Rzhew - help please

[wolf_m12]

Hi - can someone help.

Please relocate if this is on the wrong forum.

Trying to do some family history planning. My grandfather fought for the German Infanterie-Regiment 413 (this my have come under 206. Infanterie-Division). He was killed in Jan. 1942 near Rzhew I think. I have a copy of his military record and it states he was killed in a place called Chotischewo. I have no idea where it is, tried googling it and it is not recognised.

Any idea where this place is?

Thanks for your time

[Svetlana Karlin]

I suspect that the village named Chotischewo in Rzhev/Tver area does not exist anymore. Here is a map of Rzhev area battles on January 1-7, 1942:http://www.rkkaww2.armchairgeneral.com/ ... 42_s12.gif

206 Infanterie-Division is shown as "206 пд" in Russian. The black lines are the Red Army positions, and the white lines are the German Army positions. The legend in the lower left corner lists dates corresponding to different line styles.

The battle map certainly doesn't show every village in the area. However, if you look up the area on Google Maps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 3&t=h&z=11, some villages shown on the battle map are missing on the modern Google map. I used the name of one of the villages on the battle map, Oreshki-Орешки. Please note that the city of Tver/Тверь was named Kalinin/Калинин during the Soviet period.

A village could cease to exist for several reasons:
- during the war many villages were completely destroyed. There could be no survivors at all, or very few survivors who settled somewhere else after the war;
- in 60-70's there was a policy of consolidating small scattered hamlets. Instead of living in a tiny village of 10 or so households that had no school, phone and reliable access to a major road, people moved to larger villages with better amenities.

There is a place named Хотищево (Khotishchevo in Russian, Khotiachiv in Ukrainian) in Ukraine, Volynsky region, near the Ukrainian-Polish border:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 6&t=h&z=12 But I doubt that it is relevant to your case.

[Mischa]

Hello wolf_12 and Linkar,
that village was before the 2. WW Polish and his name was Hoczewo or Hoczewa, may be Choczewa in Wolhynien (in German, like it is in English I do not know) see below 2 maps.
Regards
Mischa

[wolf_m12]

Hi - thanks to Mischa and especially to Linkar for your detailed reply.

[Rzhevskii]

Google translator gave this information ... Chotischewo =Choroschewo

[Jeff Leach]

If you are looking for WWII German place names in the Soviet Union, you should start with the German Wartime Maps. Choroschewo is just west of Rshew on X57 (1942).