List of prisoner-of-war camps in Germany

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Part of Lists of Prisoner-of-War Camps section in the Prisoner-of-war camp article.

Diorama of the German World War II PoW camp Stalag III Luft
Collection of everyday items of Polish prisoners from the Oflag VII-A Murnau

This article is a list of prisoner-of-war camps in Germany (and in German occupied territory) during any conflict. These are the camps that housed captured members of the enemy armed forces, crews of ships of the merchant marine and the crews of civil aircraft.

For civilian and concentration camps, see List of concentration camps of Nazi Germany.

Contents

[edit] World War I PoW Camps

  • Lamsdorf - camp for other ranks in Silesia
  • Colditz Castle - camp for officers in Saxony This is apocryphal and may not be true; the historian of the WWII Camp, Major Pat Reid, was never able to confirm that Colditz was so used in the First World War
  • Hammelburg - camp for Allied officers in northern Bavaria
  • Königstein Castle - camp for officers in Saxony
  • Mainz Citadel - in the Rheinland
  • Minden - camp for British prisoners
  • Hammerstein/Westpreussen - camp for Russian prisoners.
  • Stralsund - camp for Allied officers, located on Baltic coast
  • Szczypiorno - camp for Allied officers, located near Kalisz, the Kingdom of Poland
  • Tucheln - in Pomerania, camp for Russians
  • Gießen- in Hesse
  • Döberitz- near Berlin, camp for Russian, Polish, French, and British prisoners
  • Ruhleben - near Berlin, camp for British prisoners
  • Reichenberg (present-day Liberec in Czech Republic). Camp for Russian officers.
  • Limburg an Der Lahn - in Hesse, camp for British prisoners including members of Irish regiments.
  • Uelzen (supposed P.O.W. camp) - Russian/Belarus civilian named Khvilivitsky was held there 1915-18 after being held in a civilian camp, trying to escape to Holland and being recaptured: sources: Deutsches Wochenschach and family memories
  • Mannheim - Russian civilian named Weinstein transferred there in Sept. 1917
  • Brandenburg Camp - Merchant Seaman
  • Holzminden—British officers. Site of a noted tunnel escape.
  • Gütersloh
  • Clausthal
  • Ingolstadt—Fort Nine. This camp was the WWI counterpart to Colditz, the place where escapers were sent. Well documented in the book "The Escaping Club" by Alfred John Evans.
  • Karlsruhe—site of two camps. An interrogation camp was located at the former Europäischer Hof, while the main camp contained naval and, later, aviation officers.
  • Villengine—Russian POW's and then an officers' camp
  • Courtrai/Kortrijk

[edit] World War II PoW Camps

POW camps run by the Germans during World War II.

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 a least one day a week of rest.
  • Article 76 ensured that PoWs who died in captivity were honourably buried in marked graves.

[edit] Types of Camps

  • 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 Airforce POWs. The main Dulag Luft camp at Frankfurt was the principal collecting point for intelligence derived from Allied POW interrogation.
  • 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] List of Camps by Military District

See also: Military district (Germany)

[edit] Military District I

[edit] Military District II

[edit] Military District III

[edit] Military District IV

[edit] Military District V

[edit] Military District VI

[edit] Military District VII

[edit] Military District VIII

[edit] Military District IX

[edit] Military District X

[edit] Military District XI

[edit] Military District XII

[edit] Military District XIII

[edit] Military District XVII

[edit] Military District XVIII

[edit] Military District XX

[edit] Other Camps

[edit] Fictional prison camps of note

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[edit] Reading material

  • "The Last Escape" by John Nichol, ISBN 0-670-03212-3 – suffering of Allied POWs in the last months of the war.
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