Comments on: 70 Year Commemoration at Porta Westfalica

By: michael althoff

michael althoff — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 18:08:37 +0000

hi ammon….
thx for your great photos and your exellent website…
it was a great time here with you…
i hope you visit porta again…. this year we´re “open” on 4 long weekends…thursday to sunday…
greats to all my “friends” 🙂

your “tour guide”
michael althoff

By: ammon

ammon — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 19:33:45 +0000

In reply to Terence Peter Morton. Dear Terence, Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. I'm so glad my efforts to put together this research have helped you find some little bit of closure. That is more meaningful that degree I might have been awarded. Sincerely, Ammon

By: Terence Peter Morton

Terence Peter Morton — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 19:01:37 +0000

Dear Ammon,
I was with B.A.O.R Stationed at Elizabeth Kaserne in the early 70’s.
We learned of the “Secret Tunnels” from Civilian Workers who had actually worked there during the war years, little realising we were talking to people who had scant regard for the appalling loss of life, and the hardships endured by those poor souls sent to work there.
There was still a very active “Alte Kameraden” network meeting regularly each month in a Public house not 200 metres from the Barracks. We often watched the old comrades strutting into the Pub after a “long day” working at the barracks, all hale and hearty and plump from the easy life they were now enjoying. Such arrogance appalled me, especially following a visit I made to the Belsen Concentration Camp. I have indelibly printed on my heart, “here lies 5 thousand” I am a Christian but I cannot forgive, nor will I ever forget what was done to those poor souls forced into working for the Nazis. Finding your work actually gave me some closure, in respect to the memorials I now know have been erected and dedicated to those forced to work there.

By: Michael A. Fudakowski - Masterton, New Zealand

Michael A. Fudakowski - Masterton, New Zealand — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 01:18:57 +0000

In reply to ammon. Good to hear from you, Ammon. Thanks My wife and I are currently in California visiting some "good grandparenting" upon our daughter. We can be easily contacted should you wish it, although you'd perhaps be better in communication with my sister. cheers Mike F

By: ammon

ammon — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 01:01:38 +0000

In reply to Michael A. Fudakowski – Masterton, New Zealand.

Michael,

Not Doctor, yet, and even then… I prefer just my first name, Ammon. 🙂

Thank you for leaving a reply. I’m so glad this information is helpful. It means so much more to me that survivors and their descendants are able to learn and understand about what happened at that time and place.

There is another family that I know of in Australia, who’s mother was in the Porta Westfalica camp as well.

Thanks again for reaching out.

Ammon

By: Michael A. Fudakowski - Masterton, New Zealand

Michael A. Fudakowski - Masterton, New Zealand — Wed, 11 May 2016 10:01:42 +0000

Dear Mr (or is it Doctor) Shepherd,
Over lunch with my sister today she conveyed to me the information that our father, a survivor of Neuengamme, was in fact a survivor of the sub-camp Porta Westfalica and (she believes) had been involved in the tunneling work. This is what brought me eventually to your website and the various sets of information it contains (and links to).

The website has been most informative and opens up a fresh set of understandings for me. Unfortunately I had not developed an adult interest in any of this material while my father was still alive, so missed the opportunity to glean insights from his accounting of those dreadful days. He died in New Zealand in 1983. After liberation by the American forces, my father went to the UK by way of Paris and fetched up in New Zealand in 1950. When we were children we would get bored of the interminable talk about “the war” and, as I said, I developed any adult interest in such topics only when it was too late.

Thank you for presenting this information in so lucid a form.