Displaced Persons in the Czech Republic

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Brusy

Brunlitz, a subcamp of Gross Rosen
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org

Horowiz (Horovice) - Central Bohemia Region. DP Camp
I am looking for information on a camp in Czech that my father ran after the war, called Horowiz near Piebach (?spelling). I cannot find a thing. It was first used to house German prisoners, then converted to a displaced persons' camp. Thank you. Kelly J Goodwin

Arbeitsgemeinschaft
“Die Burgenstrasse”
Rathaus
D-74072 Heilbronn
( 0049(0)7131/56-2271
fax 0049(0)7131/56-3140

Address of the Infocenter in Hrovice:
Informacní centrum
Mestský úrad
Palackého námestí 2
268 01 Horovice
tel. 00420 311 513 482

Following the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939, Jews were forced to register at German offices. Some Jews were arrested immediately, apparently as a scare tactic (among them was lawyer Leo Roubicek). At first the Jews were helped by the Evangelists who welcomed them at their religious services, helped with tutoring children, and some Jews even converted.
But, on October 5th, 1942, all of the 29 Jewish residents of Horovice were taken by train to Plzen (Pilsen), from there to Sokolovna, then to Terezin and on to Osvetin in Poland where almost all perished.

*The Synagogue in Horovice was purchased by the Evangelical Church of Czech Brotherhood after the war.
http://www.mesto-horovice.cz

Lauenburg

Leitmeritz (Litomerice in Czech) N 51/ F 53
In September 1938 Germany annexed the northern and western border region, which had a majority German population. This was now known as the Sudetengau (Sudetenland administration district). The remaining territory, the so-called rump state, was taken by the German Wehrmacht on March 14, 1939. At the same time Slovakia declared independence. Czechoslovakia ceased to exist and the Czech regions now came under German control as the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Kommando B -  5  people employed in construction of camp
Construction factory Elsabe

First mention of 1500 prisoners, then increased to 4000,  and in 1945, there were 5000 men and 300 women prisoners
Germany - Leitmeritz was largest subcamp of Flossenbuerg 11 people  
Richard II – Mineraloelges – engineering – 37 people
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://gov.genealogy.net

About 4,500 prisoners perished at Leitmeritz; the names of 3,200 victims are known. Many died as a result of the dysentery epidemic which occurred in the winter of 1944/45. The bodies were at first burned at the Theresienstadt crematorium, later a crematorium was also set up in Leitmeritz. However, its capacity was not sufficient so that many bodies had to be buried in mass graves.A memorial on the grounds of the former Leitmeritz concentration camp honours the fate of those who were incarcerated there. http://www.memorialmuseums.org

Malken Mierzynek

Marienbad
Dear Olga,
My family and I were in DP camps in several locations after the war: Bamberg, Bayreuth, Fraundorf and Ansbach. Where can I locate more information about the camps? Also, can you suggest where I can locate any of our records from that time? We are also trying to find information about a railroad labor camp in Marienbad, Czechoslovakia during the war. Where might I find information or documentation regarding our time in this camp? Thank you, Hedy Ziemba

Nawitz

Niskie

Obrzycko

Parsnaps
5/16/05 Dear Olga,
My grandmother who was known as Gertrude Tamara Hauser, born in 1922 and from Vesuc U Liberec, Czechoslovakia mentioned a camp called Parsnaps. I cannot find any such name and wondered whether you could help, quite possibly I have the incorrect spelling. I think it was around the late 1930s, it was a Russian Concentration Camp. My grandmother lost her husband and 2 young daughters, one I believe was a baby. They were all shot in front of her eyes. She had a brother who was 15 years younger than her, Walter Hauser, she never saw him again. Her mother Emily Hauser and father Rudolph Hauser she never saw again. My Grandmother was a very courageous lady, she fled to England with her then English husband, Sadly she died a while back. My Grandmother very rarely spoke about those sad times but I would dearly love to trace some of her past. Please could you help. Kind and sincere regards Mrs Jennifer Flower Flowersmithy@aol.com

