a different type of war story

This is a story of my step grandfather, Bagrad Awedesian.  He came to America much later then the first wave of Armenians who came here beginning in the early 1920's. Bagrad came here after WW2, sometime around 1951.  Bagrad went on to marry my widowed grandmother Lucy when my Dad was in the army during the early 1950's.  Bagrad spoke English okay but like all immigrants he spoke with a heavy accent until his death in 1984. He worked as a oriental rug salesman at Strawbridge's located in downtown Philadelphia for the remainder of his life while living in America.

Bagrad at work during the 1960's

 While recently going through some old boxes I found about 50 pictures that my grand mom gave to my sister about 25 years ago. They were stored away in my grandmother's house in a small plastic bag in her basement. My sister gave them to me about 10 years ago knowing I'd be interested in them. Most were in bad shape and stuck together from being stored in dampness for so long. I quickly looked at whatever pictures weren’t stuck together and I recognized a few people and places, then I put them back into the bag and into a box in my closet where they remained until just recently.

 At the bottom of the bag I found a small envelop that I hadn't noticed before. Inside were a few pictures that led me to writing this letter. Years ago when I was just a kid, my family would often tell stories of Bagrad "Pop" and how he survived two POW camps during WW2.  The story went that he was captured by the Russian Army and placed into their POW camp. The story continued that he escaped from the Russian camp and was caught by the German Army who placed him into their POW camp. This was the only thing I knew about his life, nothing more was said to me or any other kids in our family about his life in Russia before coming to America.

 So, getting back to the pictures I found in that little envelope. As I laid the pictures out I saw the first picture of Nazis shown below, standing around talking while smiling at each other, just like we would see our troops do in old pictures while they were in Europe during WW2.

 Each picture had a penned inscription written in German on the back, one in particular shown below translates into English as "my memories of war- Otto".

 As I got to the third picture I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw my "Pop" standing with a smiling German soldier pictured below, as he stood there calmly smoking a cigarette dressed in what appeared to be a German uniform.

Bagrad standing with a German soldier (Otto?)dated 1942

The same soldier (Otto?) that was standing with Bagrad is seen again in the back row,far right

  After the initial shock was gone, I spent the better part of a few days examining the three photos that had German soldiers in them, focusing on the photo of Bagrad and trying to determine if he looked more like a prisoner amusing his captors to stay alive, or a traitor who willingly switched sides.

 I soon began to switch my focus on the other pictures in the envelope. There was one photo that I couldn't put down of Pop standing with another man, shown below at the gravesite of someone named General Dro written in English across the stone. Just below was his name inscribed in Armenian.

Here is where my first real information gathering began as I turned to the internet in hopes of finding some answers or clues.  I started by searching for General Dro. I quickly found a current photo of Dro's gravesite shown below, matching exactly where Bagrad had stood in his old photo dated back to 1959.

 I noticed the grave wreath in the original picture held by the other man in the photo had the title inscription 'A.R.F.  Central Command' written across the top.  I began reading up on General Dro and how my Pop might have been involved with him.  A.R.F. or the Armenian Revolutionary Forces were developed during Stalin's Red Terror, many Armenians were murdered or imprisoned. During World War II, the Armenians saw a good opportunity in freeing themselves from Stalin and create an Armenian nation in a post-WWII world dominated by the Axis powers.

 On 8 February 1942, they formed a Legion of 11 battalions from those Armenians, who were prisoners in the Nazi POW camps and had opted to fight for German forces rather than face the genocidal conditions of those camps. The Legion was 18,000-strong and had been known as Armenische Legion, while the 812th Armenian Battalion of Wehrmachtas each battalion of this unit, had 1,000 men under the command of General Dro. The Legion was trained by Wehrmacht officers and participated in the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula and the Caucasus.  The full story of General Dro can be read here... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drastamat_Kanayan

This might explain the stories I was told of him being in a German POW camp.  But what about the Russian POW camp? I kept on digging into the internet reading all I could about this period in history.  There was another photo in that little envelope.  It showed Pop standing with a man on a street. There was a sign above them attached to a building shown in the photo below.

 On the back of the photo was the name of a place called Ludwigsburg dated 1951 shown below.

A quick search of Ludwigsburg showed that it held the largest POW camp for Russian prisoners in Germany during the war.  It was known as Stalag V-A.

 The first prisoners detained at the camp had been Poles, taken captive during the German invasion of Poland in 1939. As the war progressed, prisoners of other nationalities arrived at Stalag V-A. By the time of the camp's evacuation in April 1945, Allied prisoners of every nation at war with Germany were present within the camp. The largest population present within the camp was Soviet, followed by the French, Belgian, Dutch, British and Commonwealth, Italian, and American prisoners were also present in large numbers.

 So, it appears that my Pop, Bagrad Awedesian served under the command of General Dro. He was in a German POW camp before being given the ultimatum of death by starvation or join forces with the Germans and return to his homeland to fight the Red army.  I'm guessing he and the others thought this was a 'win win' situation considering they were already at war with the Red Army before they got captured by the Germans.  My fears of him becoming a Nazi were quickly fading as I tried to picture myself in his boots at that time.

 After World War II, General Dro emigrated to the United States and continued his political activities with the purpose of advancing the Armenian Cause. In 1947, at the World Congress of the A.R.F., he was forgiven for his collaboration with Nazis, as he could justify it with powerful arguments, and was again elected a member of the Party. With the end of World War II, General Dro was arrested by American forces, but soon released. Kanayan, his real name, settled within the large Armenian Diaspora of Lebanon. When traveling to the U.S. for medical treatment, he died in Boston on 8 March 1956. His remains were taken to Armenia for final burial in Aparan, on 28 May 2000, within the commemoration of the 82nd anniversary of the First Republic of Armenia.

 The government of Armenia founded the General Dro National Institute of Strategic Studies, and the Ministry of Defense established a medal in his name to decorate military personnel and civilians who excelled in military teaching.

 It turns out that the man everyone called Pop had a pretty rough and tumbled past. To me he was just my grandpop, a nice old guy that was always dressed in suits, wore funny hats and spoke in a heavy accent.  He always seemed delighted in us kids, and when we grew up and had our own kids he seemed delighted in them also.  Here he is seen below with my son Greg, sometime around 1977.
I'm really glad I found those old photos. It sheds so much light on a large portion of a man that most of us knew nothing about, but maybe that's the way he wanted it....