Stalag X-B

Last updated
Stalag X-B
Sandbostel150613 010cvjmgelbebar.jpg
Camp huts housing the exhibition, 2013
German Empire 1937 adm location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Stalag X-B
Coordinates 53°23′59″N9°06′35″E / 53.399642°N 9.109811°E / 53.399642; 9.109811
TypePrisoner-of-war camp
Site information
OwnerStiftung Lager Sandbostel
Controlled byFlag of Germany (1935-1945).svg  Nazi Germany
Open to
the public		yes
Site history
In use(as POW camp) 1939–1945
Demolished1945

Stalag X-B was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp located near Sandbostel in Lower Saxony in north-western Germany. Between 1939 and 1945 several hundred thousand POWs of 55 nations passed through the camp. Due to the bad conditions in which they were housed, thousands died there of hunger, disease, or were killed by the guards. Estimates of the number of dead range from 8,000 to 50,000.

Contents

Establishment and operation

Sandbostel lies 9 km south of Bremervörde, 43 km northeast of Bremen. In what was then the Province of Hanover, the Lutheran Church of the State of Hanover opened a camp for out of work singles and employed them in public works (roadworks, amelioration) in 1932, during the Great Depression.[ citation needed ]

In 1933, the Reichsarbeitsdienst took over the camp and used it later as a Nazi internment camp for undesirables.[ citation needed ]

In August 1939, a commission of Heeresbauamt Bremen (military construction department) decided to create a Mannschafts-Stammlager (POW camp) for the local Wehrkreis X . In September, construction of the camp began between the village of Sandbostel and the Arbeitsdienstlager in the Teufelsmoor. The latter area was now used as barracks to house the Wehrmacht guards. [1] [2]

Beginning in September 1939, Polish POWs were used to expand the camp. Initially, huts for around 10,000 prisoners were built. Once it began operating, the camp was divided into several sub-camps: [1]

POW's in Sandbostel 1941 - 1943 Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2005-0146, Sandbostel, sowjetische Kriegsgefangene.jpg
POW's in Sandbostel 1941 - 1943

At first, prisoners were housed in tents, but from spring 1940 inmates constructed masonry huts. Later, prefabricated wooded huts were added. By 1941, there were over 100 huts housing prisoners as well as latrines, kitchens, buildings for punishment confinement and the commandant's office. In addition, there was a hospital (Reservelazarett X-B) and a punishment work camp of two huts inside the moor. [1] By 1940, after the German victory over France, the camp was filled beyond capacity. Stalag X-B was then expanded to house a total of 30,000 prisoners. [1]

From the fall of 1941, sections of the camp were cleared or moved to make room for Soviet prisoners taken during "Operation Barbarossa". The camp now administered hundreds of Arbeitskommandos each made up of around 30 forced labourers. These were supplied to local farmers and industry. [1] [3]

There was a clear hierarchy among prisoners. At the top were British and American POWs, generally treated correctly according to the Geneva Convention and receiving numerous aid packages from the International Red Cross. As a consequence, they were well-fed until the very end of the war, when transportation and supply links broke down. Prisoners from western Europe (French, Belgians) were also treated as POWs but received less outside help and were not as well-nourished. However, they were in contact with international help organisations. Serbian and Polish nationals were denied access to outside observers. Italians, who came here after September 1943, were deemed traitors by both the German guards and the other prisoners and were at the low end of the hierarchy. They were ill-fed and from the fall of 1944 forced to work with the Wehrmacht or be treated as civilian forced labour. Worst off of all were the Soviet POWs. They were denied POW status, received no outside food and were not allowed access to international observers. Guards had a special shoot-to-kill policy for them. Due to the ill-treatment of the Soviets and a lack of shelter, several epidemics broke out among them. Thousands of them died from disease, starvation and brutal treatment by guards. They were buried in mass graves on the camp graveyard (today's war cemetery). [1]

Among the Italian prisoners, who were mostly soldiers who did not surrender to the German army after the Cassibile armistice, was journalist and writer Giovannino Guareschi, who wrote La favola di Natale ("A Christmas Fable") there on Christmas 1944. The Canadian Neurologist Charles Miller Fisher, who served as a Lieutenant Commander in the Canadian navy, was interned in this camp after being torpedoed and rescued by a German ship. [4]

