Emslandlager Oberlangen
Coordinates: 52 ° 51 ′ 28 " N , 7 ° 10 ′ 53" E
The Emslandlager Oberlangen in today's municipality of Oberlangen , also known as "Emslandlager VI", was built in autumn 1933. It could hold up to 1,000 prisoners, but initially served as a training camp for the SA guards. It was then converted into a prison camp. From 1939 it was a National Socialist prisoner of war camp .
history
Until September 1939
In the autumn of 1933, Camp VI Oberlangen was set up as one of a total of 15 Emsland camps later . It was initially planned as a concentration camp , but then served to train SA guards. In April 1934 it was taken over by the Reich Ministry of Justice . The camp was designed for up to 1,000 prisoners. These should participate in the development of the Emsland. To do this, they had to do work to cultivate the moor . Bad hygienic conditions and mistreatment by the guards led to the deaths of many prisoners.
In 1935 an average of 788 prisoners were imprisoned, in December 1936 the camp was occupied by 1,000 prisoners. Due to the high occupancy rate, it was expanded in 1937 so that the camp now offered space for 500 more prisoners.
In September 1938, some prisoners were withdrawn from Oberlangen to help build the west wall in the Palatinate . By the summer of 1939 the number of prisoners was back to around 1,000.
Until September 1939, the prisoners were guarded by judicial officers, most of whom were members of the SA. They were poorly trained and only knew how to use the weapon.
From September 1939
In September 1939, the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW) was given control of the camp, which it used as a prisoner of war camp. The Emslandlager Oberlangen now belonged to Wehrkreis IV, with its headquarters in Münster . It was assigned to the main camp (Stalag) VI B verses . Ensign Miroslav Zawodny reported:
“Life in Camp 6 in Oberlangen was really very difficult. Very often there was no water in the barracks for daily washing. There was no warm water at all to do the laundry. There was no possibility of bathing, as there was no bath room with showers for us prisoners of war, nor was there any possibility to destroy the fleas and especially lice, as there was no delousing chamber in the camp. In winter there was no heating in the barracks because there was no stove in the bedroom. There were no beds, no bunks. At first we had to sleep directly on the boards of the floor, one next to the other, only covered with a thin blanket and our military coat. Over time we have supplied our sleeping places with dry heather. It was as cold in the barracks as outside, just not as windy and without any precipitation. The coats were very often damp when it had rained or snowed while working outside the camp. "
In 1940/41 1,400 Polish ensigns were arrested. The other prisoners were taken to camps outside the Emsland. In autumn 1941 the camp was occupied by around 2,000 Soviet prisoners of war. Many of them died of hunger and cold the following winter. They were buried in mass graves 1 kilometer north of the camp.
In May 1942 the camp was assigned to Stalag VI C Bathorn. In 1943 Oberlangen became an officers' camp (Oflag 6 WK VI) with the Emsland camp Wesuwe as a second camp. On September 1, 1944, a total of 4,967 Italian military internees and 920 Soviet prisoners of war were imprisoned in Oberlangen.
After the failure of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, women soldiers of the Armia Krajowa , the Polish Home Army, were brought to Oberlangen until April 1945 . In March 1945 there were 1,556 prisoners. On April 12, 1945, the camp with 1,728 women arrested was liberated by the 1st Polish Armored Division under General Stanisław Maczek .
After 1945
After the end of the Second World War , the demolition of the prison area began. Makeshift apartments were set up in the administrative area for a few years. Today nothing can be seen of the camp. Only the camp's air raid shelter is still there. The remains of the camp were completely demolished. Today the area is used for agriculture.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Lager 6 Oberlangen ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 19, 2011
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Esterwegen Memorial , accessed on December 29, 2011
- ↑ a b c d Das Stalag VI , accessed on December 29, 2011
