DP Camps in Germany - BR

Brassert (2 camps-British zone)

Braunschweig or Braunsweig, Brunswick,#295, #296 (Poles), #297, #2914, Land Niedersachsen (British zone)

City archive: Stadtarchiv Braunschweig Löwenwall 18 B
38100 Braunschweig
Phone: (0531) 470-4711 or 4719
Fax: (0531) 470-4725

1945 to 1950
Aus dieser Zeit, in der das Lager offenbar von der Britischen Militärregierung verwaltet und von der UNRRA bzw. nach 1947 von IRO betreut wurde gibt es fast keine Informationen. Man kann davon ausgehen, dass im Rahmen von Repatriierung, Auswanderung und schliesslicher Ansiedlung der "übriggebliebenen" DPs eine grosse Fluktuation der Lagerbewohner vorhanden war. Das Lager Buchholz blieb aber eines der grössten in Niedersachsen. 1948 wird eine Bewohnerzahl von 1400 angegeben.

Translation by computer of above:
From this time, that camp was obviously administered by the British military government and cared for by the UNRRA and/or after 1947, by IRO, gives nearly no information. One can assume in the context of repatriation, emigration and schliesslicher settlement of the "remaining" DPs a large fluctuation of the camp inhabitants was present. The camp book wood remained however one the largest in Lower Saxony. 1400 inhabitants in 1948.

Übergabe des Lagers an die deutsche Verwaltung
Ab 1950 gehen die DP-Lager in deutsche Verwaltung über, die Bewohner wechseln nicht mehr so stark, müssen aber teilweise noch jahrzehntelang in den Lagern leben, bis sie z.B. Ende der 50-er Jahre in Sozialwohnungen umziehen können. Eine "Lagererhebung in Niedersachsen" (Dezember 1951) ergibt für Hannover die Zahl von 114 Lagern mit 17 284 Bewohnern! Über das Lager Schierholzstr. 41 fehlen leider die Angaben.

Translation: Delivery of the camp to the German administration:
From 1950, the DP camps change the inhabitants into German administration, change any longer so strongly, do not have however partly still live for many decades in the camps, until by the end of the 50's they could move into subsidized low-rent housings. A "camp collection in Lower Saxony" (December 1951) counts 114 camps with 17,284 inhabitants for Hanover! The data on camp Schierholzstr. 41 is unfortunately missing.

1950 until 1964
Über die Zeit bis zur Auflösung des Lagers für "Heimatlose Ausländer" im Jahre 1964 gibt es nur Informationen von wenigen Zeitzeugen aus dem Bereich der "Polnischen Katholischen Mission" und der "Ukrainischen Gemeinde". Alle städtischen Akten des "Flüchtlingsamtes", des späteren "Amtes für Wohnungswesen" und des Sozialamtes Oberfinanzdirektion Hannover hat noch Hinweise, die auf den allmählichen Übergang vom ursprünglichen Lager über die Flüchtlings- und Obdachlosenunterkunft bis zum endgültigen Abriss des übriggebliebenen städtischen Kindergartens und der Aufgabe der Kirche der Ukrainischen Gemeinde in der ehemaligen Gaststätte von Anni Holik bis zur Wohnbebauung und Errichtung des Bundessortenamtes reichen.

Translation: Until the dissolution of the camp for "homeless foreigners" in 1964, there is only information from few time witnesses from the range of the "Polish catholic mission" and the "Ukrainian municipality". Still references, which reach on the gradual transition of the original camp over the refugee and homeless person accommodation up to the final outline of the remaining urban kindergarten and the task of the church of the Ukrainian municipality in the former restaurant of Anni Holik up to the residential zone and establishment of the office for federal sort, have all urban documents of the "office for refugee", the later "office for housings" and the sozialamtes regional finance office Hanover.

more about this camp http://www.geschichtsatlas.de/~ga2/1945.htm

Book: Karl Liedke Gesichter der Zwangsarbeit (forced workers).
Polen (Polish) in Braunschweig 1939 - 1945.
Braunschweig 1997.

