Franz Gockel (* December 30, 1925 in Niederense (Ense); † November 22, 2005 in Rhynern) was a German roofer. As a soldier in the Wehrmacht, he survived D-Day. He dedicated his life to the reconciliation of former wartime enemies.
Life:
Gockel, whose father was also named Franz Gockel, was the eldest son of a family of roofers with seven children. He was apprenticed as a roofer in Rhynern at the age of 14 and was drafted in 1943. After a stay in a training camp, he was transferred to Normandy. Gockel was a machine gunner with Infantry Regiment 726 of the 716th Infantry Division on the stretch of beach called Omaha Beach by the Allies when Operation Overlord (Operation Neptune) took place. Resistance Nest 62 was located on the border between the Easy Red and Fox Green sections off Colleville-sur-Mer. Along with Gockel, there were two other German soldiers there, Hans Warnecke and Heinrich Severloh, who survived the Normandy invasion and shortly thereafter fell into American captivity.
Around 2:00 p.m., Gockel was shot in the left hand and had to make his way to the company bunker in Colleville. From there he was transferred to the military hospital at Balleroy and shortly thereafter returned to Germany.
Quote from a letter Gockel wrote to his parents on June 10, 1944:
"Then the killing began. There was shooting for all the barrels could hold. Soon the whole beach was full of Americans. Many uninjured also remained lying on the sand. But when the water came, they too had to move on. In the process they were again taken under fire by us. We could not understand that they kept coming in the hail of fire despite their heavy losses. The hundredfold superiority probably eliminated each of us. I fired over 400 rounds with my rifle. And that at the convenient distance of 100 to 250 meters."
Franz Gockel, who initially suppressed his experiences in Normandy, went back to his old profession and finished his training as a master roofer in 1950. 18 years later, he took over his parents' business and expanded it considerably. He received numerous honors, was headmaster of the roofers' guild and was involved in setting up the roofers' purchasing cooperative.
To come to terms with his experiences during the invasion, Franz Gockel returned to Normandy in 1958 and approached the French families he knew, who welcomed him warmly. In Colleville he was received by the mayor and subsequently Gockel became involved in Franco-German and German American reconciliation. He often flew to the U.S. at the invitation of American veterans' associations for meetings and maintained lively correspondence with former American GIs who had survived at Omaha Beach. Almost every year on June 6 he went to the commemoration ceremonies in Normandy.
Shortly before his death, he reported on his experiences in various ZDF productions. In mid-2005, Gockel's health deteriorated, and on November 22, 2005, he died at the age of 79 as a result of his diabetes mellitus.
