Organization: The US Army Labor Service Co.

This is the topic I’m just beginning to research, and am quite new to. The long and short of what I know so far is, when the DP Camps closed shop, the US Army hired Germans and other DP’s to help repair war torn Europe, and sometimes keep security watch. I am finding relatively little information regarding this time period – suprising, because you would think that because it was the US Army, there would be immaculate records kept somewhere.

Both Arvids Martins Akerfelds and his soon-to-be father-in-law Karlis Vinakmens found employment in the Labor Service Co (LSC). Is this why they stayed in Germany after the majority of their families had been accepted to the US and Canada? Perhaps they were denied immigration rights, or were low on the priority list since they had already been accepted for immigration to Belgium as coal miners. Whatever the reason, Karlis and family would stay in Germany, employed by the Labor Service until 1956 and Arvids until 1957.

It seems that Balts (Latvians, Estonians and Lithuanians) were fairly highly regarded by the US Army. They had special insignias and patches distinguishing them from others, and units of strictly Balts. Also it looks like they were living significantly more luxuriously than while in DP Camps.

Karlis was a part of the 7566 LSC from 1951 onwards, and Arvids the 7132 LSC from 1950. Both units were stationed at Mannheim-Kafertal at the time, and then later Ettlingen near the city of Karlsruhe. More about Allied-occupied Germany here: ‘http://chelli11.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/places-of-interest-allied-occupied-germany/

 The 7566 LSC were active sportsmen and upheld a sense of Latvian community and culture for themselves and their families. A chapter of the “Daugavas Vanagi”, a charitable Latvian  refugee relief organization was established amongst the men. In their spare time, they held organized concerts and lectures, as well as sporting events. They were the first LSC unit to begin building apartments and housing for their families in Germany. I cannot say much aout the 7132 unit yet, but one would assume that their story is similar, being a twin Latvian unit stationed at the same location.

Here is a site of interest on the topic:
http://www.usfava.com/LaborService/
http://www.usfava.com/LaborService/baltic.htm

Places of Interest: Allied-Occupied Germany

Allied occupied Germany, c 1947. The black square outlines the portion shown in the map below.

(click to enlarge) Places of interest within Allied-Occupied Germany. From the North, going southward: Marburg, Fulda, Giessen, Butzbach, Echzell, Friedberg, Budingen, Hanau, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Darmstadt-Dieburg, Bensheim-Auerbach, Mannheim, Ettlingen. Gaggenau-Bad Rotenfels, Augsburg.

In the period immediately following Germany’s surrender in WWII, German territory was split into zones occupied by different Allied powers for administrative purposes. British, French, Soviet and American zones were established. All of my Latvian ancestors fell into the American zone, located in the German states of Hessen, Bavaria, the northern part of Baden-Württemberg, and the ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven.

Germany remained occupied like this from 1945-1949, but Allied powers kept military bases in many German cities for many years, during the Cold War period especially. The American Army still has forces stationed in Germany today (as they do around Europe). The US army’s headquarters in Germany were located in Frankfurt am Main, a city which was the site of a large airport (the one that Arvids Akerfelds flew out of in 1957).

Two such American military bases that are of interest to my Latvian ancestors were located in Mannheim-Käfertal and Ettlingen. Karlis Vinakmens, in the 7566 LSCo, and Arvids Akerfelds, in the 7132 LSCo, were stationed at both. The bases were called “Kasernen”. “Kaserne” is the German word for “barracks” (a “barracks” refers to a permanent housing for military troops, being either a complex of housing units, or one large building).

The military accommodations in Mannheim were large, and known as “The Benjamin Franklin Village” and consisted of several different barracks: Taylor Barracks, Sullivan Barracks, Funari Barracks, Spinelli Barracks, Coleman Barracks, and Turley Barracks. These buildings, along with an American high school and middle school located in Mannheim have been in use since 1947 and are still in use today, scheduled to be vacated by 2014.

In Ettlingen, the Rheinland Kaserne was home to American troops and support from 1950-1995, and prior to this was home of many displaced persons from the end of the war up until its use as a military facility. It is a large grouping of buildings. The facility is still standing today, it’s historical buildings have been turned into housing units, a high school, private offices, a research laboratory, a movie theatre and sports centre, pubs, and a park and children’s playground.

Much information is easily found on these kasernes with a quick Google search, but very little of the information pertains to the Latvian Labor Service. I am still very underwhelmed at the amount of information available about what the Labor Service men were all about.

Some Religious Terms…

When you begin searching for information about your ancestors, religion can be a key clue. Many churches kept (and continue to keep) records of anyone baptised there, married there, or interred in their cemetery. Not being of any particular religious denomination myself, some religious terms can be fairly confusing (Christian, Protestant, Presbyterian, Orthodox, what’s the diff??), so I thought I’d take a stab at organizing these concepts, in some very, very basic layman’s terms (not explaining the hows or whys, that’s a huge job).

“Christianity” is sort of an umbrella term for a lot of other smaller groupings of religions that all share core beliefs based on the concepts contained in the Bible – the message of Jesus Christ. Within modern Christianity are three main divisions: “Catholicism”, “Orthodoxy” and “Protestantism”. Once upon a time, there was only one grouping, but as time went on, different people drew different meanings from the Bible, and many different sects developed. The first major split in belief systems is known as the “Great Schism”, which took place in the 11th century, in which Catholicism and Orthodoxy formed as separate identities. Protestantism branched off of Catholicism in the 16th century, this event was called “the Reformation”.

Within these three main divisions are smaller sects. Catholic and Orthodox sects are usually not all that different, and only have to do with nationality (ie “Ukrainian Orthodox”. I have to focus mainly on Protestantism here, since that is the grouping which pertains to my Latvian ancestors. Under the grouping of Protestantism are many different denominations. Sometimes “Protestantism” is used as sort of a catchall term to describe any Christian church that is not either Catholic or Orthodox, and there are many branches that have split off from this one. Under Protestantism, you can find these denominations:
Anabaptist
Anglicanism
Baptist
Calvinism
Congregational
Evangelism
Lutheranism
Mennonitism
Methodism
Pentecostalism
Presbyterianism
Reformed
Seventh-Day Adventist

Hopefully this helps a little with anyone else who is as confused about all these different religious denominational terms as I am! There are definitely religions not mentioned here and other subtleties, this is just a very broad and basic outline for genealogical research’s sake!