I looked at your list and found Braunschweig DP camp. My neighbor says she was born in 1949 at Braunsweig DP camp (no CH). Are they the same place?? Her last name before marriage was Walas. Thanks Primo de Rivera
Yes, they are the same place. Olga

Dear Olga, I recently found your web site on DP camps. I commend you for your work. It is not easy getting the information. My mother was in DP camps in Germany. Unfortunately she was very young at the time and did not remember names well. She thinks the last camp she was in after the war was near Hannover and Braunschweig. She thinks it was "Rossalia Kasserni" the spelling is probably wrong but do you have any information? It was not one listed on your web site. My mother is Ukrainian from western Ukraine (near Stanislaviv). I believe she was taken into forced labour early in the war. Any information you may have would be much appreciated. My sincere thanks for your help. Roman Kozak


Reply: Hello, the DP camp Rosalies Barracks (in German Rosalies Kaserne) was in Braunschweig. Greetings from Germany, Wolfgang Strobel, author of Post der befreiten Zwangsarbeiter - Displaced Persons Mail Paid in Deutschland 1945 - 1949.

4/12/07
Hi, I am looking for people who worked with the Friends Relief Service Teams at Brunswick, Goslar or Schleswig (both relief workers and DPs who remembered their assistance). The FRS teams worked at a camp in Brunswick nicknamed Gypsy Camp, which was at the airfield known as Broitzem. In Goslar they worked in many camps including one nicknamed Waterfall Camp at the Rammelsberg Mine. If anyone has any recollections of working with or living alongside the Friends Relief Service please do not hesitate to contact me at volunteersabroad@yahoo.co.uk
Many Thanks, Jenny

Brauweiler: memoirs of Andrew Dettre

Bremen

Camp Tirpitz was located in a part of Bremen that is called "Gröpelingen". One of the largest Emigrant Staging Centres must have been Camp Grohn in Bremen with up to 5,000 DPs living there before emigrating to the United States or elsewhere.. . . the farewell stop for all DPs except those going by trains. (International Relief Organization IRO) UNRRA Team 510 Bremen:

J. Cathcart
G. Collins
J. Thomas
Lopez de Nava
J. G. Van Ravenswaay
H. Van Lennep
H. Nansen
M. Hesseler
D. Edwards
J. Sauvaget
A. De Poulpiquet
N. Klimenko - Dr.

Bremen Archives: There exists several card files in the Bremen archive. For example, there is a IRO card file, a Canada card file, and several others.

State archive: Staatsarchiv Bremen
Am Staatsarchiv 1
28203 Bremen
Germany
Tel: 0421- 361 6221
Fax: 0421-361 10247
Email: zentrale@staatsarchiv.bremen.de
http://www.bremen.de/info/staatsarchiv

City Archive: Stadtarchiv Bremerhaven
Stadthaus 5
27576 Bremerhaven
Tel: 04 71 - 590-25 67
Fax: 04 71 - 590-20 05

Postfach 21 03 60
27524 Bremerhaven
http://www.bremerhaven.de/stadt/aemter/amt41a/

Bremerhaven DAD, German databank contains emigration to North America through Bremen. The DAD is primarily concerned with the German emigration ports of Bremen/Bremerhaven, Hamburg and Cuxhaven. However, in some cases the ports of Boulogne, Cherbourg, Le Havre or Southampton and others are also recorded as frequently the ships would call at various European ports and take passengers on board before crossing the Atlantic. The passenger lists were always written in English.

Photo boarding ship at Bremerhaven: http://www.angelfire.com/art2/drwillie/Appendix1/History/History5.html

Färderverein Deutsches Auswanderermuseum e.V.
Inselstr. 6
27568 Bremerhaven
Phone: (0471) 4 90 96 or 4 19 02 88
Fax: (0471) 4 19 02 89
Email: info@foerderv-dt-auswandermus.de
Web site: www.foerderv-dt-auswandermus.de

Historisches Museum Bremerhaven
http://www.historisches-museum-bremerhaven.de/
Morgenstern-Museum
An der Geeste
27570 Bremerhaven
Tel: 00 49-471-3 08 16-0
Fax: 00 49-471-5 90 27 00
E-mail: info@historisches-museum-bremerhaven.de

City of Bremerhaven http://www.bremerhaven.de/

Photo archive http://www.fotoarchiv-bremerhaven.de/

Cargo of hope DPs come on Navy ships to the US; story and photos.
"We watched them come aboard at Bremerhaven, many dressed in cast-off clothes and carrying their pitifully meager belongings. First came the orphans, then the aged and finally the families... Though there were 193 family groups aboard, there were no facilities for quartering families together. The 374 men bunked aft, the 316 women forward, with cabins reserved for the aged and for mothers with small children."

