Because of these organizational and number changes there is considerable confusion in accounts of prisoners, even in official German records. The Camp was used for Austrian POWs in 1915 until 1918 and reopened as a POW camp in WWII in February 1941. 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). Lager Helgoland was filled with Soviet Organisation Todt workers. The staff officers were imprisoned in the casemates and the generals in one of the forts. VIEW HERE A MAP OF POW CAMPS IN ITALY - PUBLISHED BY THE RED CROSS & ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION. Later about 4,500 arrived from Dunkirk and subsequently from the British 51st (Highland) Infantry Division captured at Saint-Valery-en-Caux. | There was a hospital for Italian military internees in the Oerbke camp, but its patients were transferred to a separate section of the Bergen-Belsen POW hospital in late July 1944. Melissa Parker On the 5th September 1940 6 inmates made a break for freedom but were swiftly recaptured & sent onto Colditz (Oflag IV-c)- Harry Elliott, Rupert Barry (later Sir Rupert Barry), Pat Reid, Dick Howe, Anthony "Peter" Allan, and Kenneth Lockwood. From the port of disembarkation prisoners of war went to transit camps in the south of Italy. The International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva keeps incomplete lists of all known POWs and internees of all nationalities for the Second World War. It was intended to hold up to 20,000 Soviet POWs and was one of three such camps in the area. Feldpost 36433(1.10.1940-27.2.1941) 2. Also recorded as Johannis Bannberg/Denting, although this part of the camp/sub camp was for Soviet POWs only. A substantial quantity of material concerning British and Commonwealth POWs - mostly Air Force personnel - can be found in the Headquarters Papers of Bomber Command (AIR 14), and in the Air Ministry's Directorate of Intelligence Papers. In June 1942, to ease overcrowding, three new barracks were built, and 400 British NCOs were transferred to Stalag XVIII-B at Spittal. Nevertheless, it was recognised that in most instances an evader/escaper had little opportunity of observing enemy activities due to the normal practice of 'hiding-up' during the day. True story of three British POWs and their attempt to escape from Nazi Germany. In September 1943 many British Commonwealth officers from the North Africa campaign. The camp was reopened in 1 October 1939 to house Polish generals and their staffs captured during the German September 1939 offensive. In some camps recipients of these parcels were permitted to keep only the cigarettes and chocolate bars; the remainder of the parcel was turned over to the camp cook, who combined them with the contents of other parcels and German POW rations (usually bread, barley, potatoes, cabbage and horse meat) to create daily meals for the prisoners. Indexed by name sequences, WO 208/5405-5436 consists of the original loose-leaf documents upon which the reports in WO 208/3348-3352 are based. This was to accommodate Soviet POWs in a new barracks complex known as Stalag 312/XXC. OFLAG XXIc/z Grune bei Lissa/Skoki, Poland. All POWs were supposed to be protected by rules for the treatment of prisoners of war which had been established in the Geneva Convention of 1929. The POWs left in the camp were liberated by the Soviet army on 8 May 1945, however this liberation like many other camps meant they were simply robbed of anything valuable by their allies and locked back up until the Soviets allowed them to return home later. The camp was supposed to be closed completely late in 1944 when most of the camp were transferred to Sagan (Stalag Luft III) but a few of the sick remained to be liberated by the Soviet a few months later. Corran Purdon, Approved Originally opened in July 1942 to house up to 6,000, Opened originally in October 1942 it was recorded as having 101 other ranks on, (23.4.1944-24.11.1944) 10.10.1944 Armee-Gefangenen-Sammelstelle 59 -POW gathering area -Dulag, (1.10.1940-27.2.1941) 2. There were no restrictions on the number of letters a POW could receive. Drama, History, War. 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. Some large camps had both a camp leader and a 'man of confidence' (or several in the biggest camps) who was junior to him and handled any day-to-day negotiations with the Germans regarding, for example, camp routine, work schedules and diet. The following morning they caught a train to Tuttlingen and walked to the Swiss border. The camp was divided into three groups of 900. Votes: 2,738 Others hid near their camp to await developments or took the opportunity to explore the vicinity before voluntarily returning to their camp. About 14,000 men are buried there. Unfortunately, as the tunnel was within a few feet of its end it was discovered. Tin of 50 cigarettes or tobacco (sent separatelyusually Player's brand cigarettes or Digger flake pipe tobacco). For Royal Air Force personnel details can include: where based, type of aircraft, when, where and how the aircraft was lost, and the presumed fate of the other aircrew. The camp housed Polish officers and orderlies and had an area of 25 hectares (62 acres) with 25 brick huts for prisoners and another six for kitchens, class-rooms, theatre, and administration. The escape and evasion reports in AIR 40/1545-1552 include internal indexes, although these documents appear to be duplicates of the reports found in some of the WO 208 files described at the start of this section. Also noted as 'Sforza costa Liguria' elsewhere, although this may be a mistake as PG 56 was in this location. 137 officers held here as of 26/2/43 originally opened June 1941. | However, the current whereabouts and indeed survival of these documents is uncertain. Oflag IVC, Colditz, 1941. Stalag II-E Schwerin Mecklenberg Location N/E 53-11. Work began in December 1942, but the rocky ground made digging difficult. Beds were for officers, elderly and the sick. Absolutely brilliant. Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive were placed in Stalag II-A. Stars: Archives, Open 45 officers held here in a convent, originally opened November1941. In some, the Italian Commandant refused to hand over control to the SBO or his equivalent; others opened the gates and disappeared along with the guards. These records, in the series WO 416, consist of British and Allied prisoner of war records created by the Germans and captured by the Allied forces when the camps were liberated at the end of the war. A contagious disease ward type hospital named Leipzig Wahren Lazarett belonging to this camp was situated close to the local gas works and railway station & consisted of 2 long stone buildings. POW Quarters were roomy and designed so as to be cool and airy in the hot summer months. The first Senior British Officer (SBO) was Wing Commander Harry Day. ", The ground was previously marshland until efforts to drain 10 years previously and this directly caused 180 POWs to be admitted to hospital with malaria, 3 died -. In 1942, Lager Norderney, containing Soviet and Polish POWs, and Lager Sylt, holding Jews, were placed under the control of SS Hauptsturmfhrer Max List. Littledale KIA: August 1944. 53 British POWs held at a Brick factory on the road between Meissen & Oschatz. Opened originally in December1941, 431other ranks were reported here on February 26th 1943. It remained in use until 1993. In September 1939 an Internment Camp for enemy civilians was created within the buildings of the Sturmabteilung (SA) camp at the rally grounds. Fast-talking wheeler-dealer Corporal King is stuck in a Malaysian P.O.W. The Germans complied, selecting what was originally a small Luftwaffe training camp consisting of six barracks and a small airfield at Westertimke. The first escaper from the camp was Flight Lieutenant Howard Wardle in August 1940, but he was recaptured and sent to Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle. Those who fell to the side of the road were rumored to have been shot, but were more likely to have been loaded onto the dead cart at the end of the column used to carry the dead, dying, and sick all piled into the cart together and carried to the next stopping point. Many local Poles assisted the POWs with food and other supplies during their time at Stalag 369, often at huge risk to themselves. The camp was liberated by the Soviets on 9th May 1945. One ounce of salt and pepper (mustard, onion powder and other condiments were also sometimes enclosed). Christmas celebrations during theSecond World Waroften had to be scaled down or adjusted as restrictions and shortages took their toll. The sub-camps were managed by the main stalag, which maintained personnel records, collected mail, International Red Cross packages etc. Colditz. The first contained Allied prisoners in unsatisfactory conditions, but generally in compliance with the International Red Cross Convention. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The "entertaining yet objective and often-moving account" (The Wall Street Journal) of one of history's most notorious prisonsand the remarkable cast of POWs who tried relentlessly to escape their captors, from the author of The Spy and . The camp was closed in February 1941, but reopened in July when it was used for housing RAF and British Army officers. Many of the prisoners also found inventive ways to get under the skin of their captors. Oflag XIII-A was opened in August 1940 to accommodate mainly French officers captured during the Battle of France. Other inmates/patients were Italian military internees from August 1944 and, following the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in October 1944, around 1,000 members of the Polish Home Army were imprisoned in a separate section of the POW camp. Up to 5,000 POWs were housed here at any one time (Greeks, Maltese, Cypriots, British, Americans, French, Slavs). Naturally all incoming and outgoing mail was censored. At the end of 1944 prisoners evacuated from other camps began to arrive, resulting in overcrowding, and a reduction in food rations. Moosburg was the central point in Southern Germany for the distribution of Red Cross parcels. Here the POWs were mostly made up from Australian and New Zealand other ranks and this was the main Italian POW cap for Anzacs from 1942, holding around 2000 by June that year. Opened in 1940 and also located close to a Jewish forced labour camp working at the local caustic soda factory. Many of the sick and infirmed were left behind in the Lazzarett (camp clinic) and were transported by rail or truck at a later date. This was the only Nazi concentration camp on British soil. | Stalag IV-H Zeithain (also known as Jacobstahl), Stalag Luft V, Wolfen, Groditz, Halle (Saale), Stalag Va Ludwigsburg, Germany (Baden-Wrttemberg), Stalag V-A Malschbach Ludwigsburg Wurtemberg Location N/E 49-09. Established in 1939 to house Polish soldiers captured in the course of the September Campaign, with time it was extended to house also Belgians, French, Italian, Serbian and Soviet soldiers. At one time there were over 30,000 jammed into facilities designed for 15,000. The camp Dulag Nord was located between Marlag and Milag. Fort 15 (XV) named after Jaroslwaw Dabrowskiego. In 2 April 1945 the Commandant announced that he had received orders to leave the camp with most of his guards, leaving a only small detachment behind to hand over the camp to Allied forces, who were already in Bremen. Stars: Stalag IV-D/Z Annaburg (Formerly Oflag 54.E) Sachsen, Prussia Location N/E 51-13, Stalag IV-F + Work Camps Hartmannsdorf-Chemnitz Saxony Location N/E 51-12. Set up in September 1943, it housed about 1200 prisoners, mostly British. This is an excellent account of Colditz, a special prisoner of war camp for special prisoners. Everyone would scramble for what they could get. In June 1941 British and Commonwealth officers from the Battle of Crete and the North African Campaign arrived. The other pair was recaptured in Ulm. Contents 1 1941 escape attempts 2 1942 escape attempts 3 1943 escape attempts 4 1944 escape attempts 5 1945 escape attempts 6 Further reading 7 External links The forts had been built at the end of 19th century to defend the western border of Kingdom of Prussia. The French were joined in 1941 by Yugoslav and Soviet prisoners, then in late 1943 some 15,000 Italian military internees arrived, though most were quickly dispersed to other camps. 106 US POWs here on the road to Falkenburg. In April 1941 they were gathered together at Stalag X-B at Sandbostel and housed in two compounds designated Ilag X-B (Internierungslager, "Internment camp") and Marlag X-B (Marinelager, "Navy camp"). 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list of british prisoners in colditz
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