Info on Stalag 4c

Whilst doing some family research I managed to find out that my grandfather, Harold Booton of the South Wales Border Regiment was held at stalag 4c. His POW number was 248929.

I am looking to find out some more about his regiment, and the camp itself. If anyone can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.

I do have a few stories that have been passed down from him, but he is no longer with us, having passed away in 1968.

He had very bad scars on his legs that he told his family he received from being caught by a guard dog whilst escaping. He also returned to the UK with a silver inscribed pocket watch that he said he obtained by swapping 2 eggs with one of the german guards.

He also came back with a book of poems and notes made by other men whilst they where pow's which I am hoping to get my hands on to scan on to my computer.

Anyone that can help I would be very grateful.

 

Stalag 4C was a camp at Sudentenland Treibstoff Werke, Wistritz bei Teplitz near Brüx (now called Most) in Czechoslovakia.
Prisoners worked in brown coal mines, and the fuel waa derived from the coal.
There was also an Oflag 4C.
Good luck in your searching.
Cheers, Fred.
PS. It would be really great to 'see' some of the extracts from his book one day, especially if you name individuals in a text so they will be searchable by others.
(At least I think that's how it works, I'm real new to this site.

 

Just a bit more.

The Base Camp of 4C was in an Old Pottery Factory in Town Centre; Position given is 50:39N - 13:49E.

There were British,French,Dutch,Belgians and Polish P.O.W. in the Camp.

 

He is not listed as POW in 1944 in Germany. Could be an omission or he could have still been in Italy.

In 1943 he is listed as PG 54.Italy

 

Stalag IVC Wistritz bei Teplitz

Hlavní tábor pro vězně válečného mužstva IVC Bystřice u Teplic

Stalag IV C je nainstalován v centru města Wistritz Teplitz-Schönau odst.), v porcelánce. Tam bylo 23,537 vězni v červnu 1943 RGT velvyslanec Scapini), ale "jen" 14.833 podle MVČK čtyři měsíce později (*).
Noviny obdržel název "Reflections".
V Německu 1939-1945, Stalag, zkratka Stammlager, byl termín pro typ tábora pro válečné zajatce. Stammlager znamená Mannschaftsstamm-und Straflager, "obyčejné vojenské tábory vězňů." Tento typ tábora byl pro vojáky a poddůstojníky, důstojníky se koná v oflags. (Zdroje: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag~~HEAD=NNS)

Váleční zajatci jsou připojeny do táborů rozloženo vojenské okresech Reich: Wehrkreis.
V Německu v době, kdy sériová čísla v rozmezí od I Wehrkreis Wehrkreis XIII. Wehrkreis XVII a XVIII jsou v Rakousku a Polsku XX a XXI.
Location: Wistritz, Czech Republic

District: Wehrkreis IV - Dresden

Opened: February 1941

Closed: 1945
---

Camps for Ground Forces

Stalag IV B (Muhlberg, Germany)
Stalag IV C (Wistritz, Germany)


Tábor byl otevřen v únoru 1941. [1] Hlavní tábor byl umístěn v bývalé porcelánky továrny. V roce 1943 méně než 250 mužů tam byli, se zbývající populace, někteří 23,000 mužů, spojené s různými Arbeitskommando práci v místním průmyslu a stavebnictví. Největší oddělení, z 8000 mužů, byl v Brux (nyní Most ) [2] pracuje na stavbě Sudentenlandische-Treibstoff-Werke ("Sudet paliva stavby"), v rámci státní průmyslové konglomerátu Reichswerke Hermann Göring . Tato zařízení byla navržena tak, aby zpracování ropy z uhlí , a jako součást kampaně na spojenecké útoku německé produkce ropy by byl bombardován několikrát v období mezi červencem 1944 a dubnem 1945. Ve druhém nájezdu na 21. července 1944 byl šest britských válečných zajatců zabit a 21 bylo zraněno. [3] tábor byl osvobozen ruskou armádou v květnu 1945. [4]

 

hello all......i'm trying to find out more about my grandad, he was a prisoer in IVC as well, Dvr Fred Winmill, captured in the desert and moved here after the Italians Capitulated.....how do i go about finding more info?

 

hi,, my grandfather was also in the South Wales Borderers and was also at IVC, and from what an uncle has said was also possibly at a POW camp in Italy

Dillwyn Pritchard
DOB 21.11.1920 in Neath,
Died Sept 1991
Military Record
Rank. Private
Regiment. The South Wales Borderers
Army no. 3915052
Camp no. 4C
Prisoner or War no 252054
Camp type. Stalag
Camp location. Wistritz bei Teplitz

any info anyone may be able to offer would be appreciated

 

just found the 1943 POW record for my grandfather in Italy
he was at PG70 Monturano

 

Falcon,

Just for information:
UK, British Prisoners of War, 1939-1945 about H J Booton
Name: H J Booton
Rank: Private
Army Number: 4073031
Regiment: South Wales Borderers
POW Number: 248929
Camp Type: Stalag
Camp Number: IV-C
Camp Location: Bystrice, Czech Republic
Record Office: Infantry Record Office, Exeter
Record Office Number: 22

 

Wolflyn,

For information:
UK, British Prisoners of War, 1939-1945 about D Pritchard
Name: D Pritchard
Rank: Private
Army Number: 3915052
Regiment: South Wales Borderers
POW Number: 252054
Camp Type: Stalag
Camp Number: IV-C
Camp Location: Bystrice, Czech Republic
Record Office: Infantry Record Office, Exeter
Record Office Number: 22

TD

 

hello my cousin ,

 

Hi - it is here https://goo.gl/maps/gpPj9HvnS2F2 - it is the premises of the former porcelain factory. There is a picture and a short article on page 9 of this http://www.mesto-dubi.cz/file/548.pdf - here is a translation I did:
From February 1941 until the liberation by the Red Army on May 8, 1945, about 23,000 prisoners of war passed through the camp; (30% French, 20% British, Serbian, Belgian, Dutch and Italian, and 50% Soviets). After the suppression of the Slovak National Uprising, Slovak partisans were also placed there.

