Leopold Levy, Jäger-Bataillon Nr.14, Captured at Hartmannsweilerkopf

[ph0ebus]

Hi all,

I recently discovered a relation who had been captured by the French at Hartmannsweilerkopf on 21 December 1915:

I am creating this separate thread so as to not further disrupt the flow of Egbert's amazing thread about his various climbs up Hartmannsweilerkopf.

Leopold Levy was born 1 February 1895 in Aach and made two appearances in the VLs; the first just notes him as being missing:

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/3566831

The subsequent entry notes he is a prisoner of war:

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/1351048

It would appear he was transported with other prisoners to Chartres-Romorantin POW camp, per this register available via ICRC:

I have pulled all the files off of the ICRC Website; I am at the point in my research that I am seeking resources about that camp.

I do know that he survived the war, moved to New York and lived out his life in Flushing, Queens. He married Frieda Levy Lieser, who was born on December 30, 1899 in Aach and died November 26, 1997. I have no date of death for him at present but I am reaching out to various cousins to see if they have additional information.

I am also currently trying to locate Leopold's final resting place. Thus far I have checked the following Jewish Cemeteries in and around Flushing:

Mount Judah

The Evergreens

Mount Lebanon

Mount Zion

Cedar Grove

Mount Carmel

Without an exact date of death, it is proving difficult to determine if he is one of the individuals with that name I am seeing in their cemetery rosters.

Egbert, Gwyn, Dave and a host of other pals have already provided a great deal of information about the horrifying slaughter that Leopold experienced that day on HWF; I am now hoping to flesh out if possible his experiences in captivity and hopefully find his grave, and any possible living descendants he might have.

-Daniel

[JWK]

Ah, thát Flushing !

Well, Leopold arrived in Ellis Island New York on 29th December 1937 onboard the mv "Washington", that's a start.

Accompanied by his wife Frieda, and Alfred Levy 36yrs from Aach. His brother?

[ph0ebus]

His WWII Draft Registration card gives his address as 677 West 177th Street in New York, but the 1940 Census gives his address as 515 West 156th Street. I just heard from a cousin who thinks Leopold may have been buried in the Bronx, but given the lack of Jewish Cemeteries in the Bronx, he very well may have ended up in a Jewish Cemetery across the river in New Jersey.

Onward through the fog!

-Daniel

Ah, thát Flushing !

Well, Leopold arrived in Ellis Island New York on 29th December 1937 onboard the mv "Washington", that's a start.

Accompanied by his wife Frieda, and Alfred Levy 36yrs from Aach. His brother?

Leopold.jpg

Actually, that is likely his wife's brother. She had the same surname as her husband, interestingly enough. Alfred was born in 1901, so that would seem to fit.

-Daniel

[Dragon]

I can't help you with family history, but I wish you success. It may be worth bearing in mind that some documents may have the spelling Hartmannswillerkopf and French sources also use Vieil-Armand.

Gwyn

[ph0ebus]

I can't help you with family history, but I wish you success. It may be worth bearing in mind that some documents may have the spelling Hartmannswillerkopf and French sources also use Vieil-Armand.

Gwyn

Hi Gwyn,

That's quite helpful. In terms of the family research, we'll see how things go, but it's the POW camp materials that I am pursuing with equal enthusiasm. POW research is largely the undiscovered country for me, so it will be learn-as-you-go for a bit.

-Daniel

[JWK]

"Chartres-Romorantin" on the POW list means from - to

He was in Chartres, and was moved to Romorantin on 8th Jan 1917.

Arrived Le Mans 8 jan 1916

Moved to Chartres 1 jul 1916

Moved to Romorantin 8 jan 1917

where the then apparently stays for the duration of the war.

JW

[ph0ebus]

"Chartres-Romorantin" on the POW list means from - to

He was in Chartres, and was moved to Romorantin on 8th Jan 1917.

Arrived Le Mans 8 jan 1916

Moved to Chartres 1 jul 1916

Moved to Romorantin 8 jan 1917

where the then apparently stays for the duration of the war.

JW

Ah, that is quite helpful.

In digging around for more on this Leopold Levy, I found one of his cousins who had the same name. As if I did not have enough mysteries to sort through right now, read the note on this one!

http://www.geni.com/people/Leopold-Levy/6000000005260452003

The VL entry for this fellow does not match up with the note in Geni, so I am going to set this one to the side and approach it once I have this individual sorted out.

-Daniel

[JWK]

Oh, how sad!

Just the other week I read in a British wardiary (2nd Sth Staffs?) that a Lt "was found in his room at HQ, shot in the head by a revolver"....

This must be unfortunate Leopold in the VL of 17 feb 1916:

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/3653689

"died of illness"

[ph0ebus]

Oh, how sad!

Just the other week I read in a British wardiary (2nd Sth Staffs?) that a Lt "was found in his room at HQ, shot in the head by a revolver"....

This must be unfortunate Leopold in the VL of 17 feb 1916:

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/3653689

"died of illness"

Leopold3.jpg

That's the VL I found...I have never seen a suicide noted in a VL as such, so I don't know if it would be recorded like this or more directly. I do not know the page manager for this man so I will have to tread lightly.

