list of british prisoners in colditz

Located in Warthegau, a western province of Poland that had been incorporated into the German Reich in 1939. Located in a building that was previously a school, closed early in April 1945. In early 1942 all the officers were transferred to Oflag VII-B in Eichsttt. On 5 May 1945 the Norwegians were transported east to a camp near Lignica in Silesia, then travelled for several days by train to Hamburg and Aarhus, Denmark, finally arriving in Oslo on 28 May 1945. The POWs who were working outside of the camp were simply left there and allowed to leave. The camp of huts near Fallingbostel became known as Stalag XI-B and was to become one of the Wehrmacht's largest prisoner of war (POW) camps, holding up to 95,000 prisoners from various countries. Stalag XVIII-B Spittal Drau Opened March 1941. Noted as having 2 shed like buildings at 53 degrees 26 minutes North, 11 degrees 52 minutes south map reference T74045C, Parchim had a POW camp during WWI located in this vicinity also. A memorial was erected there in 1985. Punishment of prisoners was severe, particularly after July 1944 when the SS took over jurisdiction of camp security (although did not place guards generally) US prisoners who did not follow regulations or tried to escape were sentenced to as much as a month in a special solitary confinement building, Soviet POWs fared far worse however, and were generally killed either immediately or worked to death at the nearby Mauthausen KZ. Less than eight months later Oflag IV-C was captured by American soldiers from 1st US Army. Opened September 1939 Closed August 1st 1940. In June 1940, part of Stalag IV-A was separated and made into an Oflag for Belgian, British, and French officers taken prisoner during the Battle of France. Director: There was a separate shower block, and prisoners were allowed two showers a month. Besides, many reports include appendices which can provide the names and addresses of civilian helpers, nature of help given, and relevant dates; details of the escape method and fellow POWs who assisted in an escape; the usefulness of officially provided escape aids, which ones were used, and suggested improvements and/or additions. One ounce of salt and pepper (mustard, onion powder and other condiments were also sometimes enclosed). Director: Neave was the author of a number of books concerning his wartime careers including Saturday at MI9 referring to his nomme de guerre at the organisation. Jack Lee, The lucky ones got far enough to the west to be liberated by the American army. IWM collections. The camp was liberated in May 1945 by troops of the British 7th Armoured Division, 2nd Army. District XVI Nearest city Metz, now in France. Closed following the mass outbreak of prisoners in the days after the Italian Armistice was announced on 8 September 1943. Highly recommended for further background and some specific camp research: POW Allied Prisoners of War in Europe 1939-1945 by Adrian Gilbert [see here]. An order, however, was almost immediately received from British HQ that none of the PoWs were to leave the camp and would be considered deserters if they did so but to await liberation by the Allied army a few days later when it reached Bologna. After another train journey the men were force marched from Kiefheide, with many men being bayoneted or shot before they reached Stalag Luft IV in Gross Tychow. The captured Polish soldiers arrived first, then the French and Belgians in June 1940. Ben Macintyre and his 2022 book Colditz. An excellent book by Major Pantcheff Alderney Fortress Island is recommended reading for more information. It was then renumbered Oflag XII-B. This scene was photographed by the Germans as "evidence" and later reprinted in his biography (Mark of the Lion, by Kenneth Sandford). With luck, the office door had been relocked and this satisfied the soldiers that nobody had entered the office. | They include prisoners of all services and the merchant navy held in Germany or German-occupied territory; prisoners of all services and the merchant navy held in Italy. The camp covered an area of 35 hectares (86 acres). The camp was built around a Polish boys' school by adding barracks. Up to 5,000 POWs were housed here at any one time (Greeks, Maltese, Cypriots, British, Americans, French, Slavs). Stalag Luft III (Sagan) was the camp made famous for its multiple tunnels and mass escape in 1944 The Great Escape, 50 recaptured POWS were murdered by the Gestapo. In early 1945 Polish Officers, inmates of Oflag II-D Gross-Born and Oflag II-C Woldenberg, were marched westwards and finally reached Oflag X-C. The camp Dulag Nord was located between Marlag and Milag. On the night of 27 September 1944 British aircraft attacking the nearby railroad junction in Nrde, dropped some bombs on the camp, killing 90 officers. In 1943 a tunnel was being dug from a hut closest to the wires. 