Hi everyone Would really appreciate your thoughts on this please. This photo is one of several from my Gramp's war time. Most of the photos are him and his mates, but this one sticks out as a bit of a mystery. On the back of the photo someone has written "Stalag 7?" but its not his writing and there is no mention of this in the war diaries. Not sure where this came from as we can't remember him mentioning prisoner of war camps at all. A bit of background - He was with railway companies in the Engineers, mainly fixing tracks and bridges. He was at Essen, Germany at the end of 1945 and early 1946 and he talked of clearing bodies at camps during this time. Not surprisingly he didn't talk much of this; enough to know it was horrific and obviously changed him forever. A family friend had thought he was at Belsen, but we are pretty much convinced that he was at the Krupps slave labour camps at Essen. An obvious question is could it be one of the Essen camps? - but in the absence of major landmarks I accept that's going to be a bit tricky Am I right thinking the man outside is wearing German uniform? Would any of these camps (either POW or slave labour) have been under German guard after the war? Grateful for any comments Thanks
The Guard is German. He could have found the picture or taken it off a German PoW. Looking at the buildings, it has a look of Eastern Front about it -I'm no expert though on this area.
I agree Drew - the whole logs rather than split or planking give it an Eastern Front appearance. Could easily have been taken from a German POW.
The roof angle and the rows of long wooden shingles add to the Eastern Front idea. It's certainly not a POW pen tho'....not with so low a wall, no wire....and the banked earth right up to the top of the wall on one side! A quick leg-up and POWs would be all voer the landscape! Right over on the left there's the end of a much higher and longer roof - with several chimneys along its length; the all-over idea I get from it is some sort of depot or even a major railhead - noting the two sets of rails. Interestingly - the beaten earth or fine gravel that's "ballast" beneath the rails is suspiciously clean - no coal dust, no oil stains, and no weeds Those two sets of rails have been very recently laid - during the re-gauging of railways in the East, possibly?
SS? Not very good at uniforms but does he not have a wehrmacht eagle on his arm? did the SS have them i don't know?
Another blow up, not sure if it shows anything that wasn't revealed in the last one. Uploaded with ImageShack.us
I know it's one of mine but how about this for a great example? http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/searching-someone-military-genealogy/29597-1943-diary-detective-work-needed.html
Did anyone other than Waffen SS wear an eagle on the left arm? The collar tabs look to be black or very dark as well.
Not very good at uniforms but does he not have a wehrmacht eagle on his arm? did the SS have them i don't know? Wehrmacht had the eagle on the chest (right side), SS wore it on the sleeve. @Mike: What collar ID would you be looking for? Runes or death's head would be on the right side and thus invisible here. He's definitely low rank (maybe Sturmmann or Rottenführer).
Eagle on the left arm? Definitely SS, not necessarily Waffen-SS. Could be one of the several SS organisations, possibly SS-Totenkopfverbände. The absence of insignia denotes a SS-Mann, = Private, as in the pic below.
Eagle on the left arm? Definitely SS, not necessarily Waffen-SS. Could be one of the several SS organisations, possibly SS-Totenkopfverbände. The absence of insignia denotes a SS-Mann, = Private, as in the pic below. View attachment 65608 As Heimbrent mentioned, more likely Sturmmann judging by the narrow stripes at the bottom of the collar rank tab. I think too narrow for Rottenführer though.
Stripes? Yes, I had missed those, I agree with you. I wonder who might want to be promoted to Rotten Führer rank?
