A little known detail is that although Germany signed the agreement on the date of the issue they ratified it in 1934 (- after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in March 1933)! Ahntastic Adventures in Silicon Valley Less than eight months later Oflag IV-C was captured by American soldiers from 1st US Army. Take a fresh look at the legendary escapes, featuring stories from both Colditz survivors and their extended families. After the Fall of France in 1940, most Polish officers were transferred to either Oflag VIIA Murnau or Oflag VIII E Johannisbrunn, and French officers were imprisoned in the castle. Oh, were they wrong! During 1941 and 1942 many Allied air crews that had been shot down were taken to Lbeck, then later transferred to Oflag VI-B, Warburg. [6] A popular diversion was provided by the "Milag Jockey Club" which held race meetings every Saturday evening. Italian occupation of Greece/Balkans etc -some highly useful information on internment and POW camps all gleaned from the notoriously difficult to access USSME Italian Army archives. The German Navy also operated a Dulag (Durchgangslager, "Transit camp") in Wilhelmshaven, where newly-arrived prisoners were processed before being sent to other camps. The British people were now resigned to the fact that Hitler had to be stopped by force. The treatment was a repetition of previous camps, with the exception of food, of which there was virtually none. Although individuals are rarely mentioned by name, a speculative search of files in these record series may still prove fruitful. 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. During the Second World, War Oflag IV-C, situated in the thousand-year-old Colditz Castle, was one of the most famous German Army prisoner-of-war camps for enemy officers. Some of the more critically ill were moved to the 650th Hospital on 25/11/44. The camp was built around a Polish boys' school by adding barracks. The men had hot showers, and their clothes were steamed and fumigated to kill the lice that were an ever present threat of typhus. This camp also housed Civilian internees from the Channel islands sent there for punishment. Sleeping accommodation was in wooden double bunks in groups of 8. 43449 (6486 British) POWs with 661 officers held here. Some POWs had a brutal and life-threatening time from day to day particularly as the war dragged on into 1944 and 1945, the magazines tended to concentrate on keeping families morale up rather than giving accurate news, whether this accuracy was possible or not is arguable, however. It seems a shame if no one is encouraging continued interest in a remarkable group of men. The camp was built in late 1939 by Polish prisoners of war. Stutthof KZ had up to 110,000 inmates, and more than 85,000 were systematically killed there. The camp housed around 2,500 British and 900 other commonwealth and allied nations' POWs and 7,500 USAAF in huts (10 x 12 metres) for 15 men with 3 tier bunks. Opened September 1939 Closed August 1st 1940. Reports on many individual Royal Air Force servicemen taken prisoner in occupied Europe, detailing the circumstances of their capture, are in AIR 14/470-471. The camp was divided into three sections when liberated. Stalag Luft II Litzmannstadt (Lodz -Poland), Camp for Soviet pilots in the district Litzmannstadt'u - Erzhausen (Lodz region today called Ruda Pabianicka at the south-western area of the city), the square of the current streets Oder (German Wallensteinerstrasse, from the south-west) Retmanskiej (German Paracelsusweg; from the north-west.) 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. Late 1943: The POW camp is closed and the entire facility becomes Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. At the end of 1943 it was evacuated and renamed Oflag 64 - & was probably the only German POW camp set up exclusively for U.S. Army officers. Soon after their arrival the senior Canadian officer, Brigadier W.W. Southam, convened a conference which compiled an after action report on the Raid. Oflag 79 Braunschweig (Formerly VIII-F) Brunswick 52-10. Later about 4,500 arrived from Dunkirk and subsequently from the British 51st (Highland) Infantry Division captured at Saint-Valery-en-Caux. 88 min It had the reputation of being one of the worst Stalags, especially when it was overcrowded in 1945. Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing. The first group of French prisoners of war were brought to Choszczna just after the fall of France in June 1940, The senior officer being Colonel Gonnard. More prisoners arrived in July 1944 transferred from Oflag VIII-F. On 24 August 1944 the camp was strafed by American and British aircraft. And perhaps the most colorful examples have emerged from Colditz, the Nazi camp for Allied officers in Germanys east from 1939 to 1945. In May and June 1940 American, French and Belgian soldiers taken prisoner during the Battle of France arrived. Stars: Their repeated, elaborate, and sometimes bizarre attempts at escape are a nice change from the stories of Grunts on the front lines. On 5th March 1943 the Schubin Tunnel escape led by the indomitable Wing Commander Harry Day got 35 POWS out of the camp, although none