as stake presidents.

Their sons served missions and some have served as stake presidents.

The son of the youngest of Ernst’s boys was called to serve as an area authority seventy in the April conference of 2024.

I was fortunate to have helped to teach Ernst and Waltraud in 1954 and kept in touch with the family to date.