Oflag VI-A

The former Colonel BEM Adam barracks in Soest, view in southwestern direction

Oflag VI A was during the Second World War one Of fiziers was he a POW camp for officers in Soest . It was located on the site of the infantry barracks built in 1938, the later Belgian barracks " Colonel BEM Adam " ( French ) or " Kolonel SBH Adam " ( Flemish ).

history

In use 1938–1945

The camp buildings were built as infantry barracks from 1938 as part of the expansion of the Wehrmacht . Even before the entire complex was completed, the buildings were used from November 15, 1939 as a prisoner-of-war camp for Polish soldiers who had been captured by Germany after the attack on Poland . At that time, the camp was called Stalag VI E , where "VI" indicates the military district . After the victory over France, the role of the ordinary prisoner of war camp narrowed to that of a special camp for officers.

Interior of the chapel

As of July 31, 1940, around 1,500 French officers were interned. The chapel in one of the barracks buildings , which is now a listed building and painted by interned officers with Christian patriotic motifs, is a particular reminder of their presence .

In addition to French officers, Dutch officers and cadets as well as around 1,500 Belgian officers were interned at times . The camp inmates, around 5000 at the time, including Russian prisoners of war, were liberated by Allied troops on April 6, 1945.

The Oflag VI-A is one of the settings in the novel "Skin and Bones" by Georges Hyvernaud .

Use 1945–1951

The Allies called the camp "Camp Vantelot". Until 1946 it was used to accommodate displaced persons . From 1946 to 1951 the building complex was then used as an "O-Camp" for refugees from the former German eastern regions.

Use 1951–1994

In 1951 the buildings of the former camp were taken over by the Belgian Armed Forces in Germany , which named the facility after "Colonel BEM Adam". Colonel Armand Arthur Gabriel Adam is the highest-ranking Belgian prisoner of war who was shot by the Gestapo in Liège in 1943 . Until the beginning of the 1990s, Soest was the largest Belgian garrison location east of the Rhine, with several barracks in the city. The Belgian garrison existed until 1994.

Since 1994

After a long period of confusion in the city of Soest about what should be done with the barracks area, the building complex has been under construction since 1997 a. a. used by an art initiative under the name "Künstlerhaus Bem Adam". The “Museum of the Belgian Armed Forces in Germany”, a memorial to the prisoner-of-war camp and the aforementioned memorial chapel can also be found here.

literature

• Leo de Hartog: Officieren achter prikkeldraad 1940-1945 . Hollandia, Baarn 1983, ISBN 90-6045-207-0 .
• Gisela Rogge: The Oflag VI A: captured in Westphalia: the story of the French prisoners of war in Soest . Ed .: Geschichtswerkstatt Französische Kapelle e. V. Soest. Bad Sassendorf 1999.
• Georges Hyvernaud: skin and bones. Novel , translated by Julia Schoch; Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2010 ISBN 978-3-518-22456-4 .
• Raymond Gangloff: Cinq ans d'Oflags. La Captivité des officiers francais en Allemagne 1940–1945 . Paris 1987.
• Georges Hyvernaud: Carnets d'Oflag . Paris 1999.
• Mechtild Brand: Locked up: POW in Oflag VI A Soest . Essen: Klartext, 2014 ISBN 978-3-8375-0942-7 .

Web links

Commons : Oflag VI-A  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Detailed information on the history of the barracks and the French Chapel, with numerous illustrations
• Model of the camp, at the bottom of the page
• Museum of the Belgian Armed Forces in Germany
• English-language page about the chapel
• French-language website about the French Chapel

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See historical information on the website of the “French Chapel” and information at NS-Gedenkstätten.de
2. ↑ See Dutch Wikipedia: nl: Armand Arthur Gabriel Adam.
3. ↑ List of the individual locations in Soest ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the “Museum of the Belgian Armed Forces in Germany” in Soest. 
4. ↑ Among other things, the area was used for the music festival “Die Börde quakes” for several years. In particular, Muhammad Salim Abdullah's suggestion at the beginning of the 1990s that the site might be used for an Islamic-Christian academy caused a stir in the city .
5. ^ Website of the Kunsthaus

Coordinates: 51 ° 33 ′ 40 "  N , 8 ° 5 ′ 21.7"  E