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.

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.

Contents

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

World War I POW Camps

Map of POW camps in Germany during World War I Camps de soldats et officiers en Allemagne.svg
Map of POW camps in Germany during World War I

During World War I camps were run by the 25 Army Corps Districts into which Germany was divided. [1] [2]

Types of camps

Kriegsgefangenenlager (KGFL, "Prisoner of war camps") were divided into:

Non-commissioned officer Military officer without a commission

A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not earned a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually obtain their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. In contrast, commissioned officers usually enter direct from a military academy, and are often expected to have a university degree.

Officer (armed forces) member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority

An officer is a member of an armed forces or uniformed service who holds a position of authority.

List of camps by Army Corps districts

British, French and Portuguese troops, c.1918 Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2008-0314, Frankreich, portugiesische und britische Gefangene.jpg
British, French and Portuguese troops, c.1918
French colonial troops from North and West Africa Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1999-002-00, Alliierte Kriegsgefangene.jpg
French colonial troops from North and West Africa
French POWs at work at a farm in Westscheid bei Mennighuffen Schaeffer-Kriegsgefangene.jpg
French POWs at work at a farm in Westscheid bei Mennighüffen

Guards Corps (Berlin)

Mannschaftslager
63rd (Royal Naval) Division

The 63rd Division was a United Kingdom infantry division of the First World War. It was originally formed as the Royal Naval Division at the outbreak of the war, from Royal Navy and Royal Marine reservists and volunteers, who were not needed for service at sea. The division fought at Antwerp in 1914 and at Gallipoli in 1915. In 1916, following many losses among the original naval volunteers, the division was transferred to the British Army as the 63rd Division, re-using the number from the disbanded second-line 63rd Division Territorial Force. As an Army formation, it fought on the Western Front for the remainder of the war.

Siege of Antwerp (1914) engagement between the German and the Belgian armies during World War I

The Siege of Antwerp was an engagement between the German and the Belgian, British and French armies around the fortified city of Antwerp during World War I. German troops besieged a garrison of Belgian fortress troops, the Belgian field army and the British Royal Naval Division in the Antwerp area, after the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914. The city, which was ringed by forts known as the National Redoubt, was besieged to the south and east by German forces. The Belgian forces in Antwerp conducted three sorties in late September and early October, which interrupted German plans to send troops to France, where reinforcements were needed to counter the French armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).

Wustermark Place in Brandenburg, Germany

Wustermark is a municipality of the Havelland district, in Brandenburg, Germany.

Lazarett
  • Berlin. Located on Alexandrinenstrasse.

I Army Corps (Königsberg)

None found.

II Army Corps (Stettin)

Mannschaftslager
Dąbie, Szczecin Municipal neighbourhood in Szczecin, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland

Dąbie is a municipal neighbourhood of the city of Szczecin in Poland, situated on the Płonia river, on the south coast of Dąbie Lake, on the right bank of Oder river, east of the Szczecin Old Town and Middle Town. As of January 2011 it had a population of 13,275.

Piła Place in Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland

Piła is a town in northwestern Poland situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, previously capital of Piła Voivodeship (1975–1998). It had 73,791 inhabitants as of 2017 making it the fourth-largest city in the voivodeship after Poznań, Kalisz and Konin and is the largest city in the northern part of Greater Poland. It is the capital of Piła County. The town is located on the Gwda river and is famous for its green areas, parks and dense forests nearby. It is an important road and railway hub, located at the intersection of two main lines - Poznań - Szczecin and Bydgoszcz - Krzyż Wielkopolski.

Szczecin Capital city in West Pomerania, Poland

Szczecin is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport and Poland's seventh-largest city. As of December 2018, the population was 402,465.

Lazarett

III Army Corps (Berlin)

Kriegsgefangenenlager Crossen, 1914 Bundesarchiv R 67 Bild-02-002, Kriegsgefangenenlager Crossen, Gesamtansicht.jpg
Kriegsgefangenenlager Crossen, 1914
Mannschaftslager
Internierungslager
  • Havelberg. For 4,500 internees of various nationalities, including nearly 400 British Indians

IV Army Corps (Magdeburg)

Offizierlager
Mannschaftslager
  • Gardelegen. Camp opened in September 1914.
  • Grabow. Formerly a military camp, consisting of eight compounds of six barracks each.
  • Merseburg An assembly camp holding up to 25,000 prisoners, from which men were drafted to work camps.
  • Quedlinburg. A camp 2½ miles from the town, holding 12,000 men.
  • Wittenberg. A camp 10½ acres in area at Klein Wittenberg, 2 miles from the city. Eight compounds held 13,000 men.
  • Zerbst. A camp at an infantry drill ground two miles north of the city. It held up to 15,000 men, but there were 100,000 registered there, the majority engaged in industry and agriculture.
Internierungslager
Ruhleben internment camp: detainees queuing for Christmas dinner: painting by Nico Jungman Ruhleben Prison Camp - Christmas Dinner Art.IWMART528.jpg
Ruhleben internment camp: detainees queuing for Christmas dinner: painting by Nico Jungman
  • Ruhleben. Camp for up to 4,500 internees six miles from Berlin located at a racecourse.

