Stadtarchiv Celle
Westerceller Str. 4
29227 Celle
Tel: 0 51 41 - 93 60 00
Fax: 0 51 41 - 9 36 00 29
Landkreis Celle
Kreisarchiv (war archive)
Trift 26
Gebäude 6
29221 Celle
Phone: (05141) 916-353
Fax: (05141) 916-474
E-mail: rainer.voss@lkcelle.de
Web site: www.landkreis-celle.de
Cham
Dear Ms Olga,
I came upon your wonderous site and thought you might help me out with a strange
WWII situation. Can you help me find a US Army internment camp in Germany for
Japanese POWs?
My father (Dr. Soichi
Nogami) was the leading Japanese diplomat who was tasked with taking 82
persons into a "safe" zone from Italy. Italy was being
liberated by the Allied forces and the Japanese Ambassador was in contact
wth the US Army command in Germany about diplomatic haven for the Japanese
Embassy staff and families.
Germany was already pacified but the Pacific theater was still going on; therefore
the Japanese Ambassador sought out US sector as a safe place for the embassy
personnel. This is the background.
He received confirmation that the US Army would show no harm to the Japanese
personnel. My father received the news and boarded the 82 persons on the
train from Mestre (outside Venice, Italy) to Germany. Men, women, and children.
I was the youngest - I was a year old.
When we arrived in Germany, the Americans had a change of heart. They allowed
each person to take 2 sutecases out of the baggage compartments and then
the 82 persons watched in horror as the Americans allowed the Western DPs
to raid the baggage cars and take away all the remaining possesions belonging
to the Japs. My father watched and noted everything but could do nothing
to stop the looting which was watched over by US Army guards.
We were then all taken to a special camp in Cham (pronounced KHAM) which was
our home for the next 6 months. We were behind a barbed wire fence and put
into dirt floored barracks. Men in one and women and children in the other.
My father spoke 6 languages and this was one of the reasons why he was selected
for this mission. My mother was Hungarian and had her mother, my Hungarian
grandmother, join us in Venice. She had just escaped the advancing Russian
troops in her native Hungary before joining the Japanese embassy in exile
in Venice headed up by my father, the Japanese.
The camp's medical doctor was a Capt. Soloman. He did not care for the sick
Japanese. The children has all gotten sick and my Hungarian grandmother begged
Dr. Soliman (in German and French, and Italian - but she didn't speak English)
to help the children. She tried to find out what infectious disease they
had all gotten but she had no medicines. She befriended a young Germany girl
on the other side of the barbed wire fence. She saw this tall, blond haired
woman weeping in frustration. They spoke to each other in German. She explained
to the young girl why she was crying - the children were ill and there was
no medical help from our US Army captors.
The young girl just happened to be the town vetinerarian's servant girl. He
got permission to enter our camp and treat the ill. Imagine Ms Olga, help
in the form of a Germany animal doctor! Ths wonderful vet not only diagnosed
their illness - but provided fresh eggs and milk for the children. He said
that the neighboring farmers paid for his services in fresh eggs and milk.
So this is my story. If you need more information - just ask. Thank you in advance.
Sincerely,
Cinnamon El-Mulla (nee Mitsuko Maria Beatrix Nogami)
Followup:
8/27/07
While doing some research I came
across your site and read an interesting post from Cinnamon El-Mulla
(nee Mitsuko Maria Beatrix Nogami) relating her experience in a DP
camp in Cham Germany. She was 1 year old at the time. There was no
date, so I do not know how old the post is. I am interested
in contacting the lady as I was in the U.S. Army in the area at the
time. Occasionaly I would be guarding some Japanese diplomatic families
in the near by town of Furth im Wald. I recall the small children
and often wondered about their situation.
Al Hershberger hershal@alaska.net
Dear Ms. O Kaczmar,
If you should actually search archives of the city Cham (Upper Palatinate), then
this is for you the correct address:
City archives Cham
Hospital Place 22 93413
Cham
E-mail: archiv@cham.de
Possibly you mean however
also archives of the city Hamm (Westphalia):
Stadtarchiv Hamm
im Technischen Rathaus
Gustav-Heinemann-Str. 10
D-59065 Hamm
Email: stadtarchiv@stadt.hamm.de
Mit freundlichen
Grüssen, C. Schmidt
ChiemseeLake - See Prien
Good morning:
I am looking for anyone who may have come in contact with Canadians who worked for UNRRA.
Ethel Ostry was the principla
welfare worker in Camp Glasenbach and the Director of Camp at Schloss
Langenzelle. Her final assignment was in Camp Fohrenwald;
Mrs J Henshaw was with Ethel
a Camp Camp Fohrenwald and later Director of the International Children's
centre on Chiemsee.
Dear Olga,
Thank you for all the information you have provided me. Thanks to you, my research is well underway and I have once again started my parents talking about their youth and journey to the US via slave labor/concentration camps. I am presently trying to locate the name of the DP camp in Coburg Germany since dad doesn't remember the name. Some of the sites are in German only, which I do not read or speak. My brother's birth certificate states he was born in Displacement Camp, Coburg Germany. Dad said my brother was not a citizen of Germany even though he was born there, so where would I look for that???
