DP Camps in Germany - F

Fallingbostel, #2515, Land Niedersachsen (British zone), mostly Poles, Balts, Yugoslavs, Others

Dear Olga: I wondering if you can help; my mother was in a camp. On her papers it says Fallingbostel camp Marx. I can't find this camp Marx or is it part of a camp there is no other name on the paper. It has Oldenburg British zone also on it. Can you tell me where to look? Many thanks Regards Di, Australia

Submitted by: Wolfgang Strobel, author of Post der befreiten Zwangsarbeiter - Displaced Persons Mail Paid in Deutschland 1945 - 1949:

Fallingbostel, Marx and Oldenburg were three different camps located in three different regions:

Fallingbostel had the Assembly Center number 2515 from August 1945 to May 1949, and the DPACS (Displaced Persons Assembly Center Staff) number 9 from July 1947 to May 1949. Between May 1948 and May 1949 also the DPACS-number 9/68/72/107 has been used. From February 1948 onward Fallingbostel was Emigration Centre or Transit Centre or Resettlement Centre (which means all the same) for DPs about to emigrate.

County archives: Kreisarchiv Landkreis Soltau-Fallingbostel
Vogteistr. 19
29683 Fallingbostel
Tel.: 49-5162-41253

City archives: Stadtarchiv Fallingbostel, Stadtverwaltung
Vogteistr. 1
29683 Fallingbostel
Tel.: 49-5162-40118
Fax: 49-5162-40166

The Marx camp near Wittmund in the District Aurich existed already in August 1945 with the Assembly Centre number 221. There were mostly Poles. From January 1949 to July 1950 the camp had the Assembly Centre number 262 A and the DPACS number 81; the International Refugees Organisation area teams 600 and 704 were active there. The Polish DP Camp Marx/Wittmund existed still at the beginning of the 1960s.

For camps in Oldenburg see page O - Oldenburg.

3/13/0 Dear Olga,
I am looking for info about my father: Alex Krulow, who was in the Fallingbostel camp in Germany in approx 1945. garry sheedy



5/16/05 Olga,
I am searching for information about my father, Szymon Szwaluk. I think he was in Fallingbostel around the time it was liberated. We have a feeling that he may have assumed this identity. He spoke fluent Russian, German, Polish and English, was very well educated (university) and mentioned Kharkov. He bears scars from flogging and tattoos on both forearms. Christa, thornfield@bigpond.com thornfield@bigpond.com



On 4/13/08 Dear Olga;
I am just searching for information on the camps my father was in. He was a clerk/translator and I just recently found in his posessions a journal of people's names. their ailments and what was prescribed. The entries are dated Aug 14-23 1945. One document reads UNRRA team 232 Fallingbostel camp; the next is UNRRA team 58 Hesslingen transit camp. I would be happy to share if it is needed.
J Daniels jotoad@sympatico.ca

Feldafing (US zone) Bavaria, near Starnberg; 3,700 Jews

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Archives Record Group: PAG 4 Box 18-22: District 5: Mittenwald, Feldafing, Munich, Leipheim

Submitted by Wolfgang Strobel, author of Post der befreiten Zwangsarbeiter - Displaced Persons Mail Paid in Deutschland 1945 - 1949:

Community: Gemeindeverwaltung Feldafing
Possenhofener Str. 5
82340 Feldafing
Phone: 49-8157-93110
Fax: 49-8157-1052
Email: info@sta5.de
web: http://www.feldafing.de

County: Landratsamt Starnberg
Strandbadstrasse 2
Postfach 1460
82317 Starnberg
Germany
Phone: 49-8151-148-0
Fax : 49-8151-148-292
E-Mail: Info@LRA-Starnberg.de
web: http://www.landkreis-starnberg.de

Located 30 kilometers southwest of Munich, the Feldafing Jewish DP Camp issued money bearing the inscription "Series of 1946." Notes were circulated in denominations of 25 and 50 cents, $1, $5 and $10. From Displaced Persons Camp Money by Frank Passic and Steven A. Feller.