escaped home. There were seven sub camps, including Gamba, Cremona and Torbole. The camp covered an area of 37,000 square metres, divided into two sections but not separated by barbed wire. The North Compound fell in with the West Compound at Spremberg and on 2 February entrained for Stalag 13D at Nurnberg, which they reached after a two day trip. Work began in December 1942, but the rocky ground made digging difficult. Hardy Krger, November 21st brought hundreds of wounded prisoners from the field hospitals. Also noted as 'Sforza costa Liguria' elsewhere, although this may be a mistake as PG 56 was in this location. Ultimately, the confused situation meant that by the end of 1943 some 50,000 POWs had been rounded-up and transported to camps in Germany. While the plans to question all liberated POWs never materialised, these records still represent a large percentage of those in enemy hands in 1945. | The camp was reopened in January 1942, and housed senior British Army officers, until being liberated in April 1945. | Gross: From November 1944 to early January 1945 American soldiers captured in various operations during the Allied drive eastward arrived. On 14th September, German troops arrived to escort the prisoners northwards, to captivity in Germany, but not before hundreds of them had escaped into the hills. They included 4,000 Africans from French colonial units. Any man who stepped between the wire and the fence was shot on sight. 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). 47083 (5191 British) POWs with 927 officers held here. Allied reference number for this camp was P-2553. Camps in Italy were normally prefixed PG prigionieri di guerra (prisoner of war), however the full title is campo concentramento prigionieri di guerra hence abbreviations may have the title Campo 57 or PG 57 etc so CC is also commonly used. Macintyre has always been a fantastic storyteller who makes history come alive, but you can almost feel the walls of Colditz closing in on you while reading this, and I think hes outdone himself in conveying how history feels to its participants. Director: A Michael Alexander (British Army officer) John Arundell, 16th Baron Arundell of Wardour B Douglas Bader John William Best Tadeusz Br-Komorowski Dominic Bruce Hugh Bruce Louis Buisson Micky Burn C Alan Campbell, Baron Campbell of Alloway John Chrisp Antoni Chruciel Yves Congar D Gris Davies-Scourfield John Dickinson (RAF Officer) Most of them attempted, (some many times) to escape, using ingenious and simple methods. Then a separate camp, Oflag II-E, was built for them on the west side of the main road. The first contained Allied prisoners in unsatisfactory conditions, but generally in compliance with the International Red Cross Convention. To the north of the road were seven prisoner accommodation blocks. After another train journey the men were force marched from Kiefheide, with many men being bayoneted or shot before they reached Stalag Luft IV in Gross Tychow. The first officers from the battle of Greece arrived on 16 June 1941. 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. Contents of the Canadian parcel included: Unlike the American and British parcels, Canadian Red Cross parcels did not include cigarettes or tobacco. In 1941 more officer prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign mostly British, Yugoslavian, Serbs and Greeks. 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. Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive were placed in Stalag II-A. These contain every name officially recorded for March/April 1945 for German camps and August/September 1943 for Italian camps. Stalag XXI-D Posen (Posnan) Poland Location N/E 52-17. Stalags were operated in both World War I and World War II and intended to be used for non-commissioned personnel (Enlisted ranks in US Army, Other ranks in British Commonwealth forces). You can embed or download low-resolution images free of charge for private and non-commercial use under the IWM Non-Commercial Licence. 20,770 POWs here (53 British) with 1735 Officers. There were about 500 Soviets, 200 Frenchmen, 100 Americans and 25 Canadians in the march. In June 1941 the massive influx of Soviet prisoners from Operation Barbarossa began. Newly released documents at The National Archives show the three remarkable and successful escape attempts made by three British-born Officers - Flight Lieutenant Hedley S Fowler, Lieutenant. Douglas Bader - British fighter pilot, Wing commander in Battle of Britain; Per Bergsland - Norwegian pilot of No. On reaching the UK, Fowler was promoted to squadron leader and posted to the Armament Test Squadron at Boscombe Down to act as a test pilot. 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. 3,104 POWs here on 26/2/43 originally opened in August 1941. 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. In their place British, French and other Allied officers were transferred to Hadamar from the citadel of Mainz. On February 6, 1945, according to Red Cross reports, some 8,000 men of the camp set out on what would be called the "Black March". Required fields are marked *. In 1940 the Poles were joined by Belgian and French prisoners, and by Soviets in 1941. Located in Warthegau, a western province of Poland that had been incorporated into the German Reich in 1939. The third barrack contained administrative headquarters. In November 1943, after the Italian armistice, Italian and Commonwealth prisoners arrived from Italy. 