Helmut Griem, Take a fresh look at the legendary escapes, featuring stories from both Colditz survivors and their extended families. Medical facilities were also situated just outside of the town. Construction of the camp began in April 1941, before the attack on Russia, to accommodate the expected POWs. The dormitory huts were made of double wooden walls located on concrete foundations, with a felt roof, and one heating stove, although there were reports fuel was never supplied. The main part of the camp consisted of four large wooden barracks, two of which were connected by a passage and known to POWs as the "cooler". A simple list of (mostly) British or Commonwealth war films about prisoners of war. Six years of war brought many changes to familiar festive rituals. Stalag 20A was enlarged in the second half of 1941, from Torun-Podgorza in the direction of Glinki. The camp was built on the site of an old chicken farm, approximately 300 yards north of the main Frankfurt to Bad Homburg road. Please enter your password, it must be 8 or more characters, I agree to Terms and Conditions and Privacy Statement, Listing of all known Italian camps with location N/E. 47083 (5191 British) POWs with 927 officers held here. A number of enlisted men and NCOs were housed in the adjacent Oflag to provide necessary services. Relocated to Biberach, housed mainly French and Serbo-Croat officers. In general, the German Army complied with the provisions of the Geneva Convention regarding the care of officers of the armies of the western Allies, including Poland. Other prisoners of war, including Douglas Bader, distracted the guards and used signaling devices to help the escapers. Whilst they were ostensibly for collection of air force personnel their main purpose was as interrogation centres for newly captured aircrew, before they were transferred in batches to the permanent camps. Flight Lieutenant Hedley Fowlers plane was shot down in May 1940. The following morning, one of those trains stopped outside the station of Modena and a number of the POWs in a variety of ways took leave of the train and scarpered into the surrounding undergrowth. Due to various adverse factors, there were few successful escapes in the South East Asia theatre of war. 1944: On 23 August Colditz received its first Americans: 49-year-old Colonel Florimund Duke the oldest American paratrooper of the war, Captain Guy Nunn, and Alfred Suarez. Twelve ounces of C-ration vegetable soup concentrate. Adventure, Drama, War. There was also a sub work camp at Casemasce di Todi for the Todi road. The camp was liberated 26 March 1945 by the United States Army. At the peak there were about 10,000 prisoners at the camp. Located in Laufen Castle, in Laufen in south-eastern Bavaria from 1940 to 1942. In general, the conditions in the main Teschen camp and in all the sub-camps were deplorable. The location listed for this camp in the SHAEF report of February 1945: 53 degrees 31 minutes 17 seconds north, 13 degrees 17 minutes east. In July 1943 William Ash (RCAF) organised a tunnel that was designed to get 50 men out, 7 managed to escape, all we recaptured shortly afterwards however. camp, and is mistakenly awarded with the Iron Cross by the Germans. Sep 1939 - Dulag Gneixendorf was created; renamed Stalag XVII B Oct 1939; received first American POWs in Oct 1943 (that part of the camp was then called Stalag Luft XVII B). Punishment: three weeks close confinement 30 Sept to 21 Oct 1941. A SHAEF report mentioned this camp was moved to the former Stalag XVIII a/z Spittal by Train in February 1945. As with Neave and Fowler, for his escapes and actions while in activity he was awarded gallantry medals. Discover Colditz Castle in Colditz, Germany: An officers prison camp believed to be impregnable by the Germans saw over 30 successful escapes. Infamous for the unprecedented murder under the orders of Hitler/Himmler by the Gestapo of 50 Prisoners of War and the attempted cover up of these murders afterwards. The march, in temperatures of -15C to -20C, caused great distress and many prisoners died. Colditz, escape, Nazi Germany, prisoners of war, Second World War. By downloading or embedding any image, you agree to the terms and conditions of the IWM Non Commercial Licence, including your use of the attribution statement specified by IWM. The senior British officer in 1942 was Colonel George Younghusband. In Poznan itself, three forts were used to house PoWs; Rauch, IIIA and VIII. Stalag 221B Saint-Medard-en-Jalles, France. More general correspondence on British merchant seamen POWs is in MT 9 (code 106). Finally in late December 1944 1,800 Americans arrived, captured in the Battle of the Bulge. I devoured this book. World War II prisoner-of-war escapes are a staple of adventure fiction. The prisoners were given the remaining Red Cross parcels; you could carry as much as you could. The files WO 208/5437-5450 