red cross

[jamesbow]

hi all,

have had a reply today from the red cross Geneva,regarding my uncle,and am not sure of its meaning.if anyone knows or has had a similar letter could you please help.the letter states:

dear sir,

further to your request please find enclosed to this letter a certificate with the information pertaining to Alfred Bowskill

best regards,

enclosed was a letter that states:

ATTESTATION

the central tracing agency has received the following information:

name BOWSKILL Alfred

place of birth :Arlesey Bedfordshire.

rank : private

unit :2nd Bedford regiment

place of capture : Ypres

places of internment :prisoner of war in German hands,present in the camp of Neuhammer an der Queis according to a list received on 30. 8. 1916.

from : one list from the German authorities.

does this mean this is all they have got?,or do i have to apply for more ,am i missing something?.i would have thought that after 4 years pow there would be more,camps,illness,injury etc.

many thanks jamesbow

[John_Hartley]

I think that's your lot.

As far as I understand these things, the only obligation under the relevent conventions was to confirm to the Red Cross that a man was a prisoner. If he subsequently died, there was another notification. The point being that the RC was acting as an intermediary between the captor nation and the "home" nation, so that the whereabouts of a man might be known.

There was certainly no obligation on the captor nation to maintain a detailed record of the prisoner's time in captivity to pass on to the RC

[nhclark]

James, no, that's it.

I know that you're disappointed, but the ICRC can do no more than report the information provided to it by the imprisoning authorities at the time.

If I may I would encourage you to be well pleased that you have at least some information additional to that which you had before.

Many people receive a "nil information" reply, especially if they are enquiring about prisoners taken by the Japanese in the Second World War.

I have made two enquiries of the ICRC about WW1 prisoners, and in both cases received positive replies. A little more information was provided on my two men, but that's only because there was more to report. I'm happy to send copies to you if you would like a comparison. Just send me a PM with your direct e-mail address and I'll be happy to oblige.

Noel

[jamesbow]

john,& noel,

many thanks for reply,i am very pleased with the red cross for the information they have sent(at no cost) i will be sending them a letter of thanks and a donation,as it was much appreciated.i guess i was hoping for a bit of luck with this as all three bowskill brothers records are missing.

but i do have a wonderful collection of newspaper clips on them all .all the very best jamesbow

[Doug Johnson]

May be even worse than you think. The Red Cross was only advised of the head camp or camp of registration. If he was a PoW for a couple of years he may only have been in the camp for a few days if at all. Mrs P-H states the following; The clearing camp for the Upper Silesia. One hundred thousand men are carried on the register here. Many prisoners of war on these lists have never been to the parent camp, but go straight to working camps under its administration. It is a start though as, if he was sent to a work camp, then it would have been one of those attached to Neuhammer. This is better than those captured in the 1918 spring offensive registered to Fredrichsfeld, Limburg or Guestrow as these may not even have been in Germany.

The following is a list of numbers of registered prisoners in October 1918

French Officers 2

French Men 5 327

Russian Officers 1

Russian Men 69 128

Belgian Men 40

English Officers 1

English Men 1 277

Serbian Men 3 291

Rumanian Men 2 237

Italian Men 2 978

Portuguese Men 2

American Officers 1

American Men 3

Civilians 180

Total 84 468

Note the low numbers of English (would include all British and Commonwealth (Empire) troops) The presence of officers may indicate that this camp ran along the lines of the troops PoWs administering their own discipline.

Doug

PS as yet I do not have any names of any associated work camps recorded.