In August 1944, all POW camps were removed from Wehrmacht control and were assigned to Heinrich Himmler's Schutzstaffel (SS). Although this was without immediate consequences at Sandbostel, in January 1945 POWs were evacuated here from other camps closer to the frontline. In the final phase of the war, concentration camp prisoners were relocated to Sandbostel. Around 9,000 former inmates of Neuengamme concentration camp and its subcamps were transferred to Stalag X-B in April 1945. [1] They were housed in the former Marlag and guarded well but otherwise left to their own devices: they received no medical help despite rampant diseases, sanitary conditions were dire and the inmates went virtually without food. On 20 April, most of the SS members guarding that section of Stalag X-B marched out of the camp with several hundred prisoners. After that, the POWs were allowed to help the remaining former concentration camp inmates with some of their own food. [5]

Liberation

Letter dated 21 April 1945 about the handover of the camp, exhibited at Neuengamme concentration camp. SandbostelLetter.JPG
Letter dated 21 April 1945 about the handover of the camp, exhibited at Neuengamme concentration camp.

The camp was liberated on 29 April 1945 by the British Armed Forces of XXX Corps following fighting with the German 15th Panzergrenadier-Division. The camp commandant, however, realizing that the end of the war was close, had already agreed to hand over control of the camp to the prisoners, led by the French Colonel Marcel Albert. On 21 April, the same day that the officer ordered to take control of the camp complained to his superiors about conditions there (see picture), two prisoners carried the call for assistance from the camp to the Guards Armoured Division at Zeven. Two armoured units were sent to Sandbostel but fighting delayed their arrival until 29 April. [6]

The British discovered around 15,000 surviving POWs in the camp, as well as around 8,000 KZ-inmates. [6]

The camp was divided into three sections when liberated. The first contained allied prisoners in unsatisfactory conditions, but generally in compliance with the International Red Cross Convention. Soviet prisoners, without the Convention's protection, were in substantially worse conditions. In the third section were around 8,000 civilian prisoners in appalling conditions, described in the Army medical history as "utterly horrifying"; "everywhere the dead and dying sprawled amid the slime of human excrement." [7] According to members of the British forces present at the liberation, conditions were so bad, they referred to the Stalag as "Little Belsen" in a reference to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. [3]

The commander of the British Forces in north-western Germany, General Brian Horrocks, was called in and ordered local German civilians and medical orderlies to help with the clean-up, and to bury the numerous dead bodies. Like at Bergen-Belsen, despite the best efforts of the British, hundreds of inmates died every day immediately following the liberation as a result of starvation, typhus and other diseases. [6] Estimates of the total number of people who died here in 1939-45 range between 8,000 and 50,000. [2] There is evidence of at least 5,162 dead. Claims of up to 46,000 killed Soviets alone were made by the Soviet Union but are considered to be exaggerated. [3]

Inmates were cleaned and transferred to an improvised hospital outside the camp and thence to convalescence camps. The former Marlag was burned between 16 and 25 May to prevent a typhus epidemic and the last 350 patients left the hospital on 3 June. [7]

Other, more serviceable, huts were used by the British to house imprisoned Nazis and SS members, who were awaiting trial. [6]

Cemeteries

POW camps were required by Wehrmacht regulations to have a cemetery close by. Initially, the dead of Stalag X-B were buried in the war cemetery at Parnewinkel, where a World War I POW camp had been located previously. As the number of dead rose in 1940, a second cemetery was established near Sandbostel, about 1.2 kilometres from the camp. [2] [8]

Non-Soviet and Soviet POWs were treated differently even in death. The former were buried with military honours in individual graves, the latter in 70 mass graves. [8]

At Sandbostel, the cemetery has two sections. Gräberfeld 1 includes the mass graves. In 1954-56 Gräberfeld 2 received the roughly 2,400 dead among the former concentration camp inmates who could not be identified. [9]

Post-war use

British internment camp

As early as 8 July 1945, the British military authorities established one of nine civilian internment camps in a part of the former Stalag X-B. At "No. 2 Civil Internment Camp" or "No. 2 CIC" around 5,000 males, including SS members, were interned. Soon, inmates were subject to "re-education", intended to turn Nazi supporters into democrats. To further this goal, internees were allowed to publish their own newspaper Der Windstoss. [10]

In June 1947, the trials began at the Spruchkammergericht at Stade. Internees were not charged with individual crimes but with membership in a criminal organisation, as defined by the Nuremberg trials. The court handed down 3,500 verdicts, ranging from several months to six years' imprisonment. However, the time of internment was counted as time served, so many of the defendants were released immediately following the trial. [10]

