There were several escape attempts during the summer of 1941. | In June 1942 it was renumbered Oflag XII-B. After the war it was used for interned prisoners of the defeated regime. Feldpost 36433(1.10.1940-27.2.1941) 2. In 1944, as forced labour by concentration camp prisoners became increasingly important in armaments production, a Focke-Wulf aircraft factory was constructed at Stutthof. It is uncertain whether official red cross food and medical supply parcels were ever tampered with by MI9, however, up to 10% of organisations listed who donated clothing/sports equipment and books were, in fact, a front for MI9. The guard in the machinegun-tower later told other prisoners that he refrained from shooting Upham out of sheer respect.. 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. Miraculously only two Soviet prisoners were killed in the camp. camp during World War II and uses bribery and larceny to take de-facto control of the camp. In May 1940 the first British and Commonwealth officers captured in the battle of France arrived. The sounds of the encroaching American artillery could be heard getting louder and louder at this camp. During 1941 and 1942 many Allied air crews that had been shot down were taken to Lbeck, then later transferred to Oflag VI-B, Warburg. Naturally all incoming and outgoing mail was censored. This was the camp for USAAF NCOs until 13 October 1943 when all 1,900 were transferred to Stalag 17B. After two to three days, the column reached Stettin. PG 103 had 19 sub camps dotted around the neighbourhood at factories and farms. The staff officers were imprisoned in the casemates and the generals in one of the forts. The camp at Mahrisch-Trubau contained around 2,000 officers, mostly British captured in North Africa and the Greek Islands, but there were also numbers of Greek, French and American POW. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Subscribe now for regular news, updates and priority booking for events.Sign up, All content is available under the Open 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. An American POW leads a group of mainly British prisoners to escape from the Germans in WWII. Nick Tate, Stars: Reports on many individual Royal Air Force servicemen taken prisoner in occupied Europe, detailing the circumstances of their capture, are in AIR 14/470-471. Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive were placed in Stalag II-A. Had a subsidiarywork camp located at Poggia Cancelli. Disembarking in Italy, POWs were given a quick clean-up at their port of disembarkation, usually Brindisi or Taranto. After 1935 it was a training camp and military training area for the newly reconstituted German Army. Opened September 1942 and closed September 1944. District XIV Nearest city Karlsruhe, in the southwest of Germany. Published and available only at Auschwitz/Birkenau itself this book is a definitive work on the various camps including all the work details. This is sometimes confusing as Italy also had concentration camps in the normal sense of the word for holding of Political opponents and Jews. West of Porto St. Giorgio on the Italian East coast. Oflag IX-A/Z Rotenburg An Der Fulda Hessen-Nassau, Prussia 51-09. The military authorities decided to conscript local German civilian women to assist with the rescue and clean up work. In June 1941 a new compound Oflag 62 was opened for high-ranking Soviet officers captured during Operation Barbarossa. P.G. I.e. 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. 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". VIEW HERE A MAP OF POW CAMPS IN GERMANY - PUBLISHED BY THE RED CROSS & ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION. I 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). At the end of 1943, and presumably, because some high ranking Nazis had realised the war was not going so well for them, Red Cross parcels were also accepted for KZ (concentration camps), these consisted almost entirely of food and medical supplies, although there is little evidence these reached the desperate inmates. Opened November 1939 and liberated April 1945 after many failed attempts by the Germans to move all of the POWs. | It was designed to hold 10,000 men, was the largest in the 3rd Military District, and was considered a model for other camps. Several tunnels were started, but the first two ran into problems of extreme flooding, however they were not discovered. OFLAG IX a/h Spangenberg-Kassel Hessen-Nassau, Prussia. From the port of disembarkation prisoners of war went to transit camps in the south of Italy. Some escapees fled northwards towards Switzerland or southwards towards allied lines. Only those too sick to walk were left behind. Take a note of the number on the top left of the card and this will determine which file to order. | 30 French, 1 Belgian, 278 Soviet, 26 Poles, 257 Yugoslav, 195 Italians, all evacuated to Nancy on 9/12/44. | After this point the stonehouse was used as the interrogation centre for new POWs, and the barrack blocks were used to house the permanent staff POWs and other POWs awaiting transfer to other camps. Twelve ounces of C-ration vegetable soup concentrate. The senior U.S. officer was Lieutenant Colonel Paul Goode. Opened August 1940, closed September 1942. Director: Useful intelligence was more generally obtained from naval or air force personnel by studying the reasons for their capture or failure of equipment and so on, This continued the report narrative from the point where the escaper or evader came under an escape organisation within a POW camp. The contact address is International Council of the Red Cross (ICRC), Archives Division, 19, Avenue de la Paix, CH-1202 Geneva, website: ICRC Archives. In 1942 a large camp (Stalag 323) was built for Soviet prisoners, it was located at the other end of the training ground. There was also a sub-camp, designated Oflag XXI-C/Z established at Grune bei Lissa (now Gronwko, near to Leszno), between September 1943 and January 1945. It was used by the Nazi Organisation Todt, a forced labour programme, to build bunkers, gun emplacements, air-raid shelters, and concrete fortifications. The camp was liberated by the U.S. Army on 3 April 1945. The camp covered an area of 37,000 square metres, divided into two sections but not separated by barbed wire. Fort 14 (XIV) named after Jozefa Dwernickiego. Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UKs exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located. 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. Oflag IVC, Colditz, 1941. On a snowy day in December, 1943, while he looked out over the German town of Colditz, POW Bill Goldfinch noticed snowflakes outside his window . Others were sent to work on farms. camp for captured Allies goes through a series of failed escapes only to culminate in a daring plan for a dramatic mass escape. The Poles were transferred to other camps, and in March 1941 it was redesignated Stalag XVIII-A, with French and Belgian prisoners being transferred in from Stalag XVII-A. Again, a camp previously used in WWI was located here at 53 degrees 32 minutes North, 11 degrees 6 minutes south map reference T220530. In mid-September 1939 the first Polish POWs arrived, and were housed in large 12 m (39 ft) by 35 m (115 ft) tents, and set to work building the barrack huts before the winter set in. He and five other prisoners were to leave the castle disguised as a work party removing clothes from the clothing store, four to be dressed as Polish orderlies, one disguised as a German officer, the other as a German soldier. American soldiers that had been captured during the Battle of Normandy arrived in June-July 1944, and more form the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945. 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. Another tunnel built by Norwegian prisoners was discovered before its completion. All the recaptured escapers were well treated, and after serving their solitary confinement as punishment for the attempt were all transferred to Stalag Luft I. For four years during WWII, Colditz Castle in Germany was a prison for Allied officers (and some lower ranking prisoners who served as their orderlies). Although using the neutral Red Cross parcel to send items (usually disguised or hidden) in the parcels which would aid would be escapees would contrive the Geneva Convention, MI9 (the British military intelligence section specifically set up for escape and evasion) did fix special parcels. Though overcrowded at the end of 1941, conditions were an improvement for most prisoners from previous camps. Originally a hutted and tented camp with a double boundary fence and watchtowers set up in the Great War. At 07.30 the escape party left the store, timed to be shortly after the change of the German sentries the idea being that the new sentries would be unaware of who had already entered the store. Jean Negulesco Under contruction according to USSME reports in 1943. 20,770 POWs here (53 British) with 1735 Officers. Digital files of films and sound recordings are available at cost depending on intended use. Fort 12 (XII) named after Wladyslawa Jagielty. On a third occasion, he tried to escape a camp by climbing its fences in broad daylight. In March 1945 two bombs dropped by a Soviet aircraft hit Block B killing eight POWs, and injuring several others. Opened June 1941, 186 other ranks were held here on 26/2/43. Postal records show this camp as being under the control of the SS. On January 5th 1942 - Airey Neave and Anthony Luteyn successfully escaped from Colditz Castle, Germany, Neave being the first British officer to accomplish this feat. In 1939 as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact it was annexed by the Soviets and on July 26, 1941 was occupied by the Nazis and is now in the Ukraine. Within a few days they were liberated by British troops pushing eastward. They successfully hid in one box-car full of boxes. Closed in March 1942, opened in June the preceding year. When U.S. troops liberated Colditz in April 1945, 31 prisoners had successfully reached home after more than 300 attempts. While the information is limited it does include name and address, type of reward, amount of financial compensation and any remarks. Val Guest Because of these organizational and number changes there is considerable confusion in accounts of prisoners, even in official German records. Work on the camp began in October 1939 when 500 Polish prisoners from the September campaign arrived to build the camp, and who lived initially in tents. 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. William Holden, 142 Italian military internees had died in the nearby Bergen-Belsen hospital by the end of the war and were buried in a separate area at the edge of the POW cemetery. There were certainly US (and British?) A notorious German Army prisoner of war camp, later renumbered Stalag-344, in Silesia. It is clear that other reports were produced, for example, those with a reference starting PW/REP/IT. The US and British POWs stood fast as per their orders when liberated and were later evacuated via a nearby Airfield some 32 miles to the south of the camp to Le Havre and homewards then by Sea. Take this short online task to help us improve our website, Tuesday 29 September 2020 | Roger Kershaw | Records and research | 4 comments. Opened September 1943 and closed a month later. In 1940, a concentration-camp escapee assumes the identity of a dead British officer, only to become a prisoner of war. It is set in a POW camp in Poland and portrays the real-life audacious escape attempt of 76 Allied airmen during WWII. II Bereitschaftspolizeiabteilung ("2nd Riot Police Division") of the Bavarian State Police. They were moved to a different location closer to Cuxhaven, to Westertimke, in 1942. The Histories of Auschwitz IG Farben Werk Camps 1941-45- Piotr Setkiewicz [see here]. There were seven sub camps, including Gamba, Cremona and Torbole. On 3 September 1941 three RAF