German POW in US ID number

[Angel Farré]

My question is if I have a Soldbuch with the US POW number can we know when he was captured?

Thanks

Angel

[Luft 76]

Yes and not ! It depend of the numner series.
Some POW camps lists are published, not all. And don't know if there is a big prisoners file somewhere in the USA archivs.

[Angel Farré]

Thanks, when I have the piece on my hands I will put it here and see what we can know.

Angel

[Admiraal]

Its not easy.
Some soldiers got their POW number quickly and some got it late after their capture.
Here is a thread about the POW numbers: http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=400707

A few examples of mine (Lepinat and J.Müller were both in the 116.Pz.Div.):

31G-2369325, H-H. Burmester (processed on 31 Mai 1945)
31G-1702?00, R. S. (11 December 1944 POW (I got the date from the Deutsche Dienststelle))
31G-1317047, J. Freundlich (captured after 7 March 1945)
31G- 980847, F. Lepinat (captured on 6-11-1944, processed on 16 November 1944)
31G- 980289, J. Müller (processed on 15 November 1944)
31G- 640827, S. Witt (Soldbuch last dates: on 21 Okt. equipment check and on 8 Nov. 1944 entry for money exchange)

[Lionel H.]

WOW.... that's an interesting § complicated Thread, congrats to all 3 Members trying to progress in this difficult Matter ! I can probably cooperate, must check ! Kind regards. Lionel.

[Angel Farré]

Thanks Rick.

The soldier I am talking about has a registration number in the range of 1.3XX.XXX so it is fair to say he was POW around Maech 1.945.

I hope next month it will be in my collection and I will show it here.

Angel

[Luft 76]

Yes it's true, it's not easy. I "work" on that subject since many years, in order to get informations about mine. Some 31G...... series are very coherent like for example the 605... -610... numbers who were all given during september 44. It's also now evident that the million was reached during first quarter of 45 (february ?).
But regularly, when we can compare date of capture, when known, and POW numbers, there are many differences.
And I don't speak of the british registration system... Different but used during the same time of the US one.
As I said first, It would be great to have access to a possible american global file of POW registration.