[JWK]

Interestingly on Denkmalprojekt.org there's a list of men who committed suicide whilst serving in the German Imperial Navy:

http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/2014/kaiserliche-marine_verluste-durch-selbstmord_wk1.html

Imperial Navy, losses due to suicide

Secret

(not in the alphabetical lists)

Don't know whether the German land army produced such lists.

But that is something for your next thread.

[ph0ebus]

A tidbit about Romorantin in 1917, in French:

Romorantin en 1917

Lorsque les premiers soldats Américains arrivent à Gièvres en Août 1917, la Sologne est une région rurale pauvre qui vit encore au rythme du 19 siècle. La population de Romorantin et de Lanthenay compte 11 000 habitants.

La ville, est avant tout une cité ouvrière où la fabrication du drap de laine est une activité séculaire. La Maison Normant en détient le monopole depuis 1862 et emploie au début du siècle près de 1000 ouvriers. Depuis la fin du 19 ème siècle, des ateliers de confection se sont installés. Le plus important est la Maison Hayem spécialiste de la chemiserie de luxe.On trouve également des ateliers de mécanique de précision, celui de Léon Labbé et l'atelier métallurgique Couppé...

En 1917, plusieurs de ces entreprises travaillent pour la Défense Nationale. La vie est dure et les ouvriers se plaignent des salaires de misère. Depuis le début du siècle, la ville a connu de nombreuses grèves et la mémoire de la plus longue, celle de 1910 aux établissements Normant reste vivace.

Romorantin est aussi la petite capitale rurale et les jours de marché, les rues de la ville sont envahies par les paysans des environs. Cette animation a amusé les soldats américains qui le relatent dans les courriers adressés à leurs familles.Trois longues années après le début de la guerre, il n'y a plus d'hommes jeunes, les femmes sont au travail dans les usines ou dans les champs, des écoles ont été transformées en hôpital militaire, l'Ecole Notre-Dame et jusqu'en 1917, le Collège rue du Four à Chaux . Les prisonniers allemands sont affectés aux travaux agricoles en remplacement des paysans mobilisés. (emphasis added)

Romorantin comptait également en 1917 environ 420 réfugiés venus du Nord et de l'Est de la France (Amiens, la Meuse, l'Oise) et 105 de Belgique. Parmi ces réfugiés, 123 étaient mobilisés. Entre 1914 et 1918, les familles de réfugiés ont sollicité l'assistance de la Croix Rouge américaine. Beaucoup logeaient dans les communes voisines de Romorantin : Selles-sur-Cher, Selles-St-Denis, St Viâtre, Souesmes, Soings-en-Sologne (réfugiés de la Meuse), Chaumont-sur-Tharonne, Yvoy le Marron.

From:

http://s217218034.onlinehome.fr/musee/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=49

-Daniel

[JWK]

Well, my 2 weeks of French lessons in Montréal ("Cours intensif" eh?! ) are worth their money : I understand every word!

So the German prisoners were put to work in the fields, to replace the French farmers who had been called up for service ("Mobilised")

Apart from the German POW's Romorantin also housed about 420 refugees from the North and the East of France. and 105 Belgian refugees. Of the refugees 103 were called up for military service.

And in 1918 Romorantin (or Romorantin-Lanthenoy as it is now called) became the site of an airfield for the Americans (A super-sized 10 by 3 kms)

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romorantin-Lanthenay

[ph0ebus]

Romorantin in 1916:

[ph0ebus]

So, in looking at it on Google Maps, looks like Leopold was transported 621 km from Hartmannswillerkopf to the farms of Romorantin-Lanthenay. There is very little information coming up via Google about the prisoners there, which I find surprising. I will continue to look and post any results here.

-Daniel

[ph0ebus]

I have located a family tree on Ancestry that contains the right Leopold; I had missed him initially as they have him with a totally different date of birth! Per the related Social Security Death Index entry he died in the Bronx on November 1, 1982 but the SSDI lists his date of birth as 7 Feb 1900 in Aach. The search continues...

[ph0ebus]

Just a quick non-update to mention that I have made zero progress on locating Leopold in the last three years.  Maybe someday I will find him!

 

Daniel

[JWK]

Article in the French newspaper "La Nouvelle Republique"  of 17th may 2018:

"Who were the German prisoners of '14-'18? "

 

A certain Cyril Berdelou is trying to piece together the story of the German POW's in Romerantin-Lanthenay.during WW1

 

Quote

" Participatory research
> Some private collections may be overflowing with valuable data. Hence the participatory component that Cyril Berdelou wanted to give to his research project, by inviting private individuals in possession of correspondence, old postcards, testimonies, about Romerantin's prisoners of war to come forward.
> A collaborative indexing project is also planned to help the Romorantinese peel data put online by the International Committee of the Red Cross. These lists of men captured on the battlefield represent 56,000 images, "with the date of birth of the soldier, the depot department," a raw material to analyze, explains Cyril Berdelou. "What we have to do is index these lists so we can identify the flows of prisoners, see if there are seasonal changes, where they come from, etc." "
> Interested persons will find all the procedure to follow on the blog www.septemtriones.fr

 

The blog is all in French I'm afraid, but Google Translate usually manages to translate it into understable English.

Edited 19 July , 2018 by JWK

[ph0ebus]

Very interesting!  I will follow their work with interest.

 

-Daniel