Baker, E E
Gunner Eric Ernest Baker
From: Alan Badgery
Date: 11 August 2017
My father-in-law was at Lamsdorf, and never talked about the war. I am trying to work out if he was released or was on the march. His war record just says, “released by allied forces 28 May 1945”, which may indicate him being on the march. *See note below
Father-in-law 887691 Gunner. E E Baker Royal Artillery
POW No 222252
*The Soviet Army reached Lamsdorf camp on the 17th March 1945. If E. E. Baker was on the march he would have been released earlier – in fact 28th May was long after the German surrender. Either he stayed at Lamsdorf when the other POWs had departed on the march in January (some POWs did – either they were too ill to be moved or they simply hid – though the Germans did return to evacuate the sick POWs by train before the Soviets arrived) or he was on the march but he – with others presumably – encountered Soviet troops on the way. The date of his release is a clue. The unlucky ones were ‘liberated’ by the Soviets, who instead of turning them over quickly to the western allies, held them as virtual hostages for several more months, until the British agreed to release to the Soviet Union POWs of Soviet origin who had been fighting on the German side and were in POW camps in the UK; which left the British Government with little choice on the matter, even though they were understandable reluctant to hand these men over to the Soviet Union for their inevitable execution. These soldiers many of whom were Cossacks or from states such as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia for example, had fought with the Germans in an effort, as they saw it, to release their own homelands from Soviet occupation and oppression. This matter was not resolved until late May 1945. In fact 8,462 British and 15,597 American POWs were held by the Soviets in this way.
E E Baker was transferred from PG73 Fossoli di Carpi back to Germany and German held territories on 22-07-1943.
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