Polish Medals etc

[richard1984]

Hi Tony

Thankyou again for your reply.

I guess the plot thickens. I assume as you do that my grandfather was in the forced labour camp until the end of the war. I guess what I would like to find out next is how he ended up leaving a forced labour camp in Austria and ended up joining the military in Italy. I wonder how he got to Italy.

Last Friday I met my grandfathers sister in Belgium whom I'd never met before. She told me that my grandfather did run away to join the army but he wasn't old enough so his father chased him to the train station to stop him where my grandfather hid under a table from him and was not found so he still managed to run away. I guess it must be at some point on this trip that he was caught by the germans and taken to Austria.

Hopefully I will be able to find out more as time goes on.

Many Thanks
Richard

[jamest8]

Hi Richard

This has the makings of such a good story. Thanks very much for sharing it. All soldiers collected things as they went along so it isn't surprising to find items that were not awarded to him in the group.

The Germans kept very detailed records in the main so it might be possible to get information about his journey form under the table to the end of the war. I'm not sure where to go but someone here may be able to help.

It's a nice collection and a great story so I hope you find out the rest of it.

All the best

James

[richard1984]

Hi James

Many thanks for your reply.

You say that the Germans kept detailed records, would you by any chance have any idea where these could be found?

Many thanks for any help.

Kindest Regards
Rich

[StefanM]

Unless you know where in Austria your grandfather was a forced labourer it will be almost impossible to find out which archive to approach as each town, city and county will have its own archive which may or may not contain details of the German labour camps in its area. The German national insurance organisation do (often) still hold records of forced labourers as they all had to pay national insurance contributions to the German state for (bizarrely) their future pensions... but you need to know which region he was working within.

Have you tried contacting the The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen they do hold fairly extensive records. Here is a link to an online information request form:
ITS-AROLSEN.ORG |*Application Forms
They confirmed my father's forced labour in Germany with location and dates... but due to huge number of enquiries it will take several months to get a reply but they will give you a case number and they will eventually reply.

Good luck with your research!

[jamest8]

I think 4thskorpion has answered the question. It won't be easy but good luck

Isn't the idea of forced labour contributing to their pensions totally incredible. Can't you just imagine the bureaucratic thought process of the NSDAP officials coming up with this.

J

Hi James

Many thanks for your reply.

You say that the Germans kept detailed records, would you by any chance have any idea where these could be found?

Many thanks for any help.

Kindest Regards
Rich

[richard1984]

good evening everyone

apologies for the late reply - computer trouble!!

4thskorpion - thankyou for the link to the ITS, I have completed the application so hopefully they may be able to tell us something to help fill in the blanks.

james - it is as you say incredible that inmates where expected to pay these contributions, as you i really can't believe that a german official even had this thought process!

for those that are interested, i have scanned some of the documents that i recieved from RAF Northolt so will post them here for all to see. i think we have already established that they do not tell us a great deal but they still may be of further interest to somebody here

thankyou again for all of the replies

Rich

[richard1984]

[IMG]

[richard1984]

hi everyone

well i finally got a reply from the ITS and sadly they have no info on my grandfather whatsoever. how interesting would it be to have a time machine about now

Rich

[StefanM]

It is a pity that the ITS had no information, but many records were destroyed by Allied bombing and sometimes by factory owners to hide the fact that they were employing forced labour. The SS of course destroyed a substantial part of the concentration camp records ahead of the Russian and Allied advances; the Soviets "captured" records from the camps but these still remain for the most part unavailable to outside researchers.