Giessen POW Camp WW1

[Scotsmac]

Great pictures! I have the book Gießen im Krieg (see my post 19) which has some interesting photos of POWs in it. I'm not sure I can scan and post here since the book is only a few years old. I think I would be infringing copyright. The book is well worth a read if you can understand German.

Thanks for sharing yours.

Best Wishes

Keith

[stiletto_33853]

[Stephen Reinstadtler]

My great cousin Rifleman Jack Sadler 16 Service Btn. The Rifle Brigade died as a prisoner of war at Giessen Camp and is buried at the CWGC cemetery at Niederzwheren. But his real name was Reinstadtler, changed due to the anti german sentiment during WW1. The family, which had come to Britain from Germany 70 years earlier, originated in Dorlar in the Lahn Valley just a few miles from Giessen. Undoubtedly there were direct relatives still there in WW1 - the sheer futility of that conflict could not be better illustrated.

[Trav]

Not all the pictures above were taken in Giessen... right?

[stiletto_33853]

Trav,

To the best of my knowledge they were, however I am still checking all the pictures to see. The individual this collection came from was in Courtrai hospital while recovering from his wounds, with a short period at Limburg. The rest of the war was at Giessen.

 

Andy

[Trav]

On 10/12/2018 at 11:35, stiletto_33853 said:

 

Thanks for the reply - I can't speak for them all, but this one appears here https://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/PostCards/de

as "Meschede, Westphalia, Germany. The prisoner-of-war camp (ICRC, Germany, n°48)". My interest lies in the fact my Grandfather was also at Limburg before being moved on to Orb as one of those who 'failed to recruit' to Casement's Irish Brigade. It may be worth looking through some of the postcards on the above site to check. HTH

 

Edited 13 December , 2018 by Trav
clarity

[stiletto_33853]

[Buffnut453]

On ‎13‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 16:20, Trav said:

 

 

Just stumbled across this thread after discovering a relative of mine was a POW at Giessen from March 1918 onwards.  

 

Were any conclusions reached about the above image?  I took a quick glance and can't easily reconcile it with the postcard of Giessen shown earlier in the thread.

[Trav]

ICRC clearly state it's 'Camp de Meschede'. The postcard on their site is a slightly different crop of the one posted above. HTH

 

This is another view https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wwi_pow_camps/480/ and lines up quite well with the google earth shot of Meschede, in fact one of the streets leading off that 'hub' is named Lagerstrasse. So I think it's definite.

Edited 30 April , 2019 by Trav
More detail...

[Buffnut453]

35 minutes ago, Trav said:

ICRC clearly state it's 'Camp de Meschede'. The postcard on their site is a slightly different crop of the one posted above. HTH

 

This is another view https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wwi_pow_camps/480/ and lines up quite well with the google earth shot of Meschede, in fact one of the streets leading off that 'hub' is named Lagerstrasse. So I think it's definite.

 

Many thanks, Trav. I figured it wasn't Giessen but I appreciate the confirmation.

 

Kind regards,

Mark

[Numanoid817]

Only just saw these pictures of Geissen. Superb stuff. Thanks for posting

[Bootsie]

My grandfather was a POW there from May 1915 until early 1919.  Some pictures and maps I managed to get and put together.

[Simon Bull]

My grandfather was a POW at Giessen.

I read recently that the Germans had a camp for incomong refugees in Gieseen.  I wondered if it was on the site of the POW camp, but was unable to ascertain whether this was the case.

[Anthony466]

Some postcards from Limburg, Meschede and Giessen from Christopher Flynn Connaught Ranger 9859. He was there with his brother Patrick Flynn 6833.

The Flynns were 8 brothers from Ballina. Seven were soldiers in WW1 and all returned home.

anthony