V Army Corps (Posen)

Mannschaftslager
  • Lauban.
  • Sagan. A camp five miles from the town holding 6,000 men.
  • Skalmierschütz. A very large camp for Russians and Romanians to which British and American prisoners were sent in early 1918.
  • Sprottau A camp three miles from the town, and also a Lazarett for prisoners with tuberculosis.
  • Stralkowo. A camp three miles from the town holding mainly Russians and Romanians, and British from March 1918.

VI Army Corps (Breslau)

Offizierlager
Mannschaftslager
  • Lamsdorf. A camp at a military training ground that was reopened during World War II as Stalag VIII-B.
  • Neuhammer. A clearing camp for Upper Silesia. 100,000 men were registered there, but were mostly in work camps under its administration.
Lazarett
  • Beuthen. Two large Lazaretts, containing British prisoners from early 1918.

VII Army Corps (Münster)

Offizierlager
Mannschaftslager
  • Burg Steinfurt. A camp for British prisoners.
  • Dortmund.
  • Duisburg.
  • Dülmen.
  • Düsseldorf.
  • Erfurt. Held 15,000 men.
  • Friedrichsfeld. Camp holding 35,000 men.
  • Hammerstein. A camp for Russian prisoners.
  • Heilsberg
  • Minden. A camp three miles from the town with 18,000 men.
  • Münster. There were four camps: Münster I was outside the city in open farming country, Münster II was at the racecourse, Münster III was a former Army barracks, and Münster IV was reserved for Russian prisoners.
  • Sennelager. Three camps just north of Paderborn, named Senne I, II & III.
  • Stendal. The camp lay 1 mile north-east of the town, and was the parent camp for a number of work camps, holding 15,000 men.
  • Tuchel. A camp for Russians and Romanians, also holding British and American prisoners from 1918.
Lazarett

VIII Army Corps (Coblenz)

Offizierlager
  • Crefeld. There was also a Lazarett there.
Mannschaftslager
  • Limburg an der Lahn. A camp holding 12,000 men in which Irish prisoners were concentrated for the purpose of recruiting for the Irish Brigade.
  • Meschede. The camp, just outside the town, held 10,000 POWs.
  • Wahn. Located 20 miles south-east of Cologne at the Wahner Heide Artillery practice camp. The camp had 35,000 men on its register, and was a parent camp for work camps in the district.
Lazarett
  • Aachen. Nine hospitals for British POWs awaiting repatriation.
  • Coblenz.
  • Cologne. Several hospitals. British prisoners were treated either in the Garrison Lazarett I or the Kaiserin Augusta Schule Lazarett VI.
  • Trier. Officer prisoners were treated in the Reserve Lazarett IV (Horn Kaserne).

IX Army Corps (Altona)

Offizierlager
Mannschaftslager
  • Güstrow. Situated in pine-woods three miles from the town. It held 25,000 men, with a further 25,000 assigned to work camps registered there.
  • Lübeck. A camp for men employed at the docks. Also a reserve Lazarett.
  • Neumünster
  • Parchim. A camp built on a former cavalry drill ground three miles from the town. It held 25,000 men, with up to 45,000 more assigned to work camps registered there.
Lazarett
  • Bremen. A garrison hospital and also a work camp attached to Soltau.
  • Hamburg Reserve Lazarett VII was a ward of the central prison at Fuhlsbüttel. Reserve Lazarett III was at the Eppendorfer Krankenhaus, and at Veddel there was a Lazarett for Navy personnel.

X Army Corps (Hannover)

Holzminden officers' camp Holzminden PoW camp Kaserne B.jpg
Holzminden officers' camp
Offizierlager
Mannschaftslager
Lazarett
  • Hanover. Lazarett V was in the Royal War School, and there was another at the Garrison Lazarett.
Internierungslager
Holzminden internment camp Camp d'internement d'Holzminden, Basse Saxe.jpg
Holzminden internment camp
  • Celle Castle. For civilians and ex-officers.
  • Holzminden. For approximately 4,000–5,000 civilian internees, mainly Polish, Russian, French and Belgian, and including a small number of Britons. Comprised two camps, one for men, the other for women and children.

XI Army Corps (Cassel)

Offizierlager
Mannschaftslager
  • Langensalza. Opened in 1914, the camp held 10,000 men.
  • Ohrdruf. Located on a former Army training ground and held 15,000 men.

XII Army Corps (Dresden)

Offizierlager
Mannschaftslager

XIII Army Corps (Stuttgart)

Mannschaftslager
  • Heilbronn Sub-camp of Stuttgart.
  • Stuttgart. Two camps; one in the city in an abandoned factory building, the other in a disused factory three miles outside.
  • Ludwigsburg.
Lazarett
  • Kempten. British prisoners quartered in the hospital there.

