Top photos Franz Pfeil Collection ; bottom page photograph per Rebecca Neundorf from the Pfeil Collection
Franz Pfeil ( above ) was a teacher at the government school in Apia during the final years of the German Administration . He is shown in the school photo of 1914 standing on the left at the back in a black bow tie next to Miss Ludovica Schultze . This was the final school photo of the German years .
Mr Pfeil returned to Germany from wartime internment in 1919 . He later married Apia-born Clementine Hufnagel in Germany in 1924 after a long courtship by correspondence . He and ‘ Tine ’ settled in Harzgerode where Franz continued teaching and became the local school principal . Acting in a role as wartime safety warden for local residents , Mr Pfeil was killed by American artillery fire in the town square along with 17 other Harzgerode residents just three weeks before the end of the Second World War .
Not only was Mr Pfeil a committed educationist but he also had a strong belief in the importance of the historical record . This archivist bent and his nostalgia for the many friends he had made during internment on Motuihe Island led him to maintain a comprehensive record of all the Motuihe internees together with their arrival dates on the island , their originating countries and , in many cases , where they settled afterwards , even their street addresses . In the late 1930 ’ s Mr Pfeil compiled a master list of Motuihe internees ( first page shown at right ) including noting those who had passed on . The three pages of the list are shown on the next page in larger size for the benefit of historical researchers .
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