How can I find a post WWII concentration camp birth certificate?

December 5, 2005 8:29 AM

My best friend's dad (who is like a father to me) was born at a Nazi POW camp soon after WWII. We are going to Germany on holiday in a few days, and he would like to hunt down a birth certificate because his father does not have one. Help?

I don't have too many details because all parties but my friend's father have passed.

During WWII, my friend's grandfather, a Red Army regular, and grandmother were taken by the Nazis just outside of Stalingrad. They were sent to a POW camp in Stuttgart, Germany. My friend's father was born, in the camp, in 1947. This is where it gets murky. Stuttgart is well into West Germany, so it was, probably, under either British or American control at the time.

The real question; how can we find this birth certificate without burning a week of vacation? We have his grandparents' full, real names, the fake names they used (they are Armenian and didn't want to advertise it), his birthdate, and the last name of the doctor who supposedly delivered him.

posted by bryak to law & government (3 comments total)

Talk to arco, dude. He's an expert on this sort of thing.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:40 AM on December 5, 2005

Stuttgart was part of the American zone IIRC. Do you know the name of the camp? There's a good chance that records might well be in the National Archives here, of all places.
posted by huskerdont at 8:45 AM on December 5, 2005

Let me ask around and see if anyone here at the Museum has suggestions. You can send me the info you have, just in case I come up with any leads: rcoleman (at) ushmm.org.
posted by arco at 8:51 AM on December 5, 2005