German placenames

[Hans Nauta]

Dear all,

In his Liberation Questionnaire POW Sgt Joseph Henry Dixon gives a short account of his escape attempt:

"6/4/45 Falling Bostel. Escaped from train during darkness by companions occupying guards attention until we had cut out underneath the wagon. Recaptured by Folksturm (sic) in woods, approx 10 miles East Neinberg 8/4/45."

I've tried to use multimap.com but couldn't find a match for both Falling Bostel or Neinberg, assuming both place names must be located somewhere close to each other. It also appears that Falling Bostel was also the name of the POW camp, however I couldn't find any clue in all my references to POW camps.

Perhaps someone of the German community of this Board can shed a light on this?

Thanks in advance,
Hans Nauta

[Hans Nauta]

After making other attempts, should the placenames Soltau-Fallingbostel and Nienburg make some sense?

Regards,
Hans Nauta

[Hohentwiel]

Hello Hans,

yes, Soltau-Fallingborstel and Nienburg are right.
These towns are in Niedersachsen, or Lower Saxony
in Northern Germany.

Greetings,
Sven.

[Kutscha]

Hans, do you use Google Earth for your searches? I have had good success using GE.

[robert_schulte]

Hello Hans.
To be correct, Fallingbostel is a town on its own about 50 km north of Hannover and does not belong to Soltau. However, both towns belong to the county named Soltau-Fallingbostel and have a common car registration.
Regards
Robert

[Hans Nauta]

Gents,

Thanks a lot for your quick replies. So after all there was just one misspelling in the report: Nienberg instead of Nienburg.

Best regards,
Hans Nauta

[ChrisMAg2]

Originally Posted by Hans Nauta

Dear all,

In his Liberation Questionnaire POW Sgt Joseph Henry Dixon gives a short account of his escape attempt:

"6/4/45 Falling Bostel. Escaped from train during darkness by companions occupying guards attention until we had cut out underneath the wagon. Recaptured by Folksturm (sic) in woods, approx 10 miles East Neinberg 8/4/45."

...

Hans,
you have another misspelling here:
Instead of Folksturm it should spell Volkssturm.

[Hans Nauta]

Hi Chris,

Yep, that's why I added '(sic)' to it, Latin for 'literal', while the quoter is aware of the misspelling.

Thanks anyhow for the remark!

Regards,
Hans

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Hans Nauta

Hi Chris,

Yep, that's why I added '(sic)' to it, Latin for 'literal', while the quoter is aware of the misspelling.

Actually it's the Latin for "thus" - I knew that if I waited long enough I could use the Latin I learned at school 40 years ago!

[James Porter]

Hans,

I lived just outside Fallingbostel for 2 years in the late 1970s and remember Nienburg as being quite close. I can confirm that it was a well known fact that Fallingbostel was a large prisoner of war centre towards the end of WW2 and there were reputedly scribbled messages in buildings left by British PoWs. The irony was that the Fallinbostel military camp now belonged to the British Army!

James