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| My mother, Alise Buss (pronounced Bush), my elder sister, Anita, and
I, Inara, were evacuated from Riga by ship in July 1944. The Soviet Army
re-occupied Latvia in October 1944. My father, Arvids, a soldier in the
Latvian Army, remained in Latvia. He tracked us down in the hamlet of
Hermannsried some weeks after the war ended on May 8, 1945. We lived in
DP camps in Windischbergerdorf, Bamberg, Wildflecken and Delmenhorst until
we boarded an IRO ship at Bremerhaven in 1950, bound for Australia under
its DPs Immigration Scheme. |
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Inara and friend at the early Baltic DP camp in Bamberg in 1946. It was
a single building with vast rooms divided with blankets into cubicles containing
bunks for families. I had a top bunk which meant that I could see all activities
in the room.
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These
are some
of the buildings housing DPs in the large Bamberg Baltic Camp to which
we were transferred. DP policemen on duty.
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Inara with DP Policeman
at entrance to the building in which our family was assigned a bed-sitting
room with a kitchen next to it on the 2nd floor.
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DP
policeman.This building also housed
the camp administrative offices.
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Inara on right with best friend, Irene, in policemen's sentry box. |
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Bamberg Baltic camp buildings, 1948. |
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The street between the camp buildings as seen from our kitchen window.
The women in long dresses are in Latvian national costumes on their way
to a concert.
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Anita and friends
pulling Inara on a sled on the frozen pond which lay between Bamberg
Camp and railway yards. Camp buildings in the background. Winter
1948/49.
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Children sliding about on metal jerry cans if they had no skates or sleds.
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Children enjoying
the iced-over pond. |
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The same pond in summer. We lived in a builidng facing the pond and the
railway yard.
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Children on a home made raft on the pond. |
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Visitor perched on
the end of the bed next to the tiled wood-fired heating stove. Bamberg
1948.
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Irene and Inara in
front of chestnut tres in the camp square. Round children's sandpit
on left.
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Anita in her bunk while ill. I had the top bunk.
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Anita, Inara and friend on our parent's bed which served as a couch during
the day.
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Our room also contained a wardrobe (behind the toddler) as well as a
chest of drawers. Anita's and my bunks are behind the curtain.
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Children in front of one of the buildings surrounding the
square at Bamberg Baltic camp. Inara in front row on left. A child is literally
hanging about on a clothesline on the right. Summer 1948.
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| My mother sewing at the kitchen table. |
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A
friend and my mother on the right with her hand-operated sewing machine,
bought with a carton of "Lucky Strike" cigarettes. Cigarettes
were a regular part of DP's rations and they were the currency of the
thriving black market. Cigarettes were in short supply to the German
population. |
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Diploma issued
by the UNRRA U.S. Zone training School at Bad Wiessee at the end
of a course in administration.
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This certificate was
obtained in support of my parents' application to emigrate to Chile where
Arvid's sister had lived since 1936. Arvids failed the medical examination.
He was suffering from bronchitis which was misdiagnosed as tuberculosis.
Anyone who failed a medical was disbarred from applying to any country
for two years. |
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My
father, Arvids, in his office. Bamberg 1947. |
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Some of my father's IRO colleagues. |
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Inara's ID photo in 1948. |
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| Certificate to Latvian
Elementary School in Bamberg in 1947. The 'a' ending of my surname denotes
female gender, the same as in Russian, e.g. Anna Karenina while her husband
is Karenin. |
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Inara's report card. |
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Cover
to school
report card. |
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School report card. |
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Sunday school class in Bamberg 1948. Anita is third from
the left in front of Lutheran Minister P. Brencis who was also the Headmaster
of the Bamberg Camp school.
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My Sunday
school class in Bamberg 1948. Irene and I are not
in the photo because we had skipped the class unaware that
photos were to be taken that day. We were in the lavatory block
trying to smoke rolled up bits of newspaper like cigarettes.
There was such a fuss.
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Mechanics working on the IRO car fleet in Bamberg 1948. |
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The car maintenace
pit and shed were opposite our building.
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| The aproach to Bamberg City from the Obere Brucke (Upper Bridge) over
the Regnitz River, through the archway of the old Town Hall with the windows
still boarded up. 1948. |
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Bamberg City, 1948. |
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Inara and Anita, Christmas Day in Bamberg 1948. |
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Christmas Eve in Bamberg
1948. Part of the Christmas Eve ceremony required that each chld stood
before the candle-lit Christmas treet and recited a memorised poem, curtsying
before and after the recitation.Christmas presents were then distributed
and opened. |
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IRO statement of my father's employment
dated April 30, 1949, mentioning the closing of the camp. We were moved to Wildflecken Staging Center shortly after this. |
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Staatsarchiv für
Oberfranken:
Hainstr. 39
D 8600 Bamberg
Germany Phone: (0951) 98622-0
Fax: (0951) 98622-50
Bamberg
city archives http://www.bamberg.de/stadtarchiv/homeeng.htm
Untere Sandstrasse 30a
96049 Bamberg
09 51 - 87 13 71
09 51 - 87 19 68
state
library http://www.staatsbibliothek-bamberg.de
university
library http://www.uni-bamberg.de/unibib/home.html
Hi, My parents met in
Germany in 1947-8.. My father was a Lithuanian originally taken by Russians
to a labor camp in Poland, then taken by Germans to Germany. Later employed
by US Army in hospital in Nurnberg to guard Nazi prisoners. We know nothing
of my father's side of family or his history prior to my parents coming
to America in 1952... We know that he was in 2040 L.Su.Co..in 1947 I've
tried finding out what that was. His picture shows him in a dark uniform
with dark shirtand white tie.My parents were married in Hallstadt and they
mentioned Bamberg as the place where he lived in barricks. One photo
shows him in front of Schwabisch Hall. How do go about finding out where
he served with the US Army or where in Poland he was interred in the labor
camp by the Russians. Any information you can give us would help.Thanks, heidi
chrambanis
I, with my family, lived
at the DP camp Bamberg-- Sept 10, 1947 - April 26, 1949, please
contact: Silvia Wolff
Hy, I had a Latvian
friend who lived in Bamberg DP's camp between 1945 and 1949. Do you have
any sources where I could get pictures or stories about that camp? Best
regards Yves Jeanson
I am trying to find
an American soldier by the name of Alexander Solokoff (Sokoloff), of Russian
decent, who was in Bamberg Germany sometime between November 1945 and February
1946. I am also looking for the names of the dislocated persons camps located
in Bamberg during this same time. Can you piont me in the right direction? Tawana
Grabarz
10/18/04 Hi Olga,
Just found your website. Great history here. I am looking for information
on or anyone who knew Rebecca Kapelsohn who was a Social Worker from
New York who worked for UNRRA in Bamberg from 1945 - 1946. Other
women who went over with her but apparently didn't work in the same location
were Esther Haskin of Dallas, Mrs. Kate Mendel of New York, and Helen
Witkin of Chicago. Thanks for any assistance you can provide. Jazz SweetJazz5@aol.com
10/23/2010
I am seeking information on Hersz Smietana, living in Bamberg in 1948. I guess
he lived in the camp of displaced persons. He was born May 16, 1908 in Warsaw.
He is the son of the Jewish couple Mordka (Motel) Smietana Laja and Mitler.
It was in the ghetto of Lublin in 1945.
Did you know, you know what became of him? I am his cousine. Daniel VANGHELUWE,
France
vangheluwe.smietan@laposte.net
