Locating missing/fallen Relative

[wilhelm]

Hi everyone

I'm looking for any good sites or information on locating German soldiers who went missing in action during WW2. I have used the search function and didn't really find anything, although I do recall seeing a link on this site about a year ago to a good site. I seem to recall that there is a project that tries to identify newly discovered remains via DNA with living relatives.

Any tips that any of the members might have to assist me in this search would be very warmly welcomed and appreciated.

[Heinzi]

I used that one:
http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/

Its a good start and maybe it helps. Good luck!

You have to give personal information about you though. After that you will get letters from the organisation. Just wanted to "warn" you about that.

[Zerodivider]

This should help: http://www.dd-wast.de/
They can take a while though...

[wilhelm]

Thank you very much guys.

I don't hold out much hope though. My grandfather was a career officer in the German Wehrmacht from before the war. He went missing in 1944 near Bobruysk, which is South East of Minsk in what is now Bellorussia. The problem is that he was not with his unit when he went missing. He was on his way back to them from elsewhere on the front, and might have been allocated to an Ad Hoc unit.

My mother and grandmother waited for news about him until 1955 when the Soviets released their last surviving prisoners. He was not among them. My mother emigrated from Germany immediately after that and never returned.

Over the years my grandmother had constantly tried to gather more information particularly from German Govt sources, but there is none. She has now been gone for 20 years, and my mother is now in her 70's and would really like some sort of closure I guess.

I have wondered with the advent of the internet, end of the Cold War and the fact that hastily created battle graves are still being discovered, wether I might perhaps have better luck or resources than my grandmother. I am lucky that my mother and Grandmother treasured all his correspondence, so I can sort of gather quite a bit of info from these once my mother tranlates them. Being an ex- military man myself, some things might make more sense to me than to her.

Thanks for that input guys .... and if anyone has any info at all, or tips that might help me in this search I would welcome it, no matter how small.

[SturmPionier]

No Problem Wilhelm, u can also ask the "Wehrmachtsauskunftstelle"

->

Deutsche Dienststelle:

Deutsche Dienststelle für die Benachrichtigung der nächsten Angehörigen von Gefallenen der ehemaligen deutschen Wehrmacht WASt.
Bietet Hilfe bei Anfragen zu Kriegssterbefallanzeigen, Todeserklärungsverfahren, Erkennungsmarken und Feldpostnummern.

Anschrift:
Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt)
Eichborndamm 179
13403 Berlin
Telefon: 030 / 41904-0
Telefax: 030 / 41904-100
www.dd-wast.de
www.com-de.pair.com/WASt/
e-Mail: wast@com-de.com

Personalunterlagen der Wehrmacht und des Wehrmachtgefolges verwaltet auch:

Bundesarchiv Zentralnachweisstelle
Abteigarten 6
52076 Aachen

[wilhelm]

Thanks sturm...

[wilhelm]

Sturm, thanks for your message. Please check your private messages.

[SturmPionier]

roger sir :)

[wilhelm]

Did the Germans issue their soldiers with a force number or personal identification Number? We have painstakingly gone through his papers and so far have only his unit and feld post number.

Is there also a registry of Iron Cross holders? He hwas awarded the Iron cross 2nd class in France(?) in June 1940, as well as the Iron Cross first class on the Eastern Front in December 1941. Is there a register that tracks these awards? Will they carry an account of what he did to earn those medals?

[toki]

Good luck with your search. I remember my grandfather (who passed away 1985) later told my father, that IF he would have died at any stage of his imprisonment, or way back nobody would have ever found out. My father was surprised when his father suddenly knocked the door in 1950. (He was drawn into the Wehrmacht at a very late stage, because he had an important position at a submarine warf in Danzig. Captured after a week and send to siberia, there he was a lone survivor and had quite a confusing way home).

[wilhelm]

SturmPionier, please check your PM.

[wilhelm]

Thanks Toki. I see the volksbund recovered over 33 000 remains last year alone. Is their a way my mother or I could help, such as give a DNA sample in the hope of finding him and bringing him home?

[wilhelm]

I am doing the research on behalf of my mother. I understand German very poorly and so it is a little difficult for me to make progress sometimes...

[seventy6er]

I am doing the research on behalf of my mother. I understand German very poorly and so it is a little difficult for me to make progress sometimes...


If you need help with translations etc. ==> drop me a PM.

I'd be glad to help.

[wilhelm]

Thank you seventy6er, very kind of you.

[wilhelm]

I've tried to google this, but is anyone aware of an online resource that details Iron Cross receipients?