Main camp VI A
The main camp VI A (short: Stalag VI A ) was a main camp for prisoners of war in Hemer , Westphalia . It existed from 1939 to 1945 in the area that was subsequently used by the Blücher barracks . It was one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps in the Third Reich and was considered a “death camp”, especially for Soviet prisoners of war . Most of the prisoners who performed forced labor in the Ruhr mining industry were registered in Hemer. The camp was established in the fall of 1939 and liberated by the US Army on April 13, 1945 .
After the war ended, the Allies used the site as an internment camp, Camp Roosevelt . From 1946 to 1955, the camp was the location of the Belgian occupation forces until the Bundeswehr moved into it in 1956. A memorial and a history room remind of the former prisoner of war camp.
history
History and establishment of the camp
The prisoner-of-war team main camp Stalag VI A in Hemer was the first of its kind in Wehrkreis VI ( Münster ). The complex at Jüberg was originally intended for an armored barracks. Since the military leadership underestimated the number of prisoners of war, new places of accommodation had to be found at short notice. In September 1939, Hemer was selected as the location for Stalag VI A. For the first Polish prisoners of war, a little later, as a temporary solution, large tents from the Nuremberg Nazi Party Congress were set up on a sports field near the barracks, as the buildings were still under construction.
In October and November 1939, the prisoners moved into the stone buildings, which were still not fully equipped, and some additional barracks. Three-story plank beds were only acquired after a few more weeks. The sanitary facilities were in poor condition from the start, so diseases spread quickly.
The administration began its work in autumn 1939 and kept a file for each prisoner. The prisoners had to wear a numbered identification tag and in the first few months were mainly employed in agriculture and forestry.
The Stalag VI A in World War II
By mid-1942, 30,000 prisoners of war were registered in Stalag VI A. By the summer of 1943 the number rose to 55,000, between December 1943 and liberation in April 1945 it was 100,000. In the first few months at the end of 1939, the Polish prisoners were in the majority; in the autumn of 1940 their number was around 2,600. At that time, the number of French prisoners was comparatively high at around 23,500. British were quickly transferred to other camps after their capture. Since June 1941 Serbs were also housed in Hemer.
The first Soviet prisoners were registered in October 1941, the number of which was relatively constant at around 2,500 until June 1942; by the end of the year it had risen to 47,000. Most of the Poles and Serbs were transferred to other camps at the same time. Stalag VI A thus developed into a pure Russian camp . Most of the Soviets were used in coal mining in the nearby Ruhr area; In November 1942 the camp was converted into a "special crew main camp for Ruhr mining". Previously, the prisoners were distributed to work in the southern part of the administrative district of Arnsberg . In the autumn of 1944, almost 100,000 Soviet prisoners belonged to the area of responsibility of Stalag VI A.
Italians had also been registered in Hemer since autumn 1943, and some Romanians joined them at the end of 1944. During the Second World War , more than 200,000 prisoners were smuggled through the camp. Since November 1943 in particular, the capacity of the buildings was far exceeded. About 10,000 prisoners were housed in the Stalag complex at that time. In the weeks leading up to the liberation of the camp, the number was 23,000.
The handover of the main camp
After the Ruhr Basin was closed on April 1, 1945, the camp was increasingly used as a place of retreat by leading SS and Gestapo officers. The radio station of the SS Upper Section West was relocated there on March 10 . Among others, Karl Gutenberger , General of the Waffen SS , left for Hemer. Because of the hospital there , no air attacks by the Allies were feared. At the beginning of April , the Gestapo from Hörde set up their new control center in today's Wulfert School . On April 11th, she killed eight foreign workers in Hemer, after they had already killed around 300 people in Dortmund, Hagen, Iserlohn and Lüdenscheid.
A few hours later, Hemer came under US artillery fire; Gestapo and SS men in civilian clothes fled and went into hiding with forged passports. After the Ruhr basin was blown up, the German troops from the eastern area concentrated in the Iserlohn and Hemeraner area. Lieutenant General Fritz Bayerlein prepared a peaceful handover of the camp and ordered his troops, who were suffering from a lack of ammunition and were demoralized, to refrain from further fighting.