189 officers held here as of 26/2/41 originally opened May 1941. The guard would then come back into formation alone. This march was one of the "Long Marches". Drama, War. When the Italian armistice was announced on 8 September 1943 there were an estimated 80,000 Allied POWs in Italy. The Italians held them in holding camps in the desert until transportation to the Italian mainland a few days or weeks later. Stars: Located at coordinates 54 degrees 23 minutes North, 12 degrees 42 minutes east. Reports from 26th February 1943 show 1000 other ranks here, the camp opened originally in October 1942. In Rommel's second offensive on Tobruk in June 1942, most of the South African 2nd Division was captured. Feldpost 36433(1.10.1940-27.2.1941) 2. Also recorded elsewhere (incorrectly?) "Only the generals slept alone". camp housed in a Medieval castle known as "Colditz". Between 1939 and 1945 1 million POWs of 46 nations passed through. On each floor there were toilets and sinks with running cold water but no baths. 52 degrees 32 minutes North, 11 degrees 52 minutes south map reference Z950510. You can embed or download low-resolution images free of charge for private and non-commercial use under the IWM Non-Commercial Licence. It was organised by the Schutzstaffel - SS-Baubrigade Iwhich was at first under direct supervision of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp; and after mid-February 1943 then run under the Neuengamme camp in northern Germanylocated near the old telegraph tower at La Foulre. These records, in the series WO 416, consist of British and Allied prisoner of war records created by the Germans and captured by the Allied forces when the camps were liberated at the end of the war. The roster of 1 January 1945 showed that there were 5,014 officers and 377 orderlies in the camp. Ordinary servicemen were required to doany work they were able to do, as long as it was not dangerous and did not support the German war effort, (Geneva Convention section III, article 49). Some British and Italian prisoners were also there. Also noted in USSME files as PG 60, possibly some confusion within the records? These contain miscellaneous papers relating to the circumstances of loss/capture. Although using the neutral Red Cross parcel to send items (usually disguised or hidden) in the parcels which would aid would be escapees would contrive the Geneva Convention, MI9 (the British military intelligence section specifically set up for escape and evasion) did fix special parcels. The camp was surrendered to the Red Army on May 9, 1945. Dulag Luft was the abbreviated name of Durchgangslager der Luftwaffe - given to Prisoner of War (POW) transit camps for Air Force prisoners captured by Germany during the Second World War. A sub-camp Stalag XVIII-A/Z was later opened in Spittal an der Drau about 100 km (62 mi) to the west. It is uncertain whether official red cross food and medical supply parcels were ever tampered with by MI9, however, up to 10% of organisations listed who donated clothing/sports equipment and books were, in fact, a front for MI9. There were notable exceptions, for example, the execution of recaptured prisoners. Stalag VII-B Memmingen Bavaria Location N/E 48-10. All POWs were supposed to be protected by rules for the treatment of prisoners of war which had been established in the Geneva Convention of 1929. Guy Hamilton Sports equipment and textbooks were obtained from the Red Cross and YMCA. An alphabetical list of British and Dominion Air Force PoWs in German hands in 1944-1945 is in AIR 20/2336. Colditz Castle 1943. Set up by the Italians in May 1942 and ran until September 8th 1943. Introduction: The Colditz Phenomenon View chapter 1 Capture and Interrogation View chapter 2 Transit and Processing View chapter 3 Compounds and Commandants View chapter 4 Leaders and Followers View chapter 5 Body and Soul View chapter 6 Work and Play View chapter 7 Reprisals and Rewards View chapter 8 Allies and Aliens View chapter Set up in September 1943, it housed about 1200 prisoners, mostly British. Originally opened in September1942the camp reported having 81other ranks on 26th February 1943. These are searchable by surname and sometimes by forename as well. Opened August 1940, closed September 1942. From May 1940, after the invasion of Norway and the Battle of France, prisoners arrived in large numbers, until they totalled 150,000 from all occupied countries, except Britain. Three men were