Gustrow PoW camp

[Doug Johnson]

Pals,

From the information that I have so far the organisation was as follows;

Gustrow was in the 9th Army Corps area.

From 1914 to 1921 a Landsturm unit from Hessen provided the guard.

The Landsturn unit was at some time commanded by a Mr Siefken, a warehouse manager.

There were at least three commandants;

From 1914? to June 1915 Colonel von Katzler

June 1915 to ? General ?

By Feb 1916 Colonel von Matheson

I have not found the General’s name yet but the von Falk has been suggested. I do have a photograph of him, though not that you could recognise him from it.

von Katzler is unlikely to have been remembered fondly by the prisoners. I do not get the impression he was in any way brutal to the prisoners himself, more that he was uncaring about any brutality by others. The other two seem to have been OK.

Post Armistice the camp was commanded for a while by Lt Col John J Bullington (US), the camp being a camp for former Russian PoW’s for at least a year before it became a camp for displaced Germans.

I would be grateful for any information on the above commandants and whether the Landsturm unit would have been specifically raised for the job. Would the commandant have any other regular army with him or would it have been him and the Landsturm?

Also has anyone found a plan of the camp anywhere? There are plans of some camps in WO161 but I have not found one for Gustrow yet.

Doug

[Manitoba]

Doug,

1918 Reichskriegliste of principle camps classified by military area, with camp commanders remaining at October, 1918, gives the following:

Landwerbezirk kommando Gustow came under IX Armeekorps, at that date under the command of Inspector-Generalmajor Von Oertzen.

Gustow Lager-kommandant was Oberst Von Matheson, who you have previously noted as taking command in 1916. He remained at his post until the Lager was handed over to the Allied Occupation Forces - presumably your Lt. Col. J.J. Bullington (US).

From my research, by 1916 many of the Lager-Kommandants were elderly, retired regular army officers called back from the Army Reserve into active service into the Landwehr.

Von Matheson intrigues me. It is an interesting name, and doesnt sound very Germanic. I have recently researched the background of the Friedrichsfeld Lager-kommandant, Generalmajor Cederholm, between 1916-1918, and discovered that he was of Swedish origin. I will look through my Ehrenrangliste notes to see if I have anything further on Von Matheson. If I find anything I will let you know.

I am also looking for camp maps. If you come across any plans for Wulfen I would be interested.

Hope this is of use ,

Manitoba

[Doug Johnson]

Thanks Manitoba,

The name not sounding German did cause a niggle of doubt even though it came from a reliable source so it's good to have confirmation. Regarding your list, is it readily available?

Doug

[Manitoba]

Doug,

I think I got hold of the list from a French WWI forum some while back. There are also some excellent photographs of French POWs in various German lagers. Some of the posts on the site are available in google translation, others not. I have a feeling this was not but I may be wrong, it is some time since I researched it. How good is your Franglais??

Here is the site ref ... and good luck!!

"ENTRENOUSETVOUS" ... Premiere Guerre mondiale 1914-1918 - Forum pour se retrouver pour parler des problèmes rencontrés en informatique et pour les passionnés de sujets divers, et discutions diverses... Les prisonniers de guerre. http://prisonniers-de-guerre-1914-1918; l'unique ... site du camp de prisonniers de guerre - en Allemand Otobre 1918.

Failing that it might have been on an excellent German WWI forum at http:// altarmee. de Geschitchtsdarstellung.

Sorry I cant be more precise.

Manitoba

[Doug Johnson]

Thanks Manitoba, It was on Cecile's site.

Doug

[Thomas_vertigo]

Hi,

this is an old post. But maybe there are new findings?

I have found two photos of two leading officers in the camp in Gustrow. But there is no date. So I can not say if one is Oberst Von Matheson. 

Can anyone identify the two officers? Does anyone have similar photo postcards of the camp on which the names are listed?

Thomas

 

 

Edited 13 August , 2018 by Thomas_vertigo
update

[vertigo]

Hi together,

many of the leading German officers in the camp Gustrow are identified. If you are interested, you can find the names here:

 

http://www.guestrow-history.de/kgf-1915/2648-1915-kriegsgefangenenlager-fuehrungspersonal-1914-1915

 

http://www.guestrow-history.de/kgf-1917/2659-1917-kriegsgefangenenlager-fuehrungsstab-1916-18

 

http://www.guestrow-history.de/kgf-1917/2665-1917-kriegsgefangenenlager-kommandant-von-matheson-und-adjudant-lauenstein

 

Thomas

[Antje]

Hello everyone,

I'm a German historian and doing research on the conditions in the PoW-camps in Güstrow (Gustrow) and Parchim, both located in Mecklenburg. I'm very interested in ego-documents (letters, diaries, journals, personal reports) of PoWs there, since I can only get hold of official German documents here - but not of the inside-view. I know there the National Archives in London have reports of former English prisoners who reported about the conditions in German camps after they came back to Great Britain. Maybe someone can help me out here? I'd be very thankful.

Best regards,

Antje

[FROGSMILE]

9 hours ago, Antje said:

Hello everyone,

I'm a German historian and doing research on the conditions in the PoW-camps in Güstrow (Gustrow) and Parchim, both located in Mecklenburg. I'm very interested in ego-documents (letters, diaries, journals, personal reports) of PoWs there, since I can only get hold of official German documents here - but not of the inside-view. I know there the National Archives in London have reports of former English prisoners who reported about the conditions in German camps after they came back to Great Britain. Maybe someone can help me out here? I'd be very thankful.

Best regards,

Antje

Hello Antje, I realise that some primary source accounts and recollections from the National Archives will be Ideal, but as a start point have you considered relatively recently published books by British historians?  As well as giving you some abridged accounts by PoW, they will generally list sources of the information that will probably assist you in directing your research.  For example:

 

1.  The War Behind the Wire: The Life, Death and Glory of British Prisoners of War, 1914-18.  John Lewis-Stempel.  ISBN 0297608080.

 

2.  British Prisoners of War - In First World War Germany.   Oliver Wilkinson.  ISBN 9781107199422. 

 

3.  Prisoners of the Kaiser.  Richard Van Emden. ISBN 1848840780.

 

4.  Allied POWs in German Hands 1914 - 1918 (Images of War).  David Bolton.  ISBN 1473867010.

 

All these books can be obtained as pre-owned copies at relatively little cost online.

 

Edited 17 December , 2019 by FROGSMILE

[John Beech]

There is also a lot of correspondence between the British Foreign Office and German government concerning PoW Camps and prisoner treatment in the FO 383 series of documents at the National Archives which should include copies of camp visits buy the Protecting Powers (US then Swiss) which will probably include the camps you are interested in.