Person:Florent Lehrer (57)

Florent Lehrer was born in Dabo, Moselle Lorraine, Germany on the 9th November 1896. He was the eldest of eleven children for Léon Lehrer and Rosalie Schirra.

Florent was born two-and-a-half years prior to his parents marriage in 1899, when Dabo was under the German Empire of 1871-1918. The area was administered directly by the imperial government in Berlin and was granted some measure of autonomy in 1911. As soon as World War I was declared, Florent was in a region where both French and German sides were unkind towards Alsace-Lorraine people, and used them as pawns in the growing conflict between France and Germany.

During the war, Florent received a gunshot wound to the head and as I understand either the bullet or a fragment of, was lodged in his head and it was considered that removing it would result in death. On November 11 1918, the Armistice with Germany was signed, ending the war. The same day, an Independent Republic of Alsace-Lorraine was proclaimed. After eleven days of independence, Alsace-Lorraine was occupied by and incorporated into France.

Florent worked as a woodcutter along with his father and most of brothers, taking the wood to the family owned mill in Schaeferhof.

Florent Lehrer married Marie Anne Scherno on the 16th August 1920 in Dabo, Moselle, Lorraine, France. Florent and Marie had 3 children.

Florent whose health and mental well being were constantly declining, attributed to the bullet lodged in his head from World War One, took his own life on 27th December 1928, six months after the death of his youngest child.

Family of Leon Lehrer - Back row: Theophile, Leon, Joseph, Marie, Florent, Rose, Charles, Victor. Front row: Marcel, Rosine, Leon, Otto, Alfred