DP Camps in Germany - E

Emden City archives: Emden Stadarchiv
Kirchstrasse 18, 26721 Emden
http://www.emden.de
Dr. Rolf Uphoff, Archivar
Fokke Müller, Archivar
Monika Meinke, Archivangestellte
Karl-Hermann Fokken, Archivangestellter

I was in Hameln, Bockhorn. Sande, Emden DP camps. Do you have any info? John S Pruchnik [email protected]

Emden had the most bunkers in the war now there is a bunker museum in Emden this shows Jan Zajac, Bogdan Macniak and me (Jan Pruchnik) climbing on a side of one in 1947.

Emmendingen

Emsland http://www.diz-papenburg.de (English website), 40,000 Polish
Book: Displaced Persons im Emsland 1945-50
Ein Auszug aus dem Buch "Befreit aber nicht in Freiheit".
Edition Temmen. ISBN: 3-86108-321-3
Submitted by Alan Newark [email protected]

Around 40,000 mainly Polish DPs were living in the Emsland region in August 1945. The Emsland, situated in the north-western part of Germany at the Dutch-German border, was liberated by British, Canadian and Polish units of the 2nd Canadian Army and the 30th British Corps. About 1,700 women soldiers who had been captured at the Warsaw insurrection and taken prisoners of war at Oberlangen camp were liberated.

On May 19th 1945, the 2nd Canadian Army decided to set up a Polish colony in the Emsland. The new national enclave was to be controlled by the Polish Armoured Division. General Montgomery, the British Commanderin-Chief, gave his permission to continue with the project of evacuating the German population in order to create a Polish enclave in June. Within the context of this operation the British military government brought Polish DPs from other camps in the British zone to the Emsland region, amongst them, more than 1,000 Polish Jews from the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen.

The plan to set up a Polish enclave was cancelled in mid-June 1945. By then, seven German villages had already been evacuated, so that the thousands of Polish DPs were able to settle in the Emsland. This development plus the fact that the 1st Polish Armoured Division had taken up occupation duties in May 1945 exerted a magnetic appeal to thousands of Polish DPs and former prisoners of war from the outside. At the end of 1945, the proportion of foreigners accommodated in former concentration camps, POW camps and in requisitioned houses in the Emsland region was between 10 (Lingen district) and 28 percent (Aschendorf-Hümmling district).

For the DPs, the Emsland served as a transit and the DP camps became waiting rooms. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) took care of these people, as did the soldiers of the Polish Division helping their countymen. While the DPs were being provided for by the Germans in the spring of 1945, nutrition statistics compiled from November 1945 showed that only 150 of about 2,150 calories were supplied by German resources. By January 1946, the British military government had set up 15 Polish DP camps, five ex-prisoner of war camps and one DP camp for Baltic nationals in the Emsland region.

Maczköw, the former German town of Haren (Ems), was the most renowned with a population of around 3,500. In a situation which was often characterized by germinating hopes of self-determination, liberty aspirations were often destroyed by the overly pragmatic policies of the British military government. Displaced Persons tried frequently to cope with their often traumatic experiences. Therefore, education and cultural traditions, which were forbidden during the war, now became revitalized to help many of these homeless people. Professional and amateur actors founded theaters. Local grassroots newspapers sought to quench the near insatiable thirst for information that had been banned for so long during the years of isolation.

The DP camps were like villages with a mayor, their own police and fire stations, and a church; a Catholic one naturally. Every DP camp had its own kindergarten and one or more primary schools; in Lingen and Maczköw there were high schools. Nearly one hundred teachers supervised about 2,000 pupils. In the spring of 1946, 23 out of a total of 34 Polish schools in the British zone were in the Emsland region. For the adults, the UNRRA arranged driving schools, courses in tailoring and sewing as well as English lessons and an open university. A public health system was set up and organized by the DPs themselves and supported by the UNRRA. The majority of the doctors were DPs and former prisoners of war.

