Dear Olga, In Spring 1945, the 658th Field Artillery Battalion (my father's unit) was located at
Aachen, Germany and assigned security guard duties, including control of Displaced Persons (DP) Camps there. I would be interested in any additional information on camps Camp Brand, Camp Alsdorf, Camp Hertzogenrath, Camp Mine, Camp Telebinden, and Camp Zopp. Thank you, Bill Mullen
Endel Taks was in the Aglasterhausen camp. Endel write us and tell us your story. Picture was in Getty Images and is no longer there.
3/24/05
Hello, I am curious to find out if you know anything about a place in germany
called "Aglasterhausen Childrens Center".
It is where I was placed at 10 days of age. I understand that it was used
previously as a place to euthanize children with deformities. Any insight
you could give me would be appreciated. Thank You, Vicki
"We arrived in Aglasterhausen
with the rest of the children in about two hours travelling time. It was situated
in a small town Neunkirchen, 100 km from Heidelberg. The place we were in had
been used as a home for retarded children. In 1937 all these children were
put to sleep by injections, as was the custom in the Third Reich administration.
The camp consisted of
about 200 children, from 12 months to 18 years old. Most of the children
were Jewish from all over Europe: Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Romania,
also non-Jews from Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Estonia, Germany, and Lithuania.
The surrounding areas around the camp were just like in a dreamland. Beautiful,
tall birch trees covered most of our front and back courts. On one side of
the home was a meadow with a small river flowing. The most beautiful birds
were buzzing all over us." For entire text see: http://migs.concordia.ca/memoirs/smilovic/part_7.html
2/15/007 Mrs. Kaczmar,
In 1947, my father, Konstanty Proniewicz, was transferred
to the Children's Center here from Prien as an unaccompanied minor. He
has told me that he remembers that there were people there from the
USSR looking for Russian children. He lived here until 1948, when he was transferred to Bad Aibling. Any information on this location would be greatly appreciated. Max Monclair, Omaha, NE http://maxmonclair.blogspot.com
Ahlen - is
a town in the district of Warendorf, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is
situated approx. 10 km north-east of Hamm; mostly
Poles, life today and museum, -14
camps (British zone). Krs. Beckum
Civilian work camps:
Lager Warendorfer Strasse, 500 persons
Lager Schuetzenhof, established 1942, 70 men and women
Lager Wiegard, 70 persons
Lager Tovarwerke, 60 persons
Lager Gasthof (Guesthouse) Quante (60 persons
Lager Fischer Mehring, 100 persons
Lager Theresienhof, 60 persons
Lager Koervers, 120 women in 1942
Lager Gasthof (Guesthouse) Rolf, 50 persons
9/2/07 Hello Olga,
Many thanks for your
website - I
was born in Ahlen - My mother told me there was a hospital*
there but I cannot find anything about it. Anka Kowalczyk Ozzpol88@yahoo.com.au
9/22/07 Reply:
Hello, Anka,
I saw your request for information on the hospital in Alhen, Germany. I
was there in 1996; I was inside the hospital and I took a picture of it. The
name of the hospital is on the picture - I think it's St. Fransiskus - *St.
Franziskus - Hospital Ahlen http://factpartner.de/6648.html My
mother has the photographs, and I'll take a look at them when I get home
tonight and let you know if that's it or not, but the hospital is there.
My parents were in the DP Camp in Ahlen also. In 1996 we went to visit
Ahlen in honor of their 50th Wedding Anniversary. We saw the house where
my mother lived (it now houses Gypsies), we saw the barrack where my father
lived (it's now a storage building). And we saw the coalmine where they
(and maybe your parents) worked. I took a picture over the fence and
couldn't see what I was photographing, but when the pictures came back, I
saw that I had photographed the wagons of coal with the numbers on them,
and my mother said that that was EXACTLY the way the coalmine looked when
they worked there; same wagons and same numbers; nothing changed in 50 years!
There is a street in Ahlen just before the woods that has a path leading
to the hospital. My parents lived in a house on that street. They
said that the Germans were forced to leave their homes on that street after
the War, and the DP's got to live there for a few months. Beyond the
hospital, there is a mill that still exists. We saw that too. When
we were there, my father walked up to the front desk at the hospital and asked
them if the nurse he worked there with in 1945 was still there - and they said
that she had just retired! We visited the house of someone my parents
knew in Germany, but have not been in touch with since 1946, and the lady
recognized my father right away before we even told her who we were!
