Officers camp

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Interior drawing of the Oflag IV D in Elsterhorst by the French prisoner E. Arnaud
Military districts in the German Reich and occupied territories in 1944

Officer camps ( Oflag for short ) were German prisoner-of-war camps during the Second World War , in which only officers , separated by nationality, were held. NCOs and men, on the other hand, were housed in so-called main camps (Stalag).

The camps were numbered according to the military districts in which they were located. This was followed by consecutive numbering with letters. The third officer bearing in the second Wehrkreis received accordingly, the designation Oflag II C . However, there were numerous deviations from this system. If necessary, the name of the nearest place was added to the camp name, e.g. B. Oflag II C Woldenberg .

Pay of the officers

With regard to the treatment of prisoners of war , Germany had signed the Geneva Conventions , but only partially adhered to their regulations (full application for the British, Norwegians and Americans, only insignificantly restricted for the French, only limited application for Italians, Poles, Yugoslavs, in fact none Application for Soviet soldiers). These regulations state, among other things, "that the same wages are to be paid to the captured officers as to the officers of the same rank in the detention state." In order to cover the costs incurred by the prisoners, the captured NCOs and men had to work. The officers, on the other hand, were spared from work, but had to provide for themselves from the pay they received .

For example, an American Army Captain B. to pay out an amount of 400 marks a month, since a German captain of the army was also paid with this amount. So that the refugee would not have any funds at his disposal in the event of a successful escape, vouchers were paid out in "Lagermark" instead of Reichsmarks .

The Oflag II C Woldenberg not only housed around 5,000 officers, but also around 1,000 NCOs and men who were assigned to service them. Although they did not receive any pay as the officers, they did not have to do the same work as in the Stalags. Therefore, when the pay was paid to the officers, the camp paymaster withheld five percent of the total and distributed it to the non-officers. Another five percent was withheld and given to the FWS (Fund for Widows and Orphans - of the War). The officers in the Woldenberg camp had to cede a "donation" of ten percent of their wages for the non-officers serving them and for the fund.

Warehouse mail

Four of these oflag, in which there were Polish inmates, became known because the inmates, with the approval of the German camp management, set up a “camp post” which only performed the function of a “post” within the camp. In all four camps, the net proceeds went to a charitable institution, the “Fund for Widows and Orphans”, which was also supported (at least in Woldenberg) by a donation of five percent of the salary.

Locations

(incomplete) list for the period after 1939:

literature

  • Manfred G. Heber: Catalog of the camp post around 1945. Self-published, Elmshorn 1983.
  • Manfred G. Heber: Manual of the camp mail around 1945. Self-published, Maspalomas 1995.
  • Jack Stewart: Trapped with the enemy. A GI tells, Wellhöfer Verlag Mannheim, 2014, p. 173 ff., ISBN 978-3-95428-144-2 .

Web links

Commons : Oflags  - collection of images, videos and audio files