Before October 1946, the bulk of the Polish DPs in the Emsland region refused repatriation, yet the demobilization of the 1st Polish Armoured Division and their successive departure to Great Britain induced some of them to leave the Emsland. About 2,500 DPs, relatives of Polish soldiers left for England in the winter of 1946-47, thus having reduced the amount of Polish DPs in the Emsland region to 14,800 in April 1947. Many of them did not want to go back to Poland. They were frightened to have to return to a Cornmunist country where they would run the risk of being persecuted.

The UNRRA was essentially a temporary organization which expired in June 1947. After that time, the International Refugee Organization (IRO) has been taking care of Displaced Persons. Even though the repatriation was the main concern ofthe new refugee organization, in reality, its principal task was resettlement. From 1947 to 1950 thousands of DPs left the Emsland for resettlement, especially in the United States of America, Canada and Australia. In June 1950 when the IRO submitted responsibility for the DPs to the German government only about 1,000 DPs were living in Lingen, the largest and last DP camp in the Emsland region. These consisted of mainly old and sick DPs who were in no physical condition to pass the immigration selections. DP camp Lingen did not close until 1957, and some DPs are still living in Germany as so-called "homeless foreigners" (heimatlose Ausländer).

Another Emslandlager (Emsland camp) website: http://www.warplaces.net/uk035.htm
English website, Poles, Jews

Big list of 1930's and later Emsland camps: http://www.diz-emslandlager.de
Submitted by Alan Newark [email protected]

Enniger (British zone)

Ennigerloh (British zone)

Entenbruck (British zone)

7/19/07 Dear Olga:

I came across your site, which has a lot of information regarding DP Camps after WWII. I am searching for a German village where our family lived and worked as forced labor from spring of 1944 to summer of 1945 as forced labor. I would like to visit the village and try to locate the offspring’s of the owner of the manufacturing plant and share our family’s experience. We were lucky to have such an understanding owner who helped us to escape deportation to Ukraine and I would like to convey our thanks to his offspring’s.

I am nearly 70 years old and I am in process of documenting our family’s history for future generations. Unfortunately all members of the family who lived during that time are gone and my recollection is limited. Here is my recollection, which could be of some use:

1. The village was in the British Zone.
2. The population of the village was approximately 1,500 people.
3. There was a railroad through the village which branched-off into two or three directions. (Thus allies bombed the village heavily.
4. There were between 60 to 100 forced labors working in manufacturing facilities mostly involved with wood products (windows, doors, barrack prefabricated parts and furniture).
5. There was a forested area nearby where people moved to avoid being killed during heavy bombing periods. Also, there was a small river running through the village.
6. British soldiers occupied the village few days after the war was over.
7. Within a week or so, Soviet representatives came to administer repatriation process.
8. All forced labor was moved to a large barracks and guarded by British Army.
9. At my father's, the owner of our manufacturing plant arranged a closed railroad transport car. Eight people, in the officially sealed-lead-tags railroad car, left the village for the American Zone at 3:00 a.m. It took us three days to get to his friend’s manufacturing facility in the American Zone. We were then transported to the American refugee-gathering center. To my parent’s knowledge, the remaining forced labor people were repatriated to Ukraine, where they, most likely, received harsh treatment.
10. We were moved to the temporary DP camp close to the France or French Zone.

The word Entenbruk, or some spelling variation, is imprinted in my mind as the village name. However, I could not find such a village on the Internet. I know that this is very little to go on; but, if you have any recommendations on how I could find out the name of this village, it would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely your, Albert Kamensky [email protected]

Erkenschwick -2 camps (British zone)

Eschwege, Jews, Eschwege Air Base City archives - Stadtarchiv
http://www.eschwege.de
Address: Anger 2, D-37269 Eschwege-Niederhone, Tel. (05651) 304-294, or
Stadtarchiv Eschwege
Stadtverwaltung, Postfach 1560
37269 Eschwege

