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Research in Other Countries => Europe => Topic started by: sstarr2008 on Thursday 26 December 24 13:58 GMT (UK)
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Hi, I'm trying to help somebody with a couple who were liberated from a german camp at the end of WW2.
He was Wasyl Hryschko, dob 26 Dec 1916 formerly of Lviv.
She was Motria Pantchenko, dob 7 Apr 1916 (1914 on death certificate)
After the war they settled in England, living in Barnsley then in Wales until their death.
The problem is that Lviv in 1916 was part of Austria, then Poland and is now Ukraine!
Does anybody know which country would hold the relevant records? I understand that they may well have been lost due to the war and many subsequent political changes.
Stuart
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I am assuming that neither of the people you name were combatants. I would have expected that they were documented by the Germans, and so, if the records did survive, they may still exist in Germany, or possibly in the USA as a lot of German records were taken back to America to be photocopied. Possibly the best place to start your search is the International Committee of the Red Cross who also had a theoretical role in documenting civilian internees. I say theoretical because the Germans, for obvious reasons, didn't wish to cooperate when it came to civilians held in their camps.
Scroll down this page for some suggested resources: https://www.icrc.org/en/document/request-information-about-individuals-detained-during-second-world-war-or-spanish-civil-war-quota
Unfortunately the ICRC only deal with a relatively small number of inquiries relating to WW2 per year, since they have to concentrate their resources on more recent conflicts.
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Thanks,
Yes they were civilians. I believe that they were civilian workers in a camp of some kind in Kiel, Germany, I'm guessing that they had no choice in the matter.
They are listed in the Arolson archives at the end of the war but other than dob and former town there is no information.
Stuart