Tracing German POW after arrival in Liverpool, February 1946

I am a bit worried about posting, but am hoping someone here might be able to point me in the right direction with a research problem I have hit a wall with.

I am trying to trace my grandfather, Ernst Schiele, a German POW who arrived in Liverpool on 19th February 1946 aboard the HMT Mauretania as part of Return Draft No 1 from Canada. I have his partial Canadian records, which are excellent, but I cannot find anything covering his time in the UK apart from his mention on my father's marriage certificate and his and my grandmother's death certificates - everything else draws a blank.

His details are:

• POW number: 516911
• Rank: Gefreiter
• Born: 25 December 1919, Quedlinburg
• Captured: July/August 1944, France/Belgium following D-Day
• Held at Camp 132, Medicine Hat, Alberta
• Classified as non-political
• Arrived Liverpool 19th February 1946, Return Draft No 1

By 1949 he was working as a farm labourer near Halfway House, Shropshire, and clearly chose to remain in Britain rather than repatriate. My father was born there in November 1949.

I have requests in with the ICRC and Bundesarchiv but I understand individual UK camp records were largely destroyed.

I am trying to trace his movements from when he left the Mauretania until my father was born and was wondering whether anyone has knowledge of which camps served the Halfway House area of Shropshire, or whether any nominal rolls or farm allocation records from Shropshire camps survive anywhere, I have contacted Shropshire Archives for copies of any police alien records, but they say they don't hold anything else specific.

Any help at all would be hugely appreciated.

 

Hi,

ICRC should give details of his POW camps after his arrival from Canada.

BBC has this about Shropshire POW Camps -

BBC - Shropshire's prisoner of war camps remembered

while AI gives -


The main POW camps for German servicemen in Shropshire included:

• Mile End POW Camp (Oswestry - Camp 196 / 100): Originally housing up to 2,000 German prisoners, it was famously peaceful with sports pitches and a camp school. Archaeological digs here by ⁠Wessex Archaeologyuncovered unexpected, surprisingly comfortable living conditions, including music, theatre, and ample shower facilities. [1, 2, 3]
• Aston Park POW Camp (Wem - Camp 679): This base originally held up to 1,250 German soldiers. It is well documented by local authorities ⁠Wem - Wikipedia because it became the site of a tragic event in May 1945 when two German corporals were shot and killed while attempting to escape. Its original Nissen huts are still standing and now serve as part of the Wem Industrial Estate. [1, 2]
• Donnington POW Camps (Near Telford - Camps 620, 642, 651, 659, 1004): Consisted of three separate compounds surrounding a large military ordnance depot. This site was the setting for a famous cross-cultural romance when a captured German POW, Hermann Ganter, married a local English teacher, leading to the overturning of the law forbidding fraternization. [1]
• Nesscliffe POW Camp (Nesscliffe): Used partly as an agricultural labour base, the original buildings survived exceptionally well and are still utilized by the Ministry of Defence as an active army training facility.

Steve

 

Hey Steve,

Thank you, I have requests in to ICRC and the Bundesarchiv and also am finding creative ways of trying to get info from the Shropshire Archive or local police records detailing alien monitoring from the time.

I guess I need to learn some patience, but I feel so close now.

Anna