September 1943 - Italians interned after the Allied Armistice with Italy arrived. March and April 1945 - about 8,000 Concentration camp prisoners are brought here from the Neuengamme concentration camp and placed in the enclosure that had been Marlag, Bar of milk or plain chocolate (often Cadbury's fruit and nut, or something similar), Tin of condensed milk (Klima Canadian instant milk beverageor else Carnation or Nestle brand). Immediately after the German invasion of Poland, at the beginning of World War II, some 1,000 Polish officers were imprisoned there. Other than the aforementioned, a fee of 100 Swiss francs (currently 67) is charged per hour per research, this only applies to records over 60 years old. Later in 1943 onwards it also housed British/Commonwealth POWs although they were very much the smaller numbers of those incarcerated, and later still US POWs, it was evacuated due to the approach opf the Red Army in February 1945. Ian Hendry, | Three men were killed, and 14 seriously wounded. The SHAEF/Red Cross reports from February 1945 show 1438 British, 1 US, 14111 Soviets, 20 Belgian, 401 Poles, 1703 Yugoslavs, 4177 Italians and 12814 French pows here. | Fort 16 (XVI) named Kolejowy or Railway. Opened 7th July 1942 with a capacity of 4000. Most ANZAC POWs were transferred to PG 57 early in 1942, some did remain behind in Sulmona as batmen to officers, being given separate accommodation in the lower section of the main camp. Interesting read about Colditz Castle, a prison for difficult prisoners during the Second World War. Also noted as 'Sforza costa Liguria' elsewhere, although this may be a mistake as PG 56 was in this location. 183 British POWs held at the village of Markrandstadt. Used for punishment and for keeping peristent escapers. 0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 90%. Stalag II-D Stargard Pomerania, Prussia Location N/E 53-15. The Italian camp nominal rolls are sourced directly from WO392/12. | Ron Arad - Israeli fighter pilot, shot down over Lebanon in 1986; not seen since 1988 and is presumed dead; Everett Alvarez, Jr. - Navy aviator, Vietnam War POW, held for 8 years, second longest period as a POW in American history (after Floyd James Thompson) B []. 108 min In addition, another tunnel was dug to store contraband. This page was last edited on 26 September 2022, at 08:59. Built as Stalag II-A Neubrandenburg in 1939, it was extended by the officer camp Oflag II-E in 1940 (renamed Oflag-67, 1944). Stars: Stalag XII-C Wiesbaden Hessen-Nassau, Prussia Location N/E 50-08, Stalag XII-D Waldbreitbach Rheinland, Prussia Location N/E 50-07. It took them over eight hours to escape from the grounds. (short for 'Geheime Staats Polizei': secret state police). Between August and November 1942 there was a second camp at Maribor, Stalag XVIII- B/Z. This also divided into two separate compounds for officers and men. Director: In German-run camps an 'Oflag' was a prisoner of war camp for officers, a 'Stalag' was for enlisted personnel, and there were also separate camps for the navy, aircrews and civilians. On April 27, 1942, additional Polish POWs were transferred there from the so-called "Generals' Camp" Oflag VIII-E in Johannisbrunn, Sudetenland (now Jansk Koupele, Czech Silesia). From April 1940 onwards the camp expanded with the completion of three wooden barrack blocks. P.G. The camp opened in May 1941 as Oflag 68, but was renamed Stalag I-F in June 1942. E.g. 14 satellite work camps at Isola della Scala, Lazise, Mozzecane, Vigasio at San Bernardino, Montecchia di Crosara in the Cava Basalti stone farm, Legnago/Vangadizza at Rosta, Zevio at Villa da Lisca, San Martino Buon Albergo, Bonavigo, Oppeano in the Mazzantica Village, Mozzecane near the church, Angiari. Before that many prisoners had been marched out in a south-west direction. Opened September 1942 and closed September 1944. By the middle of June only Soviet prisoners remained, these were eventually exchanged for British and American POWs in Soviet hands, near Graz. The sources: Records held at the National Archives under reference WO392/1-26 and Air40/1488-90 amongst many others. This is a good read. Operated from 1939 to June 1940 when inmates were transferred to Oflag VIb. In the middle of April most of the prisoners in the camp and in the outlying Arbeitskommandos were marched westward ahead of the advancing Red Army. Jumps over wall of exercise area of Colditz town jail. | Anyone who was injured in work, or became ill, was returned to the Lazarett (Hospital) at the main camp or a nearby Military/civilian hospital. Another British Jewish inmate was Lt