Prault

Pruszcz

Aussenlager (translation: foreigners' camp) Richard
In the outskirts of a small town called Litomerice (Leitmeritz in German) in Czechoslovakia
http://www.warplaces.net

Rosenberg / Brodnica

Scherokopas

Schiffenbeil

Serappen

Sophienwalde

Slipsk

Starorod

Theresienstadt (Terezin) - Transit camp and ghetto Nov. 1941 - May 1945; Est. prisoners 140,000; Est. deaths 35,000; see http://www.pamatnik-terezin.cz

Torun (AEG, Org. Todt)


CZECH ARCHIVES:
Statni Ustredni Archiv v. Praze;
Malastrana, Karmelitska 2;
118 01 Praha 1;
CZECH REPUBLIC. Tel. 531 551.


BOOKS:
A Handbook of Czechoslovak Genealogical Research, by Daniel M. Schlyter. (GenUn, 1985, 1990). 131 pages. ($15). ISBN 0-912811-06-4. {Excellent in-depth guide to research, detailing record types, archival addresses, microfilms available, translation helps, etc.}. OUT OF PRINT. A revised version, entitled "A Handbook of Czech and Slovak Genealogical Research" is planned.


Census: http://www.czechfamilytree.com


Eastern Slovakia Genealogy Research Strategies http://iabsi.com


Justice after confiscation, Restitution of Communal and Private Property in Central and Eastern Europe by Stuart Eizenstat


Gypsies, Albanians, Romas Comrades


A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN TRANSCARPATHIAN RUTHENIA with photos


Czechoslavakian links

Declassified Nara records:
German Police System in Occupied Czechoslovakia Box 4, File#Ê XE003923 http://www.archives.gov
Box 37 ZA004467 Czechoslovak Welfare Committee Sep 49 - Mar 50


Hutsul ceramics


Minorities in the Czech Republic:
The German minority is a tiny fraction of the figure before 1945, when there were over three million native German speakers in Czechoslovakia. Most were expelled between 1945 and 1948. Some remained because they were married to Czechs, others because they were working in jobs essential to the economy and some were allowed to stay because they had actively resisted fascism during the German occupation.

The Polish minority lives almost exclusively in the region in the far north-east of the Czech Republic, near the town of Tesin. This is a border region that is historically ethnically mixed. With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy after the First World War the region was divided between Czechoslovakia and Poland, including the town of Tesin itself, and many Poles found themselves living on Czechoslovak territory. For more see Minorities in the Czech Republic


Czechosloakian famous immigrant, Madeleine Korbel Albright, was the United States' first female Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the US government.

She was born Marie Jana Korbelova (Madeleine is the anglicised form of Madlenka, her childhood nickname). Twice, the Korbels were forced from their homeland due to political turmoil. When the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia during World War II, the family fled to England. They returned to Prague when Albright's father, a diplomat, took a position with his government in the brief period between the liberation from the Germans and the Communist coup of 1948. However, because of the Communist take-over, the Korbels once again had to leave the country.

They immigrated to the United States in 1948 when Albright was 11 years old, and settled in Denver, Colorado, where her father took a teaching position in international relations at the University of Denver.

Birth certificates and records unearthed in Europe indicated that many of the family's relatives who stayed in Europe, including Albright's grandparents on both sides, died in concentration camps.


Public Law 774 - Native Czech refugees numbering 2,000 who fled Czechoslovakia as a direct result of persecution since January 1, 1948 and also have been in Italy or in Western Zones of Germany or Austria on the effective date were eligible for resettlement in the US under Public Law 774.


Aussenlager Richard
In the outskirts of a small town called Litomerice (Leitmeritz in German) in Czechoslovakia
http://www.warplaces.net/uk027.htm


http://www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps/Camps/MainCampsEng.html


Czechoslovakia links
This is an interesting bio about a Czech lady Else Bügge in German army clothing, escades Russian soldiers and lives among the displaced persons camps until she is captured by Americans and repatriated back to Czechoslovakia. She describes the conditions in the camps.