43703 (10303 British) POWs with 558 officers were processed through this centre and distributed amongst the many work camps locally. In 1943, the camp was enlarged and a new camp was constructed alongside the earlier one. In late September 1939 the camp was changed to a prisoner-of-war camp to house Polish soldiers from the September Campaign, particularly those from the Pomorze Army. The escape and evasion reports in AIR 40/1545-1552 include internal indexes, although these documents appear to be duplicates of the reports found in some of the WO 208 files described at the start of this section. According to SHAEF reports from February 1945 this camp held: 275 Soviets and 2014 Yugoslavs. From May and June 1940 Dutch and Belgian prisoners arrived from the Battle of France, followed by French. 4975984 Private Claude Warner Sherwood Foresters died 9/8/1942 This was the camp for USAAF NCOs until 13 October 1943 when all 1,900 were transferred to Stalag 17B. 24 British POWs held here in a small farming village. An American POW leads a group of mainly British prisoners to escape from the Germans in WWII. The camp itself was about one mile from the town railway station in Urbisaglia. In May 1940 as the building work progressed small groups of Polish officers were transferred in from other POW camps. (Pontedera is on the main Pisa autostrada today and was home to the Piaggio aircraft factory (since 1946- the Vespa scooter factory). He had broken an ankle in jumping from the moving truck. Nick Tate, By the end of July 1941, there were more than 500 officers: over 250 French, 150 Polish, 50 British and Commonwealth, 2 Yugoslavian. On 23 November 1941, N and three other English officers and one (Polish) officer (held up someone) to enable an English officer to make an escape attempt near the (Polish) orderly office. Both questionnaires also enquire whether the prisoner witnessed or had any information about war crimes. The camp, located just south of Prenzlau on the main road to Berlin, and was originally built in 1936 as a barracks for Artillery Regiment 38. Forty years of research has resulted in this exceptional photographic history of life within the 'Sonderlager' of Colditz castle, the famous prisoner of war camp in Germany during World War Two, which housed such illustrious names as Douglas Bader, Lorne Welch and Jack Best. 11, Hospital #12-Gombos Gyul, Budapest, Hungary 47-19, Salonika Civilian Internment Camp Salonika Greece 40-23, San Martino Civilian Internment Camp Monferrato Italy 45-08, Schuler Military Hospital, Ploesti (Ploesci) Romania 45-26, Serbian Hospital Zagreb Croatia, Yugoslavia 45-16, Sinaia Military Hospital #415, Sinaia, Romania 45-25, Skoplue Military Hospital Serbia Southern Yugoslavia 42-21, Sofia Military Hospital Sofia Bulgaria 42-23, Sospel Civilian Internment Camp Monaco France 44-07, Spitalul de Stat, Targoviste, Romania 45-25, St. Denis (Grand Caserine) Civilian Internment Camp Paris France 49-02, Stadtroda Hospital #1170 (Serves Stalag IX-C) Stadtroda Thuringia, Germany 51-11, State Hospital Trencin Czechoslovakia 49-18, Sub-Lagarule Timis, Timisul de Jos, Romania 45-21, Targu-Jiu POW Camp, Targu-Jiu, Romania 45-23, Teil Lazarett (Serves Stalag XVIII-A) Spittal/Drau Carinthia, Austria 46-13, Transit Camp 133 Unknown (probably located in Rennes, France as Lazarett 133), Transit Camp and Hospital (Dulag 127) Zemun Slavonia 45-20, Transit Camp Feld Post #319797 Location Unknown, Val De Grace Hospital For Civilians Paris France 49-02, Vaucluse Restricted Residence For Civilians Vaucluse France 44-05, Venlo Restricted Residence For Civilians Venloo Holland 51-06, Vernet Civilian Internment Camp Ariege France 43-01, Vincenzo Civilian Internment Camp Vincenzo Italy 45-11, Von Kormend Civilian Hospital Szombathely, Hungary 47-16, Wartenburg Prison Wartenburg East Prussia 53-20, The International Committee of the Red Cross, The Red Cross together with the order of St John joined forces during WWII just as they had in WWI to carry out extensive humane services for the sick and wounded, for POWs and civilians alike. (10 days confined arrest completed on 8 May 1941). Sophia Myles, Guests staying there get a three-hour tour of tunnels and hidden rooms used by the . 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. The camp was liberated in May 1945 by troops of the British 7th Armoured Division, 2nd Army. Forty-six prisoners and several guards were killed. District X Nearest city Hanover, in the middle north of Germany. Almost a thousand men struggled into formation. The tunnel was completed in May, and on the night of 3/4 June 1943 sixty-five men escaped. camp, and is mistakenly awarded with the Iron Cross by the Germans. He was killed in action on 1 September 1944, commanding the second Battalion of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps, and is buried at Airaines Cemetery in France. 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