J M Barnet, Royal Engineers, [14] who was captured in November 1940, arrived in Colditz (re Chancellor's list) on Aug. 4 th 1941 and was repatriated to Britain on 6/9/44 with feigned illness and so counts as an "escaper". West -opened July 1944 for USAAF officers only. They were housed in the open while huts were being built. The buildings were arranged in a horseshoe shape. After being freed in 1941, an orderly to a French admiral wrote that that life there was boring but "not particularly onerous", with "adequate by European prison standards" sanitation, inadequate but regular rations, and cigarettes for purchase. A large number of the inmates made their way to the Swiss frontier and were interned when the Italian guards abandoned their posts after the armistice in 1943. 117 min The camp was built in 1939 and designated Stalag I-C. At first it held Polish POWs, then from 1940 also French and Belgians, and from 1941 Soviets. The prisoners of war - mostly from France and the Soviet Union - had to perform forced labour in nearby factories and in agriculture. A Lazarett (hospital) cared for prisoners that were sick or had been injured in industrial accidents or air-raids. Stalag XVII B held soldiers of ten different nationalities throughout the war. The largest such attempt was on 13th September, when 26 prisoners got out through a tunnel. Originally designed to hold 4,000 in July 1942. In 1941 some 300 of these took part in the Nazi propaganda film Germanin. To the north of the road were seven prisoner accommodation blocks. Disguised as members of the league of German girls. Despite these precautions, Upham bolted from his little courtyard, straight through the German barracks and out through the front gate of the camp. Florence Desmond, The castle was then used as an Internment Camp Ilag VII for men from the British Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey until the camp was liberated in May 1945. District VII Nearest city Munster in the North West region 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. As of 2012 the site of the camp is occupied by the barracks and training school of. Researchers should note that in 1948, at General Eisenhower's request, the records of the Allied Screening Commission were transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington DC. Prisoners of the castle. Located in Fnfeichen, a former estate within the city limits of Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg, northern Germany. Out of POW yard into Kommandantur attics, into storeroom on south side of German yard, Jumped fence in park, wearing civilian clothes. | The Red Cross arranged them following the provisions of the third Geneva convention of 1929. From January 1944, Wietzendorf was the site of one of the largest camps for Italian officers known as Oflag 83. Despite initial appearances, and some accusations of collaboration with the Germans, the permanent staff, headed by Day, had set up an escape committee with other members of the staff, including Squadron Leader Roger Bushell and Lt Cmdr Jimmy Buckley RN. After the Soviet takeover (in 1945) it was until 1949 a special camp, NKVD-camp Nr. Finally, in January 1942, Stutthof became a regular concentration camp. In their place British, French and other Allied officers were transferred to Hadamar from the citadel of Mainz. 134 min We have German AND Italiancamp listings in our fully searchable databases! A different POW camp in Germany was Colditz Castle. The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz - Denis Avey [see here]. Six were built of brick, while the seventh was wood. By the end of the war, the total number of dead had increased to 50,000. Major-General Gustave Marie Maurice Mesny was killed on the way from Knigstein to Colditz Castle. IMDB lists twenty-one films on the theme, most prominently the 1963 production The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough. In 1941 more officer prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign mostly British, Yugoslavian, Serbs and Greeks. Within the camp, British POWs were controlled by the Senior British Officer (SBO) or Senior British Non-Commissioned Officer (SBNCO). The contact address is International Council of the Red Cross (ICRC), Archives Division, 19, Avenue de la Paix, CH-1202 Geneva, website: ICRC Archives. On 23 November 1941, N and three other English officers and one (Polish) officer (held up someone) to enable an English officer to make an escape attempt near the (Polish) orderly office. Absolutely brilliant. In June 1940, part of Stalag IV-A was separated and made into an Oflag for Belgian, British, and French officers taken prisoner during the Battle of France. Near to the town of Aquila, this was a transit camp. The castle was home to some 400 officers for much of the war yet, despite the security measures in place, there were a number of significant attempts at escape made. Near Arezzo and had mostly Indian inmates, also known as 'Caserta.'