The officers received monthly wages paid in the so-called lagergeld corresponding to the value of brands circulation. II Bereitschaftspolizeiabteilung ("2nd Riot Police Division") of the Bavarian State Police. camp housed in a Medieval castle known as "Colditz". The Great Escape is a fairly well-known movie with a star-studded cast. District XXI Nearest city Saarbrucken, Germany, on the French border. All were prefixed and numbered with the exception of the 2 Dulags and 1 Stalag within Italy which were German controlled transit centres for POWs being transferred to Germany. Records of the ICRC are in FO 916, continued in WO 224. From the end of February 1944 until 18 June 1944 the castle was used as an internment camp for Jews and political prisoners, sent there for their own safety by the Fascist Prefect of Perugia Armando Rocchi, who was under German instructions to send them instead to a concentration camp at Fosssoli, Carpi di Modena. It contained POW camps for non-commissioned officers and other ranks. Although designated as a POW camp, this appears like many mainly Soviet POW camps to actually be a slave labour camp. Among the Italian prisoners, were mostly soldiers who did not surrender to the German army after the Cassibile armistice (The armistice with the Allies where the Italian forces changed sides). The main camp was located in a complex of fifteen forts that surrounded the whole of the city. This was a forced labour camp located some 22 miles from the city of Lubin and was used as a German army camp from 1939 until 1941. A notorious German Army prisoner of war camp, later renumbered Stalag-344, in Silesia. They included 4,000 Africans from French colonial units. As the sentry was apparently unaware that the party was not genuine, a second attempt was made a week later. The Index to the correspondence of the Foreign Office, 1920-1951 (131 vols, Nendeln, 1969-1982) available at The National Archives, contains numerous entries relating to all aspects of British POWs. On reflection, these sources do show some relevant information and surprisingly confirm that Red Cross inspection visits were made to selected far east camps, although the integrity of these visits is debatable. Airey Neave was also involved in getting Nazi persecution claims investigated in the 1960s (see series FO 950 at TNA) whilst he was a Member of Parliament. Macintyre has done it again. To the north and east of the village three smaller camps were also built. The main camp was in a former brewery in a suburb of the town with a few large brick buildings up to 3 storeys high. There was a separate shower block, and prisoners were allowed two showers a month. On 31 January the South Compound men plus 200 men from the West Compound went to Stalag 7A at Moosburg in railway boxcars packed 50 men and 1 armed guard in each boxcar. Escapes assisted by Yugoslav Partisans became increasingly common, with most escapers being led south to the Partisan base and airfield at Semic in Bela Krajina. Other hospitals where POWs were treated included: Alberoni (Piacenza), Al Celio (Rome), Ascoli, Capua, Caserta, Modena, Morigi di Piacenza, Parma, Perugia, Teramo & Vescoville (Udine). 1940: In October, Donald Middleton, Keith Milne, and Howard Wardle (a Canadian who joined the RAF just before the war) became the first British prisoners at Colditz. Of course, this did not quite work out to be the case. From the port of disembarkation prisoners of war went to transit camps in the south of Italy. Further back stands a stone structure enclosing the toilets. | Later they were replaced by Army reservists. 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." Larive did not forget and many prisoners later escaped using this route. Prisoners ran courses in languages and mathematics, as well as commercial, vocational, economic, and scientific subjects. Importantly for other internees in the camp, among the 68 Dutch was Hans Larive with his knowledge of the Singen route. 101 min Stalag XVIII-D (also known as Stalag 306) was a German Prisoner of War camp at Maribor (German: Marburg an der Drau) in what is now Slovenia. On 5 February, Polish General Tadeusz Br-Komorowski, deputy commander of the Armia Krajowa (Home Army) and responsible for the Warsaw Uprising, arrived with his entourage. The camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army in mid-April 1945 although this was long after most had been force marched out westwards. Finally the Senior British Naval Officer offered the Germans the POWs parole, in return for being allowed to rest during the day and march at night. As for the food, a bushel or two of steamed potatoes for a barn full of men was the best ever received at the end of a day. Many of them were finally repatriated towards the end of 1945 though the port of Odessa on the Black Sea. 54 Passo Corese/ Fara in Sabina, Rieti (Rome). Adventure, Drama, History. 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. A basic Tent camp at Foligno, used as a transit camp to camps in Germany, this was designated for Prisoners for eastern Europe. The camp was finally liberated on 28 April 1945 when a Soviet armoured division reached Neubrandenburg. Postal records show this camp as being under the control of the SS. Italy also had civilian internment camps although certain POW camps had some civilian prisoners also. Grumello del Piano/del silenzio /Grumillina. Oflag II-D was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp located at Gross Born, Pomerania (now Borne Sulinowo, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland). 52 Pian di Coreglia (Chiabati, Genoa). Stalag 317 or (XVIII-C) Markt, Pongau (St. Johann) Salzburg, Austria, Stalag 326 or VI-K Forelkrug Uber Paderborn Westfalen, Prussia, Stalag 344 Lamsdorf (Formerly Stalag VIII- Silesia), Stalag 357 Oerbke (Near Fallingbostel) Prussia. 