PoW - Archives

[belgotim]

For people looking into the history of family members that spent time in a Prisoner of War Camp, the International Committee of the Red Cross (Geneva) has a vast archives section.

http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/archives

The request information form can be found in the box to the right entitled:

"Requests pertaining to personal data on victims of an armed conflict in the 20th century"

Although relatively expensive, they should be able to provide people with all the information they hold regarding your relatives or people being researched.

The annoying part of the form is the section in which they ask you for your relationship to the person being investigated. I don't know about you guys, but I'm looking into great-grandfather and brothers so I do not fit the profile of people entitled to query the ICRC.

I have e-mailed the relevant person in Geneva asking how none-direct relatives can access the files and will share his answer when received.

Hope this is useful.

Tim

[belgotim]

I have now received more information regarding the ICRC's services with researching PoW files:

"By Law and under the Regulations governing access to the ICRC archives, communication of personal information is restricted. Personal records in our possession contain private information; such records are closed for 60 years from the date of deposit in our archives.

These restrictions do not affect communication of personal records for private or public interest. Family members, researchers or institutions may apply for information searches in the ICRC archives in accordance with the ICRC Archives Access Statement.

Please take note that the research is free of charge only for the individual

concerned or his/her next-of-kin (that is, parents, children, spouse, brother or sister). Otherwise, a fee of CHF 80 per hour is charged (£35).

Upon written request, ICRC archivists will research biographical details . The ICRC will issue a new certified document, containing all relevant information on the researched person. This new document will be sent to the postal address of the requestor.

To identify a person for whom a detention certificate is requested, we need

at least three pieces of matching information full name, date and place

of birth. Any other information like mother's name, father's name, service N°, POW N°, unit, grade, place of detention, etc. will facilitate research.

Payment is by credit card

No advance payments, please.

If you request a search under the conditions above, please provide us with:

· your postal address

· your credit card number and

· it's expiry date,

· Explicit how many hours of research you wish us to carry out (1, 2, 3

or 4 hours maximum per person sought).

We would like to inform you that the ICRC Archives are constantly receiving an important number of requests that are being treated by incoming order. Because of the large volume of requests, it is difficult for us to provide requesters with interim reports on specific cases. It takes us 3 months on average to carry out the research. The information will be sent to you as soon as available."

Hope this is useful information.

Tim

[Doug Johnson]

Tim,

This is really useful info for me as I have two family members that were prisoner of war, my grandfather and my wife's grandfather. As all of our parents are alive it presumably means we can get the info for free!

I actually come from a long line of PoW's as my father followed in his father's footsteps and was briefly a PoW in WW11. Neither saw much action either as my grandfather lasted about 1 day at Messines in 1914 and my father a few hours on operation varsity.

Thanks for the info

Doug

[Doug Johnson]

Hi,

Having read the forms for the ICRC research the free bit only applies to WW11 or later.

Doug

[JulianB]

The IRCR has been discussed quite a few times before on this forum - although it's probably very useful to restate the methods etc by which they operate, there is little new.

I would add however, that the IRCR records vary in detail. I commissioned some research on my grandfather and gave them extensive details on dates capture etc etc. Actually they had very little on him; just two records of dates (transfers etc) one of which I knew the other clarified something which I had suspected.

good luck anyway, it's always worth a try

Julian