. On the morning of May 2, 1945 the POWs were all sitting in a ditch next to the River Elbe near Lauenburg, Germany, when the British arrived and liberated the "camp". Mobile gas wagons were also used to complement the maximum capacity of the gas chamber (150 people) when required. A new camp for officers, Oflag II-E was created close by and Polish warrant officers and ensigns were transferred to it. Fowler died March 1944, Escape through kitchen into German yard, across yard into Kommandantur cellar, out cellar into dry moat. The space between the two fences was a tangled mass of barbed-wire. | | Located at Prostken in Poland, close to Stalag Ib/PR. All of Neaves escapes and attempts to escape are borne out by the MI9 escape reports in the series WO 208 the four officers escaped in pairs, one English and one (German speaking) Dutch Officer. In September 1943 many British Commonwealth officers from the North Africa campaign. 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). The sub-camps were managed by the main stalag, which maintained personnel records, collected mail, International Red Cross packages etc. Nick Tate, Opened September 1943 and closed a month later. If you fail to find a name, it is unlikely, although still possible to find details from the ICRC archives (see below), if you have confirmed a name and camp but wish to know a little more, the ICRC may, again, be able to assist. Located in Fara in Sabina 35 km from Rome. The first prisoners arrived there on 18 October 1939. Corran Purdon, Approved Stalag was short for Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager. When a wagon was not available and a POW fell out along the road, a German guard would drop back and a shot would be heard. Equally, there were stalags which only had officers in them so nominally called a Stalag but in reality, more an Oflag, these were typically a compound of a larger POW camp housing other ranks also, or a Stalag Luft where most aircrews were officer grades. | John Mills, To relieve overcrowding, some of the officers were transferred to Oflag VII-C/Z in Tittmoning Castle. It was intended to hold up to 20,000 Soviet POWs and was one of three such camps in the area. Also recorded as Johannis Bannberg/Denting, although this part of the camp/sub camp was for Soviet POWs only. 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. At one time, they travelled 40 miles, only advancing a few. In May-June 1941 Yugoslavian, predominantly Serbian prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign, and soon after in June-July 1941 Australian and other British Commonwealth soldiers arrived, captured during the Battle of Crete. Built as Stalag II-A Neubrandenburg in 1939, it was extended by the officer camp Oflag II-E in 1940 (renamed Oflag-67in February 1944). Many others were billeted in Arbeitskommando working in factories, repairing railways or on farms. The local German forces refused free access to the camp, so an assault into the area was made by the Guards Armoured Division and the camp was liberated on April 29, 1945. The Military Headquarters Papers: SHAEF (GI Division) contain files relating to the organisation of the Prisoners of War Executive and reports on Allied POWs (WO 219/1402, WO 219/1448-1474). There was also a sub work camp at Casemasce di Todi for the Todi road. In June 1941 British and Commonwealth officers from the Battle of Crete and the North African Campaign arrived. Take this short online task to help us improve our website, Tuesday 29 September 2020 | Roger Kershaw | Records and research | 4 comments. Lieutenant Airey Neave was the first British officer to make a successful escape from Colditz, one of the most famous POW camps. While the information is limited it does include name and address, type of reward, amount of financial compensation and any remarks. It contained POW camps for non-commissioned officers and other ranks. By July 1944 it housed 9,000 Allied airmen. Who knew that "other ranks" weren't permitted to escape? Oflag II-D was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp located at Gross Born, Pomerania (now Borne Sulinowo, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland). For Polish officers, this camp opened