Stalag III-A
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Stalag III-A was a German Army POW camp located at Lückenwalde, 30 km south of Berlin.
It was opened September 1939. By April 1945 it had witnessed the death of five thousand interns due to starvation and disease. At its height the compound housed around four thousand American prisoners of war, with separate compounds for thousands of Soviet prisoners, as well as those of Italian, Belgian, English, and French. There were also four thousand prisoners of color from French troops captured in the Battle of France, In 1941 some of them were forceed to take part in a Nazi propaganda film "Germanin"[1] . Stalag III-A is one of many prisoner of war camps notorious for their inhumane treatment of prisoners, causing the deaths of thousands. Indeed, many of the prisoners lived solely off parcels delivered by the Red Cross, and drank fresh water sources from only two faucets available for the entire camp. In short, Stalag III-A portrayed the horror of many prisoners of war in camps throughout Germany. The camp was liberated in April 1945 by the Red Army.
There are several stories which relate to Stalag III-A, including one provided by Italian prisoner 'Michele Zotta, born in Florenza. He relates the fact that for the first few days of his stay he slept on the floor, regardless of the size of the tent he was moved into. He later states that on his first day he received one kilogram of rye bread to split between fifteen separate prisoners, with some butter and jelly. He says that the daily routine was for the Germans to distribute one blanket per twenty-five prisoners and then pour one bucket of potatoes, to split between two twenty-five prisoners.[2] This account illustrates the poor effort the Germans gave in feeding their prisoners, and Michele Zotta also makes notes that when prisoners collapsed the Germans would beat them.
However, there are also accounts that the Germans were low on food themselves, which seems to give some explanation for the fact that the prisoners of war were treated horrendously. There are examples in which German soldiers would simply change posts in order to be able to receive food to eat, and it is very likely that Hitler and his administration failed to feed the Stalag camps with enough supplies to survive, seeing the front as the more important staging center for his war. Regardless, Stalag III-A remains the epitome of poor conduct on the part of the Germans with prisoners of war. Unfortunately, there is no easy access to accounts of Soviet prisoners but there is no doubt that they were treated worse than the rest, understanding usual German treatment of the Soviets throughout the war.