Breslau

My mother, Gisela Paul, was expelled from Breslau in 1945. She ended up in England in 1949. I believe she was in a British administered DP camp before going to England. I would like to get in touch with any people who were in DP camps at that period. Is there any way I could talk to anyone who was in my mother's situation? Thank you Elizabeth Schmid

Brühl

Landesarchiv NRW Personenstandsarchiv Brühl
Schlossstr. 10-12
50321 Brühl
Tel.: +49 2232 94538-0
Fax: +49 2232 94538-38
E-Mail: psa@lav.nrw.de

a town and fashionable watering-place of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, on the Sinn, 16 m. N.W. of Kissingen. The mineral springs, five in number, situated in the pleasant valley of the Sinn, 2 m. from the town, were a favourite resort of Louis I. of Bavaria. Pop. 1700. Bruckenau today and illustration

Buchenwald Jews, Poles Post card to Buchenwald

Fear of epidemics made health and sanitation problems immediate concerns. UNRRA spraying these DPs with DDT at the former Buchenwald concentration camp. A Polish DP holds his clothes to be dusted for lice, carriers of typhus. Photo: UNRRA & M. Wyman

Dr. Knigge
Buchenwald Memorial Site
Strasse der Nationen
994274 Weimar-Buchenwald

 

Student drawing of Buchenwald gates

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Hi! Great website! My grandpa survived Buchenwald and emigrated to Argentina. I found out about it only last year. What is the best way to trace him? In 1939 he was in Polish army, but was captured as a Soviet soldier in 1941. His name is Wlodzimierz Wiszniewski. Please help me, Piotr Wiszniewski

 

Buchholz, #2723, Land Niedersachsen (British zone), see Hannover-Bucholtz, mostly Poles, Balts

Buckeburg Hosp., #2714 (formerly 2713 ILten), L. Niedersachsen (British zone)

State archive: Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv
Postfach 1350
31665 B&3252;ckeburg
Tel: (05722) 9677-3
Fax: (05722) 1289

Buerhassel (British zone)

Buldern - 2 camps (British zone)

Burgbernheim, Jews

Burgdorf has its own page now - UNRRA #2711, in Hannover region (British zone, Lower Saxony);

Balts, Poles, Yugoslavs, Ukrainians; and those classified as Others. Visit Shevchenko Scientific Society Library for Ukrainian records.

Burgdorf city website

http://www.burgdorf.de/wBurgdorf/aContent_Burgdorf/rathaus/rathaus.shtml?navId=41

"Lists of the inhabitants at that time of the camp are not unfortunately missing, also photos give it. The existing documents concerns only calculations for craftsmen and companies, who supplied something to the camp." Stefan Heuer, email: S.Heuer@burgdorf.de

Stadt Burgdorf
-Kulturabteilung-
Marktstr. 55
D-31303 Burgdorf
Tel. 05136 - 898-322
Fax. 05136 - 898-312

Hi Olga,
Great website. I found out about it through another researcher. I am looking for information on the Burgdorf camp, British zone, in Germany. My father, born in Bolechiw (now Ukraine) was there prior to emigrating to England and from there to Canada. Any information or guidance you can give would be greatly appreciated. From your website I got the address for the archive in Celle and have written there. Daria / Canada, email: dariadv@yahoo.ca

Olga, This site is impressive.
My husband and his mother were at the IRO camp in Butzbach, 1948-1950. Do you have any information on this camp?
Would appreciate any help. Thank you, Loretta Perner / Spring Hill, Florida

City archiv: Stadtarchiv Butzbach
Marktplatz 1,
Butzbach 35510
Tel: 06033/65005
Fax: 06033/65005
web: http://www.archive.hessen.de/query/Archive_Detail.cfm?ID=38&Refer=Kom_Result.cfm

Butzbacher museum associated with the city archive
http://www.butzbach.de/kultur-freizeit/museum/archiv.htm

forced labor:
http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=butzbach+zwangsarbeiter

RE: Polska Kompania Wartownicza 4227 Labor Service Co.
Seeking information as to the subject army unit in which my dad, now age 75 years young served as military police with the US Army in Eberstadt with the 97th Labor Supv. Co. from 1945 until emigrating to New York from Butzbach, Germany in September, 1949. My dad was at Manheim Kaefertal 7711 Military Labor Service Training Center Koscuisko from 1945 to 1946. I would appreciate it if any one has any information to please contact me. Thank you so much. P.S.Your web site is not only informative, but very helpful. AGemstone