219831 Lt. Beverley McGeoch Australian Army 2/7th Battalion from:Australia My Dad, Bev McGeoch, served with 2/7 Battalion, 6 Division, 2nd AIF as Infantry Company Commander and was also at Oflag V11B. He had spoken of being near a concentration camp and I was trying to identify which one as my daughter is studying the holocaust.
Dad was captured on Crete in early June 1941 and I recently found his diary which he kept, sparingly of information, but pretty regularly for almost 4 years. Now as far as Marberg is concerned, he makes reference to it in the travel from Crete, via Greece and the Balkans to Germany. He refers to being in Belgrade 24 July 1941, Izlag 25 July, Zagreb 25 July, Marberg (spelt this way) 26 July and Graz 26 July. They then travelled through Germany to Wildpalk and then Lubeck 29 July to 8 October 1941 before arriving in Eichstatt (via some other places) September 1942. In the meantime they had also been at Warburg (is there a name confusion). This is near Kassel and was Oflag VI B. - I am not sure but Marberg seems to have been a transition town only. I did however find a reference to Stalag 4B Muhlberg, so I wonder whether that was it?
His diary then stops in March 1945, when they started being moved around as both the Americans and Russians closed. There is another much smaller diary of the last weeks which I have seen (somewhere buried in the papers I expect) which relates they were shelled by the Americans who took them for Hungarians. He speaks of the last few months as being hungry and in poor condition, yet excited as they seemed to be well aware of what was happening. They even knew almost immediately of the plot against Hitler.
It seems odd that after so many years, I so unexpectedly come across someone who Dad possibly knew, certainly spent time in the company of my Dad, during what was a pretty tough time for them all. My dad's health certainly suffered and he died at 60 - like so many, far too early.
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