Firstly-my wife and I went on a synagogue organised trip to poland and did the chilling unforgettable tour of auschwitz/burkenau-lost for words. My late uncle witnessed worse and never talked about it. As an raf intelligence officer who spoke german and polish he must have been useful in helping to do detective work and clear up-name sydney abraham scott-did anyone know him and work of unit? anthony
hello Anthony have you applied for his service records link below https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-defence/about/publication-scheme#service-records---requests-for-service-records-of-deceased-service-personnel-and-home-guard regards Clive
How did your uncle (in RAF) witness worse than Auschwitz ? And how can it be that a polish refugee (as I can't imagine a briton to casually learn polish language in 1938) have the name Scott ? (out of curiosity , as I imagine a great (his)story here ). Regards,
How did your uncle (in RAF) witness worse than Auschwitz ? And how can it be that a polish refugee (as I can't imagine a briton to casually learn polish language in 1938) have the name Scott ? (out of curiosity , as I imagine a great (his)story here ). Regards, I don't know about the OP's uncle but RAF personnel were involved in the liberation of at least one camp - Belsen. See this article by James Molyneaux (later, an MP and head of the Ulster Unionists) - I witnessed the dead of Belsen: we must always confront tyranny - Telegraph Cheers Ian
How did your uncle (in RAF) witness worse than Auschwitz ? And how can it be that a polish refugee (as I can't imagine a briton to casually learn polish language in 1938) have the name Scott ? (out of curiosity , as I imagine a great (his)story here ). Regards, My late father (a German-Jewish refugee living in London from Jan '34 onwards) committed identity theft on Sept 3/39 (he stole the identity of a dead London classmate) and enlisted in the RAF. I don't know whether he was the only one to pull this stunt... After the war, he was naturalized in the UK using the name he had stolen. That's how I ended up with the family name Stevens (rather than Hein). Marc
Hello and welcome to the forum. Like Marc explained regarding his father, I am sure that there is logical explaination and it is just a matter of finding it. Good luck with any research you are carrying out. Regards Tom
What Unit did your RAF uncle belonged to ?? Could it be the 309 S&T Column RAF ?? This Unit came to Belsen 1945 one of the first RAF Units. Heinz
THE LONDON GAZETTE, 26 MARCH, 1940 ADMINISTRATIVE AND SPECIAL DUTIES BRANCH Pilot Officers on probation Sydney Abraham SCOTT (77838) Promoted to Flight Lieutenant in 1946 - name sometimes spelt as Sidney Abraham SCOTT in the Gazette
I remembered that I'd read somewhere about other RAF involvement in Belsen. It took me a while but I've now found the webpage I was thinking of. Here it is - RAF Officer at Belsen Liberation - containing photographs taken by a Flight Sergeant Gunn. There's no information about his unit, however. I also have a vague memory of having come across other Belsen pictures in which the Nazi commandant was being guarded by RAF men. But I've lost the link to the relevant website.
I have a friend who was in Belsen. Her whole family (Dutch Jews) were there, but she doesn't remember much as she was a very young child. Soon after liberation her parents died from typhus, but she and all her siblings are still alive today, with many descendants. Some live in the UK, some in Israel.
My father was one of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who were attached to the 63rd Anti-tank Royal Artillery. He had been wounded and retrained as a cook. The 63rd were the ones who discovered Belsen and Dad was sent in to help set up the kitchens to try to cope with thousands of starving poeple. He never got over the experience and seeing the photos, I'm not surprised.
Interview with Sir Brian Urquhart: http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/PubEd/research/UN/Urquhart/urquhart3.html '...so we locked him up in a meat locker, because we didn't have enough troops to guard him.' mags
