Abe Sher, prisoner of war, describes the bombing of Dresden in February 1945

Here is a note of explanation from Julian Sher, Abe’s son:


My dad, Abe Sher was in a camp known as Stalag IVC on the outskirts of the town of Bruex in the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, on what was the border area with Germany up to 1938  - as it still is. In March 1938 the Sudetenland became part of the Greater German Reich ie it was incorporated into Germany.


The Czech word for Bruex is Most. It means bridge.  The town was literally relocated by the Russians after the war to a nearby site. During the war and in fact to this day, Most had a petrol refinery just like Sasol. It manufactured petrol from coal. In my dad's time this was owned and run by the Reichswerke Hermann Goering. That is where my dad worked from 1943 to 1945.


Most was and is close to Chemnitz, which is but 50 or so kilometres from Dresden. In terms of WW2 bombing accuracy, this distance is negligible and within the target.  You will see on the map that the three cities of Most, Chemnitz and Dresden form an equilateral triangle. 


Apart from the night of the Dresden raid, my dad was bombed day and night from 1943 to the war's end in May 1945. He was liberated on the last day of the war which was his birthday. The best birthday present?


Julian Sher

Perth, Western Australia

16 October 2013



Stalag IV-C

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Stalag IV-C

Wistritz, Sudetenland




Czech Republic

Type

Prisoner-of-war camp

Coordinates


In use

1941-1945

Controlled by

Occupants

French, British, Polish, American & Russian soldiers

Stalag IV-C was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp located in Wistritz, Sudetenland, (now Dubí, Czech Republic), just north of the town of Teplitz (now Teplice)[1] in the Erzgebirge ("Ore Mountains") region.


Camp history

The camp was opened in February 1941.[1] The main camp was housed in a former porcelain factory. In 1943 fewer than 250 men were there, with the remaining population, some 23,000 men, attached to various Arbeitskommando working in local industry and construction. The largest detachment, of 8,000 men, was at Brüx (now Most)[2] working on the construction of the Sudentenlandische-Treibstoff-Werke ("Sudetenland Fuel Works"), part of the state-owned industrial conglomerate Reichswerke Hermann Göring. This plant was designed to process oil from coal, and as part of the Allied campaign to attack German oil production it was bombed several times between July 1944 and April 1945. In the second raid on 21 July 1944 six British POWs were killed and 21 were injured.[3] The camp was liberated by the Russian Army in May 1945.[4]

 
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