BMH HISTORY

Does Anyone know About The German SS That were in Iserlohn Area ! i was a British army chef Iserlohn BMH 1984- 1985 . One of the German chefs took in his Father or Uncles German SS badges for me to see one day it was forbiden to show them i think he was in panzer tank Division or something . Please send me an photos of the BMH any year , or any information thank you William

Hi Willie
Trying to keep my research after the war that finished in Iserlohn 16 April 1945 today at a second hand book stall in town bought a book 'Iserlohn unter dem Union Jack 1945 to 1948' and if I find a reference will let you know...might take some time as my German reading is limited ...have not forgotten the BMH 'today' photos going there tomorrow and if the sun is shining will get them taken
Cheers
Steve

I met a German fella in 68 after the Canadians moved into Fort Qu'Appelle (Winkleman Kaserne). He said that his brother had been executed in there by a firing squad for desertion near the end of the war by the SS. Don't know how true it was, but in front of the building that had 1 SSM Bty HQ's and Barracks and the Housing Office was a parking lot we used and it had brick wall that divided us from the officers mess and nursery school, which was pocked marked from what appeared to be rifle rounds. Often wondered about that. I think Iserlohn area was a bit of a hot bed of Nazism.

yes i heard something about the bullet holes at Iserlohn , i remember the German eagle at the gate !i wonder if it is still there

Iserlohn and the surrounding area were very much a "hotbed of Nazism", which is one of the reasons -- I now realize -- the British and later the Canadians and later still the British again were stationed there.

For those who lived in the area, you will be familiar with the area known as the Hoennetal. This is a deep narrow valley east of Deilinghofen and a rather odd geological phenomenon given the surrounding gently rolling hills and relatively flat farmland.

Rumours persisted while I was living in the area of "Nazi treasure" squirrelled away in the numerous caves that riddle the Hoennetal. There are also ruins of bunkers dating from WWII throughout the area not just along the Hoennetal but around Iserlohn and out towards Balve.

Of course, I found out many years later, there was a POW camp (Stalag VI I believe it was named) up in the hills overlooking Hemer. Mostly Russian and Polish inmates. There is a cemetery up there now as many of the POWs died under the harsh, albeit not as harsh as concentration camps, conditions.

Also, my father was friends with the German fellow who was the foreman for the Hemer Married Quarters' heating plant, named Erich.

Erich was a rather cultured man, very nice. At the time he was probably in his 50's. He had been in the German Air Force. He had a small flat just "around the corner" from the medical clinic on Breslauer Strasse (?) and we'd visit periodically, especially after we moved to Iserlohn in 1971 while my father completed the old Brigade area close-out and transfers of Canadian holdings to BAOR/German authorities (mostly BAOR).

Up on Erich's huge schrank perched a beautifully carved oak Reich's Adler -- Nazi Eagle -- he had had since the war. In it's talons was a laurel wreath surrounding a swastika. Of course, it was illegal to even possess such a thing and I have no idea how Erich got away with it. The eagle was quite a prominent feature in his and his wife's living room. He maintained he was never a Nazi, just a patriotic Air Force officer. Maybe....

As for the Reich's Adler at the gate to the old BMH Iserlohn...I believe it is still there, although the wreathed swastika it clutched in its talons had been chiseled off many many years ago. The eagle was very Art Deco, quite neat actually. Whether or not it still there given the site is now a technical college, I don't know, but I did come across something about it on the Internet last year and at that time the eagle was still hovering over the main gate to the compound.

I remember the brick wall hardrations mentions! We were all told by civilian workers, that the young (German) soldiers used it for target practice...nobody questioned their version.

thanks for that stephen , i must go back to iserlohn some day

I would go along with Stephens version of the pock marks on the brick wall.
Living the short time I did in Fort Qu'Appelle I did find it odd in the evening and night time in my room as I'm of the opinion that there was some one from the past sharing it with me. The main happening was the door would unlock on it's own and gently swing open a bit. The lock was one of those old fashion dead bolt, so I don't blame shifting of the building, etc. Who knows, many German soldiers would have left that building never to return home.

TO HARDRATIONS which block did you live in? and what year were you there? or were you a patent! One night in the Naffi did hear some of the QARANC talking about the funny things moving about in the wards on night shift .i lived at the very end of the BMH in a single story Building at the top right hand side, there a picture on the net with a soldier on a moterbike you have proberly seen this .The place was very spooky place especialy the cellars, we had to use them as i was Army Catering Corps to put the food up to the wards for night shift. Sometimes the lights blew as you were going through the cellar with the Food trolly . It scared the pants of me and you basicly ran faster to get to the end of the corridor. I was told they had torture interigation rooms in the cellar that were used in the war time.

Somewhere on this site, in one of the other forums, I mention some of the ghost stories I heard, especially about Fort Qu'Appelle (Fort Beausejour was the barrack complex just 'tucked in' to the south of BMH Iserlohn, along the route down into Hemer).

One was told to me by a young soldier I worked with while clearing out all the bunks etc from the old barracks when the Canadians were preparing to send everything down to Lahr. He swore he was up on the 2nd or 3rd floor one night, returning to his room from the showers or some such thing and seeing a German soldier circa Third Reich at the end of the hall who stopped, gazed at him, then turned and disappeared into the wall!

There were many such stories circulating around.

I also recall an orderly (?) who absolutely refused to go into some areas of BMH, or even some rooms, at night.

As for the lights blowing...well, that wasn't terribly unusual given the technology behind the electrical power to the buildings (ancient!).

I remember in some blocks of flats one had to hit a button down in the entrance which would "open" the lights and one had something like 30 seconds or a minute perhaps to get up the stairs before the lights shut off again, necessitating the pressing of the "on" button on that landing if one wished to continue up the stairs and see where you were going. Wires hung everywhere.

I'm surprised there weren't more outages or even outright electrical fires occurring, given how 'low tech' the systems were.

stephen,wish there were a few of the medical staff from my time there on this forum.they could tell a few tales of helmeted soldiers walking through walls and the strange noises and lights on b-wing.used to be a lot of tales of strange things in the late 70's and early 80's when i was playing football there.graham.

Willie, I never was a patient in BMH Iserlohn. Only went there to donate blood or visit buds in the joint. My past experience in German army barracks were in Fort Qu'Appelle (Winkleman Kaserne) where I was RC Sigs attached to 1 SSM Bty RCA. I later remustered trades and became a cook.