Luftwaffe at Buchenwald

I am interested in locating either the Luftwaffe personnel or their families who came into Buchenwald to arrange for the 168 allied airmen held there to be released to Stalag Luft III. Would be interested in hearing from anyone who might have information on these men.

 

Hi Rhapsody, many people would like to know who was the brave Luftwaffe Officer who saved these airmen from the claws of the SS. Unfortunaty history seems to have forgotten his name. He may have come from Dora, but in my opinion this was just his landing place. he must have been dispatched by a Luftwaffe Stalag who was wondering why so many airmen did not show up . This is why it took three months for the LW to react. If I remember correctly, airmen pows were usually sent to sorting Stalag near Frankfort before they were sent to Sagan if they were officers. I think Stalags and Frankfurt realised something went wrong and started an inquiry to find the 168 missing men. This is just a thought.

 

All of the men there evaded for some time and most were betrayed by a man in Paris. The place you mention near Frankfurt was Oberrusel---Dulag Luft. I have gone back to visit there, but not too much is there anymore. The general consensus is that the man could have come from Dora (acutually--there was probably more than one man), and he was there to inspect bombing damage at the munitions plant. But orders probably came from the top, all the way from Berlin and very well could have included Goering himself. This will definitely be a tough one to sort out, indeed, if it can be done at all!

 

Rhapsody I,

You may already be aware of this, but…..

One of the largest collections of Army Air Corps POW documents, records, and photographs is archived at the Air Force Academy Library, Special Collections (LTG Albert P. Clark’s collection in particular). That would be the first place I would look for information about the fliers who found themselves imprisoned at Buchenwald.

The Air Force Academy Library, Special Collections may have a copy of E.R. McCright, “Urkunden Stalag 3 fur die altesten offizier (Record for the Senior Officer) which includes interviews with men who were sent to Buchenwald before being moved to Luft III by the Luftwaffe. If not, the original is supposed to be in the Manuscript Collection at the Library of Congress.

Hopes this helps.

Duckbill

 

Duckbill,

Thank you for your reply. Gen. Clark was a dear friend of mine, and he passed away a few months ago at the age of 96. His collection at the Academy is stellar. I have Ewell McCright's Behind the Wire, which is a compilation of interviews from men in South Compound at SLIII. I am wondering if that is the same E. McCright you are talking about. These were secret ledgers carried out of the camp on the Forced March. I was not aware that he was responsible for any other documents. There are brief profiles of the Buchenwald POWs in Behind the Wire, but very brief, as dictated by themselves. No real details on the camp at all, so I am curious about this document you mention. Please enlighten me.

 

Well, we have something in common. I was fairly well acquainted with LTG Clark, and we spoke occasionally by telephone up unitl a year or two ago. He was a fine gentleman of the first order, sharp as a tack, and was never too busy to talk with me. Like so many who knew him, I felt a real loss when I heard of his passing.

The information I have about E.R. McCright comes from Durand's excellent Stalag Luft III, pg. 270, footnote. The note also says this report was written in pencil in South Compound, so it must have been among the records carried from the camp on the forced march.

In his autobiography LTG Clark says the stories of the men who had been in the concentration camps before coming to LUFT III were well documented, and that he personnally delivered the report to the Military Government Headquarters in Paris after his liberation at Moosburg. Knowing his on-going efforts to gather materials for the collection at the Air Force Academy library, I cannot help, but think there must be a copy there as well as the Library of Congress.

Sorry I do not know more about this, but my expertise (if I have any, that is) lies in other areas.

Duckbill

 

Thank you again. I couldn't agree more with your comments on Gen. Clark. I did some checking, since I have McCright's. Behind the Wire here. It is the complete transcription of McCright's ledgers, and it is still being used today to document injuries for those who received them and had their military records destroyed in the fire in St. Louis years ago.

It turns out that the German title you sent to me is on page 45 of the ledger. What McCright did was write a message in German so that if he ever lost the ledgers, a German finding them could read what they had and return them to him. The Germans confiscated his ledgers twice, and they were returned to him twice. So although in German it seems that there is a separate document that he wrote, in reality, it is just one page from Behind the Wire, which was later published. It is very hard to come by. I have about worn my copy out. The Lib. of Congress has a copy no doubt donated by the man who transcribed the whole thing, Arnold Wright. Upon publication, the name was changed to Behind the Wire.

Art Durand is a good friend of mine, and I still believe his book on SLIII to be an original classic that researchers still revere. To think it was all done before the age of computers is staggerig!

I really appreicate your input, Duckbill.

Rhapsody I

 

I watched the doc on that story, not that long ago, early june I think?. here is that doc on youtube 1-10 parts, hope you find it interesting to watch, but that scene with the airman and luftwaffe officer? I'm not sure a name was given when they met, nor in the telling of the story.. ray.