The negotiations for the handover of the camp were led by Captain Edmund Weller . On April 13, 1945, an American combat group of the 7th Armored Division reached the Deilinghofen airfield near Stalag VI A. Weller on April 13, 1945, presumably after consulting with the camp commandant Wussow, to explain the situation to the Americans. He expressed the fear of the camp administration losing control of the prisoners. Captain Weller drove to the Stalag with two American officers and handed it over to the Americans. At the same time, Captain Albert Ernst had achieved a peaceful surrender of the city of Hemer.
The American soldiers found 22,000 prisoners, mostly Russians, of whom 9,000 were sick. 200 bodies were found in the cellars that had not been buried in the hustle and bustle of the last days of the war. Before the liberation, around 100 prisoners a day had died of epidemics and malnutrition. A total of at least 23,470 prisoners of war perished in the Stalag Hemer.
The days after the liberation
After the handover, the US troops saw it as their task to take care of the detainees, to prevent looting and attacks and to prepare an orderly return. Despite being guarded, some managed to escape through a hole in the fence that had been made by the fire. Most of them were brought back by force and the provision of food. In the camp there was looting in the kitchen. Large quantities of moldy bread were found, which further increased the unrest. The Americans quickly took care of the medical care of the camp inmates in newly erected tents.
When the camp was no longer so closely guarded from April 15, many prisoners streamed into the city and there was more looting. A few days later, captured officers and the US military police brought those who had escaped back; afterwards the guard was tightened again. Up until July, there were isolated looting in Hemer, mostly by Italian prisoners. Some tried to lynch members of the Soviet camp police.
The US troops improved the sanitary conditions and distributed the prisoners to more rooms. The TB camp was burned down in a controlled manner. Sick prisoners were transferred to the on-site hospital (today's Hemer Lung Clinic ), today's Paracelsus Clinic Hemer and barracks in today's Friedenspark.
The repatriation of the first prisoners from the West to their home countries began at the end of April. The return of the Soviet internees was more difficult; so in June 7,000 of them were still housed in Hemer. The former main camp had since been renamed Camp Roosevelt . In August most of the so-called displaced persons finally left the camp.
the post war period
Six months after the liberation, the British troops set up an internment camp on the former Stalag site . The Hemeraner Camp Roosevelt was the seventh so-called Civil Internment Camp (CIC) in the British zone of occupation . In June 1945, the Americans began withdrawing their troops from the Hemeraner area, and the British army took over the supervision of the camp in August. After repairs to the buildings and facilities, the internment camp was put into operation in November.
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A special facility was the special camp for war criminals , in which 650 internees were housed in August 1946. It was one of the smaller internment camps in the British area with a high proportion of high-ranking war criminals. One reason for this was the nature of the warehouse, including central heating and well-equipped sanitary facilities. The internees and their guards organized cultural and religious events. In September 1946, Camp Roosevelt was closed and the internees were transferred to Camp Eselheide , which had been used as the main camp VI K (326) during the war .
Afterwards, Belgian troops took over the camp site in autumn 1946 and named it Casernes Ardennes . Two battalions of hunters were stationed there; family members were housed in 72 confiscated homes. On November 22nd and 28th, 1955, the Belgians withdrew, so that the buildings were again available to their owners.
On July 23, 1956, Hemer became a garrison of the German Armed Forces , which used the camp as a tank barracks and renamed it Blücher barracks in 1964 . In 2007 the Ministry of Defense gave up the Hemer site and closed the barracks. In 2010, the Hemer State Garden Show took place on the site under the motto Magic of Metamorphosis , which attracted over a million visitors. The site has been called Sauerlandpark Hemer since 2011 .
Bearing description
Due to the shell of the planned barracks, main camp VI A was initially better equipped than many other camps in which prisoners of war were housed in barracks and burrows. After the attack on Poland , the camp turned out to be too small and was expanded by 36 barracks, a pre-camp and a tuberculosis facility. The stalag was surrounded by six wooden watchtowers on which soldiers, equipped with machine guns, telephones and searchlights, were deployed. The stalag was bordered by a double fence made of three meter high wooden posts. Barbed wire was laid in the two-meter gap. On the inside of the camp there was another 1.50 meter high fence.
