about Me

           Monica -Ich

Hello I am Monica Sirotzki Weinle. I was born May 28 1965 to Hubert & Marta Sirotzki. I was
born in Parma, Ohio. USA. I have 3 children. Nicole,Kenny and Tyler and am newly wed. I just
married my childhood sweetheart, Dave Weinle.

I have been working on this website on and off since February 2006. It was this or a book
and to be honest this was easier. I gathered family photos from my parents. I scanned over
2000 photos for a family DVD and a CD. I was working on a million things at one time,
literally. This was a huge project, the site ,the DVD and the CD. All of this stemmed from an
idea I had for a gift.

I was making my father and mother a special Christmas gift. For mom I was buying items
from her home town, Bremen Germany. Not new things but things like old postcards,
collectors plates, paper money, coins etc. For Dad I collected items from where he was
born,The Free State of Danzig - free meaning it had its own senate, prince, and army. It
didn't belong to any country. More on that story later. I found items all over the world.
That was awesome because the boxes and envelopes came from all over the world, some
from places I didn't know existed. It was a very hard search. I found coins, postcards, some
pins, and books. I also started printing any photos I could find from his town. Everything I
found was amazing. I learned so much about my fathers city, the history, his heritage, OUR
FAMILY. Tyler started a stamp collection with all those stamps we got.

My dad never had anything from his home town. No family photos of his parents or family,
no memorabilia, nothing. My mission was to see that my dad got something from his home.
I was not going to let him go without these things his whole life, it just didn't seem fair. I put
together a photo album, just like they used to make long ago. The kind on black paper
and photo corners. I printed so many photos and cut them all out with those fancy scrolled
edged scissors. I thought my hands would never be the same. Nicole helped me a lot, if it
weren't for her I would never have gotten it done.

My deadline of Christmas 2005 was not met. A blanket from Deutschland was their gift
instead that year. Mind you, I was on a mission and no one knew except for my husband
and kids. It was as if I was driven by an unknown force.

Not much was ever spoken about Danzig, not in the way that we understood about my
dads life there. We knew that was where he was from but that was about it. Something
inside me made me want to know more. I don't know why at this point in my life but it just
seemed to happen. It was not something I set out to do, but it was something I felt I HAD
to do so our children knew their history. After all once a family history is collected that is it,
and no one had done this for our family yet. So I appointed myself family historian and that's
how this site came to be.

In January 2006, I gave the gifts to my parents. They opened the boxes like kids on
Christmas morning, wide eyed and smiling. Mom loved everything, and Dad, well I think he
was a bit taken back. His reaction was not what I expected. He was not very excited - just
kind of looked at the stuff low key. A few moments later I gave him his photo album. My
husband, Dennis, took pictures and video. My Dad opened the 1st page and read my
note to him and saw the map of Danzig. He was speechless, Mom said, "Shotzy, you finally
have something from home." Mom on one side, me on the other, I cried, Mom cried, Dad
cried. He thanked me and hugged me. I hugged him and said, "I did this because I didn't
want you to go through life without things from home, it's not fair. Everyone needs
memories!" Dad was in shock. He looked through the book intensely examining each
picture. He pointed out all kinds of things. He referred to all the times he was at those
places. It brought back a lot of memories for him. Some good, some bad. Overall it was a
very joyous moment. Mission Complete!



                                                              This is my dad opening his gift ( Mom,Dad & I )

Or so i thought...

During my hunt for photos and items I found a lot out about the town where dad was
born. What I found was very disturbing to me, but at the same time intriguing.

So again mission #2 begins. I started digging into our heritage. I found our cousins Richard
and Ewa Sirotzki. Son and daughter of our Uncle Ernst. Dads little brother. We never knew
they existed. That story can be read under Neuss or CLICK HERE. It is a very interesting way
in which I found Richard A Sirotzki
Since meeting Richard and his family from Neuss our family opened up to me. It's a part of
our blood,It's not just us here in the USA. These relatives want to know our family from the
USA. I feel a closer to our Family more now than I ever have.

I have been sending email with our cousin Hans Sirotzki, son of uncle Paul for over 3 years. A
few very difficult phone conversations as well. Recently I had asked him for more family
information. He gave his little sister Christiane my email address. I received an email on May
24 2006. It was the first time since our vacation to Germany in 1977 that I had spoken to
her. She is my age and has a 17 yr old daughter. She and I tried to pen pal when we were
13 but it didn't last to long. I now regret that.
I regret not learning German in school when I should have. It is very difficult for me now. I
am trying but it's not working to well. It's a shame hind sight is 20/20.

Anyway this whole effort took a really long time and I hope everyone enjoys it and maybe
learns something new about our Family.

                                                                             Much Love,
                                                                                     Monica

"IF YOU LOVE SOMEBODY SAVE THEIR SOUL,
DIVE INTO YOUR HEAVEN AND ERASE THEIR HELL"
S. Nicks

Monica Sirotzki
Weinle