The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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222994 Sammy Louis Marks from:Johannesburg, South Africa I don't know what my father, Sammy Marks' rank was or when he signed up. What I do know is that he was fighting for the allies. He came from Johannesburg, South Africa. He was captured and became a POW in Stalag IVC in Brux, Germany. He became the camp leader of Stalag IVC and at the conclusion of the war he was presented with an illuminated address by his fellow-prisoners in recognition of his services. The address says: "In appreciation of his untiring efforts to ease their lot as prisoners-of-war-efforts which met with such success that the lager became almost unique in that the Germans never interfered with the internal organization, while mine managers and firm heads; were always respectful and attentive when Herr Marks visited a "job", on which POW's were working. Thank you Sammy." An uncle sent me a photocopy of a page from a book called "Prisoners of War". It reads: Another prisoner who helped lighten the lot of his friends was Sammy Marks of Johannesburg, who had an extraordinary history. As Camp Leader he consistently burnt all the Nazi propaganda sent to the camp for distribution. Perhaps his crowning achievement was that he was able to rescue a Czech Jewess from deportation to the Eastern Front and to marry her and bring her back to South Africa. That was my mother, Yola. I adored my dad and unfortunately he died when I was 16 years old. I never heard him talk about the war, except to say that when he saw my mother for the first time, she was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. My mother pooh poohed this. "I had no hair and was skin and bone," she'd say. But I knew she was pleased. Carol Marks-Stopforth Add to this record.  Related Content: Stalag 4C Prisoner of War Camp Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.