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Help with POW search

Started by GT, July 03, 2016, 02:09:15 PM

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GT

My friend is adamant his great uncle was a POW in Germany in WW1. 201975 Pte George Rothwell 2/5 Bn Manchester Regt of 44 Nutgrove Rd, St. Helens. I have searched the IRC records but to no avail. Would someone be kind enough to double check for me. They are not the most user friendly records are they?

Thank you

Graham

charlie

Graham,
Your friend is quite right, his name is contained in our PoW database over on the main site

http://www.themanchesters.org/pow.htm

The original records are contained in the ICRC database.

http://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/File/Details/3111369/3/2/

Charlie

GT

Hi Charlie, thanks for the quick work, you are a star. I looked on the granduerre website but couldn't find him. Cheers

charlie

Hi Graham,
The ICRC database is not the easiest to use. At a guess you have entered "Rothwell" in the search engine and been taken through to the name "Rosyth", which has led you, quite understandably, to believe that he was not listed. "Rothwell" are listed under "Roswell".

Charlie

GT

Yes thats exactly what I did Charlie, I should have used the POW database on this site first. Does the the reference to Kassel mean thats where he was sent for processing first then onto Sagan for internment.?

charlie

Graham,
What must be understood about the dates (top left at the beginning of the list) on the ICRC records is that they are only dates that the list was sent from the camp (ie the date a prisoner was registered at the camp) to the German Ministry of War for forwarding on to the Red Cross.

Kassel was a large central camp through which large numbers of PoWs passed in the spring of 1918. Pte Rothwell may have been there since a few days after his capture, or he may have been held in the German echelon area for sometime and used as forced labour before being sent to Kassel. There is no way of being sure when he arrived there unless there is some other independant evidence. Some of the lists from Kassel contain over 2000 names and would therefore take time to type up. Kassel, in the spring of 1918, does not appear to have held onto the prisoners for very long before they were dispersed to other camps - a logistical necessity I would say.

I realise it must seem a bit confusing for him to be registered at two places on the same date. This is nothing really out of the ordinary, some prisoners were "registered" at their first camp on a list dated after their arrival at a second camp. What I am reasonably sure about is that the date on the Sagan list is nearer to the date he arrived there.

I hope this makes things a bit clearer.

Charlie

GT

Thanks for the explanation Charlie, much appreciated