Camp near Siegberg Germany?

[Christoph]

A correction of the translation of Dr Zenker's answer: The ammonition plant in Siegburg produced only in WWI, not II!

 

Mary: In which POW camp do you think your father was? Hoffnungsthal or Siegburg? If you'll visit Siegburg you're welcome to visit both places with me!

 

About the cemetery: There is one which was used only for the friars, beneth the rose garden. It is not open for visitors and not noticable from the outside. I don't know whether this cemetery was used in WWII while the friars were not there. A second one. the Old cemetery, is also quiet central but has been full already before WWI. The third cemetery is at the town boundary, here are also parts used as military cemetary, fields for political victims of the Nazis, for russian and other slave laborers and also for victims of the bomb war. I don't remember any graves of POW, but it some years ago that I was there to make some photos. Nevertheless, this third one may be the most promising one.

 

Christoph

 

While looking for a translation of a word I just found out what the Memorial Day is., so these photos are my part to think of the victims of war.

 

[Jean Jacobson]

Hello Mary and Christoph!

 

Thank You Both so much for the recent information!

 

The Cemetery my Dad created or maybe someone else did, and when I find the map I will know. I have found at Beltsville Archives records for 2 deceased Vets that my Dad's name was connected to. That does not prove he buried them however, but I would assume that he did.

 

One was Sgt. Edward G. Morlack and the document shows at Lazarette, Sieburg, Germany, o/a 26 Feb. '45 and other document shows Feb. 4 and that he was captured in Gerolstein.

 

And the other was Lt. Phillip Dryden and the document shows about March 1, 1945 Sieburg Lazarette, Germany. Somewhere else in the document it shows that Dryden was a pilot of a B-26 aircraft and was shot down on 23 Dec. 1944 at Siegburg, Germay.

 

These 2 men I did a little research on. Never got to finish it.

 

My Dad always referred to where he was as Stalag 6G. He also refers in a letter home that he had been moved to a Military Hospital. I forget exactly how he described it and do not dare leave the website for fear I will lose what I have written.

 

Anyhow, in my research it became obvious that where he was was not Stalag 6 G. Infact, a gentleman that was Head of the Ex POW organization (after my Dad had died), I believe his name was Galanti (but again must check my records) had in his bio that he was at Stalag 6G. I could not believe it. Then I called him and discovered that he was in a different Camp and that Camp had a fire and they all had to move on. I sent him a copy of a Red Cross map of the Camps that Mom had gotten from back then. He had not seen one.

 

I am rushing around to leave, maybe by Fri. If I can, I want to write a couple of more things today, but do not want to lose this one.

 

It is wonderful to know you all!

 

Jean J

[Jean Jacobson]

Hello Again Christoph and Mary,

 

What my Dad wrote was "I have moved to a large hospital where there are some American wounded ...."

 

The lady who was so kind to help me here in the USA found this out: The Sister who lived on Michaelsberg during the War and survived is Edltrud Koch. She tried to contact her through the convent Benediktinnerinnen Steinfeld (not the one in Siegburg.) She wrote that unfortunately, other testimonials in the convent are no longer alive.

 

My Dad said Nuns were living there, and he implied up above, when he was there. He went with some Germans from the Hospital to a Red Cross facility to get packages. He told the Germans there had to be a Red Cross and they should have been sending things there. Dad was furious at the Red Cross (or whomever was working there). They went in a wood burning wagon/vehicle. They loaded it up and when they returned to the Hospital he made sure the packages were split fairly with everyone including the Nuns and the Comandant etc.

 

That lady who was so gracious to help me said she "found an association of the friends and

>> patrons of Michaelsberg (that the mountain where the abbey is situated)

>> and I wrote to them (till without response). Browsing through the web, I

>> found two books about the story of the Michaelsberg but I guess it is

>> not the focus on WW II but one definetly is about the religious life and

>> do not know that the other is about, it says 900 years of history. I

>> will try to get into touch with the authors, hoping they are still alive."

 

We were never able to find out anything else. But wanted you to know the above.

 

I have to believe, with the way the German's keep records, that the WW2 story exists. (I did geneaological research here and over there for years and the records were fabulous.) I wish the Comandant of the Hospital or his 2 daughters were alive!

 

Mary if we can narrow down the dates your Dad was at the Siegburg Hospital that would be great! I figure around March 3rd to the 7th? of 1945 from his diary but that may not make sense if he was there for a month after that and still had time to be in another Camp?

 

As my Dad would say as he tried to find his War records and information about his time overseas, "I was not a tourist, keeping track of places and dates."

 

I am off to go take care of Mom,

 

Jean J

 

Your Dad appears to have been captured during the Battle of the Bulge. Dad, like the others, did not know the name of the Battle, but he writes that the conditions must be awful on the front lines and more and more were coming in.