Kosher food in camp: http://www.tzemachdovid.org/vaadhatzala/kosher.shtml

http://www.wettersaeulen-in-europa.de/direct.htm?/feldafing.htm

Feldafing cemetary: A fence divides the Christian part from the Jewish cemetery with a memorial plus many tombstones, some of them decorated according to East European tradition. Source: Schwierz.

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Olga, I'm looking for information on Feldafing, Bad Reichenhall, Korbach and Ludwigsfeld. Thanks. S. Bycko

Good morning Ms. Kaczmar,
My name is Sonnenraiech Beniamin (Beni), my father Sonnenreich Moshe died and not speak about that period of time. However, yesterday I found part of my family who survived the Holocaust.


This is Moshe, my father (I found the son of Israel).

I think this is Cousin Saba? Do you know how to locate Saba?

The place is Feldafing. Do you have access to information from Feldafing?

My father born in Przemysel, Poland and have another 4 brothers and sisters. Is it possible to find the family name of Saba? My grandfather name is Zvi Sonnenreich and my grandmother's maiden name is Regina (Garten).

I found that there is one Sonnenreich from Hungary, Budapest (1939) who survived, and born in Przemysel as well. I know that my father was in Feldafing and in kibbutz Zerubavel. Thanks Sonnenreich, Beni

12/20/04 Good afternoon Olga:
I have learned so much from your information. Thank you so very much for your website. A friend of mine was born in Germany in 1946, lived in an abandoned house which served as a dp camp. At about 2 or 3 yrs. of age, she became incapable of walking. She was placed in a dp hospital. When the U. S. Army came into town, an army doctor told her father that he must take his daughter out of this hopital or she will die. The father replied that he had tried but the dp hospital doctor in charge would not allow him to take his daughter out. These two doctors had a verbal battle and the army doctor won. My friend was then placed in a German hospital, where, three months later, she was able to walk out. My friend is now much older with severe back problems and it would help her doctors to know what happened to her when she was unable to walk to better diagnosis what to do for her now. There are probably no records for the dp camp, but there should be for the German Hospital. Sure do hope you can help her. She does not know the name of the hospital, but she was born in Felden. Her doctors have wondered if it might have been polio but nothing definite. Have a wonderful and blessed HOLIDAY. Tonia Fandycz

Feuerbach, Poles

Olga, My wife came across your page on DP Camps, and I noticed that you have no mention of Feuerbach. This was a camp north of Stuttgart, in wahta had been - depending on who you listened to - former SS, Signals or AckAck barracks. Located on a ridge overlooking Feuerbach to the west and the Neckar to the east, it was a bit isolated. We were moved there after the food riots in Oct/Nov. 1945 in the Artillery barracks in Ludwigsburg. Most of the people were ex-Buchenwald inmates, fairly tough types. My mother and I left there in mid -1946, when she joined the Polish Red Cross as a Social Worker.

Can't recall now much about the camp, except that it was modern barracks, not like the 18th Century Artillery Barracks we had been in in Ludwigsburg. There was an extensive area that had been use for training, and was full of unexploded ordinance. I can assure you that six Tellermines (German anti-personal mines) stuck into a large cooking pot with a screw-down lid, and with a fire lit under it, will dig a very nice 25m crater, and remove most of the windows in the barracks buildings about 300m away. As it was mid January, with snow on the ground, we were not popular, except of course, that no-one ever found out!

Another story from that time. Food was desperately short - the food riots I mentioned above were sparked off by lousy food in the camp, when our complaints were finally investigated, it was found that the Camp Commandant, an US Army officer, and several mates had been flogging the food on the Black Market. I believe he was sent back to the States in disgrace - probably for being caught.

