Emanuel Alexander

Signaller Emanuel Alexander, service number 9747, Signal Corps, known as Mannie, was the son of Reuben Alexander and Clara Alexander born Romain (1896-1976) of Port Elizabeth. He was born on the 21^st June 1921 in London, England. The family emigrated to South Africa in 1931  from England.

During World War Two, he enlisted in the Union Defence Force. He was a signaller in the Signals Corps. He was taken prisoner of war in North Africa and was sent to Italy. He was  interned in camp PG 82 Laterina, near Arezzo.  After the Italian capitulation, he was captured by the Germans in Italy and sent to Germany. He was listed as a PoW in Stalag IV-C Wistritz, Sudetenland. His German PoW number was 223514. Stalag IV-C  was located in an old china factory. Most of the men worked in the  Sudentenlandische-Treibstoff-Werke ("Sudetenland Fuel Works"), part of the state-owned industrial conglomerate Reichswerke Hermann Göring. This plant was designed to process oil from coal. As part of the Allied campaign to attack German oil production, the camp was bombed several times between July 1944 and April 1945.The camp was liberated by the Russian Army in May 1945. During the war, Alexander’s sisters , Rene Rachel Alexander and Fanny Frances Alexander served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.

He married Gertrude Emily Albutt ( 1923-2001) on the 4 December 1953 in Kimberley. At that time he was working as a representative and was resident in Port Elizabeth. He died in Port Elizabeth.

Sources:

1. https://sajmarchives.com/armed-forces-alexander


2. https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-1-1232121422-1-501292/mannie-alexander-in-myheritage-family-trees.


3. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV3W-KSZX