The camp consisted of eight block buildings and a few other buildings and barracks. The first two blocks at the camp entrance with the commanders, the postal service, the administration and a branch of the state labor office were separated from the rest of the site by barbed wire. These buildings also housed cells for American aircraft crews. An air raid shelter and the central heating system for the entire camp were located in the basement.
The third block was called the craftsman's block because it contained a carpentry , a tailor's , a cobbler's shop and the accommodations of the prisoners of war from neighboring Germany who worked there. Block 4 was divided into accommodation for Soviets and Italians. Block 5 contained the death rooms for deceased prisoners of war, who were transferred from there to the cemeteries. In the other rooms operating theaters were set up in which Soviet surgeons tended to the prisoners and also operated on them. On the other side of the later Bundeswehr parade ground was Block 6 with a sick bay and accommodation for French, Poles and Belgians. Block 7 on the northeastern edge of the camp contained the infirmary for Soviet prisoners who were looked after by German and Russian doctors. The internal medicine department was relocated to Block 8, which also housed a prison.
The central camp kitchen, where the prisoners picked up their meals, was located at the later parade ground. For the strict detention 32 single cells were set up south of the blocks. The building was separated from the neighboring hospital wards for Italians, French, Belgians and Poles and the dental ward by a barbed wire. In the south-west of the camp there was a barracks in front of the camp, in which new prisoners were admitted and, depending on their state of health, transferred to other wards after delousing. In the tuberculosis camp in the southeast there were six barracks for the seriously ill. The camp was strictly separated from the rest of the site and was only entered by foreign personnel because of the risk of infection. In the north-east of the camp there were additional barracks for prisoners of war who were posted to work .
Life in the camp
Western prisoners
In the first years of its existence, the French made up the majority of the prisoners in Stalag VI A. They were transferred directly from the western front to Hemer, where they first had to hand over their military equipment. The Hemeran civilian population reacted with hatred to the arrival of the first prisoners. Some Germans spat at prisoner transports and pelted them with stones. Dark-skinned prisoners from the French colonies in Africa became an attraction for onlookers.
Since the winter of 1940 the conditions for the French and Belgian prisoners improved. So the food was switched from unfamiliar black bread to deliveries from home. The lack of space was also eliminated by relocating to external labor command camps. Cultural events were organized in the camp and French doctors treated the prisoners together with German colleagues.
From the spring of 1941, both the Belgians and the French appointed a shop steward who kept contact with the camp commanders. Among other things, they organized the repatriation of disabled prisoners to their homeland. West prisoners who were fit for work were either employed in agriculture or as skilled workers in industry and were mostly treated well.
Soviet prisoners
Soviet prisoners of war had been imprisoned in Stalag VI A since September 1941. There were special regulations for dealing with them, which was justified by the fact that the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin had not signed the Hague Land Warfare Regulations or the Geneva Conventions . They were mainly transferred from the Stalag to work command camps for the Ruhr mining industry. Contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions, some of the prisoners were also used to work in the arms industry.
The quantity and quality of the food were lower than for the other nationalities as the Soviets were not supplied by the International Committee of the Red Cross . They did not receive any blankets and there was little medicine for them.
Despite the prohibition, most of the Soviet prisoners were well informed about the course of the war. Many saw this as the motivation to resist German recruitment attempts.
Other Slavic prisoners
In September 1939, the first Polish prisoners were brought to Stalag VI A. After initially being treated as inferior people, in the following years the conditions approached those of Western prisoners. Since 1940 there was permission to hold cultural events; At the beginning of 1942 they received parcels from the Red Cross for the first time.
The treatment of the Polish prisoners during work was very different. In some cases they were well integrated into agricultural holdings; In the beginning, however, there were reports of exclusion, hunger and death. A Polish resistance group formed in the camp in 1944, having learned of an impending uprising in Poland. This resulted in 31 arrests in April 1944. The resisters were transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp and died there.
