I have followed a link elsewhere on this site to "possible POW Lamsdorf funeral photos". The pictures show a mass funeral. I'm pretty sure they are not Lamsdorf funeral photos. I have seen a copy of a photograph of a mass funeral taken at the time by Sydney Sherriff, camp leader. The Sherriff photo is a much less grand affair with simple wooden coffins. Furthermore, at the time, the men were buried on site at Lamsdorf which is in the middle of nowhere, there is no church (as appears in the background of one of the photos) for miles.There seem to be a lot of photos around purporting to be POW funerals but I question their authenticity -- magnificent coffins (unaffordable to the average Brit I would have thought even today), massive wreaths and dozens of German soldiers in attendance?? all seems very unlikely to me. The real mystery however, is why so many of these photos turn up in ex POW memento boxes. If they had thought they were propaganda nonsense they would have been discarded surely? Thoughts much appreciated.
Have you used the search facility? http://ww2talk.com/index.php?search/1581981/&q=Lamsdorf+funeral&o=relevance
Yes it's an old post (5 years ago) and the links are broken. The other pictures on the thread are the ones that I am referring to --
As the originator of the topic I'd love to see your evidence to support your questioning of the authenticity of the photographs that i posted (and handled). Steve
I found these pictures attached to a response to a post of mine about deaths at Blechhammer and they were labelled as "funerals at Lamsdorf". I was curious as I said in my post above, because of the magnificence of the funerals as compared with a picture I have seen at the Lamsdorf museum which was taken at the time by the camp leader and given to the museum by his son. Also the burial site at Lamsdorf was in a position such there is no church/building in the background. The camp is at least 4 km from the village after which it was renamed when it lost its VIIIB designation. I hope you are not offended by my curiosity as my intention was not to state fact but to question. As a social historian and researcher I am cautious about taking everything at face value especially when there seems to be anomalies. POW's received dreadful treatment, for example veterans have reported not being allowed to take refuge until the last minute during air raids but when killed in such raids were afforded magnificent funerals with dozens of Germans present. This seems to be an anomaly worth investigating. And I would be grateful for more knowledge that anyone can provide.
