For those who did not return.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Well me and my wife were hiking with some friends here in the area. We hiked about 10km and up to the top of this large hill called the Petersberg. On the top of the hill there is a small and simple cross that was erected in 1956 in dedication to the German soldiers who were sent to captivity in Russia and never came home with the rest of the of the POWs in 1955 and 1956.

They shall never be forgotten...

This however is not just about German POWs who did not return, but to any POWs who have not returned from any country and any conflict.

They shall not be forgotten...

 

[rochie]

 

[evangilder]

 

[Haztoys]

Its sad that the worlds governments never said a word about the German POW...

With the Russians opening up... Is there more info on there fate...Its one of those peaces of history that is pushed under the rug...

 

[wilbur1]

 

[Arsenal VG-33]

It really sucks they were held over for 10 years after the war ended. It must have been earie to see those POWs come home after so long still wearing their old Wermacht uniforms, if they still had them.

I've always been curious to know if there are any Allied POW burials on/near any of the former POW camps? Are those cemeteries still there or have the remains been moved to larger war cemeteries?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

It really sucks they were held over for 10 years after the war ended. It must have been earie to see those POWs come home after so long still wearing their old Wermacht uniforms, if they still had them.

My grandfather was one. He was a major in the Wehrmacht and sent to a Soviet POW camp after being captured in Stalingrad. He was fortunate though and came home in 1948.

 

[Gnomey]

 

[Thorlifter]

Thanks for posting the pics Adler.

 

[ccheese]

Thanks, Adler.....

Charles

 

[magnocain]

 

[Wayne Little]

Thanks Adler!!

 

[seesul]

My grandfather was one. He was a major in the Wehrmacht and sent to a Soviet POW camp after being captured in Stalingrad. He was fortunate though and came home in 1948.

...from your dad´s or mom´s side?

 

[Haztoys]

...from your dad´s or mom´s side?

Anymore info on him ..I'm sure we would all like too know more about this brave man...

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Good one Chris...

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

...from your dad´s or mom´s side?

From my mothers side.

My grandfather from my fathers side was in the US Army and was an engineer who landed in Normandy. He survived the war without a scratch.

Anymore info on him ..I'm sure we would all like too know more about this brave man...

I do not have a whole lot info.

He was a civilian doctor who ran his own clinic where he was researching for a cure for tuberculosis. The clinic is still standing but is not renovated and a private school.

At the start of the war he was "conscripted" into the Wehrmacht as a military doctor.

He missed out on the Poland campaign but was serving during the French campaign. My mother has pictures of him, in his uniform standing in front of the Eifel Tower and Arc de Triumph.

Later he was transferred to the eastern front and was wounded in Stalingrad by grenade shrapnel to his face and was captured.

He spent the rest of the war in a POW camp as a POW Camp doctor. At the time of his capture he was a Major.

 

[Bernhart]

I know in Kitchener Ont there are about 180 German POW's buried, they were ones who died in prison camps from all over Ontario, (maybe rest of Canada)

If I can find them i have some pics i took a few years back.
found this article in local news


Remembering Former Foes
[The Record - Nov. 15th, 2004]Kitchener, Ontario
By Karen Kawawada - Record Staff
They're stacked two to a grave. The simple headstones are inscribed with nothing but the names, ranks, dates of birth and death. Some have a blank space instead of a birth-date.

These are the final resting places of German prisoners of war who died in Canada during or shortly after the First and Second World Wars.

Some were as young as 19, others as old as 62.

There are 187 of them buried in Kitchener's Woodland Cemetery, and yesterday, they were remembered.

These are men who died far from their families, in a country that viewed them as enemies.

In a cemetery full of elaborate bouquets and granite monuments, the regularity of stone, lawn and shadow in their corner is interrupted only three times by flowers.

But yesterday, was Volkstrauertag. People's Mourning Day in Germany, and the almost forgotten soldiers were remembered as a group, along with all the dead from all wars, in the memorial service held by local German groups and the Germans Consulate in Toronto.

Hundreds of people, many speaking German among themselves, turned out on a sunny but chilly afternoon to stand in front of the single cross that represents the German prisoners.

Originally, scattered across the country, the POWs' remains were brought to Kitchener in 1970 so they would have people to care for their graves, said Deputy Consul General Ulrich Schmidt.

The Transylvania brass band played. The Concordia male and mixed choirs sang.

Even those who didn't understand the language could hear the grief in songs such as Ich hatt' einen Kameraded (I had a comrade).

But the music also carried with it a note of hope.

"War cemeteries are places to mourn and remember" Schmidt said. "At the same time they are memorials against war and for reconciliation and peace."

"I'm therefore grateful to see representatives of the armed forces, as well as Veterans of our two countries, present here today to symbolize that after a terrible past, Canadians and Germans are now allies and friends for over 50 years."

The POWs were shipped to Canada between 1940 and 1944.

They were sent by a Great Britain fearing a German invasion. By 1944, nearly 34,000 military prisoners were living in camps in Canada?.. in Medicine Hat, Alta., Gravenhurst, Ontario and other places, often remote and northern.

Some worked in lumber camps, others did agricultural work, and they were mostly treated in a civilized way, said Elora amateur historian Gottfried Geibel, whose father spent five years in the German army.

Butin camps were loyal Nazis mixed with reluctant conscripts, tensions arose.

Though most of the 187 buried in Kitchener died of disease or injury, a few met violent deaths.

In 1944, Dr. Karl Lehmann was found dead in a Medicine Hat POW camp.

The former language professor and outspoken anti-Nazi had been beaten to death and hanged by fellow prisoners, Geibel said.

Seven men were tried, and four were subsequently hanged in 1946. It was the largest mass hanging in Canada since the Riel rebellion.

Willi Mueller, Heinrich Busch, Bruno Perzonowsky and Walter Wolf now rest just a few rows from Lehmann, their graves indistinguishable from his except for the names and dates.

The men buried in Woodland weren't all angels.

But man, certainly, they were just young men sent out by their country to do their patriotic duty.

 

[tango35]

Its very simple that the worlds governments didnt say nothing about the fate of german POW in Russia, former Yugoslavia and France - the answer is : Vae victis !
And after the second world war and the starting of the cold war with the block building no one had an interest to bring Russia for an international court yard for their war crimes.

btw my father was brought as an 16 year old boy to the hungercamps on the Rhinewiesen after he was capture by american troops in thuringia

 

[RabidAlien]

Thanks for posting that, Adler!

 

[syscom3]

Considering the vast damage that was done to Russia by the Germans, it was only natural the POW's would have been used to help clean up the mess they helped to make.