Fw: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] EWZ/BDC Research

Thu Nov 15 09:12:37 PST 2001

At the end of this note is a posting made by Jerry Frank on Nov. 10 in which
he forwarded to us Tom Stangl's reminder of the BDC documents in the U.S.
National Archives and their usefulness for finding information on people who
applied for German citizenship and left central and eastern Europe during
W.W. II.

I will repeat the offer that I recently made to the GR-Heritage listserve.
I have made copies of the E/G Kartei index, the Stammbldtter  index, and the
EWZ50 index of Antraege from Russia.  So at least one copy of these DOES
EXIST outside of the National Archives.  I am sorry that I did not make a
copy of
EWZ52 for applicants from Poland and Polish Volhynia.  However, people from
Poland and Polish Volhynia should be included in the E/G Kartei and the
Stammbldtter rolls.

If anyone sends me a name, the E/G index should indicate which roll in that
series to order (depending on the accuracy of the alphabetization).  That
roll, if it does in fact contain the E or G cards of that person, will also
give the EWZ case number for the person in question.  With knowledge of the
case number, I can find in the Stammbldtter index (which only goes by the
numbers) the roll  in that series that you should order.  It appears to be a
two-step process.  One cannot gain access to the appropriate Stammbldtter
film without the case number,
and one cannot know the case number without first consulting the E/G Kartei.
I can also refer you to the appropriate Antraege roll (from the EWZ50 index)
if your relative was from Russia.  If anyone would like me to consult my
copies of the indexes, please feel free to ask. It only takes a minute.

It should be said that there is no guarantee that cards for every
person who should be in these records will in fact be there.  So ordering a
film is, in that sense, a slight risk.  If you're not inclined to take this
chance, you can contact either Tom Stangl (TSTANGLSR at aol.com) or Rita
Scheirer (ritabill at erols.com), both of whom are willing and able to do the
research for you.  Tom charges less, but Rita can do the translating for
you, and her fees are reasonable.

Of course, another alternative would be to rent the E/G Kartei film you want
from the LDS, as Tom suggested.  This only means looking up the LDS film
number on Dave Obee's website once you know the appropriate BDC number.
It's all a bit complicated and time-consuming, but I'm willing to help you
get started.

