The main camp was in Malschbach in Baden-Baden and was founded in November 1939. sub camps were at Wildbad and Stransbourg. The camp was liberated by the U.S. Ninth Army on 12 April 1945. Up to 5,000 POWs were housed here at any one time (Greeks, Maltese, Cypriots, British, Americans, French, Slavs). | Register with your email address now, we can then send you an alert as soon as we add a record close matching the one you were searching for. Built in October 1941 to house 3,000 POWs, it held on February 26th 1943 3,438 POWs. Located at Szubin a few miles south of Bydgoszcz, in Pomorze, Poland, which at that time was occupied by Nazi Germany. The British had begun an escape tunnel, and the Poles continued working on it, and on 20 September 1943, 47 of them escaped. In 1941 and 1942 Soviet prisoners arrived. Some POWs had a brutal and life-threatening time from day to day particularly as the war dragged on into 1944 and 1945, the magazines tended to concentrate on keeping families morale up rather than giving accurate news, whether this accuracy was possible or not is arguable, however. British prisoners were held in separate camps all over Germany. 1939: The first prisoners arrived in November 1939; they were 140 Polish officers from the September Campaign who were regarded as escape risks. The castle, that overlooks the town of Colditz in Saxony . To make room for them many of the Poles were forced to give up their status as POWs and become civilian slave labourers. They carried two blankets, and an overcoat for bedding. District VII Nearest city Munster in the North West region of Germany. All books are based on sound research and his readers will welcome his latest effort PRISONERS OF THE CASTLE: AN EPIC STORY OF SURVIVAL AND ESCAPE FROM COLDITZ, THE NAZIS FORTRESS PRISON. Camp E715 Buna/Monowitz where POWs worked alongside Jewish inmates from the adjacent Auschwitz III KZ (Konzentrationslager) -otherwise known as Extermination through work (Vernichtung durch Arbeit) camp. They awoke one morning to discover that their guards had deserted them. The camp was reopened in 1 October 1939 to house Polish generals and their staffs captured during the German September 1939 offensive. When a prison guard pointed a pistol at his head and threatened to shoot, Upham calmly ignored him and lit a cigarette. Two very high large buildings, located beside the second section, contain large halls appropriated for dayrooms. Stars: Six months later, after 76 Allied airmen escaped from Stalag Luft III, 50 were murdered by the Gestapo. Other mainly administrative and policy files on merchant navy POWs are dispersed among FO 916, MT 9 (code 106), FO 371, WO 32 (code 91A). There are some surviving BAOR (British Army Of the Rhine) reports reference WC/C/243 (war crimes) regarding the forced marches from Nebrandenburg camps to the Schwerin area in 1945 these can now be found at the national archives under reference WO209/1047. In October 1944, as the Red Army approached, the guards abandoned the camp leaving 4,029 Soviet prisoners behind. It housed 2455 officers with 297 other ranks. Directors: Campo PG 66, on a flat stretch of ground on the outskirts of Capua, had been in use as a prisoner-of-war camp since early 1941, when a medical officer reported favourably on its food, water supply and sanitation, and the men stated that they were being well taken care of.. The first transport numbering 2254 POWs (1618 officers and 636 other ranks) arrived at the camp on 6th November 1939. He was killed in action on 1 September 1944, commanding the second Battalion of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps, and is buried at Airaines Cemetery in France. Consequently, additional documentation is sometimes attached. Colditz, escape, Nazi Germany, prisoners of war, Second World War. 223,352 Oflag IX-C (Molsdorf) was used to house Women Officers of the Polish Army and was widely known (even to the International Red Cross) as the worst of all those run by German forces during WWII for its near concentration-camp conditions. Several escape attempts, one successful on March 29th 1943 - Six British and New Zealand officers escaped through a tunnel from Castello di Vincigliata (Campo 12) near Florence, Italy. This was recorded in shorthand in a notebook labelled "Shorthand Reading Exercises. POWs transferred to San Guiseppe Iato later. Besides, the so-called 'Black List' foreigners were also included. To the north of the road were seven prisoner accommodation blocks. Lieutenant Airey Neave was just one of the tens of thousands of British and Commonwealth personnel captured at French ports following the fall of France in May 1940. Originally opened in July1942the camp reported having 42other ranks on 26th February 1943. From May/June 1940 Dutch and Belgian prisoners arrived from the Battle of France, followed by French. Located in Fnfeichen, a former estate within the city limits of Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg, northern Germany. The Index to the correspondence of the Foreign Office, 1920-1951 (131 vols, Nendeln, 1969-1982) available