Every evening the guards would dump out the meal for the day on the muddy earth. Nominee for Best History & Biography (2022). They were successful. During World War II, The British Joint War Organisation sent standard food parcels, invalid food parcels, medical supplies, educational books and recreational materials to prisoners of war worldwide. The camp ended in an area called "Padule", under the village of Castelvecchio, next to the railway station of CollelinkingLucca to Pontedera until 1958. On 1 December 1941 Flt Lt Peter Stevens RAFVR, disguised as a German Unteroffizier, led a party of 10 POWs disguised as orderlies, and two more disguised as guards complete with dummy rifles, up to the gates of the camp. The march from Gross Tychow lasted approximately 86 days. When the Soviet front approached, orders were given to move the prisoners to other camps further west. | The camp was established in May 1941. Girot KIA: Gestapo, May 1944. District I in what is now known as Olsztyn, Poland, then it was in East Prussia. To the south were four more blocks; three were for senior officers, while the fourth housed their ordonnance ("orderlies"). Director: 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. David McCallum, 94 min An area of about five acres gave adequate space for exercise, though the continued wet winter weather converted it into a quagmire. Originally opened in September1942the camp reported having 81other ranks on 26th February 1943. A few of these orderlies had been assigned as batmen to senior officers and were incarcerated along with them, however, most were assigned by the Germans once captured and many disliked their new role intensely and suffered because of it. The camp was organised into huts about 40 yards long and 8 yards wide. Andr Morell, The construction of the second camp, Lager-Ost ("East Compound") began in June 1941 to accommodate the large numbers of Soviet prisoners taken in Operation Barbarossa. Medical facilities were also situated just outside of the town. Nominal rolls for some Japanese camps are among papers prepared for a history of the RAF services in AIR 49/383-388, but they are generally disappointing. On 25 February 1945 most of the remaining prisoners were forced to march westward in advance of the Soviet offensive and endured great hardships before they were freed by Allied troops in April 1945. In May and June 1940 American, French and Belgian soldiers taken prisoner during the Battle of France arrived. 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. In December 1942 were as many as 19,459 Soviet POWs. In September 1939 two Stalags, Stalag 302 and Stalag 323 were established to house Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive. (Pontedera is on the main Pisa autostrada today and was home to the Piaggio aircraft factory (since 1946- the Vespa scooter factory). There are also reports of POWs being held at Concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Dachau etc. The first was about 12 m (40 ft) long, built from March to August 1943. The camp was built in September 1939 to house Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive. Escaped en route to Leipzig for court martial. William Holden, Andrew V. McLaglen The first evacuation occurred on 29 January, 1945 in blizzard conditions. A different POW camp in Germany was Colditz Castle. Within a couple of months, the civilians were moved out and prisoners from the invasion of Poland arrived. An air strike on 6 December 1944 killed 118 POWs, there being no air raid shelter provided. Sylt- SS Concentration camp 1027 persons at peak, 300 died. 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 0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 90%. Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive were placed in Stalag II-A. From May and June 1940 Dutch and Belgian prisoners arrived from the Battle of France, followed by French. Originally opened in March/April 1941 the camp reported having 920other ranks on 26th February 1943. SHAEF report of February 1945 shows 5390 Polish POWs here. Stars: The fourth building was for the interrogating offices, files and records. When the offensive of the Soviet Red Army resumed in 1945, all inmates were marched westward on 28 January 1945. On 14 February 1945 the Americans and British were marched out of the camp westward in advance of the Soviet offensive into Germany. We have a private group on Facebook. The camp, designated Oflag XVIII-B, was opened on 19 October 1939. In the latter circumstances, the more perceptive SBOs, realising the Germans would quickly take control, encouraged individual escapes; while some of the more enterprising prisoners escaped without official sanction. They crossed into Switzerland at 01.30 on 13 September 1942, and were taken to the British legation at Bern. On the night of 17 September 1943 a large group of prisoners escaped. That month there were a total of 38,831 prisoners registered at the camp. Oflag IV-D Elsterhorst was a World War II German Army Prisoner-of-war camp for Allied officers located near Hoyerswerda in Saxony, 44 km north-east of Dresden. Opened originally in July 1941, 2195other ranks were reported here on December30th 1942.. We have German AND Italiancamp listings in our fully searchable databases! Only those too sick to walk were left behind. Allied prisoners - British, Dutch, French and Polish - pool their resources to plan numerous escapes from the "escape-proof" German P.O.W. The 'Market Garden' plan employed all three divisions of First Allied Airborne Army. Similar material, with reports on German interrogation methods, is in AIR 14/461-465. There was a Military Hospital nearby at Ascoli(Piceno) Old Palace with Colonnade and gardens, situated in the town itself. 