The Serbian prisoners were treated similarly to the Poles. From the summer of 1941 to December 1942, more than 1,000 Southeastern Europeans were imprisoned in Stalag VI A, who were looked after by an Orthodox pastor. There was hardly any cultural or sporting support. In the course of the transformation of the Stalag into a "Russian camp", most of the Serbs were relocated.
Italian internees
After the fall of Mussolini , the Italian troops that did not join Germany were disarmed by the Wehrmacht. Around 650,000 Italian soldiers fell into German captivity; some of them were transferred to Stalag VI A in autumn 1943. Since September 1943, Italians were no longer classified as prisoners of war, but as military internees , which did not change the living conditions. Similar to the Soviets, most of the Italians were employed in the arms industry or in the Ruhr mining industry.
Dealing with the Italian internees was usually just as inhuman as that with Soviet prisoners, as many German soldiers viewed them as traitors. However, attempts by the Wehrmacht to poach them until February 1944 had little success. In the summer of 1944 the internees were declared civilians so that they could achieve higher labor productivity under improved living conditions. The number of Italian prisoners in Stalag VI A decreased from 14,786 in July to 1,032 in October. Some Italian soldiers, primarily officers, refused to consent to the status change. As a result, some resistance members from Stalag VI A were transferred to a prison camp. Around 200 internees had died of overexertion and poor nutrition in the Hemeraner Stalag.
Labor input
Most of the Stalag inmates were forcibly employed in industry, mining and agriculture in the Hemer area. Some of the prisoners of war were housed in work command camps belonging to the Stalag. Such camps were set up in the entire area of what would later become North Rhine-Westphalia until 1942 , for example in Münster , Bochum , Euskirchen , Minden , Paderborn and Warburg .
In 1939 the camp commanders had decided to place the prisoners in work detachments, mostly in agriculture. The employers concluded contracts with the Stalag through the mediation of the employment offices. In December 1939 497 prisoners were deployed in the Iserlohn district , all of whom with the exception of five detachments were employed in agriculture. As the war continued, the importance of labor in industry increased. Large companies such as Sundwiger Messingwerk and Berkenhoff & Paschedag set up their own labor camps, while smaller companies joined forces for this purpose. In 1945 7 Belgians, 340 French, 26 Poles, 68 Soviets, 25 Yugoslavs and 18 prisoners of unknown nationality worked in Hemer alone. Most of the prisoners were treated and cared for correctly.
From autumn 1942, the forced labor of the Soviet prisoners of war concentrated on mining operations in satellite camps in the Ruhr area . The Ruhr district coal mining group decreed that all Soviet prisoners of war able to work should be registered in Hemer and then sent to the mines. Only "permanently unusable prisoners of war" remained in Stalag VI A, which was given the character of a death camp. The Stalag VI A was given the function of a special crew main camp for coal mining in Wehrkreis VI. The Hemeraner camp was only responsible for prisoners of war who were doing their work in the Ruhr mining industry. The prisoners were registered in the main camp VI K (326) and forwarded to Hemer. After a few days or weeks, they were transferred to labor camps in the Ruhr area.
The work in the mines was considered to be the toughest work in German captivity. The death rate was particularly high among Soviet and Italian prisoners. After the defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad , the working conditions for the Soviets improved a little, because from then on no new prisoners of war were accepted. Nevertheless, racial ideology determined behavior towards prisoners until the end of the war.
Warehouse staff
| rank | Surname | Term of office |
|---|---|---|
| Major zV | Hubert Naendrup | October 1939 - December 1940 |
| Major zV | Hermann Leonhard | December 1940 - July 1941 |
| Colonel | Viktor von Tschirnhaus | July 1941 - June 1942 |
| Lieutenant Colonel zV | Theodor von Wussow | June 1942 - April 1945 |
There is different information about the number of Wehrmacht members in Stalag VI A. While an official statement from 1944 speaks of 233, a contemporary witness names 556 people. In 1943 the medical staff consisted of 28 employees for around 54,000 prisoners.
Some of the camp staff behaved inhumanely towards the prisoners. Some members of the guards helped themselves to the prisoners' food rations and used their firearms in cases of disobedience. Personnel who slipped bread to the prisoners faced disciplinary action.
