Missing In Action

[RobertCOUTTS]

Hi,
got this some time back. I showed it to a German friend who was in the war so he has an intimate knowledge of terms used and organizations that existed. He found this document interesting for a number of reasons which he explains in a letter I hope to attach. We non German speakers miss out on so much. Anyhow the document itself.

[RobertCOUTTS]

Document

Now Joachims translation, I really love this old guy and enjoy his stories even if he is an unrepetant exnazi.
cheers Robert

[jmark]

Your friend is way off base with this interpretation of "Tunis". It's often forgotten that Stalingrad was not the only battle that produced a lot of German MIAs in early 1943. The other, of course, is Africa, or more specifically, the final pocket in Tunisia.

A combined staff (Arbeitsstab Stalingrad / Tunis) was set up to handle all matters regarding MIAs from both battles. I've got a document somewhere with the address of their HQ, as well as a list of officers who formed the staff. Each division that lost men in these battles sent an officer and a few men to the Arbeitsstab to attend to affairs relating to their division. Also, as shown in your document, each Wehrkreis had its own Arbeitsstab. It was through these local Arbeitsstab that families sought information.

When you think that a few hundred thousand men were MIA, these staffs certainly had their work cut out for them.

Jason