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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Marcin FELEDZIAK Infantry Regiment 171


Martin Feledziak

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Thanks Daniel.

I am guessing that it is addressed to his Brother Herr Jacob Feledziak. I also guess that it is written by GF as the 'H' is very similar to the other postcard he sent to his sister. He did write in Polish. It appears to have been written in blue pencil. It is very faded and this is as good as it gets.

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Looks like the Mudra Lager in the Argonnes.

Roel

Thanks Roel,

It is amazing the structures the Pioneers created. Some of their bridge repairs were incredible.

I remember Egbert saying that the actual camp for Battalion 29 was called Königstrasse.

Martin

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Daniel,

This is the front of the postcard. GF is top row second in. I have added the text line with the fancy script. I would love to know where this place is and whatever the blue pencil writing says on the back..But yet again very difficult to read

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Martin,

That is one factastic picture! Thanks for sharing. The building behind the group has some pretty distinctive features, so I suspect that if any group can solve where this picture was taken, this group can.

That said, there was a Lazarett in Nürnberg, and I even found a picture of it, but the picture background has no relation to your photo. That does not necessarily mean anything, but it does tell us that perhaps this photo might have been taken in Nürnberg, so it's at least a place to start:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ekeha/7087998361/

-Daniel

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Hi Daniel -

I have looked at that photograph many times and always thought it was a collection of people from his mining community in Douai (France). Mainly because this is what I had been told by my Aunt.

I should have noticed the man with the damaged arm in a sling and the three nurses. The only obvious clue is the medal ribbon. (But I was not aware of this) There are no hats been worn as you see in most of the photographs of this type.

We were lucky as our ancestors survived the war. Clearly if the injury which put GF in hospital had actually killed him then my Father an I would not have been born.

The 2 Johann's were not that lucky.

There are still mysteries which I would like to unravel but it is needle in a haystack puzzle.

Having now researched marriage records in Posen (Poznan) I see that a number of my ancestors were conscripted and several appear on the German Casualty lists you introduced me to.

Martin

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Hi Daniel -

I have looked at that photograph many times and always thought it was a collection of people from his mining community in Douai (France). Mainly because this is what I had been told by my Aunt.

I should have noticed the man with the damaged arm in a sling and the three nurses. The only obvious clue is the medal ribbon. (But I was not aware of this) There are no hats been worn as you see in most of the photographs of this type.

We were lucky as our ancestors survived the war. Clearly if the injury which put GF in hospital had actually killed him then my Father an I would not have been born.

The 2 Johann's were not that lucky.

There are still mysteries which I would like to unravel but it is needle in a haystack puzzle.

Having now researched marriage records in Posen (Poznan) I see that a number of my ancestors were conscripted and several appear on the German Casualty lists you introduced me to.

Martin

That's how it was for me. Growing up I only knew of my grandfather and great uncle, but with time and effort I have found so many who served on both sides of this conflict. You honor them in your search and I hope we find more answers as time goes by.

-Daniel

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Moments ago I found the answer to a question I have had for many years, almost three of which on this forum alone, about my great uncle Simon:

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/6320056

The key to finding this was persistance, and time. Just because you check a resource today does not mean the resource won't have your answer tomorrrow!

-Daniel

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Hi Daniel.

These reports are very interesting, and like you, I check them frequently because I know that they are being scanned and transcribed as we speak. It looks like Simon's page was indexed on 1st December this month.

I can see that he was a Sergeant and from the home town of Fulda.

But what does 28.11 mean. ( Does it mean 28 Nov 1917 ). Was he reported Wounded ? I think that Leicht means Lightly wounded but I don't understand the first word in Simon's report.

I see he is second down in your signature and you have his unit info there.

I can see from this publication it was dated 20th July 1918 and there are many pages of names and they are in alphabetical order.

I am guessing that the authorities were well behind with their documentation and ended up printing block reports.

See below there is a section of missing reports reports from 1362 to 1726.

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I notice also that the unit information is not reported.

I am still trying to find out about Johann Feledziak Killed 18.07.1917 and his information may also be included in a block report somewhere. as it would logically appear in the missing section above.

Now I have the hospital picture I also wonder why there is no report for Martin being wounded.

I therefore think he was not the Martin taken prisoner of War.

Let us keep looking.

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Martin, the first word you mean "Utffz" (Unteroffizier)?

The unit is mentioned on the previous page of the report; I have no idea how to get there (I'd love to).

Roel

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Roel.