The vast majority worked outside the town, in ‘Arbeitskomanden’ in the surrounding coal mines, etc., after which largest number were sent to work in the chemical works in Litvínov, at the time a plant for converting brown coal into much-needed fuel, synthetic gasoline and other products (German name Sudetenländische Treibstoffwerke AG (STW AG).

The camp began to be established in February 1940, when the first 20 prisoners (Frenchmen) were brought here to convert the former "Krautzberger, Mayer und Purkert G.B.B.H.Wistritz (K.M.P., KAEMPE)" porcelain factory, nowadays the former Řempo premises, into a prison camp.

On average about 1,200 prisoners were placed there, and there was also a hospital collection point for prisoners. At the end of 1941, the camp commandants leased the “Schweizermühle” inn from the village of Novosedlice [then known as Weißkirchlitz], where a hospital for prisoners of war was set up. The camp guard was provided by the LS-Batalion 369.

Prisoners carried out war production here in the machine shop (the former "ventilator shop", later Stavební stroje, which today is a parking lot by the PENNY shop), and also repairs to the bed of the Horská Bystřice stream and, it is said, also to the “spa” walkways.

 

Hey everyone

I hope I can give you some general informations (including some pics) and maybe it will answer you some questions and give you some more impressions of Stalag IV C. First of all I started my research of my family ancestry two years ago. My family (forefathers of my dads granddad) lived for more than 80 years (around 1860 until 1945) in Wistritz (german). In this time Wistritz was an independent village. Today Wistritz - called in czech Bystrice - is part of the village of Dubi (German = Eichwald). My family owned a house DIRECTLY on the opposite of the soldier prisoner camp Stalag IV C until the end of the war 1945. In this house my grandfather (fathers site) and his father (my grandgrandfather) were born in this house.

They area around Wistritz is called Erzgebirge. It was famous for therapeutic bath (recreation area), ore mines and porcelaine manifactures. Wistritz was a "mixed" area (because of history) between germans (majority) and czechs (minority). Also my family was it. My grandgrandfather was german. My grandgrandmother was czech. Because of the people with there different cultures and also because of wartime things were really complicated and confusing that time.

About Stalag IV C: Beforehand I am sorry to say that I do not know or have any informations in detail about prisoners or personal stories of them. My grandfather (born 1925) for sure grows up next to the camp. He was 18 when he had to go to war in 1943. He died in 2005 but he never told my grandmother or his kids (my father and his siblings) any stories about it.

But on my research I found some pictures of the old main street of Wistritz including the main building of the Stalag IV C camp between 1890 and 1920.

Photo 1 - The main street of Wistritz (called during war Hermann Göring Straße, today Tovární street) ... on the left the house of my family, on the right the main building of Stalag IV C (area marked with blue arrows)

Photo 2 - The main street winter 2019

Photo 3 - The main street with the whole camp Stalag IV C 2019

Photo 4 - The camp Stalag IV C 2019

Photo 5 - The house of my family around 1910 and 1915 (2 photos)

Photo 6 - The house nowadays

Nowadays on the area of the Stalag IV C there are many different small companies located using the buildings as depots. Here is also the wikipedia link for the camp Stalag IV-C - Wikipedia

By the way ... the area around the Erzgebirge (Dubi, Graupen, Bohosudov, Chlumec) is worth to visit!

Feel free to write me if you have any questions or any feedback.

Greetings Michael

 

Here is a link to the state archiv of Czech Republic and the region of Litomericich ... if you search there for wistritz you will find all information about the people who lived in Wistritz in digital documents

Beforehand it is hard to read ... most of it is in german but in an old german style of handwriting

Archivní vademecum SOA v Litoměřicích

By the way ... I also visited 6 different graveyards in Dubi (also on the mountain) Graupen Bohosudov and Novosedlice (most people from Wistritz were buried there) to find any information about my family. It was really difficult to find something because the graves their are totally confused and disordered. F.e. most of the time I found old german graves (most of the time the names were no longer recognizable, but the pictures of the people on the grave stones sometimes quite good) before 1945. Today on one old german graves you will find four or six new graves. But the old grave stone is still there. Really curious but also kind of fascinating and like a little adventure:

One thing I DID NOT find were graves of foreign names (russian, english, french, dutch) So I do not think that prisoners who died during their time in the Stalag IV C were buried on the "official" cemetery.

 

Hi

hi

 

Hello I just found out after a bit of research my father private William wortley 5112903 Warwick regiment was listed as missing then only to find he was captured and ended up in a prison camp stalag 4c Wistritz Bei Teplitz Resided Country Czechoslovakia prison number 14170 he had a small photo in his wallet when he passed away that Story has it he bought off a German officer for cigarettes it’s the burial of 6 British soldiers and many others from French Dutch prisoners killed in German air raids at Brux its a long shot but who knows who is in the pic I can now see my dad quite clearly would you like a copy please contact me my phone is 07947649145

 

Ps he also escaped

 

Have you heard of Chouse Cemetery anywhere near this prison camp??

 

Hi have you heard of Chouse cemetery??

 

Hi,
could this be the place you are looking for?

Google Maps