XIV Army Corps (Karlsruhe)

Offizierlager
  • Karlsruhe. Two camps; one in the grounds of the Karlsruher Schloss contained naval and, later, aviation officers, the other, the former Europäischer Hof, was known as "The Listening Hotel", and was an interrogation centre.
  • Freiburg. Located in an old university building.
  • Heidelberg. In barracks four miles from town.
  • Ingolstadt. The camps were located in the city fortifications; fortresses 8, 9 & 10. As a camp for persistent escapers, it was the World War I counterpart to Colditz. Documented in the book The Escaping Club by Alfred John Evans.
  • Villingen. The camp was in a disused barracks.
  • Weingarten near Karlsruhe.
Mannschaftslager
  • Ingolstadt. Situated on the edge of the town, holding 4,000 men.
  • Mannheim Located two miles outside of the city. From February 1917 it used as a clearing or exchange camp for British prisoners of war awaiting repatriation. Held 10,000 men.
Internierungslager
  • Rastatt Camp for French civilians. During 1918 it was used as a military transit camp.

XV Army Corps (Strasbourg)

Offizierlager

XVI Army Corps (Metz)

  • Metz. Known as Lazarett Saint-Clément.

XVII Army Corps (Danzig)

Mannschaftslager
  • Czersk. A camp for Russian POWs, to which British prisoners were also later sent.
  • Danzig (Troyl) The "camp" consists of barges moored on the bank of the Vistula River, each containing from 100 to 500 men. The administration block, kitchen, and other facilities of the camp are on shore. Men from the failed Irish Brigade were sent here. [4]

XVIII Army Corps (Frankfurt-am-Main)

Offizierlager
Mannschaftslager
Lazarett

XIX Army Corps (Leipzig)

Offizierlager
Mannschaftslager
  • Chemnitz. The camp was located in the Friedrich-August Kaserne.
  • Zwickau. The camp held 10,000 POWs.

XX Army Corps (Allenstein)

Mannschaftslager
  • Arys
  • Osterode Located at a locomotive works. A sub-camp of Preußisch Holland.
  • Preußisch Holland. The camp held 15,000 POWs, with up to 35,000 assigned to various work camps registered there.

XXI Army Corps (Saarbrücken)

Offizierlager

I Royal Bavarian Army Corps (Munich)

Mannschaftslager
Lazarett
  • Munich. The large war school in the Mars Platz is used as a hospital, and there is another known as Lazarett B.

II Royal Bavarian Army Corps (Würzburg)

Offizierlager
Mannschaftslager

III Royal Bavarian Army Corps (Nürnberg)

Mannschaftslager
  • Amberg. Held 5,000 POWs.
  • Bayreuth. Held 5,000 POWs.
  • Landau
  • Nuremberg. Located three miles from the town on an old training ground of the Nuremberg Garrison.
Lazarett

Others

Offizierlager
Mannschaftslager
  • Cassel (Niederzwehren). Held 20,000 POWs.
  • Constance. All officers and men for internment in Switzerland are concentrated here. Held 15,000.
  • Deutsch Gabel Camp for merchant seamen under Austrian administration.
  • Grafenwöhr Camp and Lazarett (Bavarian Corps)
  • Gleiwitz. Located in a cavalry barracks. British prisoners sent there after March 1918.
  • Heustadt. A centre for work camps in East Prussia.
  • Heuberg. Located at the training area Lager Heuberg .
  • Kalisch. Camp for Russian and Romanian soldiers, and also British from April 1918.
  • Kattowitz Camp for Russian and Romanian soldiers, and also British from April 1918.
  • Marienburg A centre for work camps in East Prussia.
  • Neuburg am Inn
  • Ulm. Camp on the outskirts of the town, of the usual barrack type.
  • Zittau Russian POWs.
Lazarett

World War II POW Camps

1944 map of POW camps in Germany. Prisoners of war camps in Germany in World War II (map of 1944).png
1944 map of POW camps in Germany.

POW camps run by the Germans during World War II. There were around 1,000 Prisoner-of-War camps in Germany during World War II. [6]

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

Types of Camps



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. Model Stalag Luft III.jpg
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. MWP Murnau.JPG
Collection of everyday items of Polish prisoners from the Oflag VII-A Murnau.

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.

Fictional prison camps

See also

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References

Notes
  1. ↑ Steuer (2008) Ch.13, pp.3-6
  2. ↑ Pope-Hennessy, Una (1920). Map of the Main Prison Camps in Germany and Austria, with Gazetter and Index. London: Nisbet & Co. Ltd. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  3. ↑ Steuer (2008) Ch.11, p.6
  4. ↑ "Danzig Prisoner of War Camp in WWI". irishbrigade.eu. 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
  5. ↑ "History of the Fortress". kronach.de. 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
  6. ↑ 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.
Bibliography

Further reading

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