Main camp

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Main camp Luft III in the model
Drawing of the interior of a prisoner's accommodation, 1942
Entrance to the main camp IV B near Mühlberg / Elbe
View over the camp street of the main camp IV B
Appeal of the German guards
Watchtower

Main camp (in military parlance Stalag ) was in the world wars in the first half of the 20th century a name for larger prisoner of war camps , in which the prisoners of war were registered and distributed to work detachments.

The term main camp is also used in connection with German concentration camps and describes the central administrative office for other concentration camps (sub-camps) .

This article deals with a frequent use of the term main camp , by which one means certain German prisoner-of-war camps of the Second World War that were set up by the Wehrmacht in accordance with the Heeres-Druckvorschrift H.Dv 38/5 of February 16, 1939 .

A distinction must be made between the front main camps ( Frontstalag ), the actual team main camps (Stalag) and the main air camps (Stalag Luft).

Relation to the Second Geneva Convention

The individual parts of Army Printing Regulation 38 essentially implemented the Geneva Agreement on the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 1929, of which the German Reich was also the signatory state . While the Western Allies' prisoners of war in the main camps were actually largely treated in accordance with the second Geneva Convention , contrary to Art. 82 it was not applied to prisoners of war from the Soviet Union who had not signed the agreement.

Originally, the main camps were intended as camps for men and officers . In the course of the war, due to the increasing number of prisoners, officers who previously - traditionally and in accordance with the Hague Agreement - were always housed separately from their men in oflags , were assigned to main camps.

During the Second World War, only two international organizations were allowed to inspect the German camps for prisoners of war from Western European countries and the Commonwealth: the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) / International Red Cross Committee (IRCC) and the Christian Association of Young People / Young Men's Christian Association (CVJM / YMCA) . Both organizations worked with different priorities for the welfare of prisoners of war.

In this context, the work of YMCA delegate Henry Söderberg should also be emphasized, who was allowed to make sound recordings in several prison camps. They should be used to collect donations in the prisoners' home countries for their support; but they still convey authentic impressions of life in the camps.

Command structure

For the prisoners of war in "home territory" and its main camp, the General Wehrmacht Office (AWA) was led by General Hermann Reinecke in the High Command of the Armed Forces responsible for the front-Stalags outside the boundaries of the German Reich , the Army High Command . On September 25, 1944, the prisoner-of-war system was subordinated to Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler in his capacity as Commander of the Replacement Army (BdE). Himmler appointed the SS-Obergruppenführer and general of the Waffen-SS Gottlob Berger as head of the prisoner-of-war system. For the individual Stalags, however, this change in responsibility was of little significance.

Main camp and forced labor

The main camps served as transit stations for prisoners of war to work in the war economy, in external commandos, mines and industrial operations of all kinds. Soviet prisoners and also prisoners of war of the western allies were distributed from here. If these prisoners of war were unable to work in the factories as a result of bad treatment, overwork and hunger, they were sent back to the main camp, mostly to the local medical and medical area. Many of them, especially the Soviet prisoners of war, died as a result. Those who returned to work were often very weak. Since there was a considerable shortage of labor, some companies began to feed the prisoners of war adequately and to treat them in such a way that their labor was retained and could be further exploited, others did this from the beginning.

Name and number of main camps

The so-called front trunk camps (Frontstalag) were set up relatively close to the front. They were used to register prisoners of war and to send them to the Reich . The Greater German Reich was divided into a total of 17 military districts (WK). (WK XIV to WK XVI and WK XIX were missing, so the highest number was WK XXI.) While the general command of the army corps provided by a military district was at the front, the deputy general command , also known as the military district command (WKKdo), remained in the military district and carried out the commander's business there. In these military districts the actual main camps (full name: prisoner of war team main camp ) were set up. The numbering of the main camps was done according to the military district with Roman numerals. The letter after the number denoted the camp in ascending order. For example, main camp III B in Fürstenberg (Oder) was the second main camp in the third military district ( WK III ).

Main camps outside the Reich area had Arabic numerals. When these camps were relocated to the Reich, they were given the usual military district designation, but still had the Arabic numbers in brackets. For reasons that are no longer comprehensible today, Arabic numbers were also assigned to some Stalags within the Reich.

A total of 222 Stalags were set up in the German Reich and in the areas occupied by Germany. The occupancy of the individual main camps could vary between 7,000 and over 70,000 prisoners of war. On January 1, 1944, over 2,200,000 prisoners of war were held in the main camps.

