German war diary found from Rommel's personal chef.

**JFrick33** · 09-06-2011, 05:30 PM

Hello all, my name is Jason, I have recently been cleaning out my grandmothers home and come across my Grandfathers personal diary from Africa in WW2. My grandfather was Bruno Fricker and was Rommel's personal chef and close friend. The diary is titled experience in Africa December 1942 and is 74 pages of writing. I am wondering if anyone knows of anywhere where this could be translated and if anyone has any idea of what something like this may be worth. Thank you very much for your help. I have pictures of the journal if anyone would like to see it. It is in remarkably good condition for its age.

German war diary found from Rommel's personal chef.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 09-06-2011 05:30 PM

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**Paul D** · 09-07-2011, 08:51 AM

Welcome to the forum Jason , this sounds like a very interesting historical document you have here , there are members of the forum who are fluent German speakers and i'm sure that someone may well be interested in helping with the translation of this diary for you , we would all i'm sure like to hear of your grandfathers experiences with Rommel during the war,

best regards

Paul

**talltom** · 09-07-2011, 09:15 AM

welcome to the formum jason not being sceptical but can i just ask why the journal cover is written in british surely if it was a german ww2 item it would say red ribbon Schreibtafel not (writing trablet)

tom

**Adrian Stevenson** · 09-07-2011, 09:31 AM

Hi Jason, welcome to the forum! This sounds very interesting.

Hi Tom, items like note paper were often in short supply and the use of captured items in North Africa was very common. Equally the journal could have been written while he was a POW.

Cheers, Ade.

**talltom** · 09-07-2011, 09:33 AM

thanks ade forgot about the supplys issue back then

tom

**Richie B** · 09-07-2011, 09:42 AM

Jason

Very interesting piece of family history. I assume you have seen this ?

Rommel chef Bruno Fricker and master chef Ferran Adrià at Harvard | Harvard Magazine Nov-Dec 2010

Regards

Richie

**JFrick33** · 09-08-2011, 03:05 AM

Thanks for all the responses guys. Im not sure why its not in German, I don't have much history on the journal, I just happened to stumble across it. I know my grandfather was captured by the english in 1943 and later handed over to the Americans. Thanks for the thread about that article, I had actually never seen that. Very interesting stuff! He died when I was very young and all my grandmother ever really told me is that he was Rommel's close friend and personal chef. Hopefully this journal will reveal some more about what he actually did. I have looked into several people translating it, but they all want around 2000 dollars to do the whole journal which is money I just don't have at the moment. I will keep you informed

**Wagriff** · 09-08-2011, 03:33 AM

Handwriting almost seems like a combination of Sütterlin and modern script. Interesting. 2 Grand for translating? Geez... William

**Teutonicknights** · 09-08-2011, 03:36 AM

by Wagriff

Handwriting almost seems like a combination of Sütterlin and modern script. Interesting. 2 Grand for translating? Geez... William

I'll bet you HP will do it cheaper than that

**ObKrieger** · 09-08-2011, 03:39 AM

I think enough people here are fluent in German. The vast majority of them would also be very interested in helping you. I myself am fluent in German, however I can't read Suetterlin to save my life. haha

Perhaps you should post the first page or two and have it translated piece by piece.