Thank you so much for your website
and the trouble you have gone to, to bring some light to a very dark past. We
have been trying
to trace relatives of my wife’s father,
because when he left Germany after the war he never had contact
with his family and he has since died. We have traced his footsteps through
Germany with the help of the ITS Bad Arolsen but we have many questions
still outstanding.
We have found a reference in the
Ahlen Archives to a workcard in the name of Semko Szwaluk the
details are very similar to the details provided by my wife’s
father. However we know that he assumed an identity, we just don’t
know when, so any information on Semko Szwaluk may help.
We have a photograph of a man
we would like to contact with a group of other young Ukraine men
and know the name of only one.
(Click photo to enlarge.)
We hope
that someone may recognise some of the people in the photo. We
know that the man in the bottom left of the photo is Mychajlo Szwaluk from Rozhadiw near Ternopil but need
to know who the man reclining next to him is.
Any
names or help would be appreciated.
We can be contacted by e-mail
at: thornfield@bigpond.com
Thank you
Krysta & Mal Pitman
Hanna Abaszidze (nee Trebert) 1916-1950
Hanna was born in Warsaw, and married in 1937 to Wachtang Abaszidze, a Captain of the 13th Division of the Polish Army. She is a distant relative of my wife, whose family history I am researching. I hope this post may generate some additional info about Hanna.
Wachtang was Georgian, having fought in the Russian Civil War 1917-20 on the White Russian side, and escaped via Constantinople to be recruited into the new Polish Army. Captured in September 1939, he was released in December 1939. Hanna and Wachtang passed the war in Warsaw, but so far as one can gather they drifted apart towards the end. Hanna managed to get away from Warsaw before the Uprising broke out on 1st August 1944, and at the end of the war found herself in the area east of Munich. As she spoke several languages fluently, she quickly found herself employed by the American forces as an interpreter, and then soon joined the International Refugee Organisation as a welfare officer (see photo below).
She worked in various camps from 1945 to 1950, so far as I can identify, as follows: Hammerau, Murnau, Freilassing, Laufen, Ainring and Bad Reichenhall. She was employed at Bad Reichenhall twice, and this was her last posting when on Saturday 13 May 1950 she drowned in a river above Bad Reichenhall trying to save the dog of a friend which had fallen into the river. She had a very large funeral, and people came long distances to attend. She would have been very well known in the camp network, being an outgoing and gregarious personality. She was buried at St Zeno Church in Bad Reichenhall, where a stone on her grave was maintained by someone until about 2006. I found the site of her grave a few years ago.
I have asked for this information to be posted on the Dpcamps website in the hope that it may ring bells with people interested in any of the camps listed. Maybe fragments of information exist here and there which will help me build up a richer picture of this young woman whose life was cut off so prematurely. Eamonn Judge ejjudge@googlemail.com
My husband's family were in camp in Alfeld and Westfalen. Can you help with information in english please. I really find your sight informative. thanks Linda Juda
1945-50 Amberg wächst durch den Fiüchtlingszustrom
um fast 12,000 Einwohner
1945-50 Amberg by the Fiuechtlingszustrom grows by nearly 12,000 inhabitants
Hi Olga, On review of the documents I have, it appears as if my wife's parents' identiy cards were issued by IRO Wurzburg in February of 1948. In February,1949 they got married while living in Assembly Area No. 4 in Amberg. Can you suggest any sources for information about these locations? Thanks, Alan Steinfeld Scarsdale, NY
City archive: Stadtarchiv Amberg
Postfach 2155
92224 Amberg
State archive: Staatsarchiv Amberg
Archivstr. 3
92224 Amberg
Phone: (09621) 307-270
Fax: (09621) 307-288
BERG On the Katharinenfriedhof
are three mass graves of different groups of LV victims with own in each
case Gedenksteinen. The 46 victims a large tomb thinks of the LV law in
the penintentiary Amberg. Between in each case 23 names is as inscription: "to the memory of concentration camp prisoners and political convicts of the penal establishment Amberg 1933-1945 the Himmli judge blank rejects wrong terrestrially court again shines your honour!" Over the mass grave for 300 Soviet prisoners of war is a stone with the following inscription: "see our wrong bury the controversy 300 member of the USSR" further one to 293 victims of the LV state intends a tomb with the inscription: "buries the hate the senseless controversy Gebeine of 293 humans from the east hears our call the flehenden cry. Victims of the war Mahner to the peace "on
Israeli tables the cemetery, at the end of the Philipp Melanchthon road,
are single and row graves for 16 victims of a concentration camp. Sources:
Flat, Norbert, trace safety device. Amberg and the district under the swastika.
