International Committee of the Red Cross WW2 POW Archives

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by brispencer, Mar 26, 2009.

  1. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Hi Lee, yes I got you to have a look via your website which I came across before landing here - you didn't turn up anything. Not unusual I believe as most men were just desperate to get home and couldn't be bothered with filling in the forms - my great granddad had been behind the wire since June 1940 so I can hardly blame him! I had hoped that the Germans with their stereotypical Teutonic efficiency would have a file on him somewhere but as I said the National Archives said different. I am led to believe that the number of file cards is pretty large though and given the chaos at the end of the war it isn't difficult to imagine some cards being lost or filed in the wrong place but short of going through each box of cards there's no way to know for sure is there?

    At least if and when the ICRC do release the files they are likely to make them freely available rather than flogging them to the highest bidder - based on how they handled the WW1 records they have.
     
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  2. Alanst500

    Alanst500 Senior Member

    Do you have John Conway's service number and Regiment
     
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  3. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    I do indeed.

    Lance Corporal John Conway, 7th Battalion Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders
    Service number: 2980896
    POW number: 265.
    Captured: Franleu, 6th June, 1940
     
  4. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

    Hi,

    Members may recall that Red Cross suspended WW2 POW e mail enquiries in 2013 pending digitisation of their WW2 records to create a free searchable internet database - same as WW1 POW project that went live in 2014.

    PLEASE LOOK TO BELOW LINK TO ICRC PRESS RELEASE DATED TODAY 3RD JANUARY 2017.

    It would appear that the digitisation project has recently been suspended and ICRC will now accept e mail enquiries presumably as per pre 2012 system.

    Steve Y

    Requests for information about people held during the Spanish Civil War or the Second World War
     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2017
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  5. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the update. Time to fill in a form!
     
  6. amberdog45

    amberdog45 Senior Member

    The article and website don't seem to address the status of the digitisation project. Has it been completely abandoned? Additional WW1 details were meant to be added at the same time.
     
  7. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

    Hi,

    You may be aware that ICRC initially suspended WW2 enquiries about 4 years ago to digitise their papers - same as done in 2010 for WW1 papers that were digitised and released to internet in August 2014.

    Initial ICRC site message said project would be completed in 2016 but when I checked for an update summer 2016 the message had changed to mention nothing of project completion date.

    It simply said (paraphrasing here) no further WW2 enquiries would be accepted due to lack of resources for historic research due to ongoing conflicts etc.

    My interpretation of yesterday's press release is that the digitisation project is now off the agenda and they have simply reverted to the system previously in force until 2012.

    If you want full clarity why don't you email ICRC - and please post their reply on the forum for the benefit of other members

    Regards

    Steve Y
     
  8. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Hello Welsh 1860

    PG 52 - Coreglia Ligure is inland from Chiavari in Liguria. It is erroneously referred to as Chiavari in document WO 392/21 /National Archives London. There's quite a bit about PG 52 on this site.
    PG 66 - Capua north of Naples.

    Interesting that he was sent first up north to Liguria and then back down south to Capua - especially as Capua was used as a transit camp, from which men were distributed to other camps.

    I've looked back through this thread but can't find his name anywhere. I'm interested that he arrived in Stalag 8B as early as September 1943, the month of the Italian Armistice. There's just a chance that he was one of the 2,000 or so who left Italy in July 1943 from three camps - PG 52, PG 53 and PG 73. They were sent first to Muhlberg (Stalag IVB) and then on to Lamsdorf. If you give me his name I will check this out for you,.

    Regards

    Vitellino
     
  9. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member


    Hi Vittelino,

    FYI Welsh 1860 hasn't signed into the forum since mid January 2014.

    Regards

    Steve Y
     
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  10. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

    Hi,

    FYI

    I've submitted a Red Cross POW enquiry today using the Jan 3rd 2017 link.

    There is a PDF application form that you complete and save before attaching it to an email. The form asks for your postal address so I expect to receive the papers by mail as per the previous system.

    Like the previous system you don't get any sort of automatic receipt from ICRC to give you a clue they've received the application.

    Hopefully it will take less than a year to get a response!

    Regards

    Steve Y
     
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  11. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member


    I fired one off the same day the link was posted. I was not aware that there wouldn't be an email confirmation of receipt (honestly, how hard would it be to set up an automated response?!) I will also post something here as soon as anything shows up - could be a long wait but hopefully worth it.
     
  12. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

  13. GeoffMNZ

    GeoffMNZ Well-Known Member

    Steve,
    Thanks for the update. I have emailed my request for my Father's information and will let the forum know the outcome.

    Cheers
    Geoff
     
  14. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Just a quick update. I filled in a request form on January 4th and got a letter back today! The letter contained an attestation document which listed his personal details along with a list of camps he was held and the dates he was there. They also included photocopies of three "capture cards" which he filled in on 2/7/40, 3/7/40 and 18/7/40 which I assume were sent to the ICRC to confirm he was alive and where he was being held.

    Anyone else had a reply back yet?
     
  15. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

    Wow! Thanks for the update.That's amazingly quick. I've heard nothing yet.

    I received similar records when I applied for my fathers papers in 2011.....but that took 54 weeks.

    Steve Y
     
  16. chick42-46

    chick42-46 Senior Member

    Excellent and timely news that the ICRC are now open for requests again. Have sent one for my great uncle, Thomas Young - Corporal T Young 15824 POW Stalag XXA - and will post when I have a response.
     
  17. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Yeah, I had resigned myself to not hearing anything from them until next year!
    The records confirmed most of the educated guesses I had made but also punctured a few theories I had. There were a lot of photos in my great granddad's logbook of Stalag XXA at Throrun in Poland but the ICRC records have no record of him being there. Ditto photos from Spangenberg and Lamsdorf. Ironically he was in Stalag Luft III for the best part of a year but I only have one photo I can positively identify from there.
     
    Last edited: Jan 23, 2017
  18. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

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  19. GeoffMNZ

    GeoffMNZ Well-Known Member

    Hi,
    Good News!
    Received ICRC reply in post today-That's 16 days from online lodgement! including 6 days in the post to an offshore island in New Zealand!
    No real new info except confirming the dates in Dad's Military History Sheet (MHS) & Red Cross Records are both at variance with evidence in his letters. ICRC record does confirm that Dad was NOT at PG59 Servigliano, as his MHS says. Yet to analyse that fully.
    However the info does raise a question as it refers to his name on 3 lists issued by the Italian authorities - I wonder if ICRC would be willing to publish the actual lists so I can see who else was at the same location ie all POW at PG52 on 24.04.1942??
    Cheers
    Geoff
     
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  20. GeoffMNZ

    GeoffMNZ Well-Known Member

    Also there was the absence of any mention of PG202 Lucca POW Hospital where he was for 10 months before being repatriated. The repatriation is on the ICRC record. You win some & lose some.
    Cheers
    Geoff
     

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