"My relative mentioned he was in Schweidnitz POW camp during WWI………."

 

You might have landed on this blog page because you know your relative was at Schweidnitz POW camp at some stage in World War I and you’ve done a google search. One of our team, Ruve, has been a gem at collating names of prisoners who were interned at Schweidnitz POW camp at sometime while they were prisoners of war. There are hundreds.

We started with the 24 names and one thing led to another. Stories were explored, people were found. The spreadsheet is impressive and still a work in progress (Sorry the only way to access it is by requesting it by email using the contact form at the bottom of this page.)

This shows the movements of one prisoner through camps- he was multiple escapee Jocelyn Hardy

 She has collected names from every reference we have come across

•          International Red Cross records,
•          The National Archive accounts of POWs
•          Articles
•          The Liddle collection
•         Websites/ forums
•          books
•          memoirs
•          photo collections

 As you can imagine prisoners of war came from all theatres of war in Europe and were transported to POW camps all over Germany for many reasons. They were moved on as the war progressed. The Germans often needed more places to accommodate the prisoners as number rapidly increased.

There were many reasons they may have been moved on from camp to camp. This of course could’ve been because they were first housed at a processing camp such as Karlsruhe or a new camp was built such as Schweidnitz. The size and capacity of the camp and the ability to adequately feed and house prisoners was of utmost importance. Escape attempts often meant prisoners were moved on.

 Sometimes prisoners were multiple escapees and the distance from border was a way to limit the ability to escape for serial offenders.  Schweidnitz which was a new camp from early December 1917 could house up to 600 officers at any one time. It took its last batch of prisoners in October 1918.

Our own 24 came from different camps at different times. Some would have met in camp after their capture, others would have travelled in trains or on foot together, building friendships, swapping stories, hatching escapes.

Prisoners came and went often via other German camps. We have found prisoners transferring to Schweidnitz from:

•         Holzminden
•        New Brandenburg
•         Landshut
•         Dobein and Freiburgh
•         Eutin
•        Sennelager
•        Munster II
•        Brandenburg
•        Castrian and Zorndorf
•       Trier
•        Closthal
•        Kauenburg
•        Rastatt
•        Karlsruhe
•        Stendel
•        Grandenz
•        Heidelberg

Ruve’s list also captures other known escapees from Schweidnitz. Men usually desperate to get out and recommence their war effort- some successful and others not.

 

So how do you trace the movements of men from Capture to repatriation?

The Red Cross records have been digitised and housed at the following site.  https://grandeguerre.icrc.org/ They are online and free and among their 5 million records includes British and Commonwealth military personnel and civilians who were captured during the War.  The Germans provided lists of those captured to the International Red Cross  to facilitate communication, food parcels and letters home. There are 13 country groups including British and Commonwealth. An index card should exist for each prisoner of war.  

 

To search for POWs and build your relatives story.

1.Search for the person in the archives. Choose the nationality e.g. British and Commonwealth forces which includes Australia and New Zealand and Military or Civilian. Click on the validate button.

Start your search with a name, Country and choose Military or Civilian

Click Validate

2.      Click on surname in the left hand box or look down for the Army unit or suitable defense category. Scroll through the list until you find your man.

 

Index card for Fryar- note incorreect spelling

3.       When you do hover your mouse at the bottom of the relevant record.

This will bring up all the index cards and PA numbers

4.       Small index cards will come up. This reveals PA numbers. They also contain comments written at the time by Red Cross volunteers about prisoner contact addresses, DOB, capture date and place etc. Add in a PA reference number and search.

5.       There will also be one or more number  E.g. PA1454 type this into the right hand box and the transfer papers and fellow transferees  will be shown on German lists. Camp details and the transfer papers to the particular POW camp will show up this give you enough information to follow transfer through the various camps, the date of capture, date of birth are always included and the unit.  

Fryar is transferred to Schweidnitz with Jocelyn Hardy

6.       You may need to do this with several PA or R numbers displayed under the original record.  

 

Confidential Repatriation list for Fryar using the R number in the record above

Searching using the various PA numbers is a great way to trace your family member’s story through the prisoner of war camps. Occasionally you need to be a little creative or lenient with the spelling or variance of your relative’s name to find the correct record. As you can see from the screen shots above Fryar has been misspelled.  Sometimes there are multiple records also so explore all.

Happy exploring……. Let us know what you find.