officers, Dominic Bruce, Peter Tunstall and Eustace Newborn, escaped disguised as members of a "Swiss Commission". Some 20 miles (32 km) north of Genoa, this was a fortress on top of the hill overlooking the town. Buckley was a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm and as such the Germans had placed him, with all other FAA aircrew, under the responsibility of the Luftwaffe. Soviet prisoners, without the Convention's protection, were in substantially worse conditions. On that morning many were hidden by local Italian families and the Modena Escape Route, commenced which eventually helped some 250 escaping POWs. He returned to the UK in October 1945. these were very much the exception to the normal rules and usually it seems the result of being caught in civilian clothing after escaping or during evasion from the military authorities and handed to the Gestapo. This was a work camp, making roads and operating a stone quarry. -Also known as Stalag 344, Stalag IV b/z and Stalag VIII-b. The remaining prisoners responded to the threat of a pitched battle on their doorstep by digging slit trenches. On the 11th May 1942 52 POWs escaped from Kirchain via a tunnel, all were later recaptured. e.g. Near the town of Bautzen (spelt Bautsee/Bautsen on the reports in Wo229/5/1), several wooden huts housing 70 British POWs and other nationalities. A sub-camp Stalag XVIII-A/Z was later opened in Spittal an der Drau about 100 km (62 mi) to the west. It housed 224 British POW patients in March 1945. On 22 May 1940 all 1,336 Polish prisoners were transferred to Oflag VII-A Murnau, and were replaced with British, French and Belgian officers taken prisoner during the battle of France. The camp was designated Stalag XX-A (301) and located in the Friesack area, Brandenburg region. Lager Sylt was a Nazi concentration camp on Alderney in the British Crown Dependency of the Channel Islands, in operation between March 1943 and June 1944. It is now a tourist attraction and I signed up for a guided tour of the castle and grounds, learning more about its time as the Escapers Gaol, which spurred me on to write this blog, using official records at The National Archives. The men were marched along country roads towards the Oder, first north towards Dresden, then when the Germans changed their mind, south towards Bavaria, eventually reaching Stalag XIII-D near Nuremberg. Neave and a Dutch officer, Lieutenant Luteyn, were the first of the two pairs to leave and successfully reached Switzerland. 201 Bergamo hospital (also listed as H 201). May 1941 more prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign, mostly British and Serbians. Destroyed by air raids and fire in late 1944 - POWs transferred to Dulag Metzlar. Director: Over 200,000 soldiers of the British armed forces were captured during the Second World War and placed in one of the different types of prisoner of war camps run by the Germans until 1945 and Italians until late 1943, sometimes even both! World War II prisoner-of-war escapes are a staple of adventure fiction. At this point, I should stop being surprised. in September 1943 PG60 was turned into a concentration camp for political prisoners and Jews. An incomplete nominal card index to these records is located in the Document Reading Room at The National Archives. Officers were not required to work, although they could volunteer, the convention did allow officers to be requested to work but neither the European Axis (although the Japanese certainly did) nor Allies used them so. Our thanks for the websitehttps://sites.google.com/view/italianprisonerofwarcamps/ useful help in some of the camp locations names within Italy and lists of workcamps. $10.85M, Approved And the arrogance of some members of the upper crust is breathtaking. | Jumps over wall of exercise area of Colditz town jail. Michael Redgrave, Upon capture, he was transferred to Colditz. Tom Hardy, Richard Todd, The camp initially occupied barracks built to house British and French prisoners in World War I. The red brick stables were converted to barracks to house prisoners when the site was converted to a POW camp in October 1939. Located at Hadamar, near Limburg an der Lahn in western Germany. 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. The stronger helped the weaker. The National Archives holds over 100 files concerning the murder of 50 Allied airmen who escaped from Stalag Luft III in March 1944: an incident known as 'The Great Escape', during this escape it was planned to get up to 250 airmen out, in the event 76 escaped and 3 made home runs. The site chosen was on a river plain of the Natisone, south-west of the town of Cividale and the nearest railway line. The rescue was organised by the island's priest, Don Ottavio Posta. In good weather there was a fine view of the Alps to the south. Cigarettes in the parcels became the preferred medium of exchange within most camps, cigarettes were also used to bribe German guards to provide the prisoners with outside items that would otherwise have been unavailable to them. Stalag Luft IV Gross Tychow/Burzlaff, Poland, Stalag Luft IV Gross-Tychow (formerly Heydekrug) Pomerania, Prussia (moved to Wobbelin Bei Ludwigslust) (To Usedom Bei Savenmunde) Location N/E 54-16. Each nationality tended to stick to themselves and there was little national intermingling. On the prisoners' side of the fence, a wire ran parallel with the fence, staked to the ground approximately ten feet from the fence, six to eight inches above the ground. Michael Caine, Stalag 316 Wolknowysk (Vawkavysk, Belarus). Built as Stalag II-A Neubrandenburg in 1939, it was extended by the officer camp Oflag II-E in 1940 (renamed Oflag-67, 1944). By climbing its fences in broad daylight nominal card index to these records is located in the Reading. Hill overlooking the town of Cividale and the generals in one box-car full boxes! Watchtowers set up in the Friesack area, Brandenburg region bribery and larceny take. 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