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Family History Beginners Board / Help with records destroyed during WWII
« on: Friday 06 July 18 14:49 BST (UK) »
I've been hunting for my mother's birth record for over a year now, through archives and even a person on the ground, and so far I still have no luck.
My grandparents were Lithuanian, and fled the country around 1941 due to Russian occupation. They traveled across Poland and Germany, and on the way were in DP camps. My mother and her brother were born in what was at the time, the German occupied territory of Schröttersburg -- before and after that time, Plock, Poland. I have contacted archives in both Germany and Poland. Germany keeps saying they have nothing and that I have to contact Poland. Poland says most, if not all records from 1942 - 1944 were destroyed by Nazis -- my mother was born December 1942. The only way I know of the town is through records obtained from US Homeland Security through the Freedom of Information Act, which contain statements about where she was born -- but since she was a child at the time, most information about her has been blacked out by Homeland Security.
I am looking to achieve dual citizenship, most likely through Lithuania (could also be Poland), but my mother's record is key, and I have nothing. It seems unfathomable that there would be no process to help those who had their birth record destroyed (and at the time, it was likely only documented at a local parish), and there have to be many people in this predicament. So far, I have not been able to figure out what to do. Any assistance would be appreciated.
My grandparents were Lithuanian, and fled the country around 1941 due to Russian occupation. They traveled across Poland and Germany, and on the way were in DP camps. My mother and her brother were born in what was at the time, the German occupied territory of Schröttersburg -- before and after that time, Plock, Poland. I have contacted archives in both Germany and Poland. Germany keeps saying they have nothing and that I have to contact Poland. Poland says most, if not all records from 1942 - 1944 were destroyed by Nazis -- my mother was born December 1942. The only way I know of the town is through records obtained from US Homeland Security through the Freedom of Information Act, which contain statements about where she was born -- but since she was a child at the time, most information about her has been blacked out by Homeland Security.
I am looking to achieve dual citizenship, most likely through Lithuania (could also be Poland), but my mother's record is key, and I have nothing. It seems unfathomable that there would be no process to help those who had their birth record destroyed (and at the time, it was likely only documented at a local parish), and there have to be many people in this predicament. So far, I have not been able to figure out what to do. Any assistance would be appreciated.