austria glasenbach

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ischbitz
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austria glasenbach

Post by ischbitz »

(guess i found specialists who may help me)..a little impressed ´bout seems like you all know in this forum, just got a little naive question.
could anyone push me to know something about glasenbach "camp marcus w.orr" or about johann schörghofer,salzburg,austria who was there?
or where to search for him?
thanxs
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xavier
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search in Austria

Post by xavier »

i suggest you contact Christoph Awender, he is austria-based, and a most helpful and knowledgeable member of this forum...go to:

http://www.wwiidaybyday.com
and search for his contact email there or elsewhere on this forum (he is a member too..)

regards

Xavier
"Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit"

Constant practice devoted to one subject often outdues both intelligence and skill:
Cicero
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joscha
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Camp Glasenbach

Post by joscha »

Which Glasenbach? Between 1945 and 1949, "Camp Glasenbach"was an old German POW compound, used by the US Forces to hold all kinds of "war criminals"; well, some even really were. This camp was (downriver) on the left side of the Salzach river.

Camp Marcus W. Orr, however, was used by the US occupation forces as a military camp, with hospital, large PX, and some 1,500 troops, and lies on the right side of the river.. It is now used by the Austrian Army.

There is confusion, because the (original) Camp Glasenbach never was in Glasenbach, but Camp Orr was. The "SS camp" was called Glasenbach by the local population, because the bridge over the Salzach near the SS Camp was called the Glasenbacher Bruecke.

The "SS Camp"was run by a US Colonel Wooten who got in trouble, because he told Mark Clark (the Commanding General of the US occupationm Forces in Austria) that most of the detainees were not chargeable with any crimes and he should let these paople go. Mark Clark fired Wooten and forced him into retirement.

Are you confused yet? Good; because everybody is whenever that term is used.

So, which Camp Glasenbach do you mean? Joscha
ischbitz
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glasenbach

Post by ischbitz »

...Between 1945 and 1949, "Camp Glasenbach"was an old German POW compound, used by the US Forces to hold all kinds of "war criminals"; well, some even really were.

that i´m searching for. but what does it mean that it was an old german pow? how long?
and how to find these people arrested there ?
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joscha
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Glasenbach

Post by joscha »

In WWII, the compound you were speaking of was a POW camp, holding English, American, and other POWs. After WWII, that is from 1945 to 1949, this compound was used to hold detainees who had been collared by the US CIC (Counter Intelligence Corps). There were mostly SS officers and men, but also members of some of the SS legions and even a few Jews, who had collaborated in the KZ's. Furthermore, there were about two dozen women detainees - and thereby hangs a tale:

Even though the women were totally sequestered, and no male , except a doctor ever were allowed into that "cage"- as it was called - some of the women got pregnant. To this day it is a head-scratching question how these women got pregnant and, because of these pregnancies, had to be released. Rumor is that it was the doctor (a detainee himself) who did the dirty deed, by bringing syringes filled with (probably happily) donated sperm and artificially inseminated the women.

As I said, a rumor, but a story that has been partially substantiated by a book, titled "The Mozart leaves at Nine", by Greene(?). Who knows, maybe the GIs found a way.....And Greene's book makes it very clear that he was in Salzburg during that period.

Sorry, I cannot give you any idea how you could get the names of these detainees; maybe the US National Archives has something (?) Joscha
ischbitz
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Post by ischbitz »

thanxs for the helpfull information. you know, everybody i was talking to, said that glasenbach was made of by the allies and that it had no function before (means it hadn´t been used by the germans).
so the guy i´m searching for (johann schörghofer) should have had a important role in that POW.
thanxs
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ReinhardH
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Glasenbach

Post by ReinhardH »

The notion that the base at Glasenbach was built by the Germans and the Wehrmacht for use as a POW facility is not only wrong ... it's downright ludicrous :evil:
It was constructed in 1939 by the Germans SOLELY for use as a military base, and was officially named the "Rainer Kaserne". From what I know, it was the home base of GJR137.
My father and his best friend from childhood on were both trained there as part of GJR137. Dad was in training from Dec'41 to May'42, as leader of an 8cm mortar crew as well as his company's fleld armorer, and wound up with GJR138 in Russia (GJR137 was used as Ersatz-Regiment for GJR138). His friend was a Gebirgs-Pionier with GJR137 in northern Norway. Both men survived the war, and are still in excellent health :D
The base, which straddled the Salzach river, was located just a few km south of Salzburg - on one bank were the permanent barracks that housed the Jäger, and on the other bank the wooden barracks that housed the Pioniere.
The soldiers' common term for their home base was always "Glasenbach", NOT "die Rainer Kaserne". Not once did I ever hear my father refer to the base as anything other than "Glasenbach".

A few years ago, right about the time this thread was originally started, I'd been in online contact with a fellow who, almost immediately after I'd mentioned that my father was trained at "Glasenbach", began to bug me with questions about whether he'd been in the SS. I couldn't understand what made him jump to a conclusion like that back then, but now after finding this thread, it's all starting to make sense -- my innocent reference to the common soldiers' term for the Gebirgsjäger base near Glasenbach was picked up by some meathead who thought that by doing an internet search for the word "Glasenbach" he'd get all the information he'd need about the place......sixtyseven years after the fact, and online to boot :D
To give you all an idea of the guy's mentality, I'd recommended the books "Black Edelweiss" and "Seven Days in January" to him as excellent reads (because he appeared so interested in WWII history) - after he learned that they were about the 6thSS "Nord" division who had also eventually fought Americans, he replied, "Oh no, I won't read anything like that because they shot at Americans".

I'll have some of my father's pics of the Gebirgsjäger base at Glasenbach ready to post in the "Photographs" section of this forum soon, if anyone is interested. Then YOU can judge 8)
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Doktor Krollspell
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Post by Doktor Krollspell »

Please do, Reinhard!
I'll have some of my father's pics of the Gebirgsjäger base at Glasenbach ready to post in the "Photographs" section of this forum soon, if anyone is interested. Then YOU can judge
I have some photos that I will scan (in the "near" future) on basic training in the Austrian Alpenjäger Regiments in the thirties...


Regards,

Krollspell
"Wie es eigentlich gewesen ist"
Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886)
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ReinhardH
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Post by ReinhardH »

...will be looking forward to seeing them :D
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ReinhardH
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Alpenjäger photos

Post by ReinhardH »

...still waiting, Herr Doktor... :wink:
TorM
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Re: austria glasenbach

Post by TorM »

This is my Latvian father, Aleksandris Melgalvis. And for me, unknowned woman.
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