Hello, My name is Danielle and I am in the process of retracing my French grand-father's years in captivity. I have with me his hand-written journal from 1944 (he was a POW from 1939 till 1945). He went to Germany after Dunkerque and told me he worked in an armament factory by the name of Weserhütte near Baden Baden. My guess is that he was in Stalag V A. He noted on the first page in his journal Kdo 44. Is there any way I can find a way to better understand the classification and encoding of Kommandos as well as more information regarding the company's archives from those days? the company still exists from what I can tell after a quick online research with Google. thank you in advance for your precious help, Danielle Beausoleil (Grand daughter of Jean Marcel Bernède, POW during WWII)
The suffixes of the Stalags were added according to the military districts in which they were located. V = Wehrkreis V, which also includes Baden-Baden. (see attachment) Stalag V A was located in Ludwigsburg between 10/39 and 04/41. Baden-Baden as place of deployment would rather suggest Stalag V C near Malschbach, but without further information I cannot make a more specific statement on this. . Kdo 44 will mean Kriegsgefangenen-Arbeitskommando/Prisoner of War Labor Command 44. It was usual to distribute prisoners of war to work commands after their registration in the Stalag. The ironworks Weserhütte with headquarter Bad Oeynhausen went into insolvency in 1987. However, I am not aware that any plants were located in Baden-Württemberg. Possibly a subcontractor that worked for Weserhütte. If you can give more precise information, I might be able to find out something more concrete. regards Olli
Thank you so much for your quick response! I have my grand-father's ID tag with the number 595; would this be his prisonner's matricule?
This is to be assumed, I still have saved somewhere how this was handled Otherwise: The more information I get, the more exactly I can try to find answers regards Olli
