German DP camps O - Q:

Osterode, #2922, Land Niedersachsen (British zone) Poles, Yugoslavs, Balts - see also Osterode under slave labor camps: Germany Slave Camps O-Q

Osterode am Harz often simply called Osterode, is a town in south-eastern Niedersachsen on the south-western edge of the Harz mountains. It is the seat of government of the district of Osterode. The town is twinned with Scarborough, in the United Kingdom. Osterode is located on the German Framework Road.

Osterode am Harz City archive- Stadtarchiv
http://www.stadtarchiv-osterode.archiv.net/isy.net/servlet/broadcast/page1.html

City of Osterode: http://www.osterode.de/index.htm

http://www.thisisharz.com/osterode.html

On 8/20/10 Dear Olga,

My mother, Judith Ilse Kovács-Zélenyansky and grandparents (Ilse Anna Emma Kovács-Zélenyansky and Andreas Kovács-Zélenyansky ) were housed in the DP camp at Osterode am Harz, as were two uncles and an aunt.  Indeed, my uncle Peter Kovács-Z was born during their stay at this camp in 1948.  I've include some pictures of the family from this time (click photo to enlarge):

I’ve written to the Osterode Stadsarchiv requesting more information and would like to find more about this fascinating aspect of my mother’s life.  Even knowing the location of the camp would be interesting in the event that I ever find my way to Germany.
Jan Gertenbach jag.gertenbach@gmail.com

 

From Mary Holmes' memories - blog on Osterode http://www.webwanderers.org/2006/03/control_commission_germany_oct.html

In 1945 in Osterode.Harz there were some camps of DPs from several nations. Therefore the Brit. office
- 131 G.I.S. - C.B.S.R.A. Commission was established
there in house: VILLA UHL.
This group belongs to: Admin.Sub. Area, GOSLAR (Harz) BOAR 11. - This office Osterode was cancelled 20th June, 1950.
Hint: German stamp collectors have written one booklet about all groups, camps with the Brit. FIELD
POST Address. Ask me. klaus.schlincke@t-online.de

Oventrop (British zone)

Oxford (British zone) Dragahn-Dannenberg, Latvians

City archives: Stadtarchiv Lüneburg
Rathaus
21335 Lüneburg
Germany
Phone: 49-4131-309223
Fax: 49-4131-309586
Email: stadtarchiv@stadt.lueneburg.de
Web: http://www.lueneburg.de

County archives: Kreisarchiv Landkreis Lüneburg
Auf dem Michaeliskloster 4
21335 Lüneburg
Germany
Phone: 49-4131-26-1

Here is research in German about forced labour camps; and it says in the area Dragahn, Danneberg were forced labour camps. But the name "Oxford" was not mentioned. This is the link: http://www.zwangsarbeit-forschung.de/index.html

---

Oxford camp was in Lüneburg (Lueneburg) from December 1945 (probably already before) until June 1947 or May 1948. The camp had the DPAC (Displaced Persons Assembly Centre) numbers 257 in December 1945, 2510 from December 1945 to March 1946 (and onward?), 2519 from February to June 1947. It had the DPACS number 83/2519 or simply 83 from June 1947 to May 1948.

Dannenberg and Lueneburg are no adjacent towns. In Dannenberg also was a DP camp at least from June to September 1947 with the DPACS number 89 or 89/2510, possibly already before these dates. I have not found a name for this camp in the British national archives, so perhaps it was a second Oxford camp. IRO, International Refugees Organization, began to work only on July 1st, 1947. Until June 30, 1947 the UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) took care for the DP camps. Kind regards, Wolfgang Strobel, author of Post der befreiten Zwangsarbeiter - Displaced Persons Mail Paid in Deutschland 1945 - 1949.

---

G'Day Olga,
Greetings from Laura, South Australia. The Good Book says: "Ask and you will receive, believing it to be so". I did ask, believed and your web-site came into my world. Thank you. I need your assistance please?

I have German and Latvian copies of my birth certificates issued as No: 41, (I don't know the significance of that number) D.P. Oxford Camp 26th April 1946. Can you assist please?

My mother remembers that we arrived in Germany in 1944. From there until we left Trieste, northern Italy on the good ship Dundalk Bay, there is a forgotten gap of just over five years.

