Otto Kobialka was born in 1888 and served in WWI. He was from the village of Herrendorf, near the town of Treuburg in East Prussia. The civilian inhabitants of this town were evacuated on October 20, 1944 as the Red Army approached. Kobialka’s wife Gertrud may have been one of these as the book lists her address as being in Glashütte near the city Sensburg, which is where most of the evacuated residents of Treuburg initially went. This Soldbuch was issued on December 22, 1944, by 2/I St. Batl. Treuburg; Kobialka must have been one of the people assigned to the defense of the town, and he was issued a rifle. One month after this book was issued, on January 22, 1945, German troops withdrew from Treuburg and the Russians were able to occupy it without a fight. Kobialka survived the war and died in Kleinhau in 1985 at the age of 98, far from his East Prussian homeland.
