Does anyone here know of where a list resides for the members of the waffen ss and possibly where they originated? I know my grandad was a member of it and would like to trace him to find out where he was born and grew up as we have lost contact with our family there.

Would anyone know these details or where to find POW details of prisoners who emmigrated to the UK?

Most websites on the net seem geared toward jewish names and as my grandfather was not jewish and had a very unusual last name that i have yet to come across elsewhere in latvian documents, this isn’t too useful.

Greetings!

You might try contacting the International Tracing Service in Germany:

http://www.its-arolsen.org/en/requests_of_victims_and_family_members/index.html?expand=332&cHash=a0a73aed0b

By filling out an on-line application form (http://www.its-arolsen.org/en/requests_of_victims_and_family_members/application_forms/online_form/index.html) the ITS will research its DP records (http://www.its-arolsen.org/en/archives/collection/organisation/displaced_persons/index.html) free of charge and via snail mail let you know what was found.

Good luck with it!

Elizabete

Back to “the lie”
There was no Latvian Waffen SS except in the minds of people with a lack of education about them. There was a Latvian Waffen der SS. The vital word was “der” which means Latvian Waffen “under SS control”.
This has been discussed to death many times here on LOL and books.
Not knowing where you live, if you are near San Francisco then I would check the Stanford University’s Hoover Library for they have a considerable amount of information about the Latvian military and DP’s and POWs.

Here’s a good site to go to:

http://forum.axishistory.com/

They do have lists of some of the Waffen SS, leaders, etc.  You can do a search on their site to ‘see’ if you come up with anything there.  There’s a guy (?) from Norway by the user name of AAA and was really helpful to me in helping find out about my uncle who was “lost” in the war.  Good Luck!!

Thanks courlander but i am already familiar with the history of the regiment, having read extensively on the history of the war and its effect on the people there. I’m aware the name was controversial simply because of how it appeared as an administrative name and that they were conscripted, not voluntary recruits. Thanks everyone for the advice on where to find more info but im afraid san francisco is abit far as i live in the UK!

Aithne - 04 July 2012 03:42 PM

Thanks courlander but i am already familiar with the history of the regiment, having read extensively on the history of the war and its effect on the people there. I’m aware the name was controversial simply because of how it appeared as an administrative name and that they were conscripted, not voluntary recruits. Thanks everyone for the advice on where to find more info but im afraid san francisco is abit far as i live in the UK!

Did you try the website I suggested in post #3???

i had a little look, yeah. It seemed to be more geared towards germans than the latvians?