ukrainian pow search w. stefaniuk

[katski_lou]

i'm trying to find as much information as i can on my grandad but don't seem to be getting anywhere! we've help from the redcross &had an enquiry sent out but came back that they've no record of my grandfather, another has since been sent.
(they wonder if he had been known by a different name - vasilij stefanovich is also on my photos, which is puzzling to me, but may be nothing)

anyway, his name was wasyl stefaniuk born 1927 - he was born in nadwirna & became a pow. on one photo he has written "italy p.o.w" with date 1946 on the back and mentioned being there to my mother.
i was wondering if anyone could identify the uniform in my photo? if it loads, he is on the right. someone told me it looks like german uniform.

when he arrived in england, he ended up at wellingore camp, near lincoln. does anyone have any knowledge of the men who came to be at wellingore? i have many photos which also mention bodenbach and rosendorf. so wonder if he was there at somepoint, captured and taken to italy...a lot of it is guesswork at the moment because i don't know where else to access this info. i don't have any numbers or concrete info on his whereabouts...just what he told us, which was very little.

if anyone could offer suggestion, that would be great

[Billyblue]

Hello katski_lou and welcome to RootsChat.

Was your gf known as Walter or Wally? 
Vasilij is usually anglicised to these two, and maybe Wasyl is too?

He may be under either of those names in war records?

Sorry but I don't know where you go, in UK or Europe, for records of POWs.

Dawn M

[katski_lou]

Hello and thank you for your reply.
My grandad was known as Basil to close family and friends. My mum thinks that is the English version...
I'm trying to not complicate things too much at the moment by bringing the other name(Vasilij) into the equation because it may have simply been a friend of his.

We have a couple of documents with Wasyl Stefaniuk stated as his name, so i'm hoping the info...or some record of him will surface soon! He never spoke about his time before coming to England, which I understand, but makes it difficult to try and piece everything together now.

What i'm really after is trying to work out his whereabouts...after (a lot) of reading i've found out about the Italian Rimini, Bellaria camps and the Ukrainian men that came here, so that's a strong possibility in my mind.
Also, my mum's friend who's been translating for us, wondered whether he may have been in red army before being captured by the Germans. Even though my grandad kept to the story that he was given no choice but to join the Germans when they came to his village, so i really am unsure.
 Again, if anyone could help or suggest anything from looking at the photograph, i'd really appreciate.

[millymcb]

Have you tried researching his naturalization in the UK?   (Presuming he settled here and did apply to become British at some point)

I was helping a friend recently who has a very similar situation and was lucky enough to find that the personal file of related documents are indexed at the National Archives (although they are closed for 100 years and he is trying to get them released).

It appears that National Archives only have up to letter N and have not yet received later ones from the Home Office Yet - see here

http://www.rootschat.com/links/0ja8/

You (or a relative) could apply as next of kin to the Home Office and see if you can get hold of the file. Not sure of the legalities of how to do it - but perhaps as a Freedom of Information Request?)

There are two references in London Gazzette to a Wasyl Stefaniuk naturalization. 
http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/47273/pages/9075
Wasyl Stefaniuk, Poland, 8 Craven Street, Lincoln  8th March 1977

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/47155/pages/2492
Wasyl Stefaniuk of uncertain nationality, 13 Greystoke Walk, Abbey Rise West, Leicester, 30th December 1976

Do either of those addresses look familiar? (In order to apply you would need to know for sure that it was the right person)

Milly

[millymcb]

It was not uncommon for soldiers who had been in the Russian Army to be made to join the German Army or used as forced labourers.   After the war there was an agreement (Yalta 1945) that all POWs etc would be returned  to their home country. (often forced repatriation)   Many did not want to be returned for fear of reprisals and had to make a special case to be allowed to stay after the war.   I wonder if that is why the second entry below says (uncertain nationality).
More in this book if you are interested http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100294057

You may also find Wasyl listed on this russian website
http://www.obd-memorial.ru/  which is mentioned lists all 30+ million Russians who fought the Germans in WWII

Unfortunately it is in Russian - so you would need a bit of help to use it!


Milly

[katski_lou]

Thank you for all of your suggestions Milly. That does sound as though it could have happened to him. The naturalization links you found (his is the first one) - i had never thought of looking at the London Gazette.

As much as i'm enjoying researching and finding out things i never knew, it's frustrating not coming up with anything concrete!
I wonder whether it may be worth having a researcher look at the records at Kew. Otherwise I shall just have to be patient and see if anything comes back from enquiries!
The point you make about fear of reprisals - that's why we were curious when the first enquiry at geneva came back with nothing...i wondered if he may have altered his name at some point...of course he never told anyone if he did this and i don't want to jump to any conclusions.
In the meantime i'll try and get someone to navigate the russian site for me - thank you again!

[youngtug]

 Even though my grandad kept to the story that he was given no choice but to join the Germans when they came to his village, so i really am unsure.
 

He may have been in the German army as detailed here.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Waffen_Grenadier_Division_of_the_SS_%281st_Ukrainian%29 If so he would have been killed or enslaved by the soviets if he went back to the Ukrain. He may have said he was from Poland to stand a better chance of getting to England. This I know from a friend who was and did exactly this.

[katski_lou]

Thanks. I have been considering him being in the waffen...guess it would tie in with the stay in italy. On one photo after a couple of peoples names, my mum pointed out that it looks like the ss symbol has been written...then again it could just be something that looks similar in russian...a lot of guesswork

[Mike Melnyk]

Hi, I have spent 25 years researching the Ukrainians who were in the camp at Rimini as my father was amongst them. Drop me a line I maybe able to help


Best wishes

Mike Melnyk

(*) Moderator Comment: e-mail removed in accordance with RootsChat policy,
to avoid spamming and other abuses.
Please use the Personal Message (PM) system for exchanging personal data.

New members must make at least three postings before being allowed to use the PM facility.
See Help-Page:  http://www.rootschat.com/help/pms.php