I have contacted the Australian Archives in Canberra about our migration records and am waiting for a reply. I trust that with your assistance and whatever information the Australian Government gleaned from my mother and father as newly arrived Displaced Persons will help fill in those gaps.

I have witnessed the interest that three of my boys have shown in matters dealing with World War 11, so I am sure that they also would benefit from the information their father is seeking.

With kind regards Hans Simons / Australia

City archives: Stadtarchiv Paderborn
Pontanusstrasse 55
33102 Paderborn
Germany
Phone: 49-5251-881593
Fax: 49-5251-882047
Email: stadtarchiv@paderborn.de
Web: http://www.archive.nrw.de/home.asp?stadta-paderborn

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

Apparently in Paderborn existed several barracks (Kasernen), as mentioned in the city's website www.paderborn.de in a chapter concerning Stadtentwicklung und Stadtplanung (city development and city planning).

My lists on DP camps mostly begin in October 1945 but no doubt the camps existed before. In Paderborn at that time existed a Camp #8 with Poles, DPAC number (changing with the time) 145, or 32/145, or 24/25/3145, or 24/25. In 1947 the location in the Infanteriekaserne (= infantery barracks) is mentioned, probably concerning the same camp. This camp still existed in April 1949.

A second camp also with Poles with the DPAC number 32/144 is listed from March to May 1946 in the Panzer Viking (tanks Viking, probably also barracks). A Panzerkaserne in Paderborn seems to exist still today. I did not find an address. So it might be a historical name officially renamed.

I did not find on the internet any actual information on the "Infanteriekaserne". So either it does not exist any more or it has been renamed since 1949. The latter could be more likely. I found on the internet that a tram line in Paderborn going from the Hbf (Hauptbahnhof - main railway station) via Infanteriekaserne to Elsen existed until March 31, 1958.

So it should be possible to find out with the help of the city's archives the exact location of the former DP camp.

My book is written in German but in many aspects self explaining mainly in the lists of camps in the former British occupation zone and also by the pictures of mail, letters and cancels in the other parts of the book. It can be ordered directly with me. To the USA: $26.50 (includes shipping cost). Payment in advance in cash to my address at buyer's risk; no check and no mandate please because of the excessive bank charges.

---

Dear Olga, Hello, my name is Brian Lewis, I am an American trying to find out about my grandparents' days in Germany during WW2. They were taken to Germany where my mom was born in Sept., 1943, in Paderborn, Germany. Are there any name lists that you know of that might have my grandparents name? Their last name is Zawislak. I know it's a shot in the dark, oh well, if you think there's no hope for me, please let me know at belewis19@aol.com.Thank you, Brian Lewis

Document and information website in English DIZ Emslandlager
Wiek rechts 22
26871 Papenburg
Germany
Phone: +49 - 4961 - 916306

You may contact the DIZ by (e-mail: mail@diz-emslandlager.de) or snail mail: P. O. Box 1132, 26821 Papenburg
Germany
Fax: +49 - 4961 ­ 916308

Passau (US zone) has its own page.

Russian boy scout troops

City archives: Stadtarchiv: http://www.stadtarchiv-passau.de/
address: Stadtarchiv Passau,
Rathausplatz 2,
94032 Passau,
Postfach 2447,
94014 Passau (Postanschrift),
Tel: 0851/396255,
Fax: 0851/396249

Peine #2813, Land Niedersachsen (British zone)

Stadtarchiv Peine
Windmühlenwall 26
31224 Peine
Tel: 0 51 71 - 4 95 38
http://www.peine-online.de/stadtarchiv.cfm?rm=05981A40-2FC9-11D4-A51D009027B69DF7&cm=87557980-65BD-11D4-AB04009027B69F9A&backurl=kultur.cfm

Pirma

refugees from Klein-Nossin

Pfaffenhofen (US zone)

Russian boy scout troops

REWARD:
I am in urgent need of a photograph of my father. I will pay $25 for each photo I accept and $500 for a photo of my father, if accepted. His name is Jozef Kurek, a Polish officer. He was in Pfaffenhofen, Germany in 1945-1946. He was very tall and had blond hair and blue eyes. He was in his early 30's at the time he was in the DPcamps. The photos would have been taken in the Altenstadt and Pfaffenhofen DP camps. Please contact me at suttonall@comcast.net." Sincerely, Mari Sutton