killed, and 14 seriously wounded. The War Office Registered Files (WO 32 (code 91)) and the Directorate of Military Operations Collation Files (WO 193/343-359) both contain material on Allied POWs. The next day, 28 April, the column finally arrived at Lubeck on the Baltic coast. Sleeping accommodation was in wooden double bunks in groups of 8. Grumello del Piano/del silenzio /Grumillina. In the camp there were eight medical officers, the seriously ill were treated in the prison hospital in Stargard. The camp listings come from several sources including the USSME (Italian Army archives) so there could be some confusion over camp designations where two different numbers exist, however it was felt important to list them all: in the event of 2 conflicting pieces of information the USSME data has taken precedence as this is felt to be the most reliable. A notorious German Army prisoner of war camp, later renumbered Stalag-344, in Silesia. The camp initially occupied barracks built to house British and French prisoners in World War I. Director: Other prisoners of war, including Douglas Bader, distracted the guards and used signaling devices to help the escapers. Nominal rolls of prisoners in German camps are in AIR 40/263-281, and AIR 40/1488-1491. Sent for court martial in Stuttgart, jumped train but found unconscious next to tracks, sent to hospital, escaped from hospital. Stalag II-C Greifswald Pomerania, Prussia Location N/E 54-13. Kenji Takaki, They crossed into Switzerland at 01.30 on 13 September 1942, and were taken to the British legation at Bern. The famous camp of The Great Escape of 24/3/44 and the Wooden Horse escape of October 1943. Relocated to Biberach, housed mainly French and Serbo-Croat officers. Many others were billeted in Arbeitskommando working in factories, repairing railways or on farms. Centre -opened 11 April 1942 -Firstly housed RAF Sergeants until the end of 1942 when USAAF POWs replaced them. Pel, 11, Hospital #12-Gombos Gyul, Budapest, Hungary 47-19, Salonika Civilian Internment Camp Salonika Greece 40-23, San Martino Civilian Internment Camp Monferrato Italy 45-08, Schuler Military Hospital, Ploesti (Ploesci) Romania 45-26, Serbian Hospital Zagreb Croatia, Yugoslavia 45-16, Sinaia Military Hospital #415, Sinaia, Romania 45-25, Skoplue Military Hospital Serbia Southern Yugoslavia 42-21, Sofia Military Hospital Sofia Bulgaria 42-23, Sospel Civilian Internment Camp Monaco France 44-07, Spitalul de Stat, Targoviste, Romania 45-25, St. Denis (Grand Caserine) Civilian Internment Camp Paris France 49-02, Stadtroda Hospital #1170 (Serves Stalag IX-C) Stadtroda Thuringia, Germany 51-11, State Hospital Trencin Czechoslovakia 49-18, Sub-Lagarule Timis, Timisul de Jos, Romania 45-21, Targu-Jiu POW Camp, Targu-Jiu, Romania 45-23, Teil Lazarett (Serves Stalag XVIII-A) Spittal/Drau Carinthia, Austria 46-13, Transit Camp 133 Unknown (probably located in Rennes, France as Lazarett 133), Transit Camp and Hospital (Dulag 127) Zemun Slavonia 45-20, Transit Camp Feld Post #319797 Location Unknown, Val De Grace Hospital For Civilians Paris France 49-02, Vaucluse Restricted Residence For Civilians Vaucluse France 44-05, Venlo Restricted Residence For Civilians Venloo Holland 51-06, Vernet Civilian Internment Camp Ariege France 43-01, Vincenzo Civilian Internment Camp Vincenzo Italy 45-11, Von Kormend Civilian Hospital Szombathely, Hungary 47-16, Wartenburg Prison Wartenburg East Prussia 53-20, The International Committee of the Red Cross, The Red Cross together with the order of St John joined forces during WWII just as they had in WWI to carry out extensive humane services for the sick and wounded, for POWs and civilians alike. Article 10 required that POWs (also abbreviated as PW) should be lodged in adequately heated and lit buildings where conditions were the same as German troops. In 1935 the Wehrmacht began to build a large military complex close to the town of Bergen in what was then the Province of Hanover and the barracks were completed in 1937. Later about 4,500 arrived from Dunkirk and subsequently from the British 51st (Highland) Infantry Division captured at Saint-Valery-en-Caux. On February 6, 1945, according to Red Cross reports, some 8,000 men of the camp set out on what would be called the "Black March". 