Any help would be appreciated!! Thanks again Chris at caleclair@comcast.net
Cologne / Koeln / Köln German
spelling; (British zone)
Cologne
Cathedral and Hohenzollern Bridge
Let me tell you my story:
My name is Hans Simons. I was born in Liepaja, Latvia in 1943. I was named Hartmuts Hans (at my father's request) with Dravenieks as my surname. This was my mother's husband's name. My family was taken to Germany in 1944 and we lived in various Displaced Persons camps until late 1949 when we sailed to Australia where we have lived ever since. I changed my surname to Simons in 1995 in my first step toward taking back my true identity.
Now for the little I know about my father:
His name is Hans Simons. He was born in the Rhineland, possibly Cologne.
He was stationed in Latvia at Soldus. The name of the town was changed to Fraunberg or Frieberg.
My father had one brother and a sister whose name is Annamie (this spelling may not be correct)
He was born between 1915-1919. His nationality was German.
He was serving in the German army and may have been an officer as my grandmother told me stories of having to shine his high leather boots. He met my mother and I was born.
He was at my birth and wanted to stay with my mother and I, and my mother thinks that when he was ordered to a gathering point at Stalingrad he may have deserted and possibly apprehended and executed. Or it may be that he was sent to the Russian front. The question of desertion is a delicate one. The comment came simply as a memory of a moment more than fifty years ago from my mother. It may not have been so at all and I apologise to anyone who may be upset by that comment.
I have thought many times about this and I only have compassion and love for my father. I probably would have done the same if I were faced with similar circumstance. At the time my mother was certain that her husband had died in the war. She was alone, in love with my father and carrying his child. A lesser man could have escaped his responsibility by vanishing into the smoke of war.
Whatever the circumstances were, and we may never know fully the truth, one fact remains, my father was loved by me, my mother and all of his family. He is that part of my life which up to now has been a deep mystery. I need very much to access that part of my life and for that I need a lot of help.
As can be seen, I have only scant information about my father. My mother's memory of those times is very sketchy and becomes more so as the years go by.
I do know without any doubt that from my his side of the story, he was well known by his family who probably knew where he was during the war and he may have passed on the information of my birth to them. He may also be alive today.
So as well as seeking details of my father's fate, I am seeking my father's family, who are also my family.
My searches with Australian, German, Latvian and Russian Red Cross have so far proved fruitless. My enquiries with Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgraberfursorge also were unsuccessful.
I am hoping for my sake as well as that of my eight children that someone of the human family may have some information regarding this puzzle.
Kind regards again to you Olga and thank you for the wonderful work you continue do. Wolfgang Strobel gave me a link to a site where a search can be made for missing German soldiers. I have entered a search, but again, with so little information, I am hopeful but I am not going to fret about it. The link is: http://www.dd-wast.de/
Hans Simons; I can be contacted at: ubg@tsn.cc
Cornberg, See Shevchenko Scientific Society Library for more.
The name of the town near Cornberg is Rotenburg (not Rotenberg).
City archives of Rotenburg an der Fulda:
Stadtarchiv Rotenburg an der Fulda
Marktplatz 14/15
36199 Rotenburg an der Fulda
Tel.: (06623) 933-01
Fax: (06623) 933-163
Submitted by: Wolfgang Strobel, author of Post der befreiten Zwangsarbeiter - Displaced Persons Mail Paid in Deutschland 1945 - 1949.
To Olga: I want to tell you I love your web site, you are doing a wonderful job! I'm trying to find info on the DP camp Cornberg. My
inlaws' (Michael Hrynenko & Maria Zinkewjcz) marriage certificate, and husband's
birth certificates state Rotenburg an de Fulda, the nearest city. Cornberg
is about 2 hours away and 181km WSW from Berlin.
Of Ukrainian decent, they were forced from their homes in 1941-42 & sent
to forced labor camps. My mother-in-law worked for a German family, took
care of the children, home, garden etc., because she was blond and blue eyed...looked
German!! Considered Ostarbeiters... had to prove she was in forced labor
and receives German pension. If you had a child during this time, there was
further compensation. My father-in-law stated the zone was Canadian/American.
After the war in 1945, he worked for the American Police until emigrating
to Canada in 1949. Judith Hrynenko
Reply: Judy did a lot
of research and opened a new page for Cornberg.
Craigie
- (found in Australia and Scotland - not Germany)
Cuxhaven, #2517,
Land Niedersachsen (British zone), 59 Balts
CARE Farming had almost virtually vanished. Livestock had been slaughted to feed the soldiers. Everyone was hungry in war-torn Europe. The packages from the American relief organization CARE, flowed to Germany beginning the summer 1946 and became the symbol for the foreign support. These fed both the German population and the homeless DPs.
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