Olga,
Pfaffenhofen is spelled with one "f" in the last part. It has no association with Alsace France. Here is complete address for:

City archives: Pfaffenhofen archives
Stadt Pfaffenhofen a.d. Ilm
Hauptplatz 1, 85276 Pfaffenhofen a.d. Ilm

Briefanschrift:
Postfach 1241, 85262 Pfaffenhofen a.d. Ilm

Email: rathaus@stadt-pfaffenhofen.de
Tel: (08441) 78-0
Fax: (08441) 88 07
Website: www.pfaffenhofen.de

Sincerely, Mari Sutton

We visited the historic synagogue in Pfaffenhofen last summer. It was founded in the late 1700's and existed until 1940 when all the Jews were sent away. It's a beautiful little place that is in the heart of town, but difficult to find. We didn't know that there had been a DP camp there. Larry R. Weisberg

Pfarrkirchen / Eggenfelden, educated Ukrainians degreed in engineering or law (Wyman, p.119)

Pforzheim

10/14/04 Dear Ms. Kaczmar, I am a US-based producer for German television. We are working on a documentary about life in the post-war years in the American zone in southwestern Germany, in cities and towns such as Stuttgart, Ulm, Heidelberg, Heilbronn, Pforzheim, etc. I am in search of people who were Displaced Person in the region, and of American officers of the Occupation authorities and UNRRA representatives who were assigned to the area. I would be grateful if you could give me any leads. If I could get replys within 3-4 weeks, that would be great. Best wishes Konrad Ege

Pinneberg, #1234, Poles, Balts; Schleswig Holstein (British zone), website in German

City archive: Stadtarchiv Pinneberg
Bismarckstrasse 8
25421 Pinneberg
Tel: 0 41 01 - 21 12 24
Fax: 0 41 01 - 21 14 44
http://www.archive.schleswig-holstein.de/kreis_pinn/sapinnebe.html

Baltic DPs, with aid from UNRRA, the Lutheran World Federation, and other groups, set up their own university at Hamburg, which was later moved to Pinneberg and renamed the DP Study Center. These students were part of a drawing class. Photo: Lutheran World Fed. & M. Wyman

"The Baltic DP university with about 170 professors on the teaching staff and 1,200 students in eight faculties and 13 subdivisions has been running for three semester. Girl Guide and Boy Scout organizations, branches of the YMCA and YWCA and sport units have been organized. The last -named have attained outstanding results well up to international standards." Baltic Refugees and Displaced Persons, published 1947 Boreas Publishing Co. Ltd. London.

City site http://www.meinestadt.de/pirmasens/rathaus?cont=1 in German. Pimasens is leading German shoe and boot manufacturing center. Founded in the 8th cent. The city was heavily damaged in World War II.

City archives http://www.archiverlp.de/db/de/rlp/s-ps/233/34

Street address: Rathaus am Exerzierplatz
66953 Pirmasens
Post office box: Postfach 2763
66933 Pirmasens
Tel: 0 63 31/84 22 23
Fax: 0 63 31/84 22 86
Email: archiv@pirmasens.de
Homepage: www.pirmasens.de

Hi Olga,
I was wondering if you could help me. I am trying to find a DP camp in Pirmasens Germany. My father has it listed on his baptismal certificate as his place of birth but I am unable to find a record of it anywhere. As his father died there I am hoping it can lead me to find out more about him. Also thank you for such an informative web site. You have done an exceptional job. Samantha randsam

"The Group Headquarters entered Pirmasens late the night of the 23rd and here at close range saw the devastating effects of allied aerial bombing. The town of perhaps fifty thousand was practically leveled. German families were huddled together wherever they could find shelter. Others wandered in a daze through still smoking rubble Broken water mains spouted water and the smell of death was everywhere. That night the Group found a place to bivouac near a mausoleum and cemetery at the edge of town. In back of the buildings were row upon row of coffins of the unburied dead and within the mausoleum was a large room completely filled with corpses. We were glad to soon move on." WITH THE 101st CAVALRY IN WORLD WAR II 1940-1945
http://members.tripod.com/1-101cav/ww2.html