Daniel gave me this link to the casualty database. It lets you open the actual paper in a special viewer. It is a little tricky to get it to work but I have managed it.

I have noticed that in quiet days during the war the report provides unit information and incident dates, However as casualties and Deaths hit thousands per week they started to print the names in huge great papers with very little detail. Not surprising considering the Millions of men lost.

Here is the link see if you can get it to work for you..Choose the year you are interested in and then the date in that year.

http://www.wbc.pozna...id=129687&tab=3

Any problems I will try to explain better.

Even though I have started to work out how to view documents I need help with what is recorded.

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Thanks Martin; the link doesn't work, I'll see if it works later tonight.

Roel

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This is an example of such a page. I have selected it at random however an interesting feature of the early reports appears to be the inclusion of the subjects Date of Birth.

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Moments ago I found the answer to a question I have had for many years, almost three of which on this forum alone, about my great uncle Simon:

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/6320056

The key to finding this was persistance, and time. Just because you check a resource today does not mean the resource won't have your answer tomorrrow!

-Daniel

Daniel

working on the theory that the 28.11 is Simon Stern's Birth Date and Month.

Martin

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Daniel

working on the theory that the 28.11 is Simon Stern's Birth Date and Month.

Martin

Hi Martin,

You are correct, Simon was born on November 28th, which confirms it is the 'right' Simon.

Uffz is shorthand for his rank, Unteroffizier, at the time he was wounded, so this report tells me he was promoted sometime between 1917 from Gefreiter.

This particular VL and ones from this time period omit the unit details, which is frustrating. I know he was, at least in 1917, with Reserve Feldartillerie Regiment Nr. 5. Should I ever get my hands on a Unit History, I'll see if it has an Ehrentafel in which he possibly is listed.

Daniel

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Look what I have just found trawling through the huge list of pages. The Other Johann Feledziak.

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I believe his date of death is 18 .07. 1917 because that is on his cross in the Cemetery at Consenvoye.

So now I have his Birth Date and Month.

But Not much else.

Does anyone know what the place of his origin says ?

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Many Thanks

Daniel and Roel.

Things are beginning to fit into place now.

From recent research I have found that my early family originate from Strzelce Wielkie and most births and Marriages are recorded in the church there. (source : Project Poznan )

Roel ....The spelling of Szelejewo fits on the map below.

My Great Grandfather Johann born 1859 was married at Pogorzela. I believe that all 6 of the named individuals on the German casualty Lists are my ancestors. They are all on the map below. Our surname is fairly unique. I just need to find the day and month of birth for GGF Johann born 1859. If it is 13th June then he is the soldier at Consenvoye..

However that would make him late 50's and very old for service, but things are still pointing that way. Towards the end of the war I hear that old men and young boys were forced into service. Johann the son was already Killed in 1915, His other Son a possible prisoner in 1916 so he would already have a heavy burden upon his shoulders.

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This appears at the top of each casualty news report.

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Can anone help me with a translation please ?

Edited by Martin Feledziak
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Martin;

I just noticed this interesting thread. (I have been away from the Forum for a while.) I see that you are being assisted by several very knowledgeable and helpful people, such as Daniel and Egbert. I will read thru the thread again and I will see if I can come up with helpful suggestions. My father also was a Prussian Pionier {Garde=Reserve=Pionier=Regiment (Flammenwerfer) }, and I have been researching him off and on since I found a trove of letters in 2000, so I know a good deal about that branch.

A few points. In peacetime in Prussia men were usually taken in for their (usual) two years' service in the Fall of the year in which they turned 20, and you are correct, that men were drafted earlier and earlier, as the war went on, but I believe that with enlisted men the legal obligation for military service ended when the man reached 45, and I have never seen anything that suggests that that changed. (The reason is that most soldiers had to march everywhere, had to do physical work, and that at some point men simply were not very useful for most service. When men reached about 35 they generally were transferred from the Landwehr to the Landsturm, which generally did not serve in combat (possibly on the Eastern Front, where the competition was not that good), but might guard POWs, bridges, train lines, etc. So a EM/OR serving in his late 50's seems quite odd. In the case of officers some served into their 80s; I think von Zeppelin and another Ulan=Offizier did.

I do not understand them, but while most German WW I records were destroyed in an RAF fire-bombing of the Prussian State Archives at the end of the war, it seems that the medical records were held elsewhere, and generally have survived. My father was wounded four times, and after his worst wound (his second at Verdun), he spent 1917 in and out of a number of hospitals, and mining the medical records might be very fruitful. I have great oral history stories about his medical care, and info from letters, and after the war he even traveled and visited some society-type ladies who were volunteer nurses during the war.

