POW camp 38 Ruthin North Wales

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by Lindele, Nov 14, 2013.

  1. Lindele

    Lindele formerly HA96

    This POW camp, also called Pool Park Camp Ruthin Denbigshire North Wales was supposed to be pretty small and held only few prisoners up until 1947. Is there still something there to be seen? Any knowledge as to where the prisoners were from? Any records with names and nationalities available?

    Stefan.
     
  2. Capt.Sensible

    Capt.Sensible Well-Known Member

    Hello Stefan,

    I think this might be the place you are looking for:

    http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/404009/details/POOL+PARK+PRISONER+OF+WAR+CAMP%2C+EFENECHTYD%2C+RUTHIN/

    'World War 2 camp for Italian prisoners of war, consisting of several huts to the west of the B5105 road and a sewage works on the opposite side, set within the grounds of Pool Park (nprn 27812). Several buildings and the sewage works are shown on the OS 6in map of 1953 but these have been cleared by the time of the survey for the 1975 edition. The barracks for personnel serving at the camp was built in Park Road, Ruthin (nprn 403998).
    B.A.Malaws, RCAHMW, 31 January 2006.'

    CS
     
  3. Capt.Sensible

    Capt.Sensible Well-Known Member

  4. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  5. Lindele

    Lindele formerly HA96

    Hi CS and Owen,

    thanks a lot for the information. I have a claim that there were also prisoners from Germany. May be this changed during the war and starting of with Italiens, but in 1944/1945 the Italiens were send home or put in other places and other nationalities arrived.

    Stefan.
     
  6. Tonia Whewell

    Tonia Whewell New Member

    My boss's father was based at the camp after the war. He was from Frankfurt and had been in the SS during the war. He drove a farm vehicle and worked on the land.
     
    Lindele likes this.
  7. BayHorse

    BayHorse New Member

    My father was a guard at Pool Parc (camp no. 38), Ruthin from 1946. He was sent back from serving in Burma on compassionate grounds.

    My mum remembers the PoWs working on the land - yellow circle on their uniforms.
     
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  8. Osborne2

    Osborne2 Well-Known Member

    All remaining Italians gone by about April 1946.Then, in their camps, the Germans tended to take them over, starting generally in the outstationed hostels attached to the main camp. All Germans gone by about July 1948.
     
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  9. Lindele

    Lindele formerly HA96


    Thank you all for the inputs.
    Stefan.
     
  10. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    By 1946 any Italians in camps had long been relocated to hostels or farm accommodation and then with the final peace settlement with Italy began to be repatriated. In many camps they began to be occupied by German POWs from about Autumn 1944 but by 1945/6 many were converted into hostels without barbed wire and guards
     
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  11. Osborne2

    Osborne2 Well-Known Member

    Just an extra comment. I do agree by 1946 that very many were in hostels, perhaps the majority, followed by billets, but some main camps did remain occupied by Italians until repatriation. Also, main camps remained in existence, even if lowly populated, as the administrative staff still stayed generally in one place, and the main camp would often have better facilities.
    The billeting picture was patchy and depended on a several factors. Many farms in rural areas, especially in Wales and other hill areas, were very small and could not sustain a worker for the whole time, but did need contract labour at times. Others were arable farms and did not need so much labour when the cereal crops were just growing.
    There were farms that really needed all year round labour such as mixed farms with dairies who wanted billetees on the premises for early milking, long before the hostel or camp transport would arrive in the morning.
    There were other factors too. Some farmers might have room for a billetee but did not have spare bedrooms, or did not want the thought of a young man on the premises fraternising.
    While most Italians were involved in agriculture, and that was the primary purpose for bringing them over, it became rapidly not the only one. Manpower shortages in the British workforce, saw a great deal of lobbying by various industries. The Ministries of Labour and Transport for instance put bids in for Italian labour from 1942 onwards. Eventually Italians worked in railway rolling stock repair yards, rail truck salvage rail coal and freight yards, fertiliser factories, brick, tile and cement plants. These are from memory, there were others. 2,000 helped build the barrages to block channels into Scapa Flow. All these industrial occupations precluded billeting.
    Also, while I can't recall the names of the particular hostels, certainly some were so large that they became main camps for Germans.
     
  12. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    The main camp in the area I am investigating had virtually cleared by the end of 1945 with just a few Italians remaining - these actually travelled around the area unescorted administering the dispersed POWs in the hostels and on farms etc For example paying allowances. The satellite camps were all occupied by German POWs. POWs would return to the main camp sometimes for reassignment to other work and it was used as a concentration point for repatriation. Reading various official memos, local diaries etc and talking to those few who could remember them it is clear that farmers had somewhat fallen out of wanting to use Italians and preferred Germans even if they got charged more for them. As the son of one farmer said to me "Tell a German to do something and it got done, tell an Italian and you got an argument". The problem appears to have started when Italians were not repatriated after the 1943 armistice.
     
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