3,000 trusting veterans (Ukrainians) of Gen. Vlasov's forces turned over to the Soviets (Wyman, p.68). William Sloane Coffin Jr. wrote that his role "left me a burden of guilt I am sure to carry the rest of my life." (Wyman, p.69)

Plattling Soviet DPs and POW Camp, Regensburg, Bavaria 1945 -1946
 
Submitted by: Alan Newark, Compiled 01 April 2009

 In Count Nikolai Tolstoy's book Victims of Yalta and in The Last Secret by Lord Bethell, we are told that at Plattling, near Regensburg, north of Munich and Dachau, a large number of Russians and Ukrainians, German Army volunteeers in the 2nd Division of General Vlasov's KONR, were, in February and May 1946 badly treated and forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Zone by the US Army.
 
As Count Tolstoy, with whom I long corresponded, puts it...3000 'Russians' had been transferred to Plattling in late-1945 and were held there for several months. By February 1946 about half of these men - the figure was, says Bethell, 1800 - had been deemed liable to compulsory repatriation.
 
At one point, believing that they were going to be deported and reacting like the large body of such men who had violently resisted deportation by the Americans at Dachau (where, on 19 January 1946, a number of Soviets fought pitched battles with US military police and committed suicide) barricaded themselves into their huts; a US Signal Corps film and camera team filmed and photographed the operation at Dachau while a photograph of a Vlasov man who had killed himself was published in Stars.and Stripes. The sudden, pre-deportation, appearance of military cameramen at Plattling, see below, rightly worried the Vlasov Army inmates of that large camp.
 
The American commander at Plattling, says Tolstoy, managed to restore order by lying and saying that the Plattling Vlasovites - who had spent months there living quiet and safe lives - were simply being shifted to a camp further from the front line. However, the men began to worry when their usual camp guard, normally provided by the men themselves, was replaced by Americans and they were asked to complete questionnaires aboiut their past lives in Russia and in the Red Army.
 
Had many of the men not feared their questionnaire answers falling into Soviet hands,thereby making things worse for themselves and their families back home, the Vlasovites might have told the truth about being oppressed by the Communists and therefore have saved their lives by impressing the Americans with the severity of their fears.The prisoners also often refused to supply personal information.
 
In adition to the above, writes Bethell, Russian suspicions were greatly aroused when all non-Russians were moved away from the Regensburg complex to other camps (though a camp for SS troops remained occupied), Army photographers began taking pictures of the prisoners, the camp and the huts and a 7pm till 6am curfew was imposed.
 
(So distressed were many of the Vlasovites that when the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Bavaria visited the camp many men asked for the last rites. The Metropolitan asked the authorities to show mercy and to heed the prisoners' fears. In Rome, meanwhile, the Vatican rumbled into action and the Pope announced his opposition to the Western Allies - still secret - alleged denial of asylum and human rights by signing the Stalin -demanded Yalta Agreement clauses which doomed all Soviet citizens liberated or captured by Western forces to compulsory repatriation).
 
Soon afterwards, in the middle of the night, a column of tanks surrounded the Russian camp at Plattling and numerous American troops, wearing rubber soled shoes and carrying specially reinforced night sticks, crept into each hut while the Vlasov men were sleeping, thereby ensuring almost total surprise ( at least one Vlasov soldier, seeing the tanks approaching and the US soldiers entering the camp crept under the wire into an adjoining, non-Russian, camp).
 
In 'The Last Secret', Lord Bethell gives a lot more detail...
 
Of the 271 Soviet prisoners at Dachau, where US troops using billy clubs and tear gas, had to fight their way past barricades behind which a number of inmates were killing themselves, 135, including wounded on stretchers, were transferred to the Soviet Zone that day. The survivors of Dachau were sent to Plattling where their story distressed the main camp inmates. The Vlasovites asked the camp commander for guidance. He reportedly wrote and signed a letter assuring the men they had nothing to fear.
 