Captain Edmund Weller was friendly to the prisoners. He was the only German soldier in the camp to refrain from carrying a weapon. When he learned of violent measures by the staff against Italian internees, he got the camp management to warn the guards to be less harsh. Before the camp was liberated, he started negotiations with the approaching US Army in order to prevent a shelling of the Stalag and to ensure the surrender.
War cemeteries
The deceased prisoners of war were buried in five different cemeteries in Hemer. A total of around 23,900 prisoners of war died during their stay in Stalag VI A; around 23,500 of them were Soviets. These figures do not include prisoners who perished during a work assignment.
In the post-war period, the corpses from three fields of honor were reburied and the tombs closed; there are cenotaphs at the other two sites.
Duloh war cemetery
The war cemetery on the Duloh was laid out in spring 1943 after the city of Hemer had given the area to the Wehrmacht for 400 Reichsmarks . The area was in a military exclusion zone between an ammunition depot and the firing range of the Seydlitz barracks in Iserlohn, so that the cemetery was also surrounded by a two meter high fence. To transport the bodies to the cemetery at the other end of town, they were placed between two sheets of oiled paper and then driven away in a death van. In the last months of the war the camp ran out of oil paper, so the naked corpses were thrown onto the wagon without a cover.
At the cemetery, horse-drawn vehicles transported the bodies to the mass graves , which were 3 meters wide and 2.5 meters deep. There the prisoners of war were buried in four rows one on top of the other before the area was leveled again. The work before and after the burial was done by Soviet prisoners of war, who were housed in a hut on the site.
A total of 19,979 former prisoners of war were buried in mass graves in the 6,728 square meter Duloh cemetery during the Second World War. The number increased to 20,470 in the following years through reburial and transfer. 22 individual graves were mostly set up for those who died after the liberation.
After the end of the war, a Soviet artist designed a memorial, which was inaugurated on October 9, 1945 by the Soviet and British military and the Mayor of Hemeran, Josef Kleffner . The memorial is six meters high and made of Anröchter stone . It shows three emaciated prisoners of war at work; there is a Soviet star at the top . In 1966 and 1987 the monument was restored and German translations of the Russian inscriptions were added.
War cemetery Höcklingser Weg
In January 1942, the city of Hemer leased a cemetery area for the burial of Soviet prisoners of war, which was previously part of the city's Protestant cemetery. The corpses were also transported to Höcklingser Weg wrapped in oil paper on hearses and buried in mass graves near the road and the Hemer – Menden railway line. Up until the construction of the cemetery on Duloh, 16 mass graves had been laid on Höcklingser Weg for a total of around 3,000 deceased. After March 1943, however, only a few burials took place there.
The site was leveled and redesigned in 1949, and on November 26, 1967, a temporary memorial stone was replaced by a memorial with the inscription: "This is where 3000 Soviet citizens rest, who died far away from their homeland in the years 1941–1945". The area is almost 3000 square meters and was planted with some birch trees in 1975.
More graves
On October 4, 1939, when the first death occurred in the camp, the Hemeran mayor Wilhelm Langemann decided to make part of the forest cemetery in Sundwig available to the Wehrmacht for deceased Polish prisoners of war. In the following years 332 prisoners of war from different nations were buried there in wooden coffins. The burial took place for the western prisoners in a more dignified setting; a clergyman was present and a cross with his name was put up for each deceased. In 1942 a stele by a French sculptor was added from the camp. In 1947 and 1956 the deceased were transferred to their home countries and central cemetery facilities. Eastern Europeans, Italians and the deceased from unknown nations were transported to the Duloh; the Sundwig plant was closed in 1956. The stele has also stood on the Duloh since then.
After the handover of the camp, the American soldiers dug a new mass grave in a field northwest of the site in order to be able to bury the 253 deceased prisoners of war from the overcrowded death cellar. They created a field 50 meters long and 6 meters wide, where a memorial was also erected. The following year the bodies were transferred to the Duloh; the mass grave at Haseloh was closed in December 1946. Today it is built over.
