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HELENAWOJTCZAK
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 5:44 am Post subject: Request for brief German documents translation.

Could someone please be so kind as to interpret these German wartime documents, issued to my late father.

Many thanks!

Sophia
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 8:52 am Post subject:

Hi Helena,

Your third document, the typed one, is a certificate from the Haas & Kellhofer engineering works company, certifying that Franciszek Wojtczak, a Pole, who was born on February 4, 1920 in Konopnica, Lublin and who now resides at 84 Donaustrasse in Immendingen, is, on behalf of the company, going to participate in a course on autogenous (I take that to mean acetylene torch) welding. The course begins on Monday, September 20, 1943.

The certificate was issued on Sept. 17th.

You may do alright with Google translator to read your other two documents, as they are clearly printed.

Best of luck,
Sophia

HELENAWOJTCZAK
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 11:58 pm Post subject:

Thank you Sophia.

Sophia
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:49 am Post subject:

Hi Helena,
You are welcome. I hope you were able to understand Stanislaw's document. If not, let me know. I found Franciszek's document very interesting.
Best,
Sophia

HELENAWOJTCZAK
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:59 am Post subject:

Sophia wrote:

Hi Helena,
You are welcome. I hope you were able to understand Stanislaw's document. If not, let me know. I found Franciszek's document very interesting.
Best,
Sophia

I'm afraid I can't make head nor tail of it. As you said, I will have to type every letter in painstakingly into Google translate, when I can find some time.

Stansislaw and Franciszek are the same person, whoever wrote out that document made a mistake. It's my dad, whose name was
Stansislaw Franciszek Wojtczak, b4 Feb 1922 Konopnica.

Helena

Sophia
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:41 am Post subject:

OK Helena. Give me some time and I will help. In short, it is a card granting permission to visit farms in a specific area.
Best,
Sophia

Sophia
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Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:53 am Post subject:

Hi Helena,

Yesterday, I mistakenly translated the word "Wirtschaften" as farms. Sorry about that. The word refers, it seems, to inns, pubs, saloons, and perhaps also extends to other types of commercial establishments but you get the idea.

You have here a four-page document. The first page is the cover page. It shows that the document is issued by the army’s commissariat for internment and hospitalization. The document is an “Ausweiskarte zum Besuch von Wirtschaften” which is an identity card allowing the holder of it to visit inns/pubs. This particular card is number 77159. The words at the bottom of that page are indicating that the permit is to be shown, unasked, to the staff who operate inns. The second page is the one with Stanislaw’s name on it. It gives his birth year as 22, meaning 1922. It gives info about who is issuing it (the commandant of the military internment camp in Reichenburg) and it lists the places where the holder of the permit may go: Benken, Giessen, Tuggen and Buttikon. All seem to be in Switzerland; does that seem right to you? The original validity period of the permit was from August 8, 1944 until August 31, 1944. The third and fourth pages “Verlaengerungen” are simply areas for renewal of the permission, so there you see a date beginning September 1, 1944 and the month of its expiration is obscured by the commandant’s authorization stamp but presumably simply the 30th of Sept.

Best,
Sophia

HELENAWOJTCZAK
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Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 8:09 am Post subject:

Thanks very much Sophia. So, it's a permit to go out drinking in pubs?
Yes he was in Switzerland.

Cheers,

Helena

Sophia
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Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 8:31 am Post subject:

Go out drinking in pubs? I doubt that. I assume that he had a job (he was a welder, no?) that required him to go to various places outside of the internment camp and that he would have been out long enough to need meals or perhaps a room to stay in.
Anyone else have thoughts on this?

HELENAWOJTCZAK
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Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 7:32 am Post subject:

Sophia wrote:

Ah, I see. I suppose I never thought any welding was needed in pubs. Nor did I realise that he would be sent out on welding jobs away from the factory, so this is interesting indeed. So, thanks for that!

Helena

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