IlonaG wrote: ↑04 Dec 2019 20:46
Hi all. Some time ago I posted regarding women who were prisoners of war. I have since come across some information regarding my uncle who was beheaded in Pankrác Prison. I now have the letter he wrote my Grandmother 2 weeks before his execution as a Resister. My Grandmother was then imprisoned for hiding him. At any rate, I also have the letter that my Grandmother wrote to my Aunt from prison in 1943. In it she says that she is in the "Wehrmachtanstelt in Olmütz". I cannot seem to find any prisons under this name. I know she was there until 1945, during liberation of the camps. Does anyone happen to know anything about the Wehrmacht prisons? I'm trying to piece together my family history.
Thanks again.
Ilona
I think the spelling of the camp you are referring to was "Wehrmacht
anstalt in Olmütz" which translates to Armed Forces Institution in Olmütz, a city in the Czech Republic (its name is Olomouc in Czech).
However, it is doubtful that a civilian would generally have been kept in a Wehrmacht prison (if that is what this institution was) as an inmate or detainee for long, instead they would have been transferred to penal institutions for civilians. How do you know for certain that she was confined as an inmate in that institution from 1943 to 1945? Could she have perhaps worked there (and even been housed there as a worker) instead? Such work could be voluntary or involuntary depending on the circumstances and the individuals involved.
There was a transit camp (also referred to as a detention center) in Olmütz during the war and the unfortunates sent there were generally shipped off to other camps in the system, among them Theresienstadt. From the references to this camp that I have come across so far I do not believe that the Wehrmacht was involved in its operation. However, maybe your relative was associated with this transit/detention camp somehow? Since it was for civilians.
While I have not found the name the transit camp went by (if any), it is described as having been located in an "elementary school in Hálek Street (Hálkova), where Jews from Olomouc were rounded up... "[1] and "The persecution of the Jewish population reached its peak in Olmütz in 1942, after a detention center had been established in the school on Halkova Street. From June / July of the year to March 1945, the occupiers transported 3,498 Jews in four waves to Theresienstadt, from where they were usually deported to extermination camps." [2]
Confusing matters is a camp (or camps) established in the Olmütz area that housed ethnic Germans
after the war ended in 1945, this period marked the widespread persecution of that population in retaliation for the excesses of the Germans and their state during the Nazi time. Because some refer to these as "concentration camps" they can be confused with the camps run by the Nazis but they were not the same thing, something to keep in mind for those seeking to research camps in that area.
If you have not already done so, it would be helpful to have someone that knows the German language and WWII Nazi history review the relatives letters in question for additional clues. Another potential resource is the History Museum in Olomouc and they can be contacted via their web site:
https://www.vmo.cz/en.
Hope this helps. Good luck with your search.
[1]
https://kehila-olomouc.cz/rs_english/history-2/history/
[2]
https://translate.google.com/translate? ... rev=search