He was apparently a soldier during ww2, and these 3 letters from a Russian prison is all she has left. Can anybody help or guide me in some kind of direction where and what to look for?

by corona3700

10 comments

  1. Considering he was a German WW2 soldier in the Russian prison… I suspect your MIL may be happier not knowing more about her father’s past.

  2. Zündorf and Wahn both belong to the city of Cologne today. Maybe try r/cologne?

  3. Was he missing or did he come back from war?
    Generally these pages ar e a great start: [https://www.drk-suchdienst.de/en/how-we-help/tracing/second-world-war#c56877](https://www.drk-suchdienst.de/en/how-we-help/tracing/second-world-war#c56877)

    Gather everything you know about him and ask those people. It might take a year or so for them to answer, tho.
    Also you might wanna try the forum on [ahnenforschung.net](http://ahnenforschung.net) those people are glad to help too

  5. I’ll assume „Frau Apolonia Karsten“ was your MIL‘s mother? Lived in Wahn, Rheinland, which is a part of Cologne.

    One letter is stamped by the „Kreisverwaltung Bergisch Gladbach“. That’s a town near Cologne. Maybe they still have documents pertaining to him.

  6. Well in French it says “carte postale du prisonnier de guerre”, so post card of the war prisoner. Sorry I cannot read russian. It however isn’t a postcard with a message, its more so a registry of who sends the actual postcard it to whom.

  8. He seems to have been a prisoner of war in a Russian labour camp. Unfortunatly I think his chances of making it home from there were pretty slim. UdSSR labour batallion number 6376 was in “Sysran near Kuibyschew” source: [https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP82-00373R000200070012-9.pdf](https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP82-00373R000200070012-9.pdf)

    The printing of the card does not seem to match the information that is printed and stamped. You have a prisoners card first (in print in Russian and French), then you have the stamped information that someone applied for compensation according to § 3 “Kriegsgefangenenentschädigungsgesetz” (prisoners of war compensation law). But the demanded information when the compensation was applied for and if it was paid is missing. There is an Adress and the wifes name on the card but not much else.

  9. It seems this letter was handled by the now Russian Red Cross Society [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Red_Cross_Society](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Red_Cross_Society)

    Maybe try to contact them and ask for any additional information, especially where “Lager 7256/9” was located, since this seems to be the prison camp he were writing from.

  10. There isn’t too much to say here. It looks like a simple “postcard” confirming the fact he is a prisoner of the USSR. There isn’t much detail except his name, his wife’s name and address, etc. along with some stamps. And which prison labour camp he was in.

    His prison camp was 7256/9. According to a document I found (linked below), this is near the town of Krasny-Lutsch, or Khrustalny, in Ukraine. It’s in the far east, near the Russian border, in Luhansk, now occupied by Russia.

    The town has a major coal mine, that is/was its industry. It’s practically certain your wife’s grandfather was slave labour in a coal mine, or some sort of related machinist, maybe a camp cook, who knows. If he didn’t come back, well, I’m afraid you know the answer. It’s hard work, I doubt they gave them the best of tools or conditions.

    See page 9 for the series 7256 camps, subcamp 9 is also listed:
    https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP82-00373R000200070012-9.pdf 

    At least the climate is relatively mild…
    Cold winters yes, but not quite Siberia.

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