How is the garden and the peas and the beans I was sowing? Hitler's deputy Rudolph Hess also spent a night there after parachuting … To locals Camp 165 was a basic Prisoner-of-War camp. It is the last remaining WWII Prisoner of War (PoW) Camp in Scotland. Now, thanks to documents recovered from previous members of Cultybraggan Camp 21 prisoner of war camp near Comrie in Perthshire, new light is being shed on the lives of Nazis and German soldiers incarcerated in Scotland. The library collections include a number of books and journal articles on these prisoners and the conditions in which they were held. For a comprehensive list of World War 2 facts, including the primary actors in the war, causes, a comprehensive timeline, and bibliography, click here. However, Camp 165 also served another purpose. Fielded Search. Camp 165 was located in the Scottish Highlands. This work, which took twenty years to research, provides an invaluable insight into the lives of the prisoners. The library holds several articles on this camp which were published in the ‘Transactions of the Hawick Archaeological Society’. Promoting knowledge of the Scottish prisoners from the Battles of Dunbar (1650) and Worcester (1651). The POWs went through a de-nazification process at Cultybraggan, part of which showed images of the internal cruelties at Nazi concentration camps across Europe. Pages in category "World War II prisoner of war camps in Scotland" The following 13 pages are in this category, out of 13 total. Another area of the country that held German prisoners was the Inner Hebrides on the west coast of scotland. Their lives would have also have become presumably harsher under the rule of the Polish guards, who replaced the British in 1944 said Mr Mestecky. Display Full Records. That's what occurred between 1939 and 1948, when thousands of Germans, Ukranians and others became Britain's prisoners of war, according to a … There was a large amount of renaming, renumbering and reuse of camp numbers during World War II. They were greeted by a local policeman who invited them to have a dram at the police station thinking they were Polish. Not only did workers trust the POWs in their employ, they were happy to leave their children alone with them at night. Learn more about the Library’s collections, The new celebrity scientists: out of the lab and into the limelight, You say potato: the story of English accents, David Jefferies, ‘Prisoner of war camps in Scotland’, no.56 (1992), pp.490-5, David Jefferies, ‘Update on prisoner of war camps in Scotland’, no.58 (1993), pp.524-5, David Jefferies, ‘P.O.W. The camp was situated at Watten in Caithness and housed some high ranking prisoners. The World War II Prisoners of War Data File Index holds 143,374 records that begin on December 7, 1941 and continue through November 19, 1946. US National Archives, World War II Prisoners Of War Index, 1942-1947 World War 2 Allies Collection US National Archives, World War II Army Enlistment Records - Reserve Corps Records Index,1938-1946 In 2016, Henrich Steinmeyer, a previous inmate, bequeathed his home and life savings to the elderly residents of Comrie in a remarkable act of gratitude for his treatment there. My mother and 5 boys were evacuated from Egypt via Palestine to Durban. - Record Group 389 Brief Scope: This series has information about U.S. military officers and soldiers and U.S. and some Allied civilians who were prisoners of war and internees. Both to identify them, and it is also believed, as an easy shooting target if they tried to escape. It had a notoriously hard reputation, housing dozens of SS officers, members of the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe & … These records were compiled from the National Archives. File Unit: World War II Prisoners of War Data File, 12/7/1941 - 11/19/1946 in the Series: Records of World War II Prisoners of War, created 1942 - 1947, documenting the period 12/7/1941 - 11/19/1946. From the Napoleonic Wars of the early nineteenth century to the First and Second World Wars of the twentieth, there have been prisoners of war held in camps in Scotland. He said: “There’s a real conflict of feeling when you look at these documents, which show an intelligent, comedic and cultured side to the prisoners. A blog about the work and collections of the National Library of Scotland. Many locals recall the prisoners being brought to Comrie via the old railway line on “special trains,” and how the German’s would sing defiantly as they were marched through the village to the camp. Promoting knowledge of the Scottish prisoners from the Battles of Dunbar (1650) and Worcester (1651). Its remote setting made escape difficult for POW’s. Most of the remaining 10,500 came … James MacDonald’s book ‘Churchill’s Prisoners: the Italians in Orkney 1942-1944′ (1987) provides a historical overview of the subject. One of the 11 files, the file unit "World War II Prisoners of War Records, 1941-1946: American Military Prisoners of War Returned Alive From the European Theater, Vititoe-Zywot" (ARC Identifier 1515993) completed the records of European Theater returned alive prisoners of war. Some tried but found the harshness of the surrounding land too much … Today, Cultybraggan is open to the public to explore thanks to the restoration and fundraising work of Comrie Development Trust and the local people of Comrie. “It’s clear that the prisoners had a special affinity for the local people. The Japanese treatment of prisoners of war in World War … This article is part of our larger educational resource on World War Two. We hold: 1. some records of those held captive by German, Italian or Japanese forces 2. some questionnaires which may reveal personal information as well as details of experiences in the prisoner of war camps 3. some individual reports which may reveal details about capture or escape attempts from prisoners of war camps in central Europe 4. selected records of Merchant Navy prisoners of war 5. documents which reveal information about some prisoner of war camps 6. records of enquiries into mis… The humanity observed by Mr Mestecky is one which was also clearly observed by the locals of Comrie when Cultybraggan was at its height, once housing thousands of captured Germans. He, like so many others at the camp wanted to express his thanks for the kindness they had been bestowed while in Scotland. This was gifted to CDT by a previous guard at Cultybraggan and is also on display at the camp. Cultybraggan was one of two maximum security prisoner of war camps in Britain, and, like Camp 165 Watten, held some of the most hardline and trouble-making Nazis captured during the war. The Ship “John and Sara” Prisoners of War, 1651 In 1650 the Scots sided with the monarchy in the English Civil War, and fought against the Puritans in the Battle of Worcester. The Scottish Prisoners of War Society. The book is based primarily on oral testimony of those who lived in the area and those who were imprisoned in the camp. File unit: World War II Prisoners of War Data File, 12/7/1941 - 11/19/1946 in the Series: Records of World War II Prisoners of War, created 1942 - 1947, documenting the period 12/7/1941 - 11/19/1946 - Record Group 389 You may wish to View the FAQs for this series. Get a round-up of stories from The Sunday Post every week. There is also a Red Cross record of a German soldier being shot in the head by a Polish guard for getting too close to the camp perimeter. One of the things which soon became apparent was that Jews were particularly likely to fall foul of General Sikorski's Government in Exile and end up in the two camps in Scotland… He wrote in 1948, along with many other wishes of thanks to his Perthshire friend: “I feel pretty bad because I have not yet written to you…. Mr Steinmeyer was held at Cultybraggan along with about 4,000 other prisoners. Letters have been recovered between the prisoners of war and locals which show established friendships, and stories relayed in a soon-to-be-released documentary on Cultybraggan by Mousehole Films, tell tales of locals smuggling prisoners of war out in school uniforms so they could go to the cinema. For POW ’ s hard, because you also know that some of them involved... 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