contain the second, more specific, 'pink' questionnaire that followed on from those in WO 344. The camp was reopened in January 1942, and housed senior British Army officers, until being liberated in April 1945. In late 1942 all the ratings were sent to Stalag VIII-B at Lamsdorf and assigned to Arbeitskommando ("Work details"), and "M" housed only NCOs. 13th century castle near Florence. Near to the town of Aquila, this was a transit camp. Walk towards gate disguised as German officer, Escaped through window of solitary confinement, Escaped from Zeitz Hospital, recaptured then escaped en route to Dsseldorf prison, Under theatre out of guardhouse as German officers, Escaped from military hospital in Gnaschwitz, Broke into German quarters to steal uniform, Replaced French orderly on working party. From April 1940 onwards the camp expanded with the completion of three wooden barrack blocks. Built on what had been the training camp at Hammelburg, Lower Franconia, Bavaria, Germany. camp during World War II and uses bribery and larceny to take de-facto control of the camp. The camp was liberated by the U.S. 3rd Army on 5 May 1945. Located just north of the town of Sudauen, East Prussia (now Suwalki, Poland). Camp E715 Buna/Monowitz where POWs worked alongside Jewish inmates from the adjacent Auschwitz III KZ (Konzentrationslager) -otherwise known as Extermination through work (Vernichtung durch Arbeit) camp. Altogether, some 35,000 parachute and glider troops were involved in the operation. | | 81 min Opened 02/41 Closed 10/44 - mostly French officers. These buildings were not adjacent to each other and were surrounded by barbed-wire fences. Emptied by German forces in December 1944 and POWs transferred elsewhere. While WWII Allied officer Jack Rose is held prisoner in Germany's notorious Colditz Castle, he recruits a band of fellow escape artists in the ultimate break-out only to discover that the greatest betrayal awaits him on safe ground. 1941: February, 200 French officers arrived. Many of the sick and infirmed were left behind in the Lazzarett (camp clinic) and were transported by rail or truck at a later date. The final scenes very moving. Used from November 1943 onwards, Pissiguano , previously called cc77. This route into Switzerland was discovered by Larive in 1940 on his first escape attempt from an Oflag in Soest. While the guards were engaged in breaking up the fight, toward which the searchlights were all directed, three officers managed to cut through the barbed wire and escape from the camp. 145 Terramo (Campotosto / Montorio al Vomano). Stalag IV-A Hohnstein (Airfield at Dresden-Klotsche) (No Base Camps: 13 Work Camps) Saxony Location N/E 51-14. Later about 4,500 arrived from Dunkirk and subsequently from the British 51st (Highland) Infantry Division captured at Saint-Valery-en-Caux. The main camp was in a former brewery in a suburb of the town with a few large brick buildings up to 3 storeys high. As a result of this, and other escape attempts, the camp was evacuated in October 1941 with all prisoners being sent to Oflag VI-B. Action, Drama, War. The camp Dulag Nord was located between Marlag and Milag. After another train journey the men were force marched from Kiefheide, with many men being bayoneted or shot before they reached Stalag Luft IV in Gross Tychow. The conditions in the camp, as well as with all Soviet prisoners of war, led to their gradual extinction. Some larger camps will have dozens of websites that you can investigate, always look at the links pages from these sites also a spiders web of information can often be discovered. In a stone building in Bohringen 200 yards from an ammunition factory (!) George Charlton was a Staff Sergeant in the Royal Army Medical Corps who was imprisoned in Singapore from February 1942 to the end of the war, mainly in Changi camp until March 1945 when he was moved to the prisoner of war hospital at Kranji. Listen. Reserve Lazarett Heilanstalt Ueckermunde Pomerania, Prussia. It was also surrounded by electrified barbed-wire fence and contained thirty new barracks, raising the total area to 1.2 km. Drama, War. By February 1941 there were 3,166 officers and 565 orderlies in the camp. | 130 officers held here at 26/2/43 oiginally opened June 1941. Stalag V-B is recorded as at Villingen AND Biberach an de Ris both in Baden Location N/E 48-08, it is possible these are the 2 nearest locations hence it was named as both. Sports equipment and textbooks were obtained from the Red Cross and YMCA. Another camp which had housed Austrian POWs in WWI & reopened as a POW camp in August 1940. He was killed in action on 1 September 1944, commanding the second Battalion of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps, and is buried at Airaines Cemetery in France. Of these 10,667 were British and Commonwealth troops, of which only 825 were in the main camp, while the rest were attached