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German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II

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Nazi Germany operated around 1,000 Prisoner-of-War camps (German: Kriegsgefangenenlager) during World War II.[1]

1944 map of POW camps in Germany.

Germany was a signatory at the Third Geneva Convention, which established the provisions relative to the treatment of Prisoners of War.

  • Article 10 required that PoWs should be lodged in adequately heated and lighted buildings where conditions were the same as German troops.
  • Articles 27-32 detailed the conditions of labour. Enlisted ranks were required to perform whatever labour they were asked and able to do, so long as it was not dangerous and did not support the German war effort. Senior Non-commissioned officers (sergeants and above) were required to work only in a supervisory role. Commissioned officers were not required to work, although they could volunteer. The work performed was largely agricultural or industrial, ranging from coal or potash mining, stone quarrying, or work in saw mills, breweries, factories, railroad yards, and forests. PoWs hired out to military and civilian contractors were supposed to receive pay. The workers were also supposed to get at least one day a week of rest.
  • Article 76 ensured that PoWs who died in captivity were honourably buried in marked graves.

Types of Camps

 
Administration Barrack III in Oflag XD, drawn by Belgian officer POW Léon Gossens, 1944
  • Dulag or Durchgangslager (transit camp) – These camps served as a collection point for POWs prior to reassignment. These camps were intelligence collection centers.
  • Dulag Luft or Durchgangslager der Luftwaffe (transit camp of the Luftwaffe) – These were transit camps for Air Force POWs. The main Dulag Luft camp at Frankfurt was the principal collecting point for intelligence derived from Allied POW interrogation
  • Heilag or Heimkehrerlager (repatriation camps) - Camps for the return of prisoners. Quite often these men had suffered disabling injuries.
  • Ilag/Jlag or Internierungslager ("Internment camp") – These were civilian internment camps.
  • Marlag or Marine-Lager ("Marine camp") – These were Navy personnel POW camps.
  • Milag or Marine-Internierten-Lager ("Marine internment camp") – These were merchant seamen internment camps.
  • Oflag or Offizier-Lager ("Officer camp") – These were POW camps for officers.
  • Stalag or Stammlager ("Base camp") – These were enlisted personnel POW camps.
  • Stalag Luft or Luftwaffe-Stammlager ("Luftwaffe base camp") – These were POW camps administered by the German Air Force for Allied aircrews.

Nomenclature

At the start of World War II, the German Army was divided into 17 military districts (Wehrkreis), which were each assigned Roman numerals. The camps were numbered according to the military district. A letter behind the Roman number marked individual Stalags in a military district.

e.g.

Stalag II-D was the fourth Stalag in Military District II (Wehrkreis II).

Sub-camps had a suffix "/Z" (for Zweiglager - sub-camp). The main camp had a suffix of "/H" (for Hauptlager - main camp).

e.g.

Oflag VII-C/H meant this is the main camp.
Oflag VII-C/Z meant this is a sub-camp of a main camp.

Some of these sub-camps were not the traditional POW camps with barbed wire fences and guard towers, but merely accommodation centers.

List of Camps by Military District

 
Diorama of the German World War II PoW camp Stalag Luft III.
 
Collection of everyday items of Polish prisoners from the Oflag VII-A Murnau.
See also: Military district (Germany)

Military District I (Königsberg)

Military District II (Stettin)

Military District III (Berlin)

Military District IV (Dresden)

Military District V (Stuttgart)

Military District VI (Münster)

Military District VII (Munich)

Military District VIII (Breslau)

Military District IX (Kassel)

Military District X (Hamburg)

Military District XI (Hanover)

Military District XII (Wiesbaden)

Military District XIII (Nuremberg)

Military District XVII (Vienna)

Military District XVIII (Salzburg)

Military District XX (Danzig)

Military District XXI (Posen)

Other Camps

Luftwaffe Camps

The camps for Allied airmen were run by the Luftwaffe independently of the Army.

Kriegsmarine Camps

The camps for Allied seamen was run by the Kriegsmarine independently of the Army.

References

  1. ^ Eric Lichtblau (3 March 2013). "The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking". New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2013.

Further reading

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