In addition to the Soviet one, there was also an Italian cemetery on the Duloh, where the first Italians were buried in 1945. In 1949 the area comprised 206 graves. In July 1957, the remains of 182 former soldiers were transferred to Italy. The cemetery was closed.
Behavior of the population
Many Hemerans were neutral and passive towards the main camp. Some treated the prisoners like defeated enemies and treated them with hatred, while others tried to help them. The willingness of the population to help was particularly great during work. For fear of being denounced, food or other items had to be secretly handed over. Residents who dared to approach the camp staff about their rude and inhumane treatment of the prisoners were threatened with corporal punishment. In the case of prisoner transports, however, there were occasional stones thrown and insults by locals.
Courts usually harshly sentenced people accused of contacting prisoners of war. For example, a man from Hemeran who exchanged bread for tobacco with a prisoner of war was sentenced to two months in prison. Sexual contact between prisoners and German women was particularly severely punished. The case of a woman from Deilinghofen is known who took in a Frenchman and was sentenced to four years in prison for this .
Commemoration in the post-war period
In the post-war period, the Hemeran public suppressed the Stalag events for a long time. In 1982, the Citizens' Initiative for Peace and Disarmament published a brochure about the main camp, for which the people of Hemeran verbally abused and threatened them. The Hemer Citizens and Homeland Association did not include the topic in its publications. Commemorative events at the Russenfriedhof on the Duloh have been held annually on Memorial Day since 1982 . The speakers included Uta Ranke-Heinemann (1984), the then North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Social Affairs Hermann Heinemann (1989) and the then Minister of Education and Culture Hans Schwier (1990). The Soviet Union has sent official representatives to the memorial ceremony since 1986, and the Bundeswehr also took part from 1988.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the city of Hemer became friends with Shcholkowo in Moscow Oblast . The former Soviet prisoner of war Nikolai Gubarew was particularly committed to reconciliation on the Russian side and was awarded the letter of honor from the city of Hemer for this. In addition, a street on the former camp site was named after him. A "path of reconciliation" leads to the Russian cemetery on the Duloh.
Jübergkreuz
On September 20, 1947, the Catholic and Protestant parishes in Hemer erected a cross of reconciliation over the graves to commemorate the fate of the prisoners of war on the Jüberg on the edge of the former Stalag site . At Pentecost 2009 a new cross was consecrated in front of more than 500 people. It contains the text of the Sermon on the Mount , is 7.5 meters high and weighs 280 kilograms.
The inscription reads:
“This cross commemorates the prisoner-of-war camp Stalag VI A at the foot of the Jüberg and the soldiers and civilians of many nations who died there in the Second World War from 1939 to 1945. The good communication between the two denominations during the time of the Nazi tyranny led to the erection of this cross in 1947 through the Protestant and Catholic youth in Hemer. In 2009 the cross was renewed as a sign of hope in Jesus Christ to keep our faith in HIM alive. "
memorial
The memorial “To commemorate the victims of Stalag VI A” was inaugurated on November 22, 1992. The place of the memorial in memory of the transport of prisoners across this street from the train station to the barracks was paved with stones taken from Ostenschlahstrasse. The memorial consists of a quarry stone wall, the narrow gate of which is barred, and was co-financed through a donation campaign by soldiers and Hemeran citizens (result: 14,410 DM). The city of Hemer contributed the other 9,000 DM. Leading officers from the Blücher barracks , Mayor Klaus Burda , Nikolai Gubarew and many Hemeran citizens took part in the inauguration of the memorial . A Russian Orthodox priest from Shcholkovo consecrated the memorial.
In 2000, two additional brass panels were added with the following wording:
“From September 1939 to April 14, 1945, the Stalag VI A, one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps in the former German Reich, was on the barracks grounds. Remembrance, reconciliation, international understanding and human rights preserve peace, our greatest good "
"Victims were prisoners of war and forced laborers from the following nations: Soviet Union, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Romania, Great Britain, United States of America, Canada"
History room
From 1995 a first lieutenant of the Bundeswehr collected documents, photos and other exhibits for the establishment of a memorial room in the barracks. The exhibition opened on April 14, 1995, exactly 50 years after the camp was liberated. Since it was founded in April 2005, the Hemeraner Verein für Zeitgeschichte e. V. the memorial room after the Bundeswehr site was closed. Photos from the days of the liberation of the camp with accompanying texts as well as handicrafts by prisoners and camp money are shown.