Dictionary: There's a very good online multilingual word list for Czech at http://www.slovnik.cz Provided by Dale Chock


Dear Olga,
I know the native country of your family - since I have lived in Eastern Germany, I went on several journeys there. For the last time I was 1997 in the region - we filmed for a documentary movie in the eastern Slovakia (Zips = Spis). Topic: The history of the Zipser Saxons (These ethnic Germans live in the region for about 900 years - and they settled also in the Carpathians ... today's Carpathians-Ukraine and north-east-Romania). Far more than one hundred thousand Zipser went in the 19th century to the USA... You make similar genealogical researches...

I search as historian, publicist and film maker for the end of the WWII 1945 in Germany - in Thuringia and Saxony.
Regards,
Ulrich Koch
http://www.koch-athene.de
Email: ulrich.koch@koch-athene.de
Greifswalder Str. 157
D-10409 Berlin, Germany
phone & fax:(+49 30) 42 85 18 07


Hi Olga,
I am presently researching my father's history as he recently passed away. A few years ago, I learned of my father's time in a Czech work camp and am now wanting to know more about that time in his life as he could never speak of it- I know little accept for the fact that at 11 years of age, he ran away from home in Leiden, Holland (due to an extremely abusive family). He boarded a train and was captured by German soldiers where he was then sent to a camp in Czechoslovakia. My understanding is that he was with other "orphaned" children who were caught riding the railways.

One other piece of information that I have is that these children were sent to Dresden to "clean up" dead Germans after the British bombed that city. He walked to Belgium after they were liberated and I have the Red Cross papers issued to his mother to come and pick him up at the border when the war was over. I am trying to find the name and place of this camp and was wondering if that info was available (assuming the camps were divided by the types of prisoners they housed). I would be very appreciative if you could supply and information that could assist me with my endeavour as I am experiencing a great need to know my dad's history. Thank you, Rita Lemaire


2/3/07
I added 150 villages with 20,000 people (surnames) still alive in Slovakia to my web site.
address: http://www.cisarik.com
This week I will enlarge to 420 villages with 53,000 sunames.
I hope, it will be helpful for visitors of this forum.
Juraj jurajcisarik@hotmail.com
Kosice, Slovakia


1/31/07 Dear Olga,
My name is Marcelo Neves and I am from Brazil. My maternal grandmother was from the Czech Republic. Her name was DULCE KOCH and she was the daughter of MARTIN KOCH and ANA KIBO. She was a refugee of a concentration camp and she fled to Brazil in the early 40's, most likely between 1940 and 1944, the year my mother was born.

For the longest time, I have been searching for information about my grandmother and it would be the greatest happiness to find that I still have relatives in the Czech Republic.

Thank you very much for your attention and any assistance you may provide will be greatly appreciated. Kind regards,
Marcelo Neves marceloaneves@gmail.com
(55-11) 9215-7772


5/8/08 Dear Olga,
Like other people, I have been trying to find out my father's history. By accident I found out he migrated to Australia on the Fairsea in 1949, he was passenger 1096, Alexandr Zwolsky, he came with his sister Miroslava Libis and Joseph Libis.

I don't know much from there or before, I heard stories and have some pictures from Australia, I know he was a cook, worked in the sugarcane fields and fished. I believe he lived some time in Brisbane, and possibly fathered a daughter (1955??) with a russian (maybe Ukrainian) woman, who married someone else and he let her be adobted by the step-father.

I'm not sure what year he left Australia with his sister and brother-in-law, but they left by ship and landed in San Francisco, maybe around the year 1959(?). My aunt kept tight lipped about anything regarding the family, and my dad always made light of the war, I believe to keep my questions at bay, but they have all passed, and I'm tring to figure the easiest route to take to find out the history.

The facts I do know are my father was born Alexandr Zwolsky in Brno, Czech. 1925. His father was Alexandr Ferdinand Zwolsky, and his mother was Ludmilla (nee Wagner) he served in the Third Reich (not volantary), ran away in North Africa to the English and fought with the Americans and English till the end of the war. I know he and his two sisters were displaced, one sister, the eldest (Drahaomira) ended up in Beograd. If there is anyone that can help it would be grateful, I would love to know if I have any family out there!!??
My name is Elizabeth Zwolsky and my e-mail is motherofanation@gmail.com

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