at The National Archives, contains numerous entries relating to all aspects of British POWs. In 1943, an Italian-administered P.O.W. Also, individuals were allowed to bring to official notice any other matters, such as courageous acts by fellow prisoners or details of civilians who assisted them during escape and evasion activities. Several tunnels were started, but the first two ran into problems of extreme flooding, however they were not discovered. POWs were moved out of this camp on March 10th 1944 towards Germany. West -opened July 1944 for USAAF officers only. Drama, Sport, War. In late 1944/early 1945 the camp population grew enormously with the arrival of prisoners evacuated from camps in the east in front of the advance of the Red Army. On 9 April 1945 the guards at Milag-Marlag moved out and were replaced by older men, presumably local Volkssturm. After another train journey the men were force marched from Kiefheide, with many men being bayoneted or shot before they reached Stalag Luft IV in Gross Tychow. Conditions in this camp were deplorable, as the rules of the Third Geneva Convention were not observed for Soviet prisoners. According to the German Security Officer, Captain Reinhold Eggers, the Dutch officers appeared to be model prisoners at first. There were certainly US (and British?) Feldpost 36433(1.10.1940-27.2.1941) 2. At one time, they travelled 40 miles, only advancing a few. | In 1941 more prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign mostly British and Yugoslavians (mostly Serbs). It comprised eight barracks for the inmates and a "kommandantur" for the SS guards, totalling 120,000 square metres. At one time there were over 30,000 jammed into facilities designed for 15,000. One of the most highly decorated POWs of the war was kept here, the only fighting soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice. After some time the officers were separated out and placed initially in the garages of the adjoining German Army armoured division. burdocks (German Schwertbrderstrasse, from the north-east) and Brownies (German Goldene Pforte, from the south-east.). Stalag XX-A Thorn (British) Poland Location N/E 53-18. If the person you are searching for is an officer then its likely he was held in an Oflag (Officers camp) however many officers were also incarcerated into Stalags (other ranks camps) and particularly at the very beginning and end of the war you may find an officer in a stalag or an airman in a stalag rather than a stalag luft and vice versa. Work camps for the Ellera- Pietrafitta railway for mostly eastern European POWs. In March 1943 a Lazarett ("Camp Hospital") was built there. This grim and claustrophobic drama chronicles the lives of the prisoners in Colditz Castle from the arrival of the first British prisoners after Dunkirk until the liberation of the castle by the Americans in 1945. Neave was the author of a number of books concerning his wartime careers including Saturday at MI9 referring to his nomme de guerre at the organisation. The guards were mainly Austrian army veterans and conditions in the camp were better than in many other POW camps in Germany. Last edited on 26 September 2022, at 08:59, Attempted to impersonate a German sergeant, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_attempts_to_escape_Oflag_IV-C&oldid=1112431013, Hid in rafters of park pavilion, dressed as civilian. (Hospital). Most posed as French civilian workers, of whom there were many in Germany at the time. Originally a catholic seminary, accommodation was a 3 storey building (Villa Albertoni) with a large courtyard & terrace and very liberal use of barbed wire to enclose the Prisoners compound. The POWs lived in barrack huts that were divided into two dormitories each housing around 100 men, with a small kitchen and a washroom between them. Tin of 50 cigarettes or tobacco (sent separatelyusually Player's brand cigarettes or Digger flake pipe tobacco). Most of these were farms and agricultural sub camps. I'm not sure that Colditz is as well know in the U.S.A. Highly recommended for further background and some specific camp research: POW Allied Prisoners of War in Europe 1939-1945 by Adrian Gilbert [see here]. "Only the generals slept alone". The construction of the second camp, Lager-Ost ("East Compound") began in June 1941 to accommodate the large numbers of Soviet prisoners taken in Operation Barbarossa. Oflag VIII-F was first established at Wahlstatt in July 1940 and housed French and Belgian officers taken prisoner during the Battle of France. They hatched a plan to escape through a kitchen window and then make a dash to freedom, through the courtyard and through the walls across the dry moat to the final row of barbed wire. District IX Nearest City Altona, near Hamburg in the middle North of Germany. Among those officers imprisoned were 30 from Poland, 30 from France, 9 from the Netherlands, 1 from the United Kingdom, and a Colonel from Norway. A huge sprawling camp holding up to 11000 POWs in 6 separate compounds, by far the largest camp for US fliers in German hands. 