Zedelgem prisoner of war camp
The Zedelgem POW camp in Belgium was a British-administered prison camp near the Belgian town of Zedelgem . It existed from mid-1944 to September 1946.
history
The originally closed forest area was cleared during the First World War by Germans who needed the wood for building barracks, ammunition depots and railway lines. The German army operated a shooting range there between 1914 and 1918. When the German retreat in 1918 everything was destroyed again, but the area remained in military use.
In 1926 the ammunition depot was built by the Belgian military and used by the Belgian army until 1940. In that year it was captured by the German Wehrmacht and used for their own purposes until 1944. In mid-1944 it was occupied by the advancing Allies who set up a POW camp there, operated by the British armed forces.
The Zedelgem prisoner of war camp with its four individual camps was built on the site of the so-called Vloethemveld. The (main) camp was divided into four individual camps:
- Bearing 2226 (cage 1,2,3)
- for lower and higher officers,
- consisting of permanent buildings of the former ammunition depot.
- Camp 2227
- for German and Austrian soldiers,
- consisting of permanent buildings and wooden barracks from the former ammunition depot.
- Camp 2229
- for foreign soldiers in the Wehrmacht (especially from the Baltic States),
- consisting of wooden barracks.
- Camp 2374/2375
- Incoming warehouse (nickname "Hotel Zedelgem"),
- consisting of tents.
A well-known inmate of the camp was Ulrich de Maizière , who remembers that he managed the camp library in Camp 2226, which contained around 750 volumes.
From April 12, 1945, the British 24th Fusilier Battalion, part of the 13th and later 14th Fusilier Brigade, was tasked with guarding the camp. The battalion was replaced in September by the 11th Fusilier Battalion under Major DeWulf, which in turn was replaced on December 24, 1945.
A list dated 19 July 1944 from the British headquarters of the 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Montgomery lists the total number of prisoners in British custody, including the four camps in Zedelgem. A total of 276,635 prisoners were in British prison camps at the time. There were about 63,000 men in Zedelgem. It is estimated that a total of around 100,000 prisoners passed through the Zedelgem camp.
After the camp was closed and various modifications were made, the Belgian military used the facility again as an ammunition depot from 1951 to 1994.
The area today
Two sculptures that were erected by the prisoners are still preserved on the site. One depicts a waiting mother with her two children. On the pedestal is the sentence: “When are you coming?” The figure was christened “Marianne” by its builders. The other figure represents a knight ( St. George ) on horseback who kills a dragon with a lance. The figure is designed as a colored wall relief. Both sculptures are badly weathered and require restoration. There is a memorial plaque about 100 meters from the former entrance to the camp.
The 350 hectare site is only partially accessible to the public and was designated as a nature reserve in 1995 . The protected area has now been expanded to 500 ha.
Web links
- Report on the exhibition in Zedelgem (hildeherfstwinter2012.blogspot.com, accessed on January 1, 2014)
- Memories of a contemporary witness (camp inmate) at BBC home (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Holdings on the site and chronology of the former inventories
- ↑ stock library
- ↑ Prisoner List of the 21st Army Group
- ↑ nature reserve
Coordinates: 51 ° 9 ′ 0 ″ N , 3 ° 6 ′ 25.2 ″ E