Guess what? I just got back and have a message from the girl I referred to above, Michele. She gave me her phone number and in a little bit I will call her. I am going to send her to this great website!
And guess again, when I went to the above website the wartime memories etc, an entry was from our own Mary D. enquiring about her Dad, Walter, and Stalag 6G. That was back in 2009.
Wait until I tell Michele that my Dad in one of his letters home from Stalag 6G says: "I have most of my one legged boys up and around now doing odd jobs, making bandages etc."
We can guess that Mary's Dad and Michele's Dad shared the same Doctor.
I want to try to locate family members of that Doctor, what do you think Christoph? Maybe the Nun can help us!
Night!
JJ
I spoke to Michele for a long time last night. She is very sweet and has tried lots of avenues to try to get answers. She was not as fortunate as I was to have gotten so much information from her Dad, as I was from mine. Also she did not have "Christoph!" With him she would have gotten it all solved sooner.
She is going to send me the document she has on her Dad and hopefully I can give her some direction. I can not be sure he was at Stalag 6G without more info. She did not get that location from her Dad. With his Serial number maybe we can find out what Infantry unit he was with. I gave her some suggestions including seeing if she can get records from the VA. He died in I believe 1984 but since he was disabled from the War they should still have records somewhere in the VA.
I sent her to this great website!
Jean J
So many news here and in my mails! I have got my new router and a new and faster DSL contract and a new PC - I'm back again. I ope we can help Michele, too, but there were so many camps which were part of STALAG VI G...
Christoph
I found this:
33619683 RODRIGUEZ JOHN S Returned to Military Control, Liberated or Repatriated
Stalag 6G Bonn Rheinland, Prussia 50-07
here:
http://www.indianami...n/ROSTER/08.htm
If it's Michele's father, he was in Bonn and not Siegburg. In the main camp of Stalag VI G in Bonn-Duisdorf about 7,000 of 53,000 prisoners of war who belonged to Stalag VI G, most of them in smaller camps as described somewhere above. The Camp in Bonn (and some others) is also mentioned in the Prioners Of War Bulletin od the American National Red Cross of Dec. 44 whichyou'll find here:
http://archive.org/details/PrisonersOfWarBulletinVol.212December1944
And this at the National Archives
http://aad.archives....893&rid=4091918
Christoph
Christoph, Again, Oh Wow!!!!
I just thought I would bring up the website without signing on. Boy was I shocked!
What a thorough analysis!
I will look at the sites you referred us to. I will also call Michele and be sure she has looked at this site. It appears you have done more research to help her than anyone here in the USA!
The question I have about Stalag VIG in Bonn- Duisdorf is - was there a hospital there? I will look at the Red Cross Map - well I could not resist and got the map out. I see VIG Res. Laz. Gerresheim but no description with Siegburg. And the map shows a Stalag VIG with no Lazarett name next to it and then the one with Lazarett next to it.
Boy I am so glad you helped me understand the Lazarett concept/definition.
Do you think there were 2 hospitals so close?
The only Stalag VIG POW I ran into, was in a barrack like structure and the part they were in burned after only being there a couple of days and they were moved on at that time.
Do you know where the Red Cross locations were during the War and near Siegburg?
Bye for the moment,
Jean J
Christoph, My Gosh, one post from you is like some kind of a Doctoral Thesis! You are Brilliant!!!
That Roster site is amazing! I will explain more later.
Jean J
Christoph, Again WOW!!!
You will not believe your timing on sending me the Archive website!!! Last week I started filling in all the forms for NARA in St.. Louis. Some people told me to go ahead and put in a large request rather than just asking for records on a few people - especially since I travel out there to review and then copy the records. So I sent the large request in and asked to be advised if it was appropriate to do so. I heard back that I needed to find Serial Numbers for my requests. Probably if I had only sent in a few forms like I did last time, I would not of had a problem.
They were helpful and sent me back the following website, that knowing you, you already knew about. I am inluding thier response with the website address.
"We are glad you are pleased with our service. We reviewed your requests and need some more assistance on your end before we can process your requests. We suggest you go to our website at www.archvies.gov and search the Access to Archival Databases for WWII enlistment data to see if you can ID service numbers for your requests before you submit them to us for processing. Here is the link to that database http://aad.archives.gov/aad/fielded-search.jsp?dt=893&cat=WR26&tf=F&bc=,sl . This database is for Army enlistment records only but you may be able to identify a lot of service numbers for your requests. After you check this database to see what service numbers you may be able to identify first, then submit your requests to us for processing."
So Christoph, I did what they asked, but guess what? I still had plenty of blank spaces. This is more than you probably want to know but I am so grateful for your email today that I must continue telling you about the dilemma I had this morning, and now do not have, thanks to you.
I had resolved that I would sort out the many records that had blanks where I should have serial numbers and only send in those with what were hopefully valid Serial numbers for those people. Just when I was getting ready to do that I checked the famous 6th Corp Website and there you were with the answers!!!
More to follow, and do not want to lose this. Someone has come in.
Jean J
Christoph,
So guess what? Your Roster site had lots of the missing numbers! It also has other things that I will comment on later.
But thanks to you I am only missing numbers for 3 of the names of the deceased POW's that I know about.
On the Archive site I could not find a serial number for a fellow Medic, Mike, that last saw my Dad before Dad was captured. I am sure if you were doing the research you would have located a serial number for him already. This man wrote 2 long letters to Mom during the War and even he was surprised that the first was allowed to go out. From his writing he was a very special person! I tried to locate him and/or someone in his family and will try to do so again at some point. I would like his descendents to have copies of these letters - they display the character of a genuinely beautiful human being.
It is so endearing to hear this man refer to my Dad throughout as "The Moose" and he apologizes for that at the end of the letter and says "but that is what we all affectionately called him." Even in February of 1945, and Dad was captured around October 7th, of 1944, Mike writes that " the other day the Monster and Little Monster were asking me if I heard any thing about 'the Moose.' " Because it is February it means that these 3 men survived the Battles in the Hurtgen Forest where most of their outfits were decimated. They also survived the Battle of the Bulge but I am not sure where Mike's outfit was at that time since they had suffered so many losses that they did not play as big a role as other outfits.
More to follow. And as always, THANK YOU for all of your information and guidance!
Jean J
Christoph,
That Roster Stalag site is great! Truly another Oh Wow!
I estimated the entries per page and let’s say there are 50 and then with 9 pages that means 450 plus the last page of 17 = 467. We know that Waldprol only had 71 of those. I saw in that 467 – Norton, and Ken, and Stang, and Rodriguez, and my Dad
BUT I did NOT see Walter Brineger, Alano Grano, or Dale McClara. Maybe I missed them but I do not think so.
I also searched to see if anything, first or last name could be a Gidrie. And had no luck with that.
I wonder how they created this Roster. Obviously it was not from 1 source, like the people who were in the Camps at the time of liberation, because how did my Dad’s name get added to the list.
So my theory on Brineger, Grano, and McClara is not verified from this list.
And while I recently saw a note I wrote from a conversation with Dad (I need to type all of these up as I locate them) there appeared to be beds for 70 men at the hospital.
So these 467 men must have come from both the Lazarett Stalag 6G in Siegburg and the other Stalag 6G.
Last week at NARA in Maryland I put in a request to see if I could find a list of the 71 men who were liberated from Waldbrol. If I ever get that, maybe that will be of some help. Theoretically quite a few of those names, if I ever get them, should be part of the 467 on this website you sent me today.
More to follow,
Jean J