Traub Collection
Lisa Sabiel Braune Collection
Guido and Else Sabiel ( on left ) were repatriated on the Main with their three young children . They lost all of their Samoa assets , including Mr Sabiel ’ s pharmacy and building at the eastern end of Beach Rd , in Apia ( later the Lands and Survey Department building ). The Sabiel ’ s possessions on departure were touchingly meagre — their luggage and a box of crockery and tableware . Neither they nor their children returned to Samoa but grandchildren paid a visit in 2006 .
The Traub family on the right were also on the Main . Mr Johannes ‘ Hans ’ Traub was the Postmaster for Samoa . He arrived in Apia in August 1901 and married into the local Dean family ( to Edith Lillian Dean ) and they had four children , twins Wilhelmine and Eva , and sons Erhard ( at top ) and Werner . Mr Traub was interned in Auckland during the First World War but returned to Apia in 1919 , where he had been appointed a trustee of the estate of his in-laws , W . C . and Elisabeth Dean , who both died during the 1918-19 influenza epidemic . Though most Germans who had married locals were exempted from deportation , Mr Traub appears to have been involuntarily deported on the Main , possibly with the loss of his assets . He later settled in Jugenheim where he died in 1958 . No members of the family returned to Samoa until descendants visited in 1994 . ( See pages 197-198 for more information on Mr Traub and the German post office ).
German Administration officials were perhaps in a better position to withstand the loss of assets upon deportation as compared with private individuals with large holdings . Years spent in the German colonial service in a foreign country reportedly counted for double time for the age of eligibility for a state pension .
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