One evening I was asked by one of the men to come and stand at the camp's edge and keep a lookout down the road, towards the guard house. Considering that the guards - again US Army - rarely moved out of their warm quarters during the day, the chances of them coming out at night were negligible, however ...

as a reward, our family ate meat the next few days. Of course, the perpetrators were, somehow, caught, and brought before the local American Court. At that time, my mother worked as a court interpreter, and she was on that case. To cut a long story short, the evidence was not enough to convict the accused. Very briefly, there were clear footprints in the snow (this was January 1946) going from the camp, to a field some distance away where a German farmer had a few cows. There was evidence of a cow being led up to the fence - and that's where the cow prints stopped. From the fence back to the camp there were quite obvious human (boots!) prints, but no sign that the people who had made the prints carried anything heavy.

After the accused had been discharged - having not been proved guilty, my mother asked one of them how it was done. I recall she recounted that story with some relish some time later, and was most annoyed when I stole her punch line - they put boots onto the cow and led it that way back to the camp.

Hope these odd recollections help!
Cheers, George Carrington

Fischbeck camp, see Hamburg page

Fissau, #1235, Schleswig Holstein (British zone)

Flanderskaserne, Ulm

Submitted by: Wolfgang Strobel, author of Post der befreiten Zwangsarbeiter - Displaced Persons Mail Paid in Deutschland 1945 - 1949:
City archives: Stadtarchiv Ulm, Schwörhaus
Weinhof 12
89073 Ulm
Tel.: 49-731-1614200
Fax: 49-731-1611633
Email:info@stadtarchiv.ulm.de
Web: http://www.stadtarchiv.ulm.de

Looking for my mother
Dear Olga, I am still searching for the DP camp where I was born and possibly lived. My mother was living in Flanderskaserne when I was born but I can't find it anywhere in the DP site. I have since gotten some information indicating that she emigrated to Canada but I do not know when. I was sent from Munich resettlement center in 1952. It seems I really find dead ends continually. I wonder if I just don't know where to look. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you for the wonderful site.

Follow up: I was able to find the site for Flanderskaserne, it was in Ulm, whatever that is, but I think it was an area that included Stuttgart. My problem is trying to figure out which DP camp I might have been sent to from there. I don't even know if my mother went with me. I have been told I lived in Oberlenningen but I don't know for how long or when. It is like a needle in a haystack. I do have a lead that my mother might be in Canada but so far, no luck in making contact. Thank you for the help. Your site is fascinating and I can't imagine the work you and others have gone to for the assembling of the site, and the pictures included really bring it to life. Rita Miller

Olga's follow-up: Rita has reported that she has found her mother. Isn't that great!

Photos at United Nations archives:
We have photo # UN22336: Teacher and student in IRO DP Navigation and Sea-Engineering School in Flensburg, British Zone of Germany
Please let me know if you would be interested in obtaining hi-res scans ($3 each) or prints ($ 7 each). Best regards,
Clara Gouy, Photo Librarian, United Nations, photolibr@un.org photolibr@un.org

City archive - Stadtarchiv
http://www.schleswig-holstein.de/archive/kreis_frei/saflensb.html
Rathausplatz 1
24937 Flensburg
Tel: 04 61 - 85 25 35
Fax: 04 61 - 85 23 72

Forced repatriation: Aug.'45 refugees left were largely those who did not wish to return home. British soldiers surrounded 500 Ukrainians at Flensburg, dragged them off, aided by Soviet NKVD agents. (Wyman p.66).

Hi Olga.
I am doing research on my family and we have letters that were sent from my great aunt to her sister (my great grandmother) in the US. My great aunt passed away in 1948 but we have no idea of what happened to her husband. His name was Franz Warsanys and her name was Rosel. They lived at the end of her life in Flensburg Lager Kilsenk, Lager Baracks 10, Room 8, British Zone. Do you have any suggestions to find out anything about them? Thank you so very much, Mark Truty

Olga:
My father, his parents, one brother, and two sisters are WWII survivors (non-Jewish) who were taken from Poland and put to work on farms in Germany. I am trying to track their history (my father was young and can't recall names of places they were at, other than Fliegerhorst). Two of my aunts were born in Schoningen, in 1943 and 1945. Can you tell me the names of DP camps in/around Schoningen during that time? Thank you for any help. Hope Zulisky

Reply: Fliegerhorst is the German word for air-base or airfield. One needs the name of the town or place where the Fliegerhorst was situated. Wolfgang Strobel, author of Post der befreiten Zwangsarbeiter - Displaced Persons Mail Paid in Deutschland 1945 - 1949.

