Main camp VIII A

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Coordinates: 51 ° 7 ′ 10.6 ″  N , 15 ° 0 ′ 48.4 ″  E

Aerial view of the prisoner-of-war camp Stalag VIII A (1945, orientation north to right)

The main camp VIII A (short: Stalag VIII A) was a prisoner-of-war camp of the German Wehrmacht during World War II , which was located in the south of the city of Görlitz , in the Moys district, east of the Lusatian Neisse . Today the site is in the Ujazd district of Zgorzelec . The prisoners-of-war crews and NCOs were registered in this camp and assigned to work detachments.

history

Dulag

As early as August 1939, a commandant for a prisoner-of-war camp was established in Görlitz. The opening of the Dulag ( transit camp) for the first Polish prisoners took place on September 23, 1939 in an 18-hectare field on Leopoldshainer Strasse (today's Lubańska Street). The main task of the prisoners was to build the actual prisoner of war camp. At the end of 1939, prisoners of war were already being transferred to the newly built Stalag on Seidenberger Strasse (today's ulica Łużycka) in the Moys district. The official opening of the new prisoner of war camp took place on September 23, 1939. On July 16, 1940, the Dulag stopped operating.

Stalag VIII A

The main camp VIII A was the first Stalag in Wehrkreis VIII Breslau. It comprised the following districts: Braunau, Trautenau, Hohenelbe, Rothenburg, Bunzlau, Habelschwerdt, Reichenbach, Jauer, Hirschberg, Glatz, Lauban, Löwenberg, Neumarkt, Strehlen, Schweidnitz, Waldenburg, Frankenstein, Görlitz and Goldberg.

Originally a Hitler Youth camp , it was converted into a prison for 15,000 Polish prisoners in October 1939. In June 1940 most of the Polish prisoners were transferred to other prisons. From August 1940 onwards, Alois von Bielas was in command of Stalag VIII A; on July 3, 1943, he was replaced by Colonel Rudolf Teichmann.

Now primarily Belgian and French troops who were captured on the Western Front were housed in the Görlitz Stalag. At times there were over 48,000 people in the barracks of the camp, which was designed for half of prisoners of war. In total, an estimated 120,000 prisoner-of-war soldiers passed through the main camp. As the war continued, the camp was used as accommodation for soldiers of various nations. English, Serbs, Yugoslavs, Italians, Soviets and US soldiers were also accommodated. The Soviet soldiers were quartered in a separate area in the camp.

This area was bordered with double barbed wire to prevent any contact with the western prisoners. For the most part, western prisoners of war only stayed in the camp for registration. All prisoners below the rank of corporal who were not otherwise employed in the camp were assigned work details and worked in various types of German companies, for example Waggon- und Maschinenbau AG Görlitz (WUMAG) , the Putzler Penzig glass factory (today: Pieńsk ) as well as many farms. All this was administered and coordinated by the German prisoner-of-war system.

The liberation of the last remaining soldiers in the Stalag took place gradually from February to May 1945 by the Allied troops.

schematic overview of Stalag VIII A in today's Zgorzelec
time FR GB BE PL Yugoslavs Serbs total
06/13/41 21784 - 5254 65 - 2365 29468
02/19/42 20000 - 5000 - - 1863 26864
09/12/42 18269 - 4684 - 1909 - 24862
02/20/43 17183 - 4540 - 1842 - 23565
07/29/43 15951 - 4506 - 1675 - 22132
05/27/44 15124 2918 4196 - 1498 - 23736
11/29/44 17906 1499 4088 37 1568 - 28292

Number and nationalities of prisoners of war in the years 1941–1944

Plaque at the Stalag VIII A memorial in Zgorzelec
historical picture - impression from Stalag VIII A

particularities

Memorial to the victims of Stalag VIIIA in Zgorzelec, Poland

The French composer Olivier Messiaen completed his work Quatuor pour la fin du temps (chamber music) in main camp VIII A. With the help of the German officer Carl-Albert Brüll, he got hold of note paper and pencils and was even able to compose in a separate room in the theater barracks. The performance finally took place on the bitterly cold, dark night of January 15, 1941 around 6:00 p.m. in the theater barrack 27 B. Messiaen, who played the piano, was accompanied by Jean Le Boulaire on violin, Henri Akoka on clarinet, and Étienne Pasquier on cello. Messiaen was interned in the Görlitz main camp from June 1940 to March 1941.

memory

One of the first people to bring the history of Stalag VIII A back into the public consciousness after a long period of oblivion was the historian and teacher Roman Zgłobicki. He published his research in 1995 with the book Obozy i cmentarze wojenne w Zgorzelcu .

Meetingpoint Music Messiaen e. V.

Since 2006 the Görlitz association Meetingpoint Music Messiaen e. V. with the processing of the history of the former prisoner of war camp. The association was initiated by the theater director Albrecht Goetze. The meeting point has been holding a January concert for several years. On this January 15th, the performance of the Quartour pour la fin du temps , will commemorate Messiaen's world premiere in the Stalag. Starting in 2015, a new meeting center (European Center for Education and Culture Zgorzelec - Görlitz Meetingpoint Music Messiaen) will commemorate this historical place on the site of the former Stalag VIII A. This center, which includes an exhibition, is also a meeting point for young people from all over Europe and a stage for a wide variety of cultural events.

In 2011 the Meetingpoint Music Messiaen e. V. awarded the Saxon Citizens' Prize.

The "European Center for Education and Culture Zgorzelec-Görlitz Meetingpoint Music Messiaen" was opened in 2015 as a memorial and meeting place on the site of the former prisoner of war camp. The center in the border triangle of Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic serves as a meeting point for different nations and age groups in the context of cultural and artistic education and to commemorate the history of this place.

See also

literature

  • Zgłobicki, novel: Obozy i cmentarze wojenne w Zgorzelcu. Urząd Miejski, 1995.
  • Lauerwald, Hannelore: In a foreign country - prisoners of war in Stalag VIII A Görlitz (1939-1945). Facts, letters, documents. VIADUKT, 1996, ISBN 978-3-929872-19-4 .
  • Rischin, Rebecca: For the End of Time: The Story of the Messiaen Quartet. Cornell University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-8014-4136-6 .
  • McMullen, John William: The Miracle of Stalag 8A. Bird Brain Productions, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9826255-2-1 .

Web links

Commons : Monument Stammlager VIII A  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stalag VIIIA . In: pegasusarchive.org . 2006. Retrieved May 17, 2012.
  2. ↑ a b About the Stalag VIII A  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / wordpress.themusicpoint.net   , Meetingpoint Messiaen, Retrieved February 5, 2014
  3. ↑ ICRC - research by Hannelore Lauerwald
  4. ↑ Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise: Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time . In: The New Yorker . March 22, 2004. Retrieved May 17, 2012.
  5. ↑ http://wordpress.themusicpoint.net/?page_id=3085  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 5, 2014@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / wordpress.themusicpoint.net  
  6. ↑ Zgłobicki, Roman (1995). Obozy i cmentarze wojenne w Zgorzelcu Urząd Miejski
  7. ↑ http://themusicpoint.net/ Retrieved February 5, 2014