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. This camp was one of those from which the long march was made in early 1945 when POWs were force marched away from their camps westwards into Germany to escape being liberated by the Red Army. 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 Colditz Glider: A makeshift sailplane made by British prisoners of war during WWII. A basic Tent camp at Foligno, used as a transit camp to camps in Germany, this was designated for Prisoners for eastern Europe. They include prisoners of all services and the merchant navy held in Germany or German-occupied territory; prisoners of all services and the merchant navy held in Italy. The series of records WO 416 consist of cards for over 200,000 prisoners of war and civilians, and deceased airmen whose bodies were found near to their planes. Red Cross parcels were not permitted to be sent to the disarmed prisoners of the Axis forces after the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945 as they were not classified as POWs at this stage. 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. Destroyed by air raids and fire in late 1944 - POWs transferred to Dulag Metzlar. In June 1940 additional forts were added to the camp to accommodate British soldiers. The staff officers were imprisoned in the casemates and the generals in one of the forts. Location lists and additional aerial photographs of POW camps in Germany, Italy and Occupied Europe, including reports on transfers, are in AIR 14/1235-1240, and similar documentation on German camps occurs in AIR 40/227-231. Stalag Luft was short for Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager- Luft. The training and selection by Abwehr II and the German Army took place during the period from 1940-1943. There was a report of a war crime here when 2 officers who had been recaptured after escaping were shot (one died). At one time, they travelled 40 miles, only advancing a few. The Histories of Auschwitz IG Farben Werk Camps 1941-45- Piotr Setkiewicz [see here]. The following morning, one of those trains stopped outside the station of Modena and a number of the POWs in a variety of ways took leave of the train and scarpered into the surrounding undergrowth. Part of this camp had been used as a POW camp during for Allied army personnel in World War I. Most of them were barracks, while the others contained kitchens, dining rooms, washrooms, guard barracks, storehouses, a post office, and other administrative buildings. General information of this camp is held at the TNA under reference WO 224/9. Camps were split into military districts these were as follows: Please note when searching for camps' names, these will not only be listed by type and number but also location. The case for the defence at War Crimes Tribunals after 1945 was often based on this, however, this was overruled as Germany had signed, and hence was argued to be in breach of the rules they had pledged to uphold, regardless of which countries' POWs they were dealing with. After the failed Warsaw Uprising and "Operation Tempest" more prisoners were brought there from Poland. The largest population present within the camp was Soviet, followed by the French, Belgian, Dutch, British and Commonwealth, Italian, and American prisoners were also present in large numbers. Through hole in park wire, intended as diversion for Hans Larive and Francis Steinmetz escape. | Stalag VII-B Memmingen Bavaria Location N/E 48-10. As with a lot of German POW camps originally this was a much smaller camp based at the ex Hitler Youth hostel set up in the castle and transformed between an officers camp only then into a stalag with all the satellite work camps I have listed here. Stalag IV-B Muhlberg Sachsen Location N/E 51-13. If one is interested in spy craft and traitors during World War II and the Cold War there are few authors that have produced more satisfying works than Ben Macintyre. The huts were about 75yds by 10yds and contained two tier beds for up to 200 prisoners. In May 1945 the camp was liberated by the Red Army. Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing. District XII -Nearest city Dresden, in the North East of Germany. SHAEF reports from February 1945 show 130 Soviet and 1691 Dutch were here. Fascism's European Empire - Davide Rodogno [see here]. A larger scale attempt was unsuccessful. Discovered by dog on ground. 