Displaced Persons Research Links, N-P

Netherlands:

    KampAmersfoort

    A Letter to Susan A Dutch forced laborer wrote to his daughter in 1983, 40 years after having been deported to Germany. "When someone asked a German if any people had been killed, he replied: no, mostly foreigners."

    Niederländische Zwangsarbeiter in Deutschland http://www.der-loeffel-meines-vaters.de/main/geschichte-1-1a.php#top


New Zealand:

3/11/11 Hi Olga:

Re your Displaced Persons website, surprised to find that there are no references for New Zealand. In particular the Polish orphans that that came to New Zealand in 1944 on an American ship, the General Randall. They originally went to a camp at Pahiatua. They were supported by the Prime Minister (Peter Fraser) and his wife, and the Catholic church, and stayed in NZ postwar despite pressure in 1947-48 from the then Warsaw regime. They were given the opportunity of returning to Poland when they came of age (21?), and I think a few did.*

Yours, John Wilson (NZ) hugo@actrix.co.nz

http://www.polishheritage.co.nz/english/pahiatua.html
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-PolFirs-t1-front1-d5.html
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/poles/2

*Olga's note: People returning to Poland after the war were extremely disappointed that Stalin had taken over Poland and tried to leave again.


Here is the main page for Archives NZ: http://archives.govt.nz/

National Office, Wellington
10 Mulgrave Street, Thorndon, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
PO Box 12-050, Wellington, New Zealand
Phone: (64-4) 499 5595
Fax: (64-4) 495 6210

General email:info@archives.govt.nz
Research email: reference@archives.govt.nz

To search for files go to Archway.
http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/

If you do a simple search on the main page for "Polish" some 323 file
references (plus others) come up, many referring to the WWII Polish refugee
orphans. But generally the files at Archway must be viewed at the
appropriate archives, generally Wellington. They are not online. And
archives staff will only do very basic research, at a cost. Also, individual
files about particular people are generally restricted for 100 years, eg
WWII aliens files or post-WWII naturalisation files. But the research has
already been done, see below.

Re the c700 (733?) Polish refugee children, 1944 who arrived on the General Randall, see the Archives reference guide on Migration, No 4: http://archives.govt.nz/research/guides/migration

They were from eastern Poland which was absorbed in the USSR. They were sent
to the Pahiatua Camp in the northern Wairarapa. Later c1950 there were boys
and girls hostels in Wellington. A few returned to Poland postwar when they
were adult. An online list of all of the arrivals prepared for the Reunion
book in 2004 (2004 book, in Polish 2006, revised 2008; ISBN 0-76-00739-9) is
included in a reference I sent:
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-PolFirs-t1-g1-g6-t6.html#n404

See also online particularly at NZ etexts from Victoria University:
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/PolFirs-fig-PolFirsXVIa.html
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-PolFirs-t1-g1-g6-t6.html#n404
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/PolFirs-fig-PolFirsXXXIVa.html
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/PolFirs-fig-PolFirsXXXVIId.html

Finally an interesting New Zealand/British poet and rebel, who publicised
the Katyn Massacre in England in 1944, Count Potocki de Montalk:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Geoffrey_Potocki_de_Montalk

An online 1966 National Film Unit documentary on the Polish orphans in New Zealand (page down list of films on left).
http://www.nzonscreen.com/collection/national-film-unit-collection

Yours, John Wilson


Norway:
    Dear friends, My mother Kostenko Olga Nikiforovna in 1943-1945s was transported by Germans to Norway in the city Hoenefoss. There was freed by an army of Great Britains', which was commanded by Thorne, Sir Augustus Francis Andrew Nicol (1885-1970) Knight General (http://www.hmc.gov.uk/NRA/searches/PIdocs.asp?P=28366). Please help I find information on army which it managed in Norway and places where kept archives of this army and that list USSR people which they sent to USSR armies. Best regards, Evgen Kostenko
      Advisor Member Parliament of Ukraine
      Europe, Ukraine, 01008, Kiev, Shovkovychna street, house 2, cabinet 304,
      telephones +38(044) 255-26-90, 255-24-51
      e-mail: kostenko.evgen@rada.gov.ua

    Norway's liberation

    The following listing is of a number of important contacts for information on WWII German soldiers, various units, matters of importance to familiy members or relatives, and details on MIAs and KIAs. It consists of the main organization, archives, groups, museums, governmental offices, etc, that should be contacted if you are searching for any of the above types of information. Included are archival contact addresses as well addresses for individual unit organizations and veterans groups. Addresses for Information and Research

    "In the post-war era 122,671 German citizens were arrested by the Soviet secret service in the Soviet occupation zone. 756 were sentenced and executed. The Soviet military courts sentenced thousands of persons to long-term detention in prisons or camps."


