Temporary Ersatzkarte

**sitges1990** · 02-15-2010, 05:27 AM

This is a tough one, can anybody make out the country of birth for this non-German. It is under Geburtsort. The man's name doesn't give any clues, and I can't make anything out for the country. I have some other paperwork for this guy, who was selling "garden products" to the German army. Since he's a non-German freely running around Hannover in April of 1942, it must be a country that is an ally or friend of Germany I would think. Anybody have any ideas?

Thanks,
Jay

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 02-15-2010 05:27 AM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**HPL2008** · 02-15-2010, 05:22 PM

I would read it as Chrewt. Google-ing that term comes up with a tiny village in Poland, see here: Chrewt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The man's name sure sounds Polish to me, too.

**sitges1990** · 02-15-2010, 10:34 PM

Thanks HPL! I think that may be it. I could not make out any of the first few letters. Super job, I was at a dead end. Thanks so much.

Jay

**RH1941** · 02-15-2010, 10:38 PM

Hi Jay nice item. Gary

**sitges1990** · 02-15-2010, 10:51 PM

Thanks Gary, I've been dragging out some of the old stuff for more research. Some stuff I'm stumped on because I can't read hand written signatures or entries.

Jay

**CMc** · 02-18-2010, 10:54 PM

Hi,

I'm not sure, but I think his name reads "Wasiyl Belewiat" (which does sound vaguelly Polish to me although I'm by no means an expert on Polish names. I have heard of the Russian name Vasili, I wonder if Wasiyl could be a Polish equivelant?)

I agree that the Birthplace line could read "Chrewt", which as you say corresponds to a real place in Poland. So that and the name could indicate that our seller of "garden products" (manure maybe?) was Polish, perhaps he was allowed to travel into Germany itself from occupied Poland because his 'products' were vital to the war effort, if it's manure he was dealing in I can imagine it was vital to Germany's equivelant to Britain's "Digging for Victory."

**Adrian Stevenson** · 02-18-2010, 11:03 PM

Actually his name is surname is Ukrainian. His Christian name would be Basil in English.

See this site where 3 families of that name are found to be from the same town:

A Dictionary of Lemko Surnames

Eastern parts of Poland had many people of Ukrainian background. They would of course regard it as Western Ukraine.

Cheers, Ade.

**sitges1990** · 02-18-2010, 11:39 PM

Thanks CMc for the info. Ade, you sure have one darn big bag of tricks to look stuff up. Thanks for the link. I never thought to look up the name, I was trying to look it up by town. I didn't think I could find anything on some poor peasant. I guess in the end, getting the town and name ultimately solved the mystery. Thanks you guys.

Jay

**HPL2008** · 02-19-2010, 07:15 AM

by Adrian Stevenson

Actually his name is surname is Ukrainian. His Christian name would be Basil in English.

See this site where 3 families of that name are found to be from the same town:

A Dictionary of Lemko Surnames

Eastern parts of Poland had many people of Ukrainian background. They would of course regard it as Western Ukraine.

Interesting; makes sense. Chrewt is indeed very close to the border of the Ukraine.