In the run-up to the Hemer State Horticultural Show 2010 , the memorial room moved to the former Block 3 of the Stalag. The exhibition was supplemented with additional exhibits on an area of 85 square meters. For the facility, which includes, among other things, a larger 3D model of the warehouse, the association has collected a total of 46,000 euros from donations and grants from the NRW Foundation , for example .
Peace tree
Since 2010, a peace tree on the edge of the Landesgartenschau site has been commemorating the end of the war in Hemer on March 14, 1945. Mayor Michael Esken , Hans-Hermann Stopsack as chairman of the Hemeran Contemporary History Association and contemporary witness Emil Nensel as a member of action 365 took the groundbreaking ceremony on March 17, 2010. A brass plate with the following inscription is attached to the linden tree :
“Hemeraner citizens planted this tree in 2010 to commemorate the end of the war on April 14, 1945. After heavy artillery bombardment by the Americans, the white flag of surrender was raised on the summit of the Jüberg, visible from afar. Inner and outer peace is a great good for which our commitment is worthwhile! "
reception
The war film Das Tribunal by director Gregory Hoblit takes place primarily in the main camp VI A, which, however, was moved to Augsburg in the film . With the exception of the name, hardly anything in the plot refers to what actually happened in Stalag VI A. For example, US soldiers were never imprisoned in Hemer.
The youth novel Wassili by Heinz Weischer thematizes the story of a young Soviet soldier who falls into German captivity. After registering in Stalag VI A, he was doing forced labor in the Sachsen colliery in Hamm - Heessen .
literature
- Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.), On behalf of the Verein für Hemeraner Zeitgeschichte eV: Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation . 4th revised and expanded edition. Hemer 2017.
- Sibylle Höschele: Polish prisoners of war in the main camp (Stalag) VI A Hemer. In: The Märker. 3/1995, No. 44, pp. 110-123.
- Association for Hemeraner Contemporary History e. V. (Ed.): On the history of the prisoner-of-war camp Stalag VI A Hemer. 2nd Edition. Hemer 2006.
Web links
- NS memorials NRW: Stalag VI A
- On the history of the prisoner-of-war camp STALAG VI A Hemer
- Prisoner of war. Pictures from the Hemer camp. DVD with booklet, ed. from the LWL media center for Westphalia, Münster 2010 (with detailed booklet)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans-Hermann Stopsack: The occupancy of the camp according to nationalities and times. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, pp. 62-67.
- ↑ POW Camps of the US 7th Armored Division Association (English)
- ^ Karl-Heinz Lüling, Hans-Hermann Stopsack: The handover of the camp and the end of the war in Hemer. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, pp. 146-155.
- ^ Heiner Wember: re-education in the camp. Internment and punishment of National Socialists in the British zone of occupation of Germany (= Düsseldorfer Schriften zur Neueren Landesgeschichte of North Rhine-Westphalia; Vol. 30). Essen 1991, ISBN 3-88474-152-7 , pp. 73f.
- ↑ Hans-Hermann Stopsack: The prisoners of Stalag VI A after the liberation. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, pp. 156-163.
- ↑ Hans-Hermann Stopsack: The fate of the displaced persons. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, pp. 164-172.
- ↑ Hans-Hermann Stopsack: Hemer 1944-1949. Memories, eyewitness reports and documents from a time of upheaval. Hemer 2004, pp. 116-125.
- ↑ a b c Eberhard Thomas: The use of the former camp site after the Second World War. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Pp. 173-177.
- ↑ Landesgartenschau Hemer 2010: History ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2010 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. , accessed November 22, 2009
- ↑ a b c d Emil Nensel: camp description. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, pp. 27-40.
- ^ A b Emil Nensel, Hans-Hermann Stopsack: The relationship between the civilian population and the prisoners. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, pp. 93-98.
