Patrick O´Connell

Patrick O’Connell was the second of three sons born to Timothy O'Connell (10 May 1881 – 14 January 1962) and Mary Ellen née O'Dwyer (b. 1893) in Castlemartyr near Youghal in County Cork. His father was a sergeant in the Royal Irish Constabulary and originally from County Meath. His brothers were Daniel Joseph O'Connell (1913–1987) and Thomas O'Connell (b. 1928).

Patrick O’Connell worked as a barman in Youghal before moving to London and joining the British Army on 27 August 1938. He served in peacetime for over a year while stationed in England. Patrick O’Connell was part of the First Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, serving as a fusilier in C Company. He was sent to France in October 1939 as part of the British Expeditionary Force.

Patrick O’Connell was captured under unknown circumstances following the Battle of Arras in France on 23 May 1940. On 9 June 1940, he was brought to the prisoner of war camp Stalag XX-A in Toruń and given the prisoner number 7749. From 27 July 1940, he was placed in a work camp in Bartodzieje Małe near Bydgoszcz, where he worked for the arms factory of Dynamit Nobel. This was in violation of the Geneva Convention of 1929, which prohibited the employment of prisoners of war in armaments production.

On 9 September 1940, he was transferred to Stalag III-A in Luckenwalde, and on 21 September 1940, sent to the work camp Damm I.

In November, he fell ill with tuberculosis and was brought to the Reserve-Lazarett 128 für Kriegsgefangene (a reserve hospital for prisoners of war) in Wittstock. In 1941, Patrick O’Connell was transferred to the Reserve-Lazarett 128 für Kriegsgefangene in Berlin-Biesdorf. Following a routine surgery in March 1941, he suffered from a very high fever, neck stiffness, and became unresponsive.

On 24 April 1941, Patrick O’Connell died of tuberculous meningitis in the prisoner of war hospital in Berlin. His body was autopsied at the pathological institute of the Charité Berlin by Prof. Kurt Apitz (1906–1945) and Dr. Rozynek. The autopsy protocol was received by the Military Medical Academy in Berlin on 14 May 1941. His brain was then transferred to the histopathological department of Dr. Julius Hallervorden (1882–1965) at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute on 15 May 1941 and labelled as specimen M535. This brain tissue was later moved to the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt in the mid-1960s, but its current location is unknown.

Patrick O'Connell was buried on 29 April 1941 in the Garrison Cemetery at Columbiastraße in Berlin-Neukölln (grave no. 31-4-1). On 15 March 1946, his body was transferred to the cemetery at Olympiastraße in Berlin-Charlottenburg (grave no. VII-A-5).

Patrick O’Connell’s remains were exhumed and reburied again in May 1959 in the Berlin 1939–1945 War Cemetery (grave no. 9-H-23). His family were consulted about the burial and requested a personal inscription: "In proud and everloving memory of our dear son Patrick. R.I.P.".