Greetings, Recent question regarding liberated survivors made me look into my search again. I have tried Genealogy to no avail.
My question is I have been searching for my girlfriend's grandfather. He was Soviet born, fought in WW2, was imprisoned spent some time in concentration camp at or around Berlin, worked as an ambulance driver during that time. When the was ended he was liberated by the American side, he was given a choice to go back to Soviet Union or stay on the European side. He decided to stay in Europe. Was moved to displacement camp in Italy at or around Kalian. Later, married an Italian woman and moved to USA.
I contacted the German side regarding prisoner of war records, I was directed to Russia. Due to all records have been moved to Russia. As a Russian...well that was a dead end for me. People said they couldn't find anything or requested to actually physically go there (I'm on the other side of the world).
My question is there way to track the soldier down from the other side. There must be some documents regarding him in the displacement camp or how he was able to get permission to move to USA (He was sponsored by a Catholic family, with whom they stayed for couple of years).
Any and all help would be appreciated as I have been stumped and unable to continue with the search. Thank you for your time.
Hey there!
Sorry I am bit late on answering this one but I just saw it now.
For any information about people in DP camps, contact the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen. It is the ITS mission to find information on relatives in connection wit WWII and the post-war era (so your girlfriend would need to write to them).
Also, if you want to forego writing an official request for tracing, you can do the research yourself. Several countries have access to the digitized version of the ITS archives and it is rather easy to obtain access and research them yourself. Assuming you are in the United States, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has access to the ITS and will gladly help you out.
Also, in terms of Germany, the people to contact is the Saxony Memorial Foundation, which maintains a database with several thousand pieces of information gathered in Russian and German archives about Soviet POWs in Germany. Here is their webiste (unfortunately it is only available in German or Russian ). They too should be able to help you.