Torchlight parade

Theodor Röckle (1896-1976) served in World War I and received the Iron Cross. He married Berta Doerr in 1923. Theo was a waiter by trade and worked on the German railway service. He went to the United States in 1928 seeking work since Germany was in difficult economic times. He ended up in Atlantic City, and soon sent for his wife and son Gerald. In 1931, Berthold was born, but mother Berta died in childbirth. Having no work, a 6 year old son and a newborn baby, no family, and no means to support them, Theo decided to return. He paid a courier to take the baby back to Germany to be raised by family members. Theo remarried in 1934 to Elfriede Gerth in Philadelphia, PA. Back in Germany, the young Berthold Roeckle became a Hitler Youth (despite his American citizenship) and served as a bicycle messenger during World War II. Berthold returned to the US in 1946 and enlisted in the U.S. Army. Theo and Elfriede lived in NYC and Berlin after the war. Theo's hobby in film resulted in thousands and thousands of feet of film material, mostly of family events from the late 1940s to 1960s.