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Looking for US Army Procedure for collecting German POW names and sending to ICRC

Discussion in 'WWII General' started by SirJahn, Jul 10, 2013.

  1. SirJahn

    SirJahn Member

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    As the title states I am looking to find out how the US Army reported captured Germans to the ICRC in WWII. I would be interested in finding those artifacts if they still exist. My reason is this I am trying to track down a German doctor who was in charge of the Rennes POW hospital. In a War Crimes report one interviewee says that the doctor was captured by the Americans. This would have been most likely the 4th AD in August 1944.

    So I assume the 4th AD Provost Marshal would be in charge of collecting the POWs and sending them back through channels to Corps to Army to COMZONE but at some point the ICRC is notified. ICRC is not being very forthcoming on communications and I was wondering if there is an outgoing source on the US side to investigate.
     
  2. Biak

    Biak Boy from Illinois Staff Member

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  3. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Good Ol' Boy Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    I have the book Nazi Prisoners of War In America, Krammer, 1992 0-8128-8526-0.

    It does not say much about your question. It says that the prisoners filled out a 3 page personnel questionnaire as soon as possible after capture and that copies of this document were forwarded to International Red Cross and the Swiss. It does not give any other details.
     
  4. TD-Tommy776

    TD-Tommy776 Man of Constant Sorrow

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    You could check the NARA II, College Park to see what they have for records of the 4th AD. Another lesser utilized source is the Eisenhower Presidential Library collection of US Army unit records. Here is a summary of the records they have for the 4th AD:

    View attachment 19050
     

    Attached Files:

  5. SirJahn

    SirJahn Member

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    Thanks for the information. I have done an online search of NARA and they have the records of the POW Bureau but that is only for ones that made it to the US, so the next time I can get over there I will give it a look. I am still trying to noodle through how the captured Germans would have been processed and where any artifacts would exist as I have no reason to believe he made it to the US. A significant number of German medical personnel were kept in theater to treat the wounded captured Germans.
     
  6. Earthican

    Earthican Member

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    This link was posted to a ww2f.com thread by PzJgr. It has a story and a scan of the document/card that the family received which was filled out by the soldier/POW relative (pink document in German). It does not seem to indicate whether it is an IRC form or a US government form.

    http://www.warhistoryonline.com/articles/mein-opa-tracing-the-footsteps-of-a-german-soldier-during-the-battle-of-the-bulge-194445-robin-schafer.html


    This link has a scrap book from a US POW transit camp(?) in Normandy(?). Perhaps one of those tangential research leads that yields a new insight and a new line of inquiry.

    http://www.pbase.com/brandonrowe/detail_wwii_book_

    Good Luck!!
     

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