[YOUTUBE]sulJP36iEfQ[/YOUTUBE]

 

This movie was made from Tom Childer's book, "In the Shadows of War." I never could understand why they changed the name for the movie. Excellent book by the way, and the movie stayed pretty true to the book. Tom is a professor at a university in Pennsylvania, and I probably should contact him and see if he has further insight into this. Thanks for the reminder.

 

Rhapsody did I meet you last Spring in France? If yes, we certainly know each other as well as some of the survivng KLBs.
What's new on this side of the Atlantic is that I have found accounts from French Buchenwald deportees who were in the same train as the KLB , I also have the name of at least on airmen who was with the French Ressitants who escaped through a train wagon floor . This means 168 were recorded , but at least 169 were sent to Buchenwald . Also other airmen were held at Fresnes in July and August 1944 but for no apparent reason they were finally sent to Oberrusel and others to Buchenwald. My opinion is that the last train was crowded with anyone the Germans could deport .

 

It's not the movie at all! rhapsody, but a documentry on that incident at buchenwald..regards, ray..

 

No, I did not meet you in France, although I have visited France a few times. Can you give me the name of the POW who escaped through the train's floor? Wonder what happened to him. I have seen information about other men at Fresnes who did not go to Buchenwald, and I suspect you are correct in assuming the trains were crowded. Some men were just luckier than others.

I have a researcher friend, Willis "Sam" Cole who is in France a lot investigating. Wondered if you knew him.

 

How could POW"s land in buchenwald or any other KZ?

 

angelo watch this doc on the story, and you'll hopefully find the explanation?

 

Will do soon

 

Hi,

Men who had the misfortune to come down in France and evade frequently found themselves betrayed by a man there they thought was helping them. From there they were sent to Fresnes Prison--quite a notorious place. POWs who escaped a lot were sent there sometimes too. When it came time to empty out the prison of some of the overflow, they were all put on a train, and many times they ended up at Buchenwald. Allied airmen were not supposed to be sent there, but 168 of them were. It is only by a miracle they got out and were transferred to Stalag Luft III. The movie presentation, Shot from the Sky, that has been mentioned here will give you a good idea of what befell them at Buchenwald. Excellent show.

 

That would be C27788 Flying Officer Joel Matthew STEVENSON of Sweetwater, Texas, an American in the RCAF.

He was the pilot of Lancaster KB727, coded VR-H, one of three RCAF 419 Squadron aircraft lost on a raid to take out the marshaling yards at Villeneuves-St-Georges on 4/5 July, 1944.

From Chorley's 1944 Bomber Command Losses:

T/o 2151 Middle St. George. Attacked by a JU88 and crashed 0131 roughly a kilometre NE of Chartainvilliers (Euro-et-Loir) and about 14 km NNE of of Chartres.

F/O J M Stevenson RCAF evd
Sgt F S Vinecombe pow
F/O J E Prudham RCAF pow
F/O J S Smith RCAF pow
WO1 L F Head RCAF pow
Sgt J T Pett RCAF pow
Sgt W R Gibson RCAF pow

All crew, except F/O Stevenson who escaped from the train and Sgt Pett were held at Buchenwald. Pett initially evaded until captured 8 Jul 44 and was held at Stalag Luft 7, Bankau.

The story of Stevenson's escape from the Buchenwald-bound train is told in "Footprints on the Sands of Time" and "RAF Evaders", both by Oliver Clutton - Brock. But the citation for both his French Croix-de-Guerre and his RCAF Mention in Despatches tell his story and the sequence of events from shootdown to liberation firsthand. Courtesy of Hugh Halliday's RCAF Honours and Awards database:

 

A.E,

I thought that story sounded familiar to me. Should have known!

 

Many reasons Pizza, officially becaus ethey wer elabelled as "Terror Flieger" by the S.D who claime dmost were caught without dogtags and in civilain uniforms (in fact teh tags were confiscated by a traitor) . But also because August 1944 was a time of Chaos in fresnes and the Gestapo tried to deport as many convicts as possible. So the 168 unfortunates landed in Buchenwald because the train drove them there. They stayed three months in the camp. The trouble is that two of them died in the Camp, the Luftwaffe thrie dto hide the fact that they staye dthere. But digging up of archives clearly mentions the names and gives evidence they were there with many French Resistants and Danish policmemen. Even nowadays survivor ar enot always believed, but they were ther eand saw the murder of SOE agents in 1944 too.

 

Rhapsody I will send you a pm with the details you need. There are some things I do not want to post on the internet. I have been searching this story for years and do not wish to lose control of some of my work. I will however share this with you. Let's just say that I know enough that I could describe the color and model of Dessoubrie's cars (you know who I'm talking about) , what was the use of each car, how much he was paid and what happened to his wife and child after he was executed. I also know the names of the Frenchmen who escaped from the train.