After the last inmates were released on 9 March 1948, the British closed the camp on 1 August 1948. [10]

Prison

In March 1948, the Justice Department of the State of Lower Saxony established the Strafgefängnis Lager Sandbostel at the site of the Stalag. This prison soon housed around 600 male inmates, imprisoned for periods between two months and two years, mostly for property-related crimes, in six large huts. [11]

The prison featured a small hospital, workshops and a Protestant church. Around 110 people worked there, mostly German refugees from the eastern territories lost after WW II. In 1952, the prison was dissolved due to falling numbers of the incarcerated. [11]

Camp for refugees from the GDR

Beginning in 1952, parts of the camp were used as an emergency reception centre for refugees from Communist East Germany or GDR. On 1 April 1952, the Federal Ministry for Refugees established the Notaufnahmelager Sandbostel for young male refugees aged 15 to 24. In September 1952, a similar camp for women was established at the site of the POW camp at Westertimke. These two camps were under the supervision of the Durchgangslager Uelzen-Bohldamm and a committee decided on individuals' admission to West Germany or to West Berlin. Refugees also received help in finding jobs or apprenticeship positions. Most of the young people were in the camp for just one or two weeks. At Sandbostel, their number averaged around 800, at Westertimke around 300. Daily intake at Sandbostel was up to 100, with roughly the same number leaving each day. In total, around 250,000 young men and 80,000 young women passed through the camps. [12] This use ended around 1960. [2]

Bundeswehr and business park

In 1963, the German armed forces took over the remaining huts of the camp and used them to store medical supplies. Ten years later, in 1973, the Bundeswehr stopped using the facility. The Ministry of Defence for a while considered building a barracks at the site, but eventually chose Seedorf as the location. [13]

In 1974, the business park "Immenhain" was established in the area of the camp not given over to agricultural use. Businesses set up there included a horse-riding establishment, a reject shop, a militaria shop and a brothel. This use of the former camp area only ended with the establishment of the memorial in the 2000s. [13] [14]

Memorial

A Soviet memorial erected at the cemetery site in 1945 was dynamited in 1956 by orders of the Bremervörde district authorities and the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior, due to the memorial's excessive claims regarding the number of victims. Its inscription had read "Hier ruhen 46.000 russische Soldaten und Offiziere, zu Tode gequält in der Nazigefangenschaft" ("Here lie 46,000 Russian soldiers and officers, tortured to death in Nazi imprisonment"). [15] The remains of most non-Soviet POWs were repatriated to their countries of origin. The Italians were reinterred at the Italian war cemetery at Hamburg-Öjendorf. Only around 170 individual graves of POWs from Poland, Yugoslavia or of unknown nationality remain in the graveyard at Sandbostel. [2]

A private club was founded in 1992 to work for the maintenance of the camp site. Since that year, most of the huts were treated as listed or protected buildings. The creation of a memorial at the site of the former camp met with substantial local opposition. [16] In 2004, a foundation (Stiftung Lager Sandbostel) was established. Following three years of preparations, the Gedenkstätte Sandbostel was opened in 2007. In April 2013, the permanent exhibition was opened. Out of a total of around 150 huts, more than 20 remain (largely in the area that used to house the Soviet prisoners). Some appear mostly as they did in the 1940s, others have been altered to serve changing needs in the post-war period. [2] [17] [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bergen-Belsen concentration camp</span> Nazi concentration camp

Bergen-Belsen, or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentration camp. Initially this was an "exchange camp", where Jewish hostages were held with the intention of exchanging them for German prisoners of war held overseas. The camp was later expanded to hold Jews from other concentration camps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neuengamme concentration camp</span> Nazi concentration camp network in northern Germany

Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, the Neuengamme camp became the largest concentration camp in Northwest Germany. Over 100,000 prisoners came through Neuengamme and its subcamps, 24 of which were for women. The verified death toll is 42,900: 14,000 in the main camp, 12,800 in the subcamps, and 16,100 in the death marches and bombings during the final weeks of World War II. Following Germany's defeat in 1945, the British Army used the site as an internment camp for SS and other Nazi officials. In 1948, the British transferred the land to the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg, which summarily demolished the camp's wooden barracks and built in its stead a prison cell block, converting the former concentration camp site into two state prisons operated by the Hamburg authorities from 1950 to 2004. Following protests by various groups of survivors and allies, the site now serves as a memorial. It is situated 15 km southeast of the centre of Hamburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp</span> Nazi concentration camp