In addition to the front and team main camps, there were eight main air camps (Stalag Luft) that were under the command of the Air Force . Both officers and crew ranks were held in them.

List of bearings

See also

The abbreviations for various other types of POW camps:

Related topics

literature

  • Axel Drieschner; Barbara Schulz (Ed.): Stalag III B Fürstenberg (Oder). Prisoners of war in the east of Brandenburg 1939–1945. Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-936411-91-3 ( contributions to the history of Eisenhüttenstadt , 4).
  • Bernd Faulenbach , Andrea Kaltofen (ed.): Hell in the moor. The Emsland camps 1933–1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-8353-3137-2 .
  • Rolf Keller : Soviet prisoners of war in the German Reich 1941/42. Treatment and employment between the policy of extermination and the requirements of the war economy . Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0989-0 .
  • Uwe Mai: Prisoner of war in Brandenburg, Stalag III A in Luckenwalde 1939–1945. Metropol Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-932482-25-5 .
  • Ray T. Matheny: The Fire Riders. Trapped in "Flying Fortresses". Albrecht Knaus Verlag, Munich a. a. 1988, ISBN 3-8135-0568-5 (report by a prisoner of Stalag XVII B).
  • Gianfranco Mattiello, Wolfgang Vogt: German prisoners of war and internment institutions 1939–1945. Handbook and catalog, camp history and camp censorship stamp , vol. 1 main camp (Stalag) , vol. 2 Oflag, BAB, Dulag . Self-published, Milan 1986/1987.
  • Jörg Osterloh: A completely normal warehouse. The prisoner of war crew main camp 304 (IV H) Zeithain near Riesa / Sa. 1941 to 1945. 2nd edition. Kiepenheuer, Leipzig 1997, ISBN 3-378-01018-5 ( Series of publications by the Saxon Memorials Foundation in memory of the victims of political tyranny , 2).
  • Martin Albrecht, Helga Radau: Stalag Luft I in Barth. British and American prisoners of war in Pomerania 1940 to 1945. Thomas Helms Verlag, Schwerin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940207-70-8 .
  • Christian Staas: "I have no words" - Persecuted and forgotten: 5.7 million Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner in Germany after 1941. In: Die Zeit No. 25 of June 17, 2010, (A Berlin association helps the last survivors ( contact ). Online )

swell

  1. Use of the term main camp z. B. several times in: Johannes Bell (Ed.); Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the Guilt Issues of the World War: International Law in World War I: 3rd series in the work of the Committee of Inquiry, Volume 3, Part 1. National Assembly, 1919-20. German Publishing Society for Politics and History, Berlin 1927, p. 228.
  2. Service instructions for the commander of a "prisoner-of-war team main camp" : H.Dv. 38/5, Berlin, Reichsdruckerei, 1939
  3. Achim Kilian: Mühlberg 1938–1948: A prison camp in the middle of Germany. Böhlau, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-412-10201-6 , p. 24.
  4. Regulations for prisoners of war : H.Dv. 38, Army printing specification
  5. ^ Information from the National Socialist Documentation Center of the State Center for Civic Education Rhineland-Palatinate
  6. Audio Archive. Sound recordings from Oflag 64
  7. Stefan Geck: The German prisoner-of-war system 1939–1945 ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 649 kB), Master's thesis, Uni Münster, 1998, p. 34. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ubm.opus.hbz-nrw.de
  8. ^ Gianfranco Mattiello, Wolfgang Vogt: German prisoner of war and internment institutions 1939-1945. Volume 1: Main camp (Stalag). Self-published, Koblenz / Milano 1986.
  9. Stefan Geck: The German prisoner-of-war system 1939–1945 ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 649 kB), Master's thesis, Uni Münster, 1998, p. 41. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ubm.opus.hbz-nrw.de
  10. ^ Gianfranco Mattiello, Wolfgang Vogt: German prisoner of war and internment institutions 1939-1945. Volume 2: Oflag BAB, Dulag etc. self-published, Koblenz / Milano 1987, p. 165.
  11. Tal Sterngast: Schultze's bitch . In: taz , August 5, 2007. Ruth Schneeberger: Stalag novels: From greed for shock . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung Online, September 18, 2007; as well as the website for the film: www.stalags.com

Web links

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