- ↑ Célestin Lavabre: Ceux de l'an 40. Rodez 1981.
- ^ A b c Emil Nensel, Hans-Hermann Stopsack: West prisoners and Poland. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Pp. 41-51.
- ↑ Hans-Hermann Stopsack: "Basics of international law" and regulations on the treatment of Soviet prisoners of war. In Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, pp. 52-61.
- ↑ Nikolai Gubarew: My memories as a prisoner of war in Stalag VI A.
- ↑ Hans-Hermann Stopsack: The Italian military internees. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, pp. 136-145.
- ↑ Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Peter Klagges: The regional sphere of activity of Stalag VI A. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. P. 109 ff.
- ^ Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Peter Klagges: The labor deployment of foreigners prisoners of war in Hemer. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Pp. 111-116.
- ^ District group Steinkohlenbergbau Ruhr to its members, November 4, 1942
- ↑ Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Peter Klagges: The so-called Russian deployment. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack and Eberhard Thomas (eds.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Pp. 116-122.
- ^ Internet portal Westphalian history: The first prisoners of war arrive at Stalag VI A in Hemer.
- ^ A b c Emil Nensel, Hans-Hermann Stopsack: The camp staff and their relationship to the prisoners. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, pp. 82-93.
- ↑ Nikolai Gubarew: My memories of the time at STALAG. In: Westfälische Rundschau of September 27, 1990
- ^ Emil Nensel, Eberhard Thomas: Die Toten des Stalag VI A. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, p. 202 f.
- ↑ Emil Nensel, Eberhard Thomas: The cemetery on the Duloh. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, pp. 193-200.
- ↑ Emil Nensel, Eberhard Thomas: The cemetery on Höcklingser way. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, pp. 190-193.
- ^ Emil Nensel, Eberhard Thomas: The prisoner of war graves in the forest cemetery. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, pp. 187-190.
- ^ Emil Nensel, Eberhard Thomas: The mass grave at Haseloh. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, p. 200 ff.
- ^ Emil Nensel, Eberhard Thomas: The Italian cemetery on the Duloh. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, p. 202.
- ↑ Two months in prison for dealing with prisoners of war , Schwerter Zeitung, 1942
- ^ Deterrent verdict for dishonorable women: Four years in prison for the main culprits , IKZ of November 11, 1941
- ↑ Die Zeit : Forgotten Graves , published December 17, 1982, accessed November 16, 2009
- ↑ Peter Klagges: The reasons for the long suppression of the existence of Stalag VI A in Hemer. In: Hans-Hermann Stopsack, Eberhard Thomas (Ed.): Stalag VI A Hemer. POW camp 1939–1945. A documentation. Hemer 1995, pp. 180-186.
- ↑ IKZ Hemer: Development plan Felsenpark and names for barracks streets decided on May 5, 2009, accessed on November 16, 2009
- ↑ Georg Mieders: The new Jübergkreuz as a symbol against forgetting. In: Bürger- und Heimatverein Hemer e. V. (Ed.): The key. Hemer 2009.
- ↑ The history room for the Stalag VI A. In: Verein für Hemeraner Zeitgeschichte e. V. (Ed.): On the history of the prisoner-of-war camp Stalag VI A Hemer. 2nd Edition. Hemer 2006, p. 66 ff.
- ^ Association for Hemeraner Contemporary History (ed.): Brochure Who we are and what we want.
- ↑ Nazi memorials in North Rhine-Westphalia: Stalag VI A Hemer ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2007 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. , accessed November 17, 2009
- ↑ IKZ Hemer: Hademareplatz: The latest craze in Hemer's urban planning was in the end a flop , published on March 4, 2009, accessed on July 8, 2015
- ↑ IKZ Hemer: Stalag memorial room becomes memorial. ( 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. , published July 24, 2008, accessed November 17, 2009
- ↑ IKZ Hemer: Friedensbaum commemorates the end of the war , published on March 17, 2010, accessed on March 24, 2010
- ↑ Heinz Weischer: Wassili. 1st edition. Lagrev-Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-929879-29-8 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 23 ′ 10 ″ N , 7 ° 46 ′ 41 ″ E