Stalag III-A

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Map of Luckenwald. The X marks the location of Stalag III-A.

Stalag III-A was a German Army prisoner-of-war camp located at Luckenwalde, 30 km south of Berlin.

This camp was opened in September 1939. By April 1945, a total of five thousand internees had died 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 Italians, Belgians, British, and French. There were also four thousand colored prisoners from French units captured in the Battle of France. In 1941 some of these were forced to take part in the 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, with drinking water for the entire camp available from just two faucets. In short, Stalag III-A is a prime example of the horrors experienced by many prisoners of war in camps throughout Germany.^{[citation needed]} The camp was liberated in April 1945 by the Red Army.

There are several stories which relate to Stalag III-A, including that of 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 out one bucket of potatoes, to split between two twenty-five prisoners.^[2] This account illustrates the poor effort the Germans made in feeding their prisoners, and Michele Zotta also notes that when prisoners collapsed the Germans would beat them.

Prisoners of the 106th Infantry Division marching to Stalag III-A.

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 provide 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 towards prisoners of war. Unfortunately, there is no easy access to accounts from Soviet prisoners but no doubt they were treated worse than most other nationalities, given the habitual German treatment of the Soviets throughout the war.