[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Stakein refugee centre

[gloria]

Hi,

Does anyone know of a refugee camp in Bitterfeld in the early 1920s and if
there might be any records?  Have copies of envelopes with return addresses
from a relative there and a picture of him and his wife when he married.  A
few years later they were living in Meerane, moving there as he lost his job
as a weaver.  Have never been able to track anyone down in Germany as the
surname is too common.

Gloria

-----Original Message-----
From: ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org
[mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org] On Behalf Of Paul
Rakow
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 11:22 AM
To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
Cc: Emilie Whitson
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Stakein refugee centre


  Hello Emilie,

       I can't help with Stakein, but can tell you about a similar refugee
  camp in east Germany where my grandfather's brother spent some
  years after WWI. This was at Zeithain in Saxony, not far from Dresden.

       It used to be an army barracks, and a base for military training
  exercises, and held several hospitals for wounded or diseased soldiers.
  However, after WWI was lost, Germany no longer had a large army, and it
  did have a lot of refugees from eastern Europe, so Zeithain was used as
  a refugee camp from about 1919 till 1930. Most of the refugees were
  housed around what had been the isolation hospital for soldiers with
  infectious diseases, which was separate from the rest of the rest of
  the camp.

       While he was there, my relative Philip Gruenke had a job with
  a wagonmaker in town, he used to cycle to work from the camp. He left
  on his own for Canada in 1923, and then the rest of his family followed
  him there in 1924.

        In 1927 the refugee camp got a school of its own.  In 1930 there
  were still 3000 refugees in Zeithain, including 1200 Germans from Russia.

        During WWII Zeithain was used as a POW camp for captured Russians,
  (Stalag IV H), many thousands of the prisoners died there.

        There's more about Zeithain camp at
 
http://www.militaerhistorik-zeithain.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=ar
ticle&id=4&Itemid=7

  (or go to

   http://www.militaerhistorik-zeithain.de/index.php

  and then click the button "Platzgeschichte". )  A lot of the numbers and
  dates I gave here are from that website.

       I did wonder if Stakein might be Zeithain (the ends of the
  words look similar), but in 1916 Zeithain would still have been a
  military camp, not yet a refugee centre.

       I suspect Stakein is misspelled, you may have to be flexible
  in looking for it.

           Paul Rakow
           rakow at ifh.de


  "Emilie Whitson" <this_is_emilie at hotmail.com> wrote: 
>
>>
>> Hello  I am looking for information regarding the refugee centre I know
as
>> "Stakein". My Great-Grandmother Emma Zimmer (or Ziemer) was born there in
>> in 1916. Her family fled Volodomyrets (Vladimirers) Volhynia sometime
>> between 1913 and 1916. I have searched but I cannot find any record of
>> such a place. For some reason family members seem to think this camp was
>> located in E. Germany but I have nothing to substantiate it. Her entry
>> documents to Canada state she was born in "Wotz" but I cannot find a
>> record of this place either. Her parents (Emil Ziemer and Emilie Stuike)
>> and 6  of her siblings were all born in Volhynia.  Thank you, Emilie
>> Whitson
>>
>>
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