Dick Benert

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jerry Frank <jkfrank at home.com>
>To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
><ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
>Date: Saturday, November 10, 2001 10:47 AM
>Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] EWZ/BDC Research
>
>
>>For those of you researching family that was forced out of eastern regions
>>back to Germany during WW II, these microfilms can be a major source of
>>information.  I know personally of one woman whose father died during this
>>resettlement.  She had no photo of her father until she found one on the
>>card file from the EWZ/BDC records.  Many of these cards include pedigrees
>>that go back 4 or 5 generations.
>>
>>A general description of the content of this material can be found
>>at   http://pixel.cs.vt.edu/library/berlin.html
>>
>>It is significant that the report on that page fails to include the fact
>>that many Volhynian and Russian Poland Germans are also included in these
>>files.
>>
>>Tom Stangl, who has done a great deal of research on these microfilms,
>>recently updated and clarified some of that information in a recent
posting
>>to another mail service.  He has kindly agreed to allow me to repost that
>>message.
>>
>>----------------Start Tom Stangl
>message--------------------------------------
>>
>>There are over 8,400 rolls of 16mm microfilm in the EWZ collection, which
>>is part of a 70,000 roll collection from the former Berlin Document Center
>>[BDC], which housed the German government documents captured in WW II.  Of
>>these, 3,210 rolls are Antraege files--applications for naturalization
>>1939-1945, which are organized by Region [e.g., "Russia", "Poland",
>>"Rumania", etc.], and alphabetized by surname within Region. There are 843
>>rolls which cover the Antraege of the German ethnics who came from
"Russia"
>>[including Ukrainian Volhynia]--these films are the EWZ50 series. Another
>>701 rolls cover "Rumania" [Bessarabia, Dubrodscha, Bukovina]--these are
the
>>EWZ51 series. In addition to these series of films, there are groups of
>>Antraege films for "Poland" [EWZ52--701 rolls, including Polish Volhynia],
>>the "Baltics" [EWZ53--587 rolls], as well as several other regions
>>[Yugoslavia, France, Bulgaria--379 rolls].
>>
>>Besides the Antraege files, there were card files kept on each applicant
>>for naturalization. These were the "E" cards [EWZ card--for everyone over
>>age 15, and unaccompanied children younger than 15], and the "G" card
>>["Gesundheitskarte"--Health card--for everyone over age 6; photos are
often
>>attached], which were combined into one alphabetical file covering all of
>>the regions [Russia, Rumania, Poland, etc.], and were filmed as the EWZ57
>>series. There are 1,964 rolls of film in the E/G Kartei [EWZ57] series.  A
>>separate set of files called the Stammblaetter [EWZ58] contains copies of
>>the Personalblatt from the Antraege file, plus a photograph of the
>>applicant. There are 740 rolls of EWZ58 films. These files are arranged in
>>EWZ number order [2 to 1,046,998].
>>
>>Any of these films can be purchased from our Archives for $34 per roll
>>postpaid to US addresses, or $39 US per roll postpaid to international
>>addresses. They can be ordered by telephone by calling toll free in the US
>>at 1-800-234-8861, or toll at 301-713-6800 during working hours at the
>>Archives [Monday-Friday 8:30 am to 4:30 pm EST]. However, you must know
the
>>film number of the film you wish to purchase, and there is no catalog
>>available from which to order. The films cannot be rented or loaned from
>>our Archives. The Archives has rudimentary indexes of these films [first
>>and last name only on each roll of film], but has not made the indexes
>>available outside the Microfilm Reading Room at Archives II. I am telling
>>you these details so that you may fully understand the difficulties you
>>would have to obtain these
>>films from our Archives.
>>
>>The Mormon Church [LDS] has purchased a full set of the EWZ57 and EWZ58
>>series of films. The LDS renumbered their copies of the films, so that it
>>is not possible to use the LDS numbers to ask our Archives for assistance
>>in obtaining an individual applicant's records on other series of films. A
>>cross reference between the Archives film numbers for the EWZ58 series and
>>the LDS numbers for this series has been posted on the Internet by Dave
>>Obee <daveobee at home.com>. I am not aware of any cross reference being
>>available for the EWZ57 series. The LDS has these films available for
>>rental in North America at their local Family History Centers. I do not
>>know whether or not
>>these films would be available in any of the LDS libraries in Europe.  A
>>few years ago, the American government returned the hardcopy EWZ documents
>>to the Bundesarchiv in Germany. A full set of the microfilms are in both
>>our National Archives and the Bundesarchiv. I do not know the policies of
>>the Bundesarchiv in regards to anyone in Germany accessing or purchasing
>>these microfilms.
>>
>>Researchers in the US and Canada, who are members of GRHS and AHSGR, have
>>been purchasing rolls of EWZ film to do research on their families. Upon
>>completion of their research, they have been donating the films to GRHS or
>>AHSGR. The donated films are stored in the headquarters of each
>>organization. Volunteers from GRHS have been indexing these donated films
>>and posting the extractions on the Internet [Odessa Digital Library]. If
>>your surname is among those posted on the Internet, much of your research
>>has already been done; and it can provide you information about which
>>records you might wish to obtain from either the Archives [by ordering
your
>>own copy of the film] or by requesting hard copies from the GR
headquarters
>>which has custody of the donated film.
>>---------------End Tom Stangl message------------------------------
>>
>>
>>Websites for the 2 organizations mentioned in the last paragraph
>>are:   http://www.grhs.org    and   http://www.ahsgr.org
>>
>>Please do not contact me personally for any further information about this
>>resource as I do not have anything more.  Please use the links included
>>throughout the above message along with those at the Pixel webpage to
>>access more information.
>>
>>
>>
>>Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
>>jkfrank at home.com
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