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. Oflag IX-A/Z Rotenburg An Der Fulda Hessen-Nassau, Prussia 51-09. Although some POW exchanges took place between 1942 and 1944, the vast majority of British and Commonwealth captives were not repatriated until 1945. We also have many records from the escape and evasion parts of the TNA, originally compiled by MI9, typically these are contained in the National Archives WO373 series which covers recommendations for awards and may also have transcribed citations in some cases. By June 1940 most of the Poles had been transferred to other camps and replaced with Belgian and French troops taken prisoner during the Battle of France. This march was one of the "Long Marches". 7 & 8 & 26 & 27 - RA (coast & searchlight) MP corps, Savoy Hotel, Bournemouth. After the Armistice, anybody wishing to leave the camp was forcibly prevented from doing so under the orders of the senior British officer who was following to the letter the orders of Allied HQ to remain in the camp and await the arrival of Allied forces. District XII -Nearest city Dresden, in the North East of Germany. The British part was quite small. Medical reports on conditions in POW camps, with some reports on escapes, are among the Medical Historian's Papers in WO 222/1352-1393. | Gross: It is estimated that over 4,000 British and Allied personnel escaped or evaded capture across Europe during the Second World War. | In June 1940, Belgian and French POWs were housed in the former Bergen-Belsen construction workers camp. From May and June 1940 Dutch and Belgian prisoners arrived from the Battle of France, followed by French. The camp was liberated 26 March 1945 by the United States Army. The POWs who were working outside of the camp were simply left there and allowed to leave. The huts were about 75yds by 10yds and contained two tier beds for up to 200 prisoners. Six were built of brick, while the seventh was wood. Kriegslazarett Kriegslazarett-Abteilung 604 - Military Hospital in theRheinpaltz area. In general, the German Army complied with the provisions of the Geneva Convention regarding the care of officers of the armies of the western Allies, including Poland. Disguised as members of the league of German girls. The Famous WWII POW Camp. Arrested at the docks, he was transferred to Colditz in December 1941. The first occupants were Polish officers captured during the invasion of Poland. These included those who had escaped from other camps, as well asthose who could be used as possible bargaining chips (minor members of the Royal Family, Churchill's nephew and others). But then the train stopped in Stettin for unloading, they switched to another car loaded with sacks of barley destined for Aachen in western Germany, which they reached four days later. (Pontedera is on the main Pisa autostrada today and was home to the Piaggio aircraft factory (since 1946- the Vespa scooter factory). The major subcamps were Thorn and Elbing. They were subsequently transferred to PG78 just outside Sulmona and thence to camps in Germany where they remained until the end of the war. From February to April 1945 Neubrandenburg was a waypoint in the forced march westward of Allied prisoners from POW camps further east. In the south-western corner of the camp, separated by a barbed-wire fence, were two hospital blocks, the shower/delousing block, and the detention block. When U.S. troops liberated Colditz in April 1945, 31 prisoners had successfully reached home after more than 300 attempts. Red Cross inspection reports identified Oflag IV-C as a problem camp with inadequate sanitary and harsh confinement measures. 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. Other rooms were used as a common room and theatre. 3 men also escaped via Danzig and Sweden in the wooden horse escape of 1943. Behind the imposing walls of . Finally, in late December 1944, Americans captured in the Battle of the Bulge arrived. We are particularly interested in lists of names and individual photographs, letters and diaries of this period. Intentionally sloppy escape attempt in hopes to be placed in town jail. The source roster for Italian camps has however been located and have been completely transcribed on this site -these come directly from the National Archives reference WO392/21. POW Camp 801 Castel Camp forced labour camp. 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. As with Neave and Fowler, for his escapes and actions while in activity he was awarded gallantry medals. He became entangled in barbed wire when he fell down between the two fences. Norderney camp housed European (usually Eastern but including Republican Spaniard) and Soviet enforced labourers. 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. By Peter Jackson. These are all available within our fully searchable POW lists. Prisoner of War was a magazine published and distributed by the International Red Cross during World War II - it was a joint venture between the British Red Cross and the Order of St John. These contain every name officially recorded for March/April 1945 for German camps and August/September 1943 for Italian camps. In March 1945 two bombs dropped by a Soviet aircraft hit Block B killing eight POWs, and injuring several others. This was a general rule, although there are plenty of reports the Germans misused this to force labour on troops that would aid the German war effort. Stalag X-C Nienburg Hanover, Prussia Location N/E 52-09, Stalag XI-A (POWs from Stalag L4 & L1) Altengrabow Brandenburg, Prussia 52-12. Opened September 1939, closed January 1942. On the eastern, right, bank of the River Warter, near to the present day St. Roch bridge, stood Fort Rauch, the most southern of the right bank fortifications. 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