At 5:45 AM on 24 February 1946, wrote Bethell, the Russians were driven out into the night, many in pyjamas and bare feet and some with blankets. They had to stand there, said one Russian survivor, in '6 degrees of frost from 6 AM till four o'clock that evening'. They were broken up into small groups and each man had two guards. A roll call was held and two long lists were later drawn up. Two large groups were formed.
 
In the late afternoon, in groups of twelve or fifteen each, the Vlasovites were loaded onto trucks, each truck guarded by a section of military police. As the witness continued, 'The prisoners, who were were sitting or lying down on the bottom of the truck, could not see where they were being taken. It was only by the length of the journey that they were going outside the camp, and only at the railway station, when they saw the bars on the carriage windows, that they realised they were doomed. It was then that some people began to commit suicide.'
 
As Bethell relates...according to an American report, 'in spite of the elaborate precautions taken during this transfer, five of the men succeeded in committing suicide'.
 
So, to recap, the 1500 or so surprised Vlasov men were frog-marched to the above waiting lorries and later put on the train going into Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia. There were no suicides in Plattling camp but there were several successful suicides and various attempted suicides before the train reached the hand-over point. Even before the American guard escorts had left the area, the Red Army began hanging Vlasovite officers, senior NCOs and others from nearby trees..
 
Bethell identifies the Plattling convoy's hand-over point as Schonberg, north of Munich and says that on the above evening 1,590 Soviet deportees were brutally received by the Red Army.
 
On the 13th of May, when a second batch of Soviets were also forcibly repatriated from Plattling, there was one final suicide.
 
As Tolstoy describes them the Americans at that location were shocked, angry and ashamed that they had been party to these killings. Their shame was visible when they returned to the camp and even the SS men in one adjacent camp are said to have shouted at the Yanks for their actions.
 
After the operation, a number of American Other Ranks and officers both junior and senior made complaints about the forcible nature of the Plattling operation. In May 1946 a further 200-300 Soviet nationals were sent East from Plattling but that deportation was to be the last compulsory, USSR-bound, 'Yalta Convoy' repatriation exercise carried out by the US Army in Germany.
 
Alan Newark braveheart562002@yahoo.com

City website: http://www.meinestadt.de/pocking/rathaus

City offices:
Stadt Pocking
Simbacher Str. 16, 94060 Pocking
Tel. (08531) 709-0, Fax. (08531) 709-24

City archives: Stadtarchiv: Heimatpfleger Dr. Sebastian Kaiser
Rathaus, Simbacher Strasse 16
Tel: 709-41
Email: koeck_birgit@pocking.de

For some research I am doing, I am interested in posting an inquiry. Does anyone know records of a trial in the American zone of postwar Germany about a nursing who was charged with euthanasia at the DP camp at Pocking? Thanks, Susan

Pognitz

Poking (Pine City, aka Waldstadt)

Located in the Bamberg district, Poking Pine City was the second largest DP camp in Germany after Belsen. Opened in January 1946, the camp reached its maximum of 7,645 Jewish inhabitants on October 19, 1946. It had several Talmud Torahs with more than 200 pupils, as well as a Lubavitcher and a Klausenburger Yeshiva with a combined 500 pupils. Poking Pine City's cultural department featured theaters and sports clubs. The camp closed on February 16, 1949. http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/dp/camp24.htm

2/10/07
I have now discovered that my parents met in Polching (Polish Camp) and lived in Winzer, then we were transferred to Warner Kaserne in Munich until we left for America from Bremerhaven. In your site, there is not much said for the Kaserne but it says there will be - looking forward to it. It was a very large place and there were many, many people living there. Daria (Maslihan) Bonomini email: t bono@warwick.net

Prien

2/15/07 Mrs. Kaczmar,
In 1947, my father was registered here with the UNRRA under the name Konstanty Proniewicz by a Mrs. Proniewicz, who had taken him in as an orphan of unknown origin (probably Polish or Belarussian and Jewish) in 1942 and was no longer able to care for him. He was kept at the Children's Center here until being transferred to Aglasterhausen in 1947. Any information on this location would be greatly appreciated. Max Monclair, Omaha, NE
http://maxmonclair.blogspot.com

Purten (US zone)

Russian boy scout troops

---

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

---

Search this site powered by FreeFind

---

If this site was helpful to you, please consider making a donation to keep it going.