List of POW camps in Germany

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Part of Lists of Prisoner-of-War Camps section in the Prisoner-of-war camp article.

Diorama of a German WWII Stalag III Luft
Diorama of a German WWII Stalag III Luft
Collection of everyday items of Polish prisoners from the Oflag VII-A Murnau
Collection of everyday items of Polish prisoners from the Oflag VII-A Murnau

This article is a list of PoW 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.

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

Contents

[edit] World War I PoW Camps

See Prisoner-of-war_camp#German for partial list. You may help by expanding it.

[edit] World War II PoW Camps

This section is a list of PoW camps run by the Germans during World War II.

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

  • Article 10 required that PoWs should be lodged in adequately heated and lighted buildings where conditions were the same as German troops.
  • Articles 27-32 detailed the conditions of labor. Enlisted ranks were required to perform whatever labor they were asked and able to do, so long as it was not dangerous and did not support the German war effort. Senior Non-commissioned officers (sergeants and above) were required to work only in a supervisory role. Commissioned officers were not required to work, although they could volunteer. The work performed was largely agricultural or industrial, ranging from coal or potash mining, stone quarrying, or work in saw mills, breweries, factories, railroad yards, and forests. PoWs hired out to military and civilian contractors were supposed to receive pay. The workers were also supposed to get a least one day a week of rest.
  • Article 76 ensured that PoWs who died in captivity were honourably buried in marked graves.

[edit] Types of Camps

  • Dulag or Durchgangslager (transit camp) – These camps served as a collection point for POWs prior to reassignment.
  • Stalag or Stammlager (base camp) – These were enlisted personnel POW camps.
  • Oflag or Offizier-Lager (officer camp) – These were POW camps for officers.
  • Stalag Luft or Luftwaffe-Stammlager (Luftwaffe base camp) – These were POW camps administered by the German Air Force for Allied aircrews.
  • Marlag or Marine-Lager (marine camp) – These were Navy personnel POW camps.
  • Milag or Marine-Internierten-Lager (marine internment camp) – These were merchant seamen internment camps.
  • Ilag/Jlag or Internierungslager (internment camp) – These were civilian internment camps.

[edit] Nomenclature

At the start of WWII, 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.

[edit] List of Camps by Military District

[edit] Military District I

[edit] Military District II

[edit] Military District III

[edit] Military District IV

[edit] Military District V

[edit] Military District VI

[edit] Military District VII

[edit] Military District VIII

[edit] Military District IX

[edit] Military District X

[edit] Military District XI

[edit] Military District XII

[edit] Military District XIII

[edit] Military District XVII

  • Stalag XVII-A Kaisersteinbruch
  • Stalag XVII-B Krems-Gneixendorf
  • Stalag Luft XVII-B
  • Oflag XVII-A Doellersheim

[edit] Military District XVIII

[edit] Military District XX

[edit] Other Camps

[edit] Fictional prison camps of note

[edit] See also

Other articles in the Wikipedia that are associated with this one.

[edit] External links

[edit] Reading material

  • "The Last Escape" by John Nichol, ISBN 0-670-03212-3 - suffering of Allied POWs in the last months of the war.
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