(I can't resist a story. My father visited these society types, who I think were in Bavaria, where he was in a hospital in a brewery town. They were having coffee and cake, and one of the women asked my father: "Georg, tell us one thing. When you were at the hospital, late one night a watchman found private X alone in a remote area of the hospital, lying on a pool table. We wondered how he got there, as he had lost both legs, but he refused to say how he got there, and we have always been curious." My father then explained the matter, and the mature women found it so funny that one burst out laughing so hard that she spit a mix of coffee and cake over my father, to her extreme embarrassment. What had happened, the girlfriend of the legless patient was in the vicinity, and it was arranged that the ambulatory patients sneaked the girl into the hospital late at night, and they also carried the legless man to a remote area of the hospital, so that the couple could have an intimate interlude. However, a watchman suddenly was coming, and they could not hide the wounded man, but did manage to rush the girl away and hide her and eventually get her out of the hospital. The former nurses found that tremendously funny. This breeches the topic of "sex in war", one I rarely see discussed.)

I am fortunate that my father talked his head off about the war, and often mentioned that it was the best period of his life. He got malaria in Turkey in 1915, and was wounded on the Western Front four times. His "light wound" at Verdun kept him in the hospital for a year (in and out), and about 15-20 minor surgeries without anesthishia (sp?) (I have a letter where he reported that a doctor apologized for that), he got on extremely badly with his officers for a good while (he had killed his company commander, an extremely bad officer; he was not punished, but not appreciated a lot either, after that), but he fought in the two most elite storm units (both Pioniere units) and found it extremely exciting. He fought in the Civil War in Berlin in 1919, and did not like that a lot.)

As usual I end up talking about my family, I apologize, but I hope that it was interesting. I will follow and try to help, but very able people are already assisting you.

Another lead. The fighting in the Argonne in 1915 was very interesting. Von Mudra, a Pionier=Offizier also, developed very successful combined arms tactics, and pushed the French thru the forest in a series of successful actions. Von Mudra was later one of my father's commanders at Verdun, and my father sent his father a photo of von Mudra with the Crown Prince in front of the Crown Prince's HQ at Stenay-sur-Meuse, which my father had caged out of the Crown Prince's personal photographer. (Info from my father's cover letter for the photo, I don't have the photo itself.) You may fins a study of that fighting very interesting.

Bob

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Hi Bob,

Nice to have contact with you. I have viewed all of your input on the other thread relating to PI/Bat 29 which is the reason why I arrived on this Forum in the first place. The internet is a truly magnificent resource which appears to have limitless boundaries.

This strand is very untidy because I started it off with the two Johann's and then added my Grandfather to it. Both Johann's were killed in the war but my Grandfather survived. However to me I always considered him a Polish man living in France. I had no idea where he had been living or where he had been during his young adult life.

He died in 1968 so I never had an opportunity to learn of his experiences.

( I am well aware that for them the war was a hideous time and for some things did not get any better when the next war started. )

To be fair my real quest is to find out about my Polish roots but now I am here I am hooked on WW1 and the amazing stories, just like your legless man story above. This Forum has got some fantastic information and many true people of outstanding courage.

So let us keep searching

Martin

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Hello Martin,


This is such an amazingly interesting post with superb images. Unfortunately I cannot help you regarding the war but but may be able to help you with translation.


My elder son is returning home tomorrow for a two-week Christmas break and he speaks fluent German and fluent Russian. I also have a friend of Polish parentage who may be able to help with some Polish translation (although I am unsure how fluent she is). If there is any German/Russian that any of you would like him to look at please could you get it to me ASAP before he returns to work in London.


Like many of you, I too have German ancestors on my maternal grandmothers side. I posted a photograph of Ernest Conrad Lower earlier today to see if anybody could help with his (British) uniform and thought how Germanic he looked. We are unsure yet whether he was involved in the Great War but he returned to Germany after World War II (Kassel) to find relatives (one of whom was repatriated back to Germany at the beginning of WWII). He found some and came back with news that one of my mother's cousins had been killed on the Russian front. Yes, you are very right war is a terrible thing whenever and wherever it happens. Several of our German ancestors fought using their German names (such as Hansmann) which I think was incredibly brave of them and some of them did use aliases.


Best wishes,


Janice
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