700 people are estimated to died in the camps on Alderney, although it is now believed to have been higher. Collective alphabetical listings of POWs (as opposed to individual pouches) are contained in BT 373/3717-3722. 77 Pissignano / Campello sul Clitunno also known as Dulag 226 and CC77 (Perugia L'Aquila). Lieutenant Leo de Hartog holding 'Moritz', one of the two dummy heads of POWs made to mislead German guards during daily roll calls. Research is carried out free of charge when it has been requested by the individual concerned himself/herself or by his/her next of kin (brother, sister, wife, husband, father, mother, children, grandchildren). The prisoners lived in the factory buildings which couldnt accommodate such large numbers. 2928797 Private Walter Murray Queens Own Cameron Highlanders died 13/8/1942 Stalag XVIII-C Markt Pongau, Austria (also known as Stalag 317). Less informative, WO 208/5461-5480 lists in tabular form individuals who assisted Allied escapers and evaders in Belgium and Luxembourg, Denmark, France, Greece, Holland, Hungary and Yugoslavia, Italy (includes some more detailed cases), and Poland. In June 1941 the massive influx of Soviet prisoners from Operation Barbarossa began. The series of records WO 416 consist of cards for over 200,000 prisoners of war and civilians, and deceased airmen whose bodies were found near to their planes. Escapes assisted by Yugoslav Partisans became increasingly common, with most escapers being led south to the Partisan base and airfield at Semic in Bela Krajina. The first prisoners detained at the camp had been Poles, taken captive during the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Opened originally in May 1942, 95other ranks were reported here on December30th 1942.. Work camps at Fattoria Bianco, Cetona, Abano, Fogolana. As in camps across Europe, with the support and direction from escape committees, prisoners used a number of methods for escape, with tunnels and disguises being the most popular along with forged identification papers. The first officers from the battle of Greece arrived on 16 June 1941. Late 1943: The POW camp is closed and the entire facility becomes Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. On 30 August 1942 the camp was the scene of "Operation Olympia", also known as the "Warburg Wire Job", another mass escape attempt. | This is sometimes confusing as Italy also had concentration camps in the normal sense of the word for holding of Political opponents and Jews. At the instigation of the U.S. and Swiss governments, the International Committee of the Red Cross put pressure on the German government not to keep civilian non-combatants in a POW camp. Opened originally in May 1942, 180 other ranks were reported here on December30th 1942.. Near Perugia, Fornaci Briziarelli brick factory, POWs also worked on the Todi Orvieto road construction. Documentary, History, Director: In September 1942 the British prisoners were transferred to other camps, and were replaced with Polish officers, with 1,077 brought from Romania, where they had been interned since September 1939, and another 1,500 transferred from other camps in Germany. A command was issued to march from the camp westwards on the night 28/29 of January 1945 in advance of the Soviet Army. 37 officers held here as of 26/2/43 originally opened September 1941. The camp was built in September 1939 to house Polish prisoners from the German invasion of Poland. It was relatively easy to escape from a farm, but much more difficult to evade recapture. The buildings were arranged in a horseshoe shape. Dulag Luft was the abbreviated name of Durchgangslager der Luftwaffe - given to Prisoner of War (POW) transit camps for Air Force prisoners captured by Germany during the Second World War. It was supposed to be the most secure German POW camp so was specifically used as the prison of last resort for Allied officers who had previously attempted escape or were otherwise high risk. We add around 200,000 new records each month. Many of these soldiers were interned at Oflag VII-B. In early 1945 Polish Officers, inmates of Oflag II-D Gross-Born and Oflag II-C Woldenberg, were marched westwards and finally reached Oflag X-C. Fascism's European Empire - Davide Rodogno [see here]. Punishment of prisoners was severe, particularly after July 1944 when the SS took over jurisdiction of camp security (although did not place guards generally) US prisoners who did not follow regulations or tried to escape were sentenced to as much as a month in a special solitary confinement building, Soviet POWs fared far worse however, and were generally killed either immediately or worked to death at the nearby Mauthausen KZ. With luck, the office door had been relocked and this satisfied the soldiers that nobody had entered the office. 30,000 jammed into facilities designed for 15,000 and Yugoslavians ( mostly Serbs ) )... Pows and become civilian slave labourers, Nazi Germany, prisoners of,! By Nazi Germany, prisoners of war, second World war i 'm not sure that Colditz is as know... 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