A signpost/guide to places of fascist suppression and the anti-fascist
resistance in the district Amberg Sulzbach and in the city Amberg, wet
living 1989. 23 names finds. Computer translated text from http://www.schmal-andreas.de/
I am looking for a camp that I believe that my parents were in after the war. The name of the camp is Kaiser Wilhelm Kaserne. My parents were there in the time frame of around 1949-1950. Thanks you, E. Hutchins
Aschaffenburg camp
info & photos (U.S. zone), mostly Ukrainian,
Spessart Park, between Würzburg & Aschaffenburg; another
site
Visit Shevchenko Scientific Society Library for camp records.
Hello, Olga.
I know that we were in a camp in Czechoslovakia, where my sister died; Wurzburg; Kleinheubach/Lowenstein; and Aschaffenburg, where we lived in a room on the first floor of the administration building which was right by the main gate and also contained the jail. I was trying to research the DP camps, especially the one in Aschaffenburg. I've found references to the Ukrainian camp but have not found any to the Estonian camp. I know it existed because I spent over two years there after the end of the war, and it was our starting point when we emigrated to the US. Can you give me any info/URL's which would lead me to sites where I might learn more about the Estonian camp? Tonu & Nancy
My parents were displaced people from Poland, and were in a camp in Germany where
I was born as well as my three brothers. I believe it was Aschendorf-Hummling,
don't know much about it, my parents never talked about it. We came to
the U. S. in 1951 lower East side. They are not living now and would
like to find out about the past. I have old documents and photos, the documents
are in German as well as the passport. They were helped by the International
refugee organization. I have a letter telling my parents where they will
be living in N.Y. and his job as a janitor.
My question is how do I go about finding out more information about the camp
they were in? If there is a list of DP camps to confirm? I am doing this for my
grand children so they know the family history.
Appreciate
your Help, Monica Honjune@aol.com
Asperg
The internment camp in Asperg issued money in denominations of 50 pfenning (pennies) and 05, 1 and 2 reichsmarks. Typed and rubber-stamped the notes appear with and without a stamped expiration date of Mar 3 or March 10, 1947. From Displaced Persons Camp Money by Frank Passsic and Steven A. Feller.
Assen, Holland (British zone)
The history content (submenu "Geschichte") offers a lacking awareness
for the DP camp history. But you may send an email to them with the email contact
sheet on http://www.augustdorf.de/aug-buergerservice3cbr-3erat---verwaltung/kontakt/
But: you have to fill in the math question at the end (a spam filter!)
If you wish to contact them by ordinary mail:
Gemeinde Augustdorf
Pivitsheider Straße 16
32832 Augustdorf
Germany
(You may address it directly to the mayor: Bürgermeister Dr. Andreas
J. Wulf)
Hello Olga,
I hope you can help me with a conformation that my family were in the Aurich
DP camp for approx 4 months from May to August 1950. Prior to that, we
had been in at least 3 other camps in Italy Cinecitta, Versa and BagnoliÉ.
I think. We left in 1950 from Bremenhaven on the Skaugum lll for Newcastle
in New South Wales, Australia. But the ship kept breaking down soooooo
we were off loaded in Fremantle, Western Australia. Then sent to a DP in Northam,
Western Australia.
Names: Father: MRAMOR Quirino was born in Yugoslavia and listed as stateless. Mother: MRAMOR Rosa was born in Italy (Verona)
I think we were so very lucky to have been left in Perth Western Australia, I love it here.
I would like to have the history to pass on to my family. Whatever you can help me with I would appreciated. Thank you in advance. Take care for now. Orietta Corbett. Australia
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trying to trace relatives of my wife’s father, because when he left Germany after the war he never had contact with his family and he has since died. We have traced his footsteps through Germany with the help of the ITS Bad Arolsen but we have many questions still outstanding.
