Cister, Michael Ralph

Michael 'Mick' Ralph Cister, also spelled Cyster, was a 17 year-old Galley Boy on a British merchant ship, the “Eleonora Maersk,” that was sunk during the evacuation of Crete. Michael was made a prisoner of war and sent to Klagenfurt.

Michael was born 2 Mar 1924 in South Africa.

Michael was the youngest in the camp by almost three years. On the 16 Jan  1944, Michael was on a work party at the Lend Canal clearing snow so the local people could skate on the ice. On that day, Klagenfurt was the target of a RAAF major bomb raid.

A second man on the work party was also killed. He was a Camp guard, Andreas Sihler.

Michael was mortally wounded. He died 21 days after the incident, on 6 Feb 1944. and was buried in the Klagenfurt War Cemetery. Contrary to the age shown on his headstone, his death came 24 days short of his 20th birthday.

Refer to a 2015 meeting in Klagenfurt I had with Andreas Sihler's son who was aged 4 when his father was killed, in my story, Bomb Raid on the Lend Canal 

Two years later, Michael, sitting on the step with shirt sleeves rolled up, was now 19 and had grown considerably. This photo was taken six months before he was killed.