Ben Aalderink's mother who was 17 at the time vividly recalls the drawing up of this document by the German soldier and the signing of same.

Captured German Document Translated by Marcel Hogenhuis (Airwar/Luftwaffe researcher) Part of Complete Service File.

This info was important to track down the time of crash, also assists in tracking down a possible Luftwaffe pilot through thier airforce records. The local community may also have a record of incident in thier archives.

Translated

Text Entries: "Halifax, 1.30 b. Broeck" (Halifax, 1.30 hours near Broeck) is additional info, most likely from the Germans themselves because the 2 cross signs relate to a crashed aircraft. The time mentioned does therefore mention the time of the crash. How reliable this info is, I cannot say.

On the back of this document (shaded at bottom) you see another remark, also German, that says: "Identif. lt. Suchb. Int.R.Kreuz v. 8.3.45" etc. This is an abbreviation from the sentence: "Identifiziert laut Such buch Internationales Rotes Kreuz von 8.3.45" meaning "identified by the search list International Red Cross from March, 8th 1945". All fighting nations had the obligation to inform their national Red Cross committee about people taken prisoner or found dead. These national organisations informed on their part the (neutral) International Red Cross who informed the Red Cross departement of the country where this soldier came from.

The Germans wanted to know if the man they took prisoner was really the person who he said he was. Therefore they always tried to match their files with those of the Red Cross: the reference on the back of the card does refer to this identification. Otherwise: if the Soderstrom from the Red Cross lists looked not similar to the Soderstrom in the German POW camp, they might have caught a spy in the most extreme case.