Mittelbau-Dora was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour from many Eastern countries occupied by Germany, for extending the nearby tunnels in the Kohnstein and for manufacturing the V-2 rocket and the V-1 flying bomb. In the summer of 1944, Mittelbau became an independent concentration camp with numerous subcamps of its own. In 1945, most of the surviving inmates were sent on death marches or crammed in trains of box-cars by the SS. On 11 April 1945, US troops freed the remaining prisoners.

Marlag und Milag Nord was a Second World War German prisoner-of-war camp complex for men of the British and Canadian Merchant Navy and Royal Navy. It was located around the village of Westertimke, about 30 km (19 mi) north-east of Bremen, though in some sources the camp's location is given as Tarmstedt, a larger village about 4 km (2.5 mi) to the west. There were also American merchant seamen detained here as well as some U.S. Navy personnel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stalag Luft III</span> World War II Luftwaffe-run prisoner of war camp

Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stalag II-B</span>

Stalag II-B was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp situated 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) west of the town of Hammerstein, Pomerania on the north side of the railway line. It housed Polish, French, Belgian, Serbian, Dutch, Soviet, Italian and American prisoners of war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The March (1945)</span> Death march during the final months of the Second World War in Europe

"The March" refers to a series of forced marches during the final stages of the Second World War in Europe. From a total of 257,000 western Allied prisoners of war held in German military prison camps, over 80,000 POWs were forced to march westward across Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Germany in extreme winter conditions, over about four months between January and April 1945. This series of events has been called various names: "The Great March West", "The Long March", "The Long Walk", "The Long Trek", "The Black March", "The Bread March", and "Death March Across Germany", but most survivors just called it "The March".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stalag</span> German term for prisoner-of-war camp

In Germany, stalag was a term used for prisoner-of-war camps. Stalag is a contraction of "Stammlager", itself short for Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschaftsstammlager, literally "main camp for enlisted prisoners of war". Therefore, "stalag" technically means "main camp".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oflag II-D</span> World War II German prisoner-of-war camp

Oflag II-D Gross Born (Grossborn-Westfalenhof) was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp located at Gross Born, Pomerania, near Westfalenhof (Kłomino). It housed Polish and French officers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nazi concentration camps in Norway</span>

Nazi concentration camps in Norway were concentration camps or prisons in Norway established or taken over by the Quisling regime and Nazi German authorities during the German occupation of Norway that began on 9 April 1940 and used for internment of persons by the Nazi authorities. 709 prison camps or concentration camps, [including some death camps,] were counted by a project that had Randi Bratteli, as an advisor. Another source has claimed that there were around 620 prison camps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stalags XI-B, XI-D, and 357</span> WW2-era German PoW camps

Stalag XI-B and Stalag XI-D / 357 were two German World War II prisoner-of-war camps (Stammlager) located just to the east of the town of Fallingbostel in Lower Saxony, in north-western Germany. The camps housed Polish, French, Belgian, Soviet, Italian, British, Yugoslav, American, Canadian, New Zealander and other Allied POWs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Łambinowice</span> Village in Opole Voivodeship, Poland

Łambinowicepronounced['wambinɔˈvit͡sɛ] is a village in Nysa County, Opole Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Łambinowice. It lies approximately 17 kilometres (11 mi) north-east of Nysa and 31 km (19 mi) south-west of the regional capital Opole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stalag VIII-B</span> WWII German prisoner-of-war camp in Silesia

Stalag VIII-B was a German Army prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, later renumbered Stalag-344, located near the village of Lamsdorf in Silesia. The camp initially occupied barracks built to house British and French prisoners in World War I. At this same location there had been a prisoner camp during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stalag IV-B</span> German prisoner of war camp

Stalag IV-B was one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps in Germany during World War II. Stalag is an abbreviation of the German Stammlager. It was located 8 km (5.0 mi) north-east of the town of Mühlberg in the Prussian Province of Saxony, just east of the Elbe river and about 30 mi (48 km) north of Dresden. From 1944 to 1945 it belonged to the Province of Halle-Merseburg. Now, the area is in Brandenburg. A sub-camp, sometimes identified as Stalag IV-B/Z,Stalag 304 or Stalag IV-H was located at Zeithain, 10 km (6.2 mi) to the south in Saxony.