[Christoph]

Jean

 

Stalag VI G has had, like the other Stalags too, several, hundreds of outposts, sub-branches and working commandos like Arb. Kdo 281 in Hoffnungsthal or Arb. Kdo. 35 in Bachem near Frechen, 333 also in Siegburg or 624 in Cologne, and it moved while the war. It is not so easy as I thought last year when writing my first posting here and it is very probable that two prisoners of Stalag VI G were in different camps.

 

Stalag means Stammlager, i.e. a camp for enlisted men and sergeants, run by the army. The VI is the number of the military sub district command in the area of today's North Rhine-Westphalia and parts of Lower saxony, and in this area were the camps A, B, C D, E, F, G, H, J and K.

 

The main camp Stalag VI G was in Bergisch Gladbach (Feb. - Sep. 1941), in Bonn-Duisdorf (Sep. 1941 - Dec. 1944), Hemer (Sep. - Dec. 1944) Arnoldsweiler (Dec. 1944) and Bergneustadt (Dec. 1944 - 1945).

 

Christoph

[Jean Jacobson]

Wow, Christoph! Thank You!

 

One day I will use Google Maps and try to plot out where Dad was captured and which Stalag 6 G would have made sense for him to have gone to. And then how close the Military Hospital is to it. That will be fun and interesting to do. i will let you know the results.

 

Again, Thank You,

 

Jean J

 

I

[Walt's Daughter]

Look at all that has transpired here within the last few weeks. How wonderful!

[Christoph]

I found new information about the abbey's archive. There were about 80,000 documents and books on the Michaelsberg, and most of them came to the archbishop's archive in Cologne (some to Rome) after the friar's departure. Before, they edited a "find book" with a table of contents which was ready in April 2012 and handed out to the archive managers of Siegburg and the county. The documents contain also information about the abbey's time as hospital, and the archbishops archive "is open for professional and hobby historians", and: The "find book" shall be published online in the internet!

 

I visited the Michaelsberg today, and the abbey's cemetary is only 50 m away from the rose garden, definitely not the one we are looking for. I was also one the new cemetary, but as written before only graves of russian and political victims. There is another cemetary in Siegburg-Kaldauen which have not visited until now, but there is a sign "Military cemetary", I'll have to go there and look, but this one is some kilometers away and not just "down that path".

 

Here three photos of the rose garden today evening: High walls on one side, deep walls on the other two sides and only a small entrance, it was easy to build a guarded camp here.

 

 

Christoph

[CaptO]

Very Cool! Thanks for the pictures.

[Jean Jacobson]

Hello Corporal/Tec5, and Christoph, and Mary and Marion, and everyone,

 

Corporal/Tec 5, this seems truly UNBELIEVABLE and yet I know what you are saying is real! Can you imagine if such a document exists - with history of the Abbey as a Hospital during WW2!

 

The pictures are beautiful and so respectful.

 

Dad's Cemetery was small and he felt it was now a small patch of grass that we located when we journeyed there with him in the 1980's. At that time, it was very frustrating for Dad, that no one knew anything about the Abbey being used as a Hospital, and interesting to note Mr. Norton had the same experience. He went back in 1986. He told me that in our phone conversation.

 

I finally did pursue the B26 organization for 1st Lt. Philip C. Dryden. They had the date in January and not Dec. and their web site did not show a location. They did inform me of the cemetery where he is supposed to be buried. They will forward the information I sent them to an Archivist who is supposed to contact me. My desire is to pay proper respect to Dryden and to be sure that anything known is properly recorded in his history. Then there is a side issue: if Dad buried him in this little homemade cemetery, when and by whom was he moved to this other cemetery over there. Also will Dryden's outfit be able to tell us additional dates for when Siegburg was bombed. However maybe the book that Corporal/Tec5 is aware of will have all of the dates!

 

I will look the name of the cemetery up and send another message to you all.

 

Regarding Sergeant Morlock, the document with the description of his death in Siegburg on about 4 February 1945, has also written on it "Memo of 1st Sgt. Dale M. McClara". I contacted the outfit McClara was in and provided them a lttle of the info that I had. I hope maybe to find out where and why he would have been writing this.

 

But in both of the cases of the 2 men the letter from the National Archives at College Park says they located 3 index references to statements given by my Dad. They also say unfortunately they were unable to locate the case file ...

 

Bye for the moment,

Jean J

[Jean Jacobson]

The cemetery where Dryden is buried is at Margraten. And the B-26 Marauder Historical society also shows a Jan. 3rd date. There is no way in the middle of the War that Dryden was moved to Margraten.

 

Jean J