    German Red Cross English Search

      Foreign Office
      Referat 511
      D-11013 Berlin
      For further information please contact: info@drk-suchdienst.org / Germany

       

    Stalin's POW: The Fort Dix POW riot and Repatriation, the dark side...

    war archives in United Kingdom

    German POW camps list

    Zeithain Memorial Grove

    POW books

    About 100,000 Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian prisoners of war were kept by Nazi on the Norwegian soil during the war. Some 14,000 died here. more of the story and lots of POW links

    A complete list of Russians repatriated in 1945. Norway archives English page.
    Norwegian page

    How to trace relatives in Norway and Archives addresses

    Norwegian DP in US military records
    383.7 Norwegian Displaced Persons
    383.7 Refugees and Displaced Persons (4 folders)
    location: 290/55/11/03
    for location to these boxed files write to:

      Michelle Gross
      United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
      100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
      Washington DC, 20024-2150, USA
      Telephone: 1-202-314-0342
      Fax: 1-202-488-2696
      E-mail: mgross@ushmm.org

Norman Weaver - World War II photographer for UNNRA - photos on website: http://www.normanweaver.com/page4.htm


Ophans:

    Maxine Rude photographed orphan children of World War II.

    War orphans Data base:

      The war children data base - historical and current map references, Short information for the respective child and/or relieving mechanism, Sources and literature data for the addition and correction of the data base we are dependent on your assistance.

      Email address: voegel@welfen netz.com
      Search: http://www.krieggegenkinder.de/search.html
      Map: http://www.krieggegenkinder.de/zeig_karte.html

    Archives are inundated with children searching their fathers:

      " The shame of being made out to be a 'German whore' made many women keep the nationality of their sexual partners secret. Often the children were shut away in homes for the mentally retarded even though there was nothing wrong with them.

      " The latest figures compiled by the Wehrmacht Information Office for War Losses and POWs (WASt) show that about 50,000 children in Holland were born to German soldiers - five times as many as previous estimates suggested - while the number in France is believed to exceed 200,000.

      "Children born in the Netherlands and Norway were particularly welcomed by the Third Reich as they were of Aryan descent," said director of the WASt Peter Gerhardt.

      " He added that the true number of children produced by German soldiers could be much higher because the Wehrmacht, the official name of the German armed forces between 1935-45, stopped counting in 1944."
      From article by ALLAN HALL in Berlin. For more information, see: http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=739&id=908612004

Film: MENDEL

    Alexander Røsler, Norway, 1997; 35mm, 98 minutes, English subtitles
    In the 1950s, Norway began to receive a small quota of Jewish DPs. Among those who arrived was the director Alexander Røsler, who here captures those strange, almost exotic, times. Although Norwegians were well-known for their anti-Nazi stance, Jews still were strangers to them. Nine-year-old Mendel must learn to live in his new country, while trying to understand the secret, fearful past of his parents. It is a coming-of-age story told with great humor, warmth, and compassion.


Ostarbeiters / OST

    During the German occupation of Ukraine in World War II (1941-44) about 2.3 million Ukrainians were taken to Germany to work as slave laborers. These people were called Ostarbeiter (German for East Workers) and many of them perished in Germany because the German authorities ordered that "they should be worked to death." Others who were working in German factories were killed in Allied bombing raids. The Ukrainians had to wear a blue-and-white patch with the word OST on it, and the Poles yellow-and-white ones with a P. Search for Ostarbeiters

Passenger Ships Archive: http://www.gjenvick.com/SteamshipLines/HamburgAmericanLine/index.html#axzz4jQgcHStD

-------------
Penal Camps for Hitler Youth:
Dear Olga, I just found your fascinating and well done website. Thanks you for putting it together. I am looking for info about Hitler Youths who were detained and put into labor camps. That is young boys who rebelled. I read about it in Alfons Heck's book. Do you know where I can find more about that? Thanks Marga Dieter