9 of the Soviet secret service (NKVD). In 1941 some 300 of these took part in the Nazi propaganda film Germanin. This camp was unique in that it comprised several buildings in the centre of the small town, from which the remaining Polish inhabitants had been removed. From May 1940, after the invasion of Norway and the Battle of France, prisoners arrived in large numbers, until they totalled 150,000 from all occupied countries, except Britain. Most of these Italian prisoners were suffering from tuberculosis or had been injured while working. Search them here now. This was a work camp, making roads and operating a stone quarry. 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. While the guards were engaged in breaking up the fight, toward which the searchlights were all directed, three officers managed to cut through the barbed wire and escape from the camp. The British forces (XXX corps) advancing through this area had been aware of the POW camp but, until two escaped British Secret Service men reached them they were unaware of several thousand political prisoners in a separate compound. The camp was renumbered Oflag-67. It was located in a former Benedictine Abbey dedicated to Saint Hedwig of Silesia, that had been a military school between 1840 and 1920, and used by the Nazis as a "National Political Educational Institution" from 1934. As civilian non-combatants, according to Section XI, Article 6, of the 1907 Hague Conventions, merchant seamen "are not made prisoners of war, on condition that they make a formal promise in writing, not to undertake, while hostilities last, any service connected with the operations of the 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. 18,307 POWs with 550 Officers here in Bavaria. Whilst these magazines make a nave but charming read and often gave some useful information on what to put into a prisoner's parcel and various other questions of concern to the POWs' families, they did not portray an accurate reflection of camp life in almost all circumstances. There was a military hospital also at this location, it held 2 British, 3703 US, 9053 Soviet, 840 Yugoslav, 2200 Italian and 15514 French Pows as of February 1945 (Shaef reports). OFLAG XXIc/z Grune bei Lissa/Skoki, Poland. Oflag XIII-A was opened in August 1940 to accommodate mainly French officers captured during the Battle of France. The first prisoners arrived there on 18 October 1939. (Hospital). In 1944, as forced labour by concentration camp prisoners became increasingly important in armaments production, a Focke-Wulf aircraft factory was constructed at Stutthof. The Fund's operations include assistance to widows and orphans of fallen colleagues in the country, the fees for the lawyers defending prisoners before German courts, the payment of salaries of the cadets and soldiers, as well as cultural and educational activities. The Italian camp nominal rolls are sourced directly from WO392/12. At Colditz, there were more than 30 successful escape attempts including ten by British and Commonwealth Officers. In the morning, they were given two slices of bread, counted, and the march began again for twenty-five or thirty kilometers until they reached the next appointed village. They lived in 30 barracks, which were mostly built of wood. 145 Terramo (Campotosto / Montorio al Vomano). The Prisoners of War and Internment Files in the Admiralty and Secretariat Papers ADM 1 (code 79) contain documentation on many aspects of the Royal Navy's involvement with the capture and internment of the enemy and Allied POWs, naval and other services. The perspective is also very limited. Patric Knowles, Opened in February 1942, by12th May 1942 it held some 3150, including 387 New Zealanders, on February 26th 1943 it held 8,970. The interrogating Gestapo officer was so confident the war would soon be won by Germany that he told Larive the safe way across the border near Singen. When the POW camp in Bergen ceased operation in early 1945, as the Wehrmacht handed it over to the SS, the cemetery contained over 19,500 dead Soviet prisoners. At some time during the war, prisoners from every nation fighting against Germany passed through it. Eventually, the Stutthof camp system became a vast network of forced-labour camps; 105 Stutthof subcamps were established throughout northern and central Poland. Nominal rolls of prisoners in German camps are in AIR 40/263-281, and AIR 40/1488-1491. Opened October 1940, closed March 1944 and redesignated as Oflag 67 (LXVII). Over the next few weeks the prisoners were transported via Klagenfurt to transit camps in Bari and Naples, from where they were eventually repatriated. At one time there were over 30,000 jammed into facilities designed for 15,000. Kriegslazarett Kriegslazarett-Abteilung 604 - Military Hospital in the, (3.10.1944) Stalag 304 Zeithain (Soviet POWS), British & Imperial Prisoners of War held in Germany WWII. The files WO 208/5437-5450 contain the second, more specific, 'pink' questionnaire that followed on from those in WO 344. 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. Sent for court martial in Stuttgart, jumped train but found unconscious next to tracks, sent to hospital, escaped from hospital. A newly wealthy English woman returns to Malaya to build a well for the villagers who helped her during war. 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