Oflag IX-C

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1 Oflag IX-C Molsdorf

[edit] Oflag IX-C Molsdorf

A prisoner of war camp specifically created to house women officers from the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. It was the worst of all Oflags operated by the German Army during World War II. It consisted of 7 huts used by workers building the Autobahn near Erfurt in 1938 and an administration building. It was under the administrative command of Stalag XI-C near Bad Sulza. The officer in charge of the camp, Hauptmann, was reasonably well disposed but quite unable to rectify the situation, according to later testimony of the prisoners. In December 1944, 380 women officers, 38 female orderlies and 3 children were brought here from other POW camps - Fallingbostel, Bergen-Belsen, Gross Rosen, Altenburg, Lamsdorf and Sandbostel. The Polish section commander was Mjr. Wanda Gertz .

Typical of the mistreatment of the prisoners was the refusal to supply any heating materials for the huts even though the temperature fell as low as -17C (1F). Although eventually some Red Cross packages were sent over from Stalag IX-C, they were refused any means for cooking and had to improvise as well as they could. A Delegate of the International Red Cross, Dr. H. Landolt, arrived on an inspection tour on 8 March 1945, accompanied by an officer of The German High Command. In her report she stated: "this camp looks surprisingly like a concentration camp, not like any Oflag that I have seen." The German officer promised to correct the situation, but just one month later, 8 March 1945, units of the U.S. Third Army liberated the camp. However they found only 30 sick women there. Three days earlier, the other women had been marched to the west. Fortunately, after marching only 35 km they ran into units of the Canadian Army.