Stalag IX-B

Stalag IX-B also known as Bad Orb was a World War II German Army POW camp at Wegscheide close to Bad Orb in the province of Hesse, Germany. It had the reputation of being one of the worst Stalags, especially when it was overcrowded in 1945. The camp was also the site of a segregation and removal of Jewish American troops, who once identified, were taken to the labor camp Berga located in eastern Thuringia 12 km south of Gera.

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Labor camp Berga

The 350 men traveled in locked box cars, without food or water, for four days. The camp was under command of Lt. Hack and was a slave labor camp, totally contrary to the rules of the Third Geneva Convention. The POWs were put to work together with inmates of the Buchenwald concentration camp digging 17 tunnels for an underground ammunitions factory, some of them 150 feet below ground. As a result of the inhumane conditions, malnutrition and cold, as well as beatings, 47 prisoners died. The US military authorities never acknowledged the incident.

On 4 April the 300 surviving American prisoners were marched out of the camp ahead of the approaching American troops. After a 2½ week forced march they were finally liberated. During this march another 36 Americans died.

Prisoner escape

During an air-raid, while the camp lights were extinguished, Hans Kasten, Joe Littel and Ernst Sinner, wriggled under the wire and escaped from the Berga labor camp. Their freedom lasted only a few days. Trying to get food at the inn of a small town, they were arrested and taken to Gestapo headquarters. After identification as POWs they were taken to Buchenwald and placed in detention cells. Most likely they would have been killed like many other escaped prisoners (see Stalag Luft III and Oflag VI-B). Fortunately for them the Buchenwald Camp was liberated by the US Army three days later.

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