Photo from: www.hermes-press.com/ police_state.htm

http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/r/rogow.sally/hitlers-unwanted-children

http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/pages/t030/t03025.html

http://www.wowessays.com/dbase/ad1/avw249.shtml

Book list
http://container.zkm.de/lfh/pdf/EFURTHR2.PDF

http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=hitlers+youth

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=hitler+youth&btnG=Google+Search

Photo on right from: fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/people/children.htm


Poles
    See Polish page

    Polish - German names / localities

      Poland & Russia invasion photos:
        Wehrmacht soldiers shot photos along the invasion route. Here are candid photos of murder of Poles and Russians, Expulsion of Millions, razing of the ground of whole towns and killing off the animals.
        http://www.bagnowka.com/index.php?m=ww

      Hello Olga,
      For further reference, I have thousands of Polish and German family names in my database, but more specific with Galicia area. I wouldn't be charging for look-up but would appreciate covering the cost of printing. Database is mine as well as what other have shared with me. If you could pass this infomation unto your site, great. Darwin Wagner / Saskatoon, Canada

Polish -Lithuanian Commonwealth

      http://www.rootsweb.com/~polwgw/p1634.html

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_division_of_Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth

http://www.royalartilleryunitsnetherlands1944-1945.com/1st-polish-airbrn-at.html

1st Polish Airborne (attached to to UK Royal Artillery) - Long list with service details of anti-tank crews from Arnhem. Submitted by Alan Newark braveheart562002@yahoo.comalan
  



Pomeria

    Personal story about escape and expulsion from Pomeria 1947-1949 www.klein-nossin.de/dateien/nossin.PDF

    Genealogical Hints for Prussia and in Pomerania

    "These uprooted masses wandered along the main roads; famished, sick and weary, often covered with vermin, seeking out some country in which to settle....."

    "On 27th July 1945 a boat arrived at the west port of Berlin which contained a tragic cargo of nearly 300 children, half dead from hunger, who had come from a 'home' at Finkenwalde in Pomerania. Children from two to fourteen-year old lay in the bottom of the boat motionless, their faces drawn with hunger, suffering from the itch and eaten up with vermin. Their bodies, feet and knees were swollen - a well-known symptom of starvation." Joint Relief Commission of the International Red Cross


What happened to the Prussians?

    "Of the nearly 2.4 million East Prussians, more than 1.9 million fed westward under the most harrowing conditions. They were soon joined by ethnic Germans from central Poland. According to Bonn government estimates, 277,000 East Prussians died or were killed, mainly when refugee ships were torpedoed in the Baltic Sea. Some 173,000 people remained, most of them in what is now the Polish part of East Prussia, where since 1989 they again identify themselves openly as Germans. Meanwhile, as the Soviet army advanced, flight and evacuation started from Eastern Pomerania, Eastern Brandenburg, Silesia, and Danzig (now Gdansk). " For more about deportation of the Prussians out of Poland: http://www.germanlife.com/Archives/1995/9506_01.html

http://maxpages.com/poland/Prussian_Research
South Prussia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Prussia
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/PRUSSIA-ROOTS/1999-01/0917766636
East Prussia 1945: http://seniorennet-hamburg.de/zeitzeugen/vergessen/english/techam1_eng.htm


The Prussian Archives
Herbert L. Osgood
Political Science Quarterly,  Vol. 8,  No. 3 (Sep., 1893), pp. 495-525
doi:10.2307/2139830

     This journal is licensed to JSTOR by
     The Academy of Political Science
    This article consists of 31 page(s).
    http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0032-3195(189309)8%3A3%3C495%3ATPA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O

    Decades have passed since World War II, yet the myth that most Germans were Nazi sympathizers persists. This book follows the story of the Weiss family in East Prussia from World War I to the end of World War II. Book: Ruined by the Reich, Memori of an East Prussian Family 1926-1945, By Christel Weiss Brandenburg with Daniel R.Laing, ISBN 0786416157.

    --------------

    http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi/Alrich%20Amy%20Alison.pdf?acc_num=osu1050669879

This dissertation thus highlights expellee resettlement policies as they related to the political orientation of the two Germanies and the integration experiences of the resettled Prussian populations.

The links page has grown; continue to page R-Z


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