"In April 1949 a group of 375 Jews left the DP camp in Eschwege to make 'alija' (to go to Israel). They were free people. But when their train arrived in Ulm, they were asked to go into the DP barracks. The Jews were not willing to follow this order. Why should they do this? For 34 hours they did strike in the wagons. Then they were forced by armed military police to leave the train and they were brought to the Hindenburg barrack (another large DP camp in Ulm). A photograph documents this event in '49, showing the row of military police at the train, not at the regular railway station, but at the ramp." Written by Christof Maihoefer

---

Date: Sun, Jul 12, 2020 at 12:36 AM
RE: ESCHWEGE DP

Hello, my mother who is still alive was born in Eschwege, Germany DP March 1946 as an Estonia and remained there until its closure in 1949. I am looking for any contactable survivors, groups, contacts your experience may have to offer.
Yours, Todd Borseth [email protected]
32 172nd Place SW, Mill Creek, WA 98012

Eselsberg, see Um archives.

3/18/06 Dear Olga ,
I am doing research for a small historic exhibition covering the history of my suburb Eselsberg which is a part of Ulm, Germany. Our planned exhibition should cover the last 150 years and parts of this history are the DP Camps and the DPs themselves, on the Eselsberg where the former Wehrmacht Barracks Hindenburg Kaserne and some installation called Oberberghof. Poorly is known about this and I would like to cover this in our exhibition too. I remember some words of my grandmas, who told me about the DPs in the Hindenburg Kaserne, were she worked some times as a scrubwoman, but she did not told about the circumstances and the people there, only that she was lucky to earn some money in bad times. Email: [email protected]

Esens - is a municipality in the district of Wittmund, in Lower Saxony, Germany.

Essen has it's own page. City archives Stadtarchiv Essen
Steeler Str. 29
45127 Essen
Tel: 02 01 - 88-4 13 00
Fax: 03 61 - 88-4 13 13
http://www.essen.de

Essen-Kray, #3200, mostly Polish, Balts, Yugoslavs - Kray is an eastern district of the city of Essen .

Estonia -
http://www.estonica.org
http://www.archiv.org.lv
https://archives.lib.umn.edu

Esslingen; Estonian, Diet in camp: 2 ounces of butter, 4 ounces of meat and 2 pounds of potatoes per week.

City archives: Stadtarchiv Esslingen am Neckar
Marktplatz 20
73728 Esslingen am Neckar
Germany
Tel: 49-711-35122530
Fax: 49-711-35122613

---

I am looking for a DP camp that was in Esslingen, right by the Neckar River. My uncle called this place the Schwertmuhle, or Sword Mill. He wrote a paper and here are a few places he spoke of:

The Esslingen Burg
Stadt Halle (with a massive clock with figures)
There's a train station with a station pub or stube
There's a large industrial complex there now.

If you have any info on it or pictures, that would be fabulous. My family, the Kurz family, was there from 1949 - 1956. Thank you so much! Cheryln Kurz

---

"Stadt Halle" probably is Schwäbisch Hall - see letter S. Submitted by: Wolfgang Strobel, author of Post der befreiten Zwangsarbeiter - Displaced Persons Mail Paid in Deutschland 1945 - 1949.

---

May 5, 2010
My mother was in the DP camp that was in Esslingen, right by the Neckar River. The camp/name of the loom factory was Kolb & Schule A. G. town of Lembert with her residence of Kirchheim-Teck.
How can I get more info on this for family geneology?

Thank you for the info.  You can post my request.
Thanks for your help!!! Stella H. [email protected].

Etzel has its own page
On 11/27/12
As a Medic in WWII, I worked briefly in a DP Camp for Polish people in the Spring of 1945. The camp was run by UNRRA and was in Etzel , Germany near Köln (Cologne). Do you have any info about this camp? Thanks. GMFreeman [email protected]

Euskirchen - Refugee children forbidden to take walks because of hidden mines, grenades and ammunition (Wyman, p.42).

Eutin, #1235, Schleswig Holstein (British zone), mostly Balts, Yugoslavs

Ewald, 2 camps (British zone)

This page continues to F