Flossenbuerg city recorder's office,http://www.flossenbuerg.de/gemeinde/ra/st.htm in German;

Archives: Gedenkstütte in der Gedüchtnisallee 5-7
92696 Flossenbürg Germany;
Email: information@gedenkstaette-flossenbuerg.de

My brother's birth document shows Tirschenreuth and has Flossenburg. I know we were at Altenstadt, Schongau (US Zone) Germany. I have a report card with dates of 11 July 1950 to 1 May 1951. On my medical record it has Munich, Germany, Funk Caserne dated Sept 1951. We were on the move all the time. We immigrated to the US in Oct 1951 E. Hutchins

Dear Olga,
I would like to trace the IRO Children's Village - Bad Aibling. Rosalia Kiszka, Roman Catholic, resided at Flossenburg, UNRRA lager.Do you know the Roman Catholic Parish for Flossenburg? Anyone know about the Kiszka family in Stryj - Galizien (Galicia); 1846-1912. Death certificate shows Greek Catholic.Any suggestions or information you provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Bruce B. Miller

12/22/04 Hello,
I would like to give you some help or make some annotations about the dp camp Foehrenwald (or Föhrenwald, which is the German spelling with an umlaut). Built in the 1930s as a forced-labour camp for the company, IG Farben, Föhrenwald became a settlement for displaced persons in 1945, which included survivors from the Dachau concentration camp. (source: http://www.kulturstiftung-des-bundes.de/main.jsp?applicationID=207&articleID=468&languageID=2).

Only a few original buildings exist today and the settlement is called Waldram and is part of the town Wolfratshausen. The camp near Wolfratshausen, was called "Föhrenwald" (i.e, there weren't two camps). So perhaps the Einwohnermeldeamt (Residents' registration office) in Wolfratshausen has also birth certificates of this camp.

City archive: in Wolfratshausen telephone number (0049) 8171/214-140:
Stadtarchiv Wolfratshausen
Loisach Ufer 1
82515 Wolfratshausen
Tel. and Fax 08171-76650
http://www.stadtarchiv-wolfratshausen.de/

Some other sites:
http://www.swc-archives.com/detail.php?id=2001-067+%5B013%5D
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/dp/camp3.htm
http://www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/portal/page?_pageid=141,302413&_dad=pestro&_schema=PORTAL_TESTR
I want to thank you for the interesting website and wish you a Happy New Year Bertold Scharf / Germany

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Hi Olga, My name is David Lustbader, my mother who survived the Warsaw ghetto has been receiving reparations for herself from the German Government. After the war, my parents ended up in a German DP camp (Foehrenwald) where my sister and I were born. Regards, David Lustbader

Photo of camp: http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/gallery2/71675.htm

Henry Cohen was the Director of Camp Foehrenwald, the second largest Jewish displaced persons center in the American Zone of Germany in 1946.
http://www.remember.org/witness/cohen.html
http://edf3.gallaudet.edu/diversity/BGG/Holocaust/BGGclass.htm

Street scene of camp: http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/gallery2/71675.htm

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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 at Camp Fohrenwald and later Director of the International Children's centre on Chiemsee.
• Giske Miss Francis.

Thank you for any assistance you could provide. Susan Armstrong-Reid

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Hi Olga
I was born in Foehrenwald DP camp in 1949, and I have never had a birth certificate. I travelled on my parents travel papers. Would you tell me how I can obtain a birth certificate? Thank You Shifra

Olga's note: Write to the city recorder, in English or German. They will translate and forward to the correct person. Ask for one in English and German since there may be transcription errors in English. See bottom of Aschaffenburg page for sample letter.

Archives of Europe: http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/euro1.html