Poles under assumed names

We are all aware that some soldiers served under assumed names during the war. However, yesterday at the Adagem (Belgium) Canadian War Cemetary I was surprised. Of the 31 Polish graves there, 12 showed that the soldier had been serving under a pseudonym. This is a very much higher ratio of assumed names than I have ever seen before. Does anyone know if this was typical for the Polish forces in general, or if it was perhaps specific to this particular unit? I assume it was done to protect family who might still be in German-occupied Poland. Does anyone have any other theories? Doc

 

I assume it was done to protect family who might still be in German-occupied Poland. Does anyone have any other theories? Doc

Not only from the Germans.
It would also be to protect family in Soviet occupied Poland after they invaded Poland on 17th September.

 

Hi Doc

I’m afraid that I can’t offer much help on the use of assumed names in the Polish Army but I am sure that given time others, such as Marek, will come up with an answer.

What I can do however is tell you of my own experience as a serving British Jew who was one of five brothers who served in the British Forces in WW2.

Three of us who saw active combat chose to keep the family surname of Goldstein and this was duly recorded in our paybooks. Our religion was also shown on our identity disks as J (for Jewish).

When my dear brother Jack, serving in Bomber Command, was shot down and killed over Nuremberg his identity was picked up by the local SS as detailed by my nephew on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/90/a8452190.shtml


Understandably I cannot speak for my late brothers’ motives in retaining their Jewish surnames, despite the obvious risk of being taken prisoner , but I would be lying if I said that I never gave the matter some thought whenever I found myself in the line in Italy and I wrote about this on the BBC WW2 Archives
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/13/a2039113.shtml

 

Hi Ron,
Just out of curiousity, what did the Germans do in general to captured Allied POWs who were Jewish ? Were they sent to POW camps or to concentration camps ?

 

I have never done any research in this field so I cannot answer.

My own gut reaction would be that what was said to me by the German soldier in our POW camp at Ferdorf was probably correct and that If I had been captured alongside other chaps in my unit I would have been transferred to a Stalaag.

The Germans were ever conscious of the fact that a lot of their own subjects were in British hands and consequently, in the main, kept to the Geneva conventions concerning the treatment of Allied prisoners of war.

 

ScreamingEagle

Since my earlier reply I did what I should have done in the first place and used GOOGLE to pose a question.

Go take a look at:
Berga. About the Film. Description | PBS
which tells of what happened to a lot of Jewish soldiers serving in the US Forces and captured during the Battle of the Bulge.

A further link that my good friend Peter G has just drawn my attention to is: A Former POW at Berga
What I find particularly chilling is the reference in this document to a US Soldier by the name of Goldstein who was murdered by the Germans.

I'm sure further research will throw up more examples

 

Don't know of any Polish soldiers at Arnhem, only knew that a number of Jewish soldiers of the various units had there names changed, on the other hand some kept there reglion on their dogtags as being jewish

 

Hi Ron,
Thanks a bunch for the reply. Will definitely have a read on the links you provided. Cheers

 

Hi Ron,
Just out of curiousity, what did the Germans do in general to captured Allied POWs who were Jewish ? Were they sent to POW camps or to concentration camps ?

There is an article by Shmuel Krakowski about Polish-Jewish and Soviet-Jewish prisoners of war: "The Fate of Jewish Prisoners of War in the Soviet and Polish Armies," but I can't remember where right know.

 

Hi Ron,
Just out of curiousity, what did the Germans do in general to captured Allied POWs who were Jewish ? Were they sent to POW camps or to concentration camps ?

I found excerpts from the book about Jewish military casualties in the Polish armies in WWII:
"JEWISH MILITARY CASUALTIES IN THE POLISH ARMIES IN WORLD WAR II" - VOL. III - Jewish P.O.W.

 

We are all aware that some soldiers served under assumed names during the war. However, yesterday at the Adagem (Belgium) Canadian War Cemetary I was surprised. Of the 31 Polish graves there, 12 showed that the soldier had been serving under a pseudonym. This is a very much higher ratio of assumed names than I have ever seen before. Does anyone know if this was typical for the Polish forces in general, or if it was perhaps specific to this particular unit? I assume it was done to protect family who might still be in German-occupied Poland. Does anyone have any other theories? Doc

Doc, could you give us some examples of those pseudonyms? Maybe you've got some pictures? I assume they were soldiers of 1st Armoured Div? I wonder if some Polish members of French or Belgium underground may lie there. :sign_question:

 

Laufer

Thanks for a very informative link

Ron

 

"E DEMBINSKI" is, I believe, 315 "Debinski" or "City of Deblin" Fighter Squadron

However, 315 doesn't seem to have lost any aircraft that date.

 

Kyt,
E Dembinski is his assumed name, not his Sqn.
Maybe his nom-de-guerre was the town of his birth?

which makes it odder because there was a "eskadra Dembinski" i.e. 315

 

Bittman Ewald served as Dembiński Ewald

http://home.concepts.nl/~avalphen/alfabet/b.htm

http://felsztyn.tripod.com/id20.html

He doesn't appear on any of the PAF squadron losses or in any Bomber Command OTU losses.

 

Headstone says.

E BITTMAN SERVED AS
ST STRZ
E DEMBINSKI
8 BAON STRZ
26TH APRIL 1945 AGE 27

st(arszy) strz(elec) = private 1st class
E. Dembinski = soldier's assumed name
8 baon strz(elcow) = 8th Light Infantry Battalion [of the 3rd Polish Infantry Brigade from the 1st Armoured Div]

Name Dembinski is not come from the town of Deblin, where is the school of the Air Force Officers. If it was, it should be like 'Demblinski'. What a language!

 

We are all aware that some soldiers served under assumed names during the war. However, yesterday at the Adagem (Belgium) Canadian War Cemetary I was surprised. Of the 31 Polish graves there, 12 showed that the soldier had been serving under a pseudonym. This is a very much higher ratio of assumed names than I have ever seen before. Does anyone know if this was typical for the Polish forces in general, or if it was perhaps specific to this particular unit? I assume it was done to protect family who might still be in German-occupied Poland. Does anyone have any other theories? Doc
HI there all- Hopefully I may be able to shed some light on this- my late father was Polish and he had an assumed name-DOBRZEJEWSKI- What happened was at the start of the war he had been living and working in Germany (he originally came from the Polish corridor area of Poland) and when war broke out he was forced to enlist in the German army. Later on he was captured in Africa by the Allies who obviously thought he was German but when his real nationality was discovered (after he was brought to the UK ) he was given the choice to go back into the German Army and be a sort of spy I think or he could enlist in the Polish navy which had bases in the UK. He decided to choose the later of the two due to the fact that it would be very risky to go back after being captured. He was enlisted on the destroyer ORP Slazak. He was given a new name in case he was captured by the Germans who would probably have shot him for being a traitor! Hopefully this may give you some idea of the pseudonyn mystery.
Jackie

 

Laufer, unfortunately, this is not an area I am researching, so I didn't take photos of them all. Just these two, but they give an idea of what I am talking about. The headstones were just labelled "polish forces", with no further unit identification. No evidence of any resistence graves in this cemetery. Doc