[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Labour Camp Death Records

[Richard Benert]

Janice,

If a member of the family was still  there in 1914, then the family's
disappearance is most likely due to the Deportation of 1915, when the Russian
army cleared nearly all the German colonists out of the war zone--Volhynia (and
Poland and elsewhere).  After 1917, most of the families returned to Volhynia
(or kept going to Germany).  Few of them returned intact.  Most had lost family
members to epidemics and accidents en route or while living in exile.  And yes,
a few families may well have died out entirely, or were in such a devastated
condition in 1918 that return was impossible.  This may be the case with your
family.  If only we had records of where individual families were sent or
settled.

But do not confuse this Deportation with the Labor Camps of the Soviet period.
These people were not sent to labor camps.  Many of them had to live in
barracks, old factories, old schools, and whatnot, but there was no forced labor
involved.  They had to find work to live well at all (some got a pittance of
government support), but they had to find work on their own.

SINCE this subject has been now brought up, may I invite all who are interested
to be sure to attend the 3 PM session of the SGGEE Convention in Calgary, August
7, where I will be holding forth on this very subject.  I hope people will come
with stories of their own families' experiences during W. W. I.

Dick Benert
----- Original Message -----
From: <JSchu9014 at aol.com>
To: <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2004 9:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Labour Camp Death Records


> This is a topic I have been interested in for some time.  I have been
> searching for my Great Grandfather Christian Haupt b. approx 1868, his wife
> Wilhelmine Mincho b. 1873 in Glueckstal/Bubny (a tiny village near Baranowka),
and
> several children, Olga b. 1906, Reinhold b. 1909 and Elsa b. aprox. 1912.
There
> were two more children Ottomar b. 1907
> and Ewald b. 1913.  The very last record found was the death of Ewald on
> 11/12/1914.  After that, the entire family disappeared without a trace.
>
> My grandfather Edward Haupt, oldest son of Christian and Wilhelmine left home
> in Bubny in 1911.  He would only say that his entire family "was gone".  I
> often wondered if entire families were taken away, families broken up, when
sent
> to the Labor Camps and/or did many die while being transported to the camps?
> Were any records kept on those that were subject to "deportation"?
>
> I have been hitting a brick wall on the Haupt research for some years so if
> anyone can give me a lead, it would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Searching For:  Haupt, Mincho, Stohl (or Stoll) Rathfelder, Gangnus, Doweidt,
> Groenke
>                         Schultz, Ellerbruch, Giertz
>
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