in October 1939 with the first transport of 1000 officers. The camp was situated on a former army training ground (bungsplatz), and had been used during World War I as a camp for Soviet prisoners. They caught the train to Stuttgart where they stayed overnight in a small hotel. Over 700 of the inmates are said to have lost their lives before the camps were closed and the remaining inmates transferred to Germany in 1944. Airey Neave was also involved in getting Nazi persecution claims investigated in the 1960s (see series FO 950 at TNA) whilst he was a Member of Parliament. At Taranto the arrangements, in the hands of the Italian Navy, were known as very efficient. For security reasons Appendix A had a very limited circulation, Consists of military information and intelligence which was distributed to the Armed Forces and other interested departments. The huts were about 75yds by 10yds and contained two tier beds for up to 200 prisoners. Ben Macintyre and his 2022 book Colditz. It comprised eight barracks for the inmates and a "kommandantur" for the SS guards, totalling 120,000 square metres. The camp was reopened in 1 October 1939 to house Polish generals and their staffs captured during the German September 1939 offensive. The castle sits on a steep hill overlooking the Mulde River as it flows through the small Saxon town of Colditz, about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Leipzig. Then they were used during the succesful escape attempt by Lieutenants Hans Larive and Franz Steinmetz (both of the Royal Netherlands Navy) on 15 August 1941. Broke into Kommandant's office, cut hole into storeroom, out of storeroom in German and Polish orderly uniforms. 111 min In the U.K. it was entrenched in our culture and truly inspired fear. Director: By Christmas 1940 there were 60 Polish officers, 12 Belgians, 50 French, and 30 British, a total of no more than 200 with their orderlies. Sub-camps sometimes held more than 1,000 prisoners, usually split by nationality, although English speakers were usually together for this purpose. Each nationality tended to stick to themselves and there was little national intermingling. Eight Channel Island internees died in Laufen camp during the period of internment. The main part of the camp consisted of four large wooden barracks, two of which were connected by a passage and known to POWs as the "cooler". Reserve Lazarett Heilanstalt Ueckermunde Pomerania, Prussia. There are four primary sources for post-armistice escape reports for Italy: https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/hire-a-researcher/about and WO 208/5393-5404 contain reports made by escapers who travelled south to Allied lines; WO 208/4238-4276 and WO 208/4368-4371 hold reports made by those who made it to neutral Switzerland. Some prisoners worked in SS-owned businesses such as the German Equipment Works (DAW), located near the camp. | Other ranks lived 18 to a tent (made of Italian groundsheets), slept on duck-boards with straw mattresses and two Italian blankets each, and had regular though not always sufficient rations. | With John Mills, Eric Portman, Frederick Valk, Denis Shaw. In the late 1930s the German Army built a large base and training ground at which the XIX Army Corps of General Heinz Guderian was based. As in other permanent camps the sheets on the beds were the biggest surprise to new arrivals. | Gross: | 4975984 Private Claude Warner Sherwood Foresters died 9/8/1942 About 150 officers were preparing to get out through it. Most of them attempted, (some many times) to escape, using ingenious and simple methods. Transferred to Lamsdorf since not officers, escaped from Breslau work party, Hunger strike in order to receive transfer, escapes twice from new camp, reaches Switzerland. camp during World War II and uses bribery and larceny to take de-facto control of the camp. The camp was adjoined on one side to Stalag VIIIc, the 'other ranks' army camp, although the administration of both camps was entirely seperate. By the end of July 1941, there were more than 500 officers: over 250 French, 150 Polish, 50 British and Commonwealth, 2 Yugoslavian. In May and June 1940 American, French and Belgian soldiers taken prisoner during the Battle of France arrived. It seems a shame if no one is encouraging continued interest in a remarkable group of men. Stalag 305 Ludwigsburg (Baden-Wrttemberg), Stalag 315 Ludwigsburg Germany (Baden-Wrttemberg). Within days the POWs were repatriated to their home countries. h means hauptlager main camp, z means zweiglager or a sub camp. 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