decipher location name

[Hiltraut Tieden]

Hi all,
since a couple of weeks I am reading the forums. I learned quite a bit through them and thank you for sharing so much!
I saw some incredible deciphering by some of you! This encourage me to ask for your help.
I am from Germany but live in Florida since 1988. My uncle Herbert Beck died in WWII. I have not much information about him as we never mentioned him as long as my grandparents and parents lived (too painful for them, I guess). I would like to keep his memory alive. He was my Mom's only brother.
As suggested in the forums, I wrote to WASt, but it will take a long time for an answer. There is no info about him at Volksfuersorge/Kriegsgraeber. I am not interested in looking for a grave or his remains or the like, I just would like to find some info; where he died, what unit he was with etc. Just something in that direction.

Thank you so much,
Niece from Florida.

Here is the link and more details with the excerpt of the letter. I cannot read the location name. Can you help?

Edited Feb.07: update, name is Palizy, UdSSR (link deleted)

[Hiltraut Tieden]

Hi again,
still in the hope that somebody can help decipher the location name, I have added a larger copy of the letter and a photo.
The link with my info is still the same:

link deleted

Thanks, Niece from Florida.

[VonderSaar]

Hello!

Planitz is today quarter of Zwickau.

But Planitz got his own homepage!

http://www.planitz-in-sachsen.de/

Here the homepage of Zwickau

http://www.zwickau.de/index.htm


And here the people with the name Beck in Zwickau:

http://www.meinestadt.de/zwickau/telefonbuch?words=Beck

Perhaps some relatives from you.. Perhaps they know something more...

The letter is like reading from a mirror... You must change it. No one could read it so.

[Hiltraut Tieden]

Thanks VonderSaar for your reply. Sorry for the bad image, the left side of the letter was empty and some writing shining through. It should be better now, but that's how they wrote years ago! :)
Thanks also for your trouble to find the links about Planitz (I was born there).
My biggest hope is that somebody here in the Forum can decipher the location name given in the letter. I am in steady contact with my few relatives and friends in Planitz, but they cannot help me either.
The missing (or better: undecipherable) word is in this sentence, about middle of letter:
"Unser Herbert ist am 2. Dezember im Gefecht bei ??? den Heldentod gestorben."
Any ideas?
Thanks, Niece from Florida.

[Terje]

Not the easiest piece of handwritten text I've seen.
I'm starting off with using the word 'Unser' that is placed first in the sentence, for comparison.

I think the first letter is an S. The second is probably an E. The third letter looks like the german double S. The next looks to me like an L. Then there's an I, and a G. The last one is an E. This makes Sesslige, which does not mean anything to me.

If I'm even one letter off, which I probably am, it will probably read very different.

Can you write the rest of the letter here as well? I don't mind it being in german, but the handwriting is very hard to read.

Also knowing what year this is written or any further info about Herbert would help. What front he died on, what unit he served in or kind of unit etc.

[Hiltraut Tieden]

Thanks Terje,
you had a good idea, so I copied the whole letter, and I wrote the letter in better-to-read format as well. The letter was written December 19, 1941.
I have no knowledge about what front he was on, nor what unit etc. , but I wrote to WASt and hope to hear from them in a couple of months. Perhaps they have some more answers for me.
For now, all I can hope is, that somebody is able to decipher the location of the fight he encountered.
Here once more the link to the letter, picture etc.:

link deleted

Thanks, Niece from Florida.

[Terje]

December 1941 was a costly month for the german army as it was then fighting and freezing deep into Russia, so we are probably looking for a russian name. The translation you have done makes the task much easier; I'll see if I can do better now.

[Brian38]

If you decide to find his grave go to http://www.vksvg.de

[Hiltraut Tieden]

Thanks Brian38, I am going to register there right now!
My sister said to me that she thought our mother mentioned years ago that they were told that our uncle Herbert Beck was buried under the Red Square in Moskow. Was there such an action or were people only told this for closure? I have no idea who would have told my mother this.
I could be wrong about that, though.

[veiss]

Story about Red Square could never happen. On December 2, 1941 several Soviet armies started a major counteroffensive near Moscow. So it could happen in this area. If someone would be able to decypher more or less correctly a place name I'll look up the names of villages in this region to find a name which sounds closely.

[Hiltraut Tieden]

UPDATE
Today I received a letter from WASt with all the information I wanted about my uncle included.
The name of the place was "Palizy". The link in my other posts will be deactivated in a couple of weeks.
Thanks for your help,
niece.

[Hiltraut Tieden]

UPDATE
Today I received a letter from WASt with all the information I wanted about my uncle included.
The name of the place was "Palizy". The link in my other posts will be deactivated in a couple of weeks.
Thanks for your help,
niece.



Sorry about the double posts.

[veiss]

This is a village about 25 km. from Moscow