British restricted areas in northern Germany after World War II
After the Second World War, four British restricted areas in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein were used to intern soldiers of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS .
Containment rooms
With the partial surrender in the northwest on May 4, 1945 on the Timeloberg near Wendisch Evern , all fighting ended in northern Germany . There, in the Netherlands and Denmark , almost two million German soldiers were taken into British custody. Four collection rooms have been set up for them:
I - East Frisia ; 180,000 prisoners of war were concentrated in this western internment area between West Friesland , the North Sea and the Ems-Jade Canal .
II - The middle internment area was the Elbe-Weser triangle ("Cuxhaven peninsula") with 260,000 prisoners of war.
III - The internment area G comprised the district of Eiderstedt , the district of Norderdithmarschen and the district of Süderdithmarschen . After 410,000 prisoners of war had been released, the Dithmarschen – Eiderstedt internment area was closed on October 12, 1945.
IV - The internment area F was Ostholstein without Fehmarn . After the release of 570,000 prisoners of war, the restricted area was dissolved on March 21, 1946.
Status of prisoners
The British referred to the prisoners of war as Surrendered Enemy Personnel (SEP). The denial of prisoner- of- war status, contrary to international law , had already been established at the Yalta Conference in December 1943 . According to the Hague Land Warfare Regulations and the Geneva Conventions , prisoners of war had the right to immediate release after the end of the fighting and to the kind of care that was available to the soldiers of the Detaining Power. Circumventing these regulations should facilitate the search for war criminals . The SEP status also allowed the existing German command structure to be used in the dissolution of the Navy and other military units . The prisoners were not without rights, but could not invoke the Geneva Convention.
Border surveillance
The prisoners were spread out over a large area and had extensive freedom of movement in the restricted areas. The British had withdrawn and limited themselves to occasional inspection trips. Access to the restricted area was only possible with a pass. The borders were not secured by barbed wire and gates. They were based on the landscape. Main access roads were secured by barriers and guards. British and Germans held these posts alone or together. Side roads were made impassable for vehicles. The actual green border was secured by two-man German patrols . The control by the (armed) German military police was very casual. However, being caught by the British when crossing the border without a permit could result in a prison sentence of several months. There was an order to shoot ; but the use of firearms against fugitives was not known. In June 1945 5,700 volunteers helped in the Wehrmacht order troops. Most of the military police were housed in permanent quarters; At first there was no better food. The German guard units were also used to protect food stores, harvest-ready fields, detention buildings and other facilities. For most of them there was no point in fleeing; because without discharge papers (D2-Schein) you could not get any food stamps , no residence permit and no work permit. Even civilians were allowed to leave the restricted area without the express permission of the British military authorities.
Self-management
The prisoners were supposed to manage themselves under British supervision. In controlling, looking after and caring for so many people, the British made pragmatic use of the Wehrmacht's existing command structures. Relatively few British military personnel who exercised control functions and issued general orders faced the still functioning administrative apparatus of the Wehrmacht (which was only dissolved on August 20, 1946). In this gray area under international law, German and foreign soldiers had to maintain military hierarchy and discipline.
As far as the instructions of their superiors allowed, the soldiers were allowed to move freely outside of the night curfew . The old uniforms with badges of rank, medals and decorations were still worn. Only the swastikas had to be removed. There was a military greeting . The soldiers were subject to German disciplinary authority and received military pay .
Accommodation and meals
Accommodation was often inadequate, especially in the first few months. Not infrequently, the prisoners had to set up in the open field in holes in the ground or tightly packed in stables and barns. Housing and on farms were particularly difficult because many had already taken in refugees. Mass accommodations with occupancies of more than 200 people in one yard were not uncommon.
The daily ration of 300 grams of bread and 250 grams of meat per week corresponded to a third of the ration of an Englishman. Relations with the British were free of tension, and that with the locals was good.
Restricted area G
The internment area G comprised the Eiderstedt district and (until June 16, 1945) the two Dithmarsch districts. Located like a peninsula between the North Sea, Elbe and Kaiser Wilhelm Canal , the relatively sparsely populated area was easily cordoned off. In addition, the functioning agriculture provided enough food for 400,000 captured Germans, Baltic Germans , Croats and Magyars . The members of the Vlasov army housed in Christianskoog ( Nordermeldorf ) were isolated from the other groups and finally extradited to the Soviet Union , where death awaited them. The prisoners organized variety shows , concerts and high school courses at the so-called Wehrmacht high school in Büsum . Medical care was offered, among other things, by the 9,000-bed hospital in Hedwigenkoog .
