Hi Ilona,
did you try already to find informations about her/them in the Arolsen Archives?
https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/search/
It´s always worth a try.
Regards,
Roman
Hi Ilona,
Interesting. Considering her crime, I suppose this is a possibility.gebhk wrote: ↑06 Dec 2019 17:37Also, I think the comment by Stephan is worth heeding. There was a POW camp for women (Stalag VI-C at Oberlangen*) but this was for POWs ie captured enemy combatants. Your grandmother clearly was not one.
*The camp had been built for German political prisoners but in Sept 1939, was taken over by the military for housing POWs. After the Warsaw Uprising it was reserved for female soldiers of the AK and was finally liberated, by a strange twist of fate, by the Polish 1st Armoured Division. A very good friend of mine is the result of the many marriages that ensued from the happy euphoria engendered by this occasion!
Ironically, I was able to find an astounding amount of documents from this website. However, most have to do with my family receiving Refugee status and aid from the US allowing them to move here in 1952.history1 wrote: ↑06 Dec 2019 20:12Hi Ilona,
did you try already to find informations about her/them in the Arolsen Archives?
https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/search/
It´s always worth a try.
Regards,
Roman
Tx for the "fire support"!gebhk wrote: ↑06 Dec 2019 17:37Also, I think the comment by Stephan is worth heeding. There was a POW camp for women (Stalag VI-C at Oberlangen*) but this was for POWs ie captured enemy combatants. Your grandmother clearly was not one.
*The camp had been built for German political prisoners but in Sept 1939, was taken over by the military for housing POWs. After the Warsaw Uprising it was reserved for female soldiers of the AK and was finally liberated, by a strange twist of fate, by the Polish 1st Armoured Division. A very good friend of mine is the result of the many marriages that ensued from the happy euphoria engendered by this occasion!
You mean that German authorities didn´t punish members of foreign SS-units as they did Germans?
I assume that he was active in other subversiv/anti-Nazi activities. I had a case the last week were a soldier (Austrian) in the Wehrmacht did bring wounded men to a military hospital in Vienna (while stationed in the Czech Republic) and got on the border caught on his way back smuggling Jews. I don´t know the Jews fate but he had to stand trial in Vienna and got beheaded. Soldiers were often sent back to their home/replacement unit and arrested there for trial before handed over to police forces and to the courts. When there was a hint that they were active in the underground.
To be clear, am I correct in taking that a soldier would be shot for a military crime (such as desertion) but beheaded for a 'civilian crime' (such as smuggling Jews). Or would the place where the crime took place (ie at the front vs back home in Germany or Austria) have some bearing on this?Soldiers were often sent back to their home/replacement unit and arrested there for trial before handed over to police forces and to the courts.
Soldiers were also brought back and shot, eg. in Vienna on the military shooting range in Kagran (a district in Vienna) where numerous men (also fire guard) where shot for various reasons eg. desertion, self- mutilation [to avoid further participation in war activities on the front],etc.gebhk wrote: ↑16 Dec 2019 15:39To be clear, am I correct in taking that a soldier would be shot for a military crime (such as desertion) but beheaded for a 'civilian crime' (such as smuggling Jews). Or would the place where the crime took place (ie at the front vs back home in Germany or Austria) have some bearing on this?Soldiers were often sent back to their home/replacement unit and arrested there for trial before handed over to police forces and to the courts.
Source (and more dertails): https://www.doew.at/erinnern/fotos-und- ... anneszuchtTo keep up the discipline..
Courts of the German Wehrmacht pronounced a bit more than 30.000 death sentences again members of the Wehrmacht of which 20-23.000 got executed. In overal they rendered 50.000 verdits [...]
About 2 000 Austrian soldiers got convicted do death and executed by the NS- military justice for refusing military service, as deserters, for mayhem, cowardice before the enemy, etc..Thousands were sent in prisons or penitentiary. many of them found death in punishment camps of the Wehrmacht or concentration camps, in special units used for the most dangerous tasks at the front
Hi Ilona,IlonaG wrote: ↑25 Dec 2019 22:23Hi all.
Thanks for some interesting food for thought. I have been away over the the past few weeks. Also I'm not sure how to upload the letter. Apparently the file is too large.
I will get back to my research next week and will keep you apprised. Plus I just found out that my cousin has some more documents for me to go through.
Ilona