Oflag IX-C was a German prisoner-of-war camp for officers (Offizierlager) during World War II, located just to the south of the village of Molsdorf, near Erfurt in Thuringia.

Oflag X-B was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp for officers (Offizierlager) located in Nienburg/Weser, Lower Saxony, in north-western Germany. Adjacent to it was the enlisted men's camp (Stammlager) Stalag X-C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stalag VII-A</span> German World War II prisoner-of-war camp in Bavaria

Stalag VII-A was the largest prisoner-of-war camp in Nazi Germany during World War II, located just north of the town of Moosburg in southern Bavaria. The camp covered an area of 35 hectares. It served also as a transit camp through which prisoners, including officers, were processed on their way to other camps. At some time during the war, prisoners from every nation fighting against Germany passed through it. At the time of its liberation on 29 April 1945, there were 76,248 prisoners in the main camp and 40,000 or more in Arbeitskommando working in factories, repairing railroads or on farms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandbostel</span> Municipality in Lower Saxony, Germany

Sandbostel is a municipality in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) in northwestern Germany, 43 km north-east of Bremen, 60 km west of Hamburg. It is part of the Samtgemeinde Selsingen. In 2013, it had 830 inhabitants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stalag Luft II</span>

Stalag Luft II was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during World War II, in Łódź, in the occupied territory of Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II</span>

Nazi Germany operated around 1,000 prisoner-of-war camps during World War II (1939-1945).

References

Notes
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Kriegsgefangene im Stalag XB (German)". Stiftung Lager Sandbostel. Archived from the original on 9 December 2013. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Sandbostel camp flyer" (PDF). Stiftung Lager Sandbostel. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 Henkel, Knut (24 April 2013). "Mehr als nur Gedenken in "Klein Belsen" (German)". Die Tageszeitung: Taz. TAZ. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  4. ↑ Ropper, A. H. (2012). "C. Miller Fisher". Annals of Neurology. 72 (1): 1–3. doi:10.1002/ana.23657. S2CID   58607265.
  5. ↑ "KZ-Häftlinge im Stalag X B (German)". Stiftung Lager Sandbostel. Archived from the original on 9 December 2013. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Die Befreiung der Kriegsgefangenen und der KZ-Häftlinge (German)". Stiftung Lager Sandbostel. Archived from the original on 18 December 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  7. 1 2 Two Weeks in May 1945, Clifford Barnard, Quaker Home Service, 1999. ISBN   0-85245-315-9
  8. 1 2 "Kriegsgräberstätte Parnewinkel (German)". Stiftung Lager Sandbostel. Archived from the original on 18 December 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  9. ↑ "Kriegsgräberstätte in Sandbostel (German)". Stiftung Lager Sandbostel. Archived from the original on 9 December 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 "No 2 CIC – Internierungscamp der britischen Armee (German)". Stiftung Lager Sandbostel. Archived from the original on 18 December 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  11. 1 2 "Strafgefängnis (German)". Stiftung Lager Sandbostel. Archived from the original on 9 December 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  12. ↑ "Notaufnahmelager für jugendliche DDR-Flüchtlinge (German)". Stiftung Lager Sandbostel. Retrieved 21 March 2014.[ permanent dead link ]
  13. 1 2 "Weitere Nachnutzung (German)". Stiftung Lager Sandbostel. Retrieved 21 March 2014.[ permanent dead link ]
  14. ↑ Bölsche, Jochen (15 January 2010). "Vergessene Orte - Kannibalen im Stalag XB (German)". Der Spiegel. Spiegel. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  15. ↑ "Kriegsgräberstätten als Lernort: "Sandbostel" (German)". Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge. Archived from the original on March 26, 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  16. ↑ Rixmann, Solveig (14 March 2011). "Stalag XB nahe Sandbostel (German)". Weser-Kurier. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  17. ↑ Scheurmann, Ingrid (August 2013), "Sandbostel (German)", Monumente, pp. 16–18, ISSN   0941-7125
  18. ↑ "Gedenkstätte Lager Sandbostel (German)". Stiftung Lager Sandbostel. Archived from the original on 8 December 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
Bibliography

53°23′58.71″N9°06′35.32″E / 53.3996417°N 9.1098111°E / 53.3996417; 9.1098111

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.