I am looking for any relatives of my father Janis Osis born Jelgava 20 Septembris 1920g. He was captured by the Germans in 1942 and sent to Gemany to work as slave labour, he ended up in a displaced persons camp in Wilhelmshaven until 1947 when he was brought to England by the Red Cross. The name he used in the camp and to get to England was Andrejs Orleans. I would like to hear from anybody who knew my father as a young boy in Jelgava or in the dp camp in wilhelmshaven, also any Osis family members either in Latvija, U.K. Australia or U.S.A.

Well it won’t be easy.  Osis is a fairly common latvian name; at http://www.whitepages.com  there are over 100 listing for Osis in the USA.

Karli - Why did your father use a different name?

toms

Hi Tom, my father was captured by the nazis and transported to Germany to work as slave labour, the story I was told was that he was put to work as a shunter in the marshalling yards of Hamburg, which I believe was in the Russian zone at the end of the war, my father did not want to end up being sent to Russia so he somehow got hold of false documents and ended up at a DP camp in Wilhelmshaven where in 1947 he was brought to the UK by the British Red Cross. That is as much as I know, I always wondered why he never taught me the Latvian language, I mean until 1995 I always believed the family surname was Orleans which was the surname I was given at birth and which is on my birth certificate. It was not until 1995 when I decided with my wife to try and trace family members in Latvija that he told me that his real name was Janis Osis. I did manage to trace his two sisters who were living in Riga and Ogre and my tante Angelika came to England to see my father in Septembris 1995g, by Octobris 1995 he had sold his house here in England and returned to Latvija to live first of all in Mersrags where he married his childhood sweetheart who was a widow then they moved to Tukums where he passed away in Octobris 2002g. My stepmother still lives in Tukums to this day and we keep in touch with letters which I have to have translated by a Latvian friend of mine. I have recently contacted the state archive in Wilhemshaven Germany to see if there are in records in the state archives to find out which camp he was in, in Wilhelmshaven and have received a reply from them saying that they will do all they can to help me. This is all that I know about my fathers history, apart from he was born in Jelgava in Septembris 1920g but used Aprilis 23 1923 for the surname Orleans, I mean I don,t know if he got the papers from a forger, whether he killed somebody for them or whether he got them from an already dead military or civilian person. I hope I can find all these things out because it has intrigued me for years, I always wondered why he celebrated two birthdays.

Information date:      Feb 1946
Surname:        Osis
Name:          Janis
Status:          Not married
Birth Date:        25 April 1922
Birth Place:        Jelgava
Address in Germany:      Letteulager, D.P. #2 Saule, Geesthacht, Greuzstr.
Occuption:        Railway worker
Address in Latvia:      Not known

NOTE 1:  17 Sept. 1946 attended Agricultural Training School at Bad Segerberg.

NOTE 2:  4 Nov. 1946 left the camp. New address unknown [disappeared?]

Information date:      26 Oct. 1947
Surname:        Orleans
Name:          Andrejs
Birth Date:        23 Sept. 1920
Birth Place:        Jelgava
Adress in Germ,any:      Hallendorf u/Braunschweig D.P. Camp „Straumeni”
Occuption:        Train driver

NOTE:      27 Oct 1947 went to England

Hope the above helps

I would dearly love to find out where he was during the 11 months between the information dates given from these two camps. I wonder if anybody can shed any light on this.

The ”Information Date” need clarifying.

Information dates do not reflect the date a person went from one camp to another.

Very often these”Information dates” are simply the dates the information was recorded.

Look at the Orleans information.
The Information date is 26 Oct 1947, one day before Orleans left for England!

Take it as read that Osis re-appeared as Orleans in the second camp shortly after he left the first camp - 4 Nov 1946.

No Stateless Person in Germany at that time would have wandered about aimlessly for 11 months without being picked up by the military government. In this case the British Army.
At the time Germany was dividend into occupation zones and run by the the various allied military.

So Osis/Orleans was at Letteulager, D.P. #2 to early Nov. 1946.

From Nov 1946 he was at Hallendorf until he left for England. Further information may alter that, but that is how it looks at present.

I suggest you ask the Public Record Office for information on both surnames.

Also try the International Tracing Service (ITS) for Osis/Orleans movements in Germany. They may provide further information.
Your problem with ITS is proving Osis and Orleans are one and teh same person and that you are related to Osis. They are pretty tough in that area.

No Stateless Person in Germany at that time would have wandered about aimlessly for 11 months without being picked up by the military government.

While I cannot comment on the British zone,  in American Zone of Occupation were many persons “drifting” about without being bothered by OMGUS.  Personal identification certificates were relatively easy to obtain in any name one preferred.

Case in point:  Viktors Zeibots

While contacting International Tracing Service (ITS) for Osis/Orleans is a good try,  the dropping out of sight, legal or convenience, in my opinion will not be covered.

The statement that “he was brought to England by the Red Cross” puzzles me. I do not remember the Red Cross being involved in moving persons around. But, as I mentioned before, I was not in British Zone of Occupation.

In any case it would be interesting to se the progress of this search.

Mr. L. L.

We are also left wondering “why the change in identity?” Is there a perfectly reasonable/innocent explanation for ditching an identity? This also questions the whole “lost papers” story, because he was well enough identified to merit being recorded in the first camp.

Don,t know Tom I’m still totally puzzled by this also. this morning my father received a letter from the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany which states, to our regret the check of our records turned out negative, we could not trace any indications regarding your father in our archives. As an explanation for this negative investigation result may we precautionary point out that despite all extensiveness and diversity, our comprehensive holdings are by no means complete since large parts of the records once on hand have been lost by effects of war and post war era.
We recommend you to contact the Federal Archives in Germany in Berlin. According to our information this office holds records about members of the Latvian Legions in world war two and may be able to assist you in this matter.
Signed Martin Krewet.
Registrations and Processing Of Inquiries.
I wonder what will emerge next ?
Regards Jazeps.

Jazeps et al.,

“I wonder what will emerge next ?”

Osis is a name of a tree in latvian.  I do not know the english name for the tree.  Often in a new cultural environment name change involves the translated version of the name.

Visu labu,

Osis = ash.  Osis is a common Latvian family name.

tom - your berkeley-brownie naiveté  is admirable.

Bruno the Lett - try   http://dictionary.site.lv/

Jazeps -  Tev ir gimene Latvija. Vini var Tev palidzet meklejot zinas Kara Muzeja un Okupacijas Muzeja, Riga.

Mr. L. L.

Paldies kungs L.L. man tiesam ir gimene Latvija, bet lielaka dala jauniesi ir pametusi un tagad dzivo Vacija un Amerika. Man ir tikai e-pasta adresi uz vienu bralens Vacija, un vina tikai atgriezas majas, lai Latvija Ziemassvetku laika.
Visas manas radiniekiem nedzivo Riga, tagad manas tantes ir parcelusies uz valsti dzivot kopa ar saviem berniem. Vai jus zinat e-pasta adresi, kas pastav so muzeju.
Sveicieni Jazeps.

Jazeps -

Sorry. I do not have e-mail addresses to those organizations.
You can find their home-pages by searching the internet.

Mr. L. L.

Mr.L.L. thankyou I will see what I can find out.

jaseps et al.,

Jānis Osis in translation could become John Ashton, and that might not even be considered a name change.

Visu labu,