Civilian labor units assigned to US military in Germany WW2

Hi Raymond.

I'm hoping you might be able to tell me something about my father's work with the US Army immediately after WWII. 

He was liberated during a death march from Dachau on May 1, 1945.  He told me that a few weeks later he made his way to Marburg an der Lahn where he and several other Holocaust survivors originally from Poland found work on a US army base.   He worked in their field kitchen (for free - they provided him with meals and clothing, and possibly lodging...though I'm not sure about this).   He did this for 14 months before emigrating to the US.   I am having trouble finding any information on a US army base in Marburg during this time of occupation (1945-1946).   Also, in reading some of your posts, I see there was something called the US Labor Service.   I never heard my father mention this nor did he leave any paperwork indicating he was part of it.   Could he have been part of it?

I'm currently writing a book about my father's liberation and post-war life and would very much like to corroborate what he told me and flesh out some details about his time in Germany before he arrived in the US.

Thank you so much.

Hi Raymond.

I'm hoping you might be able to tell me something about my father's work with the US Army immediately after WWII. 

He was liberated during a death march from Dachau on May 1, 1945.  He told me that a few weeks later he made his way to Marburg an der Lahn where he and several other Holocaust survivors originally from Poland found work on a US army base.   He worked in their field kitchen (for free - they provided him with meals and clothing, and possibly lodging...though I'm not sure about this).   He did this for 14 months before emigrating to the US.   I am having trouble finding any information on a US army base in Marburg during this time of occupation (1945-1946).   Also, in reading some of your posts, I see there was something called the US Labor Service.   I never heard my father mention this nor did he leave any paperwork indicating he was part of it.   Could he have been part of it?

I'm currently writing a book about my father's liberation and post-war life and would very much like to corroborate what he told me and flesh out some details about his time in Germany before he arrived in the US.

Thank you so much.

Janice,   I have learned that My Dad was also in Dachau after Mauthausen.  He was incarcerated in November 1944 and Liberated in May 1945.  I wrote to the national archives based on a post on this site  from 7 years ago.  THe National archives are in the process of recreating his record for me.   I have copies and pasted:

Displaced Persons records have been found, sometimes, among the Civilian Personnel Records at the National Archives in St. Louis. This would occur if they were employed at the Displaced Persons camp by the Department of the Army/Air Force or Labor Service. We also have the Official Personnel Folders of the Displaced Persons Commission (DPC), however this does not imply that it includes those forced laborers. The goal of the DPC was to eventually repatriate if possible, and therefore records on individuals and their “employment” were rarely kept.

There are also records of the Displaced Persons Commission kept in Washington. A description of them can be found at; https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/278.html and https://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/refugees.html#iro .

Thank you.   I have reached out to the National Archives many times in the past and never received any information from them related to my father's DP status.  The only thing they found was his separation papers from when he served in the Korean conflict years later.   Per the information you received (and pasted), my father was never employed at a DP camp by the US military.   He was not part of the Labor Service.   He was merely given work at the Marburg army garrison (I'm guessing that's what it was).

Thinking more about this....what I'm looking for are less official documents (I have some of those already) and more of a narrative, a description, of how it worked when refugee war survivors worked on American army bases or with garrisons.   What was that arrangement like?   What did the military give to the refugees, other than work?   Did they provide housing?  Clothing?  Meals?  Insundries?   Remuneration ($$)?   Specifically, does anyone know anything about the US military garrison in Marburg an der lahn, Germany, where my father worked?