U Boot POW records

[Flying10uk]

Eden camp near York, Yorkshire, England is a very interesting place to visit and was an Italian, then German POW camp during WW2. Many of the original huts are still on site and form part of the privately run Museum that is normally open to the public. It is currently closed because of the virus. Obviously I don't know if your relative was held in this particular camp but it would have likely been a similar camp to this.

Award Winning Visitor Attraction, Malton, North Yorkshire - Eden Camp

Some interrogation reports, like some other material, may not necessarily have been declassified yet because 100 years hasn't passed yet since they were made. Some things are still secret from WW2 with the relevant files not yet having been made public.

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[Pete110119]

Eden camp near York, Yorkshire, England is a very interesting place to visit and was an Italian, then German POW camp during WW2. Many of the original huts are still on site and form part of the privately run Museum that is normally open to the public. It is currently closed because of the virus. Obviously I don't know if your relative was held in this particular camp but it would have likely been a similar camp to this.

Award Winning Visitor Attraction, Malton, North Yorkshire - Eden Camp

Some interrogation reports, like some other material, may not necessarily have been declassified yet because 100 years hasn't passed yet since they were made. Some things are still secret from WW2 with the relevant files not yet having been made public.

Yes mate, I know it well, originaly bieng from that area of the world (i was born in Beverley). Eden Camp is certainly worth a visit. I was there not to long ago with some of my German mates whilst on a lads trip to York. Certainly apparent to us all that its better when Brits and Germans don't fight each other and what an entwined history we have. There where loads of POW camps in the North East though. You might be right about not declassified yet.
The old adage of "Don't mention the War" seems to be the key word here in Germany, so many facts are lost or hidden. Our 2nd oldest boy is a Luftwaffe officer and i think its important for him to be aware of his family Military history, but the Bundeswehr seem to put less of an onus on studying such.
I do get further with it 1 step at a time, and the links above to Kew are probably the way to go.

[Flying10uk]

The old adage of "Don't mention the War" seems to be the key word here in Germany, so many facts are lost or hidden.

For me growing up it was totally different as both my parents had lived through the war, as children, and the war was constantly being discussed and analysed. Added to the mix, one of my Grandmothers lived with us for quite a few years and she had lived through WW1 as a child but was old enough to help out doing odd jobs, part-time, in a Red Cross hospital.

One of the most unusual but true events to happen to my Grandmother and her mother during WW1 was to be held at gun point by a German spy. It is slightly complicated as to how and why my Gran and her mother came to be held at gunpoint by a German spy during WW1 but my Gran's mother was able to resolve the matter by thrusting the ornamental handle of her walking stick hard up the nose of the German spy. Unsurprisingly, the German spy did not like having the ornamental handle of a walking stick thrust hard up his nose, especially when it is done with such force that it damaged part of the decoration of the handle to the walking stick. The spy legged it but my understanding is that he was eventually caught. I do still have the walking stick somewhere and when I rediscover it, I will post some photos of it.

Back in 2018 the German president took part in the UK's remembrance day event in London for the first time which I regard as a great act of reconciliation between Britain and Germany.

[GeeRam]

Once the Blitz had ended and my Mum and her older sister came back to London from evacuation in Scotland with their Grandmother they used to have to walk to school right past POW Camp No.669 which was built alongside the A40 in Greenford.
It was full of Afrika Korps and Italian POW's captured in North Africa, and many of the girls that lived in my Mum's road would get chatted up by the Italians and Germans through the fence alongside the pathway.
The older girl that lived opposite my Mum ended up marrying a German POW after the war ended. He took her back to Germany soon after they were married, but the few remaining members of his family gave him a hard time for marrying an English girl, and within 12 months they decided to return to the UK, and moved into a house just up the road from her parents. It must have been odd for him over the coming years to be living only half a mile from where he had been held as a POW for 5 or more years. The POW's from that camp helped to build the new Greenford Underground station before they were all released.
By the early 70's the old POW camp was all overgrown and only a few of the brick fireplaces and chimney bases from some of the huts remains dotted among the overgrown shrubbery. As kids we used ride out push bikes all around the place.