Deutsches Rotes Kreuz. Präsidium

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Deutsches Rotes Kreuz. Präsidium

The archival collection under the name Deutsches Rotes Kreuz. Präsidium (The German Red Cross. Presidium) is composed of items of correspondence with two offices: Presidium of the German Red Cross: Special Office East (Amt S; there appears also the abbreviation S-O, that is Sondereinsatz Ost) and the Office of Foreign Service (Amt VII, that is Amt Auslandsdienst).

On the basis of the available correspondence it is possible to establish the approximate organizational structure of those offices in the part of their activity relating to Poles, both soldiers and civilians. The Special Office East (Amt S) consisted of two departments: Polnische Militäre (PM) and Polnische Offiziere (PO). On the other hand, the correspondence of the Office of Foreign Service (Amt VII) is divided into thematic groups: concerning searching for Polish soldiers and POWs, medical personnel, the interned and also Polish civilians.

The Department of Polnische Militäre (PM)

Nearly one third of the collection of Deutsches Rotes Kreuz. Präsidium is occupied by the correspondence of the department of PM, under the title Vermisste Soldaten. It relates to the search for Polish soldiers who were reported lost during the Polish Defensive War of 1939. As regards the search, it was mainly families who had lost contact with their relatives drafted into the Polish Army in August 1939 that turned to the German Red Cross. The next group (Erledigte Fälle) concerns cases in which the German Red Cross managed to establish the vicissitudes of the looked for soldiers and found them in POW camps on the territory of Germany. Another group, referred to as Polnische Kgf. aus Dtld suchen Angehörige in ehemaligen Poln. Gebiet, is made of correspondence related to POWs’ making contacts with their families while staying in the German captivity. Still another issue is connected with searching for Polish soldiers lost in the East, including those who were taken prisoner by the Soviets and the POWs transported into the heart of the USSR. Part of the correspondence deals with, among others, search for Polish soldiers of Jewish origin, who were reported lost during the Polish Defensive War of 1939, their releases from captivity to be moved to ghettos and cases of death in POW camps, as well as looking for Polish POWs who had escaped from the German camps.

The next group of documents from the department of PM (Nachrichten übermittlung) included passing information which was sent to POWs by their families who had lost contact with their relatives. Another group, headed Freilassung, was connected with forwarding to relevant offices correspondence concerning requests from families to have their relatives – Polish POWs – released. Part of the correspondence of the PM Department was devoted to searching for Polish soldiers who had fallen in battlefields of the Polish Defensive War in September 1939 or had died in field hospitals in consequence of the wounds they had received in combat. It also dealt with soldiers who were taken prisoner by Germans and died in the captivity. The correspondence contained notifications of death, as well.

Still another group of correspondence covered matters related to releasing POWs from captivity as being sick, wounded or invalid. This group included also issues of granting material aid to former POWs who had been released as civilian workers, questions of holidays for civilian workers or lastly – transfer of money earned by the workers to their families. The correspondence concerned also the circulation of parcels and letters to and from POWs, as well as POWs’ requests for parcels with books, clothes, etc., or even applications of permission to contract marriages by civilian workers.

Also in the other files relating to matters of Polish soldiers and POWs, there are a lot of interesting materials, among others, dealing with searching for Warsaw insurgents or Polish police officers reported lost in the East. There is, in the end, correspondence of the German Red Cross concerning Polish POWs, which was carried out with different offices, including county offices, courts, job offices, headquarters of camps or the Polish Red Cross.

The Department of Polnische Offiziere (PO)

The correspondence concerning Polish officers, whose matters were dealt with by the departments of PO has a similar form. The largest group here is made of issues relating to the search for officers who had been reported lost during the Polish Defensive War of 1939 – Vermisste Offiziere. A fairly large group of the correspondence of this department is made by Erledigt – the section which contains clarified cases of the Polish officers who were staying in the German captivity. In a similar way as the department of PM, that of PO also dealt with looking for the officers reported lost in the East during the September Campaign of 1939, including those who were taken prisoner and found themselves in the Soviet captivity, i.e., in the camps in Kozelsk, Ostashkov and Starobilsk. Another group of correspondence, headed Gefallene Offiziere concerned searching for Polish officers who had fallen in 1939 or died in the German captivity.

The remaining groups of the correspondence of the Department of PO were arranged in two separate sections:

  • Korrespondenz – letters written by Polish officers staying in the German captivity, which were sent to various institutions via the German Red Cross; they concerned taxes, old age pensions, postal services, lost parcels, requests to be released from the captivity, etc.
  • Unbearbeitet ab 1.VIII.1944 – correspondence concerning search for Polish officers lost or fallen during the Polish September Campaign of 1939, staying or deceased in the German captivity and also making contacts with their families.
The Office of Foreign Service (Amt VII)

The correspondence which can be classified as addressed to the Office VII (Amt VII), is divided into six thematic groups with English headings given on the covers.

The largest group is that under the heading “Correspondence pertaining to Polish POWs”, relating to search for Polish soldiers, officers and officers-cadets who had fallen or were reported lost in the Polish Defensive War of 1939, staying or deceased in the German captivity and being released as civilian workers; and also to search for Polish soldiers of Jewish origin. The second group is headed “Correspondence pertaining to Tracing of the Medical Personnel of the Polish Army” and concerns looking for the medical personnel of the Polish Army: medical doctors, paramedics and nurses reported lost during the September Campaign of 1939 and those staying in the German captivity.

Another one is headed “Correspondence pertaining to Polish Internees in Germany” relating to search for soldiers and civilians of Polish origin interned in Romania, Switzerland, Slovakia, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania and Latvia. The smallest group is that headed “Correspondence pertaining to Tracing of Polish Civilians” which deals with search for civilian persons of Polish origin, who were reported lost, died or were detained in camps (Mauthausen, Dachau), were arrested and interned.

In turn, the group “Miscellaneous correspondence pertaining to Polish nationals N° of Parcels 22” deals with many matters relating to people of Polish nationality, including the following:

  • search for Poles staying in the Soviet Union (deported, arrested, POWs);
  • search for Poles interned in Romania and Hungary;
  • search for Polish airmen serving in the British Army;
  • search for civilians detained in concentration camps;
  • search for civilians of Polish nationality;
  • search for Polish citizens staying on the territory of France before the outbreak of World War 2, soldiers fighting in France, French POWs, civilians abiding in France, French soldiers of Polish nationality;
  • search for civilians living on the territory of the General Government, lost on the territories of the western states, etc.

The last group is the one headed “Miscellaneous correspondence pertaining to Polish children”, containing correspondence dealing with search for children and matters related to their transportation to parents abiding mainly in France.