When many prisoners were released in the first few months, housing and care improved considerably. On August 1, 1945, the number of prisoners of surrender had almost halved. By the beginning of October 1945 the number had dropped from 215,000 to 90,000. The restricted area G was dissolved on October 12, 1945 and handled by a subordinate unit. Some units and offices of the Wehrmacht in Dithmarschen existed until 1946. Rudolf Höß had succeeded in being dismissed as a farm worker in Handewitt under a false name . Captured in March 1946, he was handed over to the Polish authorities and executed in 1947.
Restricted area F
The restricted area F - also called "Kral" , zone F, prisoner of war zone F, restricted zone F or PW area F - comprised the entire district of Oldenburg in Holstein , parts of the Eutin district and parts of the Plön district . In the early days, an estimated 750,000 soldiers were interned in the restricted area . On December 6, 1945 there were only 87,573 men on the catering list.
The restricted area F was largely under German command. The commander in chief was Lieutenant General Wilhelm-Hunold von Stockhausen . The restricted area was initially divided into six section commands, which were also led by German generals. Each section command was subordinate to around 100,000 men. According to British general orders, the staffs had primarily to ensure discipline and order in the subordinate units as well as food and accommodation. The soldiers were to be recorded in a list and prepared for discharge.
The troop catering was not managed in the first few weeks. Often there was only a few cookies and a slice of corned beef as a daily ration. Cooking was done in field kitchens or in the farmers' laundry rooms . Work on the farms and fields was rewarded with food. From November 5, 1945, civilians were again allowed to cross the border to restricted area F freely without a special ID from the military government. Most of the soldiers, housed in forests and tents, were able to move into permanent accommodation in autumn 1945 because many soldiers had already been released. Otherwise barracks were built for the winter of 1945/46 .
order
In order to maintain discipline, some German officers were given special rights and disciplinary powers. Serious offenses were honored by a military court with a German armed forces judge who judged according to the provisions of the English. The death penalty was never imposed. A sergeant major was sentenced to 2 months imprisonment (in the fire department's syringe house) for poaching . Even after the end of the war, exemplary discipline prevailed among the soldiers. There were morning roll calls for full numbers. From June 18, 1945, soldiers were allowed to write an open postcard once a week free of charge. From September 1, 1945, parcels weighing up to 2 kg could be sent. All mail traffic was subject to censorship . Civilian clothes had to be worn after release. Since there was a lack of it, the uniforms were dyed dark by cooking with oak bark and the uniform buttons were replaced by wooden buttons. Orders and decorations had to be handed in on discharge. About 2,800 soldiers fled from the restricted area F.
Medical care and hygiene
The Germans provided doctors and nursing staff for a dense network of hospitals and medical centers. As everywhere, there was a lack of medicine, toothbrushes and cleaning products. Hygiene problems were inevitable with so many people in such a small space. When typhus broke out in Schönberg (Holstein) , not only German soldiers died, but also many civilians. Schönberg was under quarantine . In July 1945, the International Red Cross found that a quarter of German soldiers were infected with clothes lice . As a result, delousing stations were set up.
redundancies
Volkssturm men , schoolchildren ( flak helpers ), Wehrmacht helpers and paramilitaries ( Reich Labor Service ), seriously wounded and seriously ill people had already been released in May 1945. They were followed by soldiers with a connection to agriculture , if they were not officers and did not belong to the Waffen-SS , paratroopers or the secret state police . Thereafter, coal miners and transport workers were fired. Most recently, the bulk of them were fired regardless of their occupation. Soldiers waiting to be released were first pulled together in so-called release locks, which were in each section. One was near Kasseedorf . From there, after a day or two, marching columns went to the discharge point in the Rettberg barracks in Eutin . Later, discharge posts were set up in Pelzerhaken and Heiligenhafen . Before being released, questionnaires on the political and military past had to be completed. When searching for members of the Waffen-SS, attention was paid to tattoos during the final medical examination . DDT was used for delousing . In Eutin, 1,000 men were released daily in the summer and autumn of 1945. Trucks brought them to Bad Segeberg , where they received the D2 license with a thumbprint .
As early as January 1946, the restricted area F was reduced in size due to the many layoffs. The border line now roughly followed the line Weißenhäuser Strand , Lensahn , Grömitz . The last prisoners of war (senior officers and members of the Waffen SS) left restricted area F on March 2, 1946 and were transported to a prisoner of war camp in Belgium .
literature
- Holger Piening: When the guns fell silent - the end of the war between the North and Baltic Seas. The internment of the Wehrmacht soldiers between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea in 1945/46 . Boyens Medien GmbH & Co. KG, Heide (Holstein) 1995, ISBN 978-3-8042-0761-5 .
- Peter Wippich: The "kraal" in the Plön district . Niebüll 2001, ISBN 3-89906-098-9 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ The German surrender 1945 (Federal Archives) ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Sperrgebiet F (marineoffizier.eu) ( Memento from October 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j The kraal (Ralf Ehlers, Kasseedorf)