to various Arbeitskommando ("Labour Units"). There again they got out to search for a car going to the Netherlands. Stars: After the war it was used for interned prisoners of the defeated regime. These first prisoners were the permanent staff of the camp and helped new POWs become accustomed to camp life. Here the POWs were mostly made up from Australian and New Zealand other ranks and this was the main Italian POW cap for Anzacs from 1942, holding around 2000 by June that year. I greatly enjoy WWII history but sometimes books on that topic are too brutal, and depressing. The camp was liberated by the U.S. Army on 16 April 1945. Work on the camp began in October 1939 when 500 Polish prisoners from the September campaign arrived to build the camp, and who lived initially in tents. In fact the prisoners had been in control of the camp since the 8th, the day of the German surrender. | Ultimately, the confused situation meant that by the end of 1943 some 50,000 POWs had been rounded-up and transported to camps in Germany. It has had a chequered history over the past 500 years and has been used for a variety of purposes including a hunting lodge, workhouse, mental hospital, sanatorium, political prison and hospital. | Other camps found as listed but without designations (mostly civilian): Ellera Corciano, Castiglione della Valle/Castel Serena & Pietraffita Tavernelle. Late 1943: The POW camp is closed and the entire facility becomes Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Only operated for 3 months from August until November 1942. On the way to the border they were stopped by an SS policeman, but their forged papers were sufficient to pass inspection. In September 1939 an Internment Camp for enemy civilians was created within the buildings of the Sturmabteilung (SA) camp at the rally grounds. For the first few months they lived in the open or in tents during a very cold winter, while they built the wooden and brick huts for the permanent camp. Tobacco could be bought in bulk and sent directly via Switzerland via the tobacco companies themselves also. It was intended to hold up to 20,000 Soviet POWs and was one of three such camps in the area. June 1940 - ca 26,251 French and ca 17,793 Belgian soldiers taken prisoner during the Battle of France arrive. 18,307 POWs with 550 Officers here in Bavaria. Notably during the winter of 1941-1942 roughly 25 thousand people died there, mostly Soviet soldiers. Brian Keith, Originally a Hitler Youth camp, in October 1939 it was modified to house about 15,000 Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive. They were moved to a different location closer to Cuxhaven, to Westertimke, in 1942. In July 1941 a group of officer-cadets were brought from Stalag II-A. The Soviets stayed only long enough to remove anything of value, and loading up the German guards, they returned to their HQ leaving the French Generals alone. On 26/2/43 there were 247 officers and 2898 other ranks interned here. POW Quarters were roomy and designed so as to be cool and airy in the hot summer months. From January 1944, Wietzendorf was the site of one of the largest camps for Italian officers known as Oflag 83. Drama, Sport, War. 247,302 The location listed for this hospital in the SHAEF report of February 1945: 53 degrees 45 minutes north, 14 degrees 2 minutes east. | The lighting was poor, and heating didnt function. It was in Stanislau, a city that until 1918 was part of Austria-Hungary in the interwar years under the Polish name Stanislawow. Further back stands a stone structure enclosing the toilets. From December 1944 to March 1945 STALAG 13d (XIII-D) was designated Oflag 73. Sometimes, due to the shortage of parcels, two or even four prisoners would be compelled to share the contents of one Red Cross parcel. Finally, in January 1942, Stutthof became a regular concentration camp. The construction of the second camp, Lager-Ost ("East Compound") began in June 1941 to accommodate the large numbers of Soviet prisoners taken in Operation Barbarossa. In mid-September 1939 the first Polish POWs arrived, and were housed in large 12 m (39 ft) by 35 m (115 ft) tents, and set to work building the barrack huts before the winter set in. Located close to Coltano, later part of a US camp until 1955. They were employed building new barracks and a water supply. The next day, at around at 10.00 a.m., the column was strafed by RAF aircraft, and several POWs were killed. At the time of its liberation on 29 April 1945, there were 76,248 (7975 British) prisoners in the camp, with 1823 officers. This time the sentry demanded to see their Army paybooks, so the escape party fled, although two were arrested. On 15 May 1940 most of them were transferred to Oflag IV-B Konigsteine. The POW bet on the races, and money was raised and donated to the Red Cross. The camp itself was about one mile from the town railway station in Urbisaglia.