Freising Freitag: Operation Christmas

      Comments Off on Freising Freitag: Operation Christmas

Something a little bit different this week: A YouTube video from 1952 showing the Weihnachtsmann* landing in his US Army Bell 47 helicopter to delight the children in an orphanage in Freising.

The visit was part of Operation Christmas, a US Air Force program to bring some Christmas to orphans and needy children in the areas affected by war. The operation out of Erding was was planned by Major General Ben Ivan Funk, who has a really interesting biography, and his wife. The program visited a total of 97 orphanages and approximately ten thousand children in Bavaria that year.


*He is the Christmas man, not Santa: the Weihnachtsmann brings presents and Santa sells Coca-Cola.

Merry Christmas from all of us at Dances With Bratwurst!

FUZZ, December 2020