Info Request: Translation/ info on some WW2 german post cards & letter

[MustangPWR]

Hello all,

For my birthday my mom gave me a letter, a couple post cards and a photograph that a cousin gave her on her last trip home to Poland. I have scanned and attached the documents and am asking for your help. I do not speak or read German but am a history major so my natural curiosity is killing me to know more about what I have. From what I can gather I think they are all written to the same person but I am not sure. Any Help would be great, Thank You.

side note the guy in the middle front row looks ridiculous.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/DMI101/MP%20photos/photo.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/DMI101/MP%20photos/Postcard.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/DMI101/MP%20photos/HORSE.jpg



http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/DMI101/MP%20photos/IMG_0002.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/DMI101/MP%20photos/IMG_0003.jpg

[Steak-Sauce]

Haha! Yes, the officer has a really strange expression on his face. p-)

First postcard:


WIEN, SCHOENBRUNN. Neptunbrunnen und Gloriette im Park. Mit dem Belvederegarten ist der Schoenbrunnerpark der einzig urspruenglich erhaltene der grossen Barockgaerten Wiens.

Liebe Frau Niechziol! (?)

Habe einen wundervollen Spaziergang hinter mir u. bin eben im Kaffeehaus gelandet um mich zu stärken. Es ist sehr schade, dass Sie nicht hier sind; Sie wären begeistert. Das Wetter ist ?? ??. Jetzt fahre ich in die Stadt um noch ?? zu schauen. Hier kann man einen Haufen Geld ausgeben, u. erst im Frieden, wenn alles wieder zu haben ist.
So grüßt Sie herzlichst,
Ihre
?? ??.

1.6.44


VIENNA, SCHOENBRUNN. Neptunfountain and Gloriette in the park. The Belvedere garden in the Schoenbrunn park is the last one of the original baroque gardens of Vienna.

Dear Mrs. Niechziol!

Took a wonderful long walk and just arrived in the cafe to eat. It is a great pity that you are not here; you would be enthusiastic. The weather is ?? ??. Now I'm going to drive into the city to look for ??. You can spend a lot of money here, and especially in peace time, when everything is available.
With sincere greetings,
Yours
?? ??.

June 1st, 1944

[JCR]

These are two postcards and a field letter from a man name Niechziol to a woman of the same last name (mother? wife?) to some place in upper Silesia which I can't decypher.
Something with "witz" today most likely the same name with "vice"
The photo seems to be his recruit company goofing around, most likely at the end of basic training.
The guy on the extreme left is the company sergeant, the "Spiess".
I can't read most of the handwriting because I suck at reading handwriting.
The text on the slightly perverse looking postcard with the horse is printed in "Sütterlin" handwriting font which I can't read.
But the field mail letter was sent from field post number 22019.
According to a website, this number was assigned to the regimental staff of infantry regiment 161.

I.R. 161 belonged to the 81st Infantry division. At the time the letter was sent, 23. October 1942, the regiment held the Demyansk salient on the northern part of the eastern Front in the Volkhov area.
In early 1942, I.R. 161 was surrounded at Demyansk but was able to restore connection to the rest of the army with the help of air supplies.
At the time of the letter, the Infantry Regiment was renamed Grenardier Regiment 181 (which was purely a renaming with no consequences to the TO&E) and was sent to Demyansk again.
3 days after the letter, on the 25th, GR 161 assaulted soviet positions around Demyansk to improve supply routes on the Volkhov Front.
The battle lasted until 14th November and resulted in no significant gains before the attacks were stopped due to heavy casualties.
GR 161 lost 19 officers and 549 enlisted killed, wounded or missing.
Our man obviously survived, but either he was wounded or he was taken out of the line with the whole regiment 161.
Generally the IR/GR 161 and the 81st Division served in the northern east front, often near Leningrad.
The division ended the war in the Kurland pocket in today's Latvia.
Regiment 181 was nearly wiped out in a soviet assault in February 1945 and the survivors were transfered to another regiment of the 81st division.

[MustangPWR]

Wow, thank you so much for your help! I know these are not family items because my grandfather was in the Polish army and was a POW in a labor camp for the majority of the war and my grandmother was in also in a forced labor camp as well. Time for more digging to where she got this stuff.

[JCR]

At least judging from the very polish sounding last name and the fact that they lived in upper Silesia, it might well be that these people were in fact polish citizens before 1939.
Upper Silesia became polish in 1919.
I.R. 161 fits insofar as the regiment was raised from Wehrkreis VIII, which covered the part of Silesia that was german until 45 (Breslau etc).
It apparently expanded its recruiting area to upper silesia after 1939

Judging from my own grandfather's relatives, being polish or german in upper Silesia was basically a matter of self-definition and language, but even the german accent from there just sounded like german with a polish accent.
They were as catholic as the poles, had the same last names and the same customs like Carp for Christmas etc...
The rest of germany often called silesians "Wasserpolacken" (watered down Polaks).

[pocoloco]

Interesting stuff, thanks for posting these and thanks for people for the information, too. Interesting to follow this from the sidelines. As a sidenote, is the unit photo meant to be comical or for real? Definately a boxer (judging from his nose) in the middle row, just right from the officer with funny face. And the one, second from left , seems to have gotten inspiration to his moustache from the counsellor himself?

[Marmot1]

It was sent to Schwientochlowitz , which is today's Świętochłowiece in Poland