92 British POWs held at this camp near Laussig. IMDB lists twenty-one films on the theme, most prominently the 1963 production The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough. 25052 (7792 British) with 1310 officers, work detailed to coal mines locally. Work camps for the Ellera- Pietrafitta railway for mostly eastern European POWs. Terence Alexander, Not Rated 6 November 1939 - 20 December 1940 Colonel Joachim von Loebecke, 20 December 1940 - April 1941 - Major von Stietencron, April 1941- late 1942 - Colonel von Muller, November 6, 1939 to 19th December 1940 - Colonel Rudolf Kalenski, 20th December 1940 -28 September 1941 - Colonel Wojciech Tyczynski, September 28 1941- late 1942 - Colonel Witold Dzierzykraj-Moravian, BAU & BN 21 Blechhamer, Oderberg Upper Silesia 50N-18E, E114 Gross Kunzendorf, stone quarry and factory, E354 Jgerndorf, saw mill & timer goods factory, E561 Tarnowtitz, railway depot loading and unloading trains, E706 Coal mine near Jaworzno, mostly Australians and New Zealanders, Work Battalion 21 Heydebreck Silesia 50-18, Westerburg POW Camp Hessen-Nassau Prussia 50-08. The Poles were transferred to other camps, and in March 1941 it was redesignated Stalag XVIII-A, with French and Belgian prisoners being transferred in from Stalag XVII-A. 47083 (5191 British) POWs with 927 officers held here. 81 min The camp was originally built as barracks for German Army infantry early in 1939 and consisted of concrete single storey buildings on a plateau north-west of the town. Hence a person imprisoned under the main camp (Stalag III for example), could not have been kept there for the majority of his time as a POW and may have had an easier or harder experience than those kept elsewhere. Airey Neave was sent there in May 1941 after escaping from his previous camp. The camp was reopened in January 1942, and housed senior British Army officers, until being liberated in April 1945. 14,425 On the eastern, right, bank of the River Warter, near to the present day St. Roch bridge, stood Fort Rauch, the most southern of the right bank fortifications. Post-war the site was taken over by the United States Army and renamed Camp King. Macintyre has done it again. Meanwhile, the column slowly headed east, finally crossing the River Elbe, north of Hamburg, on 18 April. These officers were the incorrigible ones - the ones who had escaped before and intended to do so again. Adventure, Drama, War. Oflag XIII-A was opened in August 1940 to accommodate mainly French officers captured during the Battle of France. We add around 200,000 new records each month. In January 1945, as the Soviet armies resumed their offensive and advanced into Germany, many of the prisoners were marched westward in groups of 200 to 300 in the so-called Death March. Aalsmeer Restricted Residence For Civilians Aalsmeer Holland, Air Corps Transit Camp Verona Italy 45-11, Amsterdam Restricted Residence For Civilians Amsterdam Holland 52-05, Bad Godesberg Lazarett (Serves Stalag XVII-A) Godesberg Rheinland, Prussia 50-07, Bad Soden-Salmunster Hospital (Serves Stalag IX- Bad Soden Hessen-Nassau, Prussia 50-09, Bad Sulze Hospital (Serves Stalag IX-C) Bad Sulze Saxe-Weimar 51-11, Bagno A Ripoli Florence (Firenze) Italy 43-11, Bagnolo-Piano Civilian Internment Camp Bagnolo-Piano Italy 44-10, Beujon Hospital For Civilians Clichy France 49-02, Bratislava POW Camp Bratislava Czechoslovakia 48-17, Brenners Park-Hotel Baden-Baden Baden (Civilian Internment Camp) 48-08, Brens Civilian Internment Camp Tarn France 44-02, Brevannes Sanitorium For Civilians Paris France 49-02, Brides Les Bains Civilian Internment Camp Brides Les Bains France 45-06, Camp Chumen (Shumla) Chumen Bulgaria 43-27, Camp De Gurs Civilian Internment Camp Basses-Pyrenees France 43-01, Camp de Noe Civilian Internment Camp Noe France 43-01, Camp Leled, Near Esztergom, Hungary 47-19, Camp San Tomaso Della Fossa Civilian Internment Camp Near Bagnolo-Piano Italy 45-11, Casablanca POW Camp Morocco North Africa 33-07, Compiegne Civilian Internment Camp (Subordinate to Frontstalag 122) Compiegne France 49-03, Concentration Camp Buchenwald (Near Weimar) Thuringia, Germany 51-11, Deutscher Luftwaffen Lazarett 203, Budapest, Hungary 47-19, Deutscher Luftwaffen Teil, Lazarett 201, Budapest, Hungary 47-19, Egendorf Hospital (Serves Stalag IX-C) Egendorf Thuringia, Germany 51-11, Elsterhorst Hospital 742 (Serves Stalag 4-C & 4-A) Elsterhorst Saxony 51-14, Eppenhain Hospital Eppenhain Hessen-Nassau, Prussia 49-08, Feldpost 31703(23.4.1944-24.11.1944) 10.10.1944 Armee-Gefangenen-Sammelstelle 59 -POW gathering area -Dulag. By downloading or embedding any image, you agree to the terms and conditions of the IWM Non Commercial Licence, including your use of the attribution statement specified by IWM. Some of the more critically ill were moved to the 650th Hospital on 25/11/44. PG60 was then closed. The POW bet on the races, and money was raised and donated to the Red Cross. Their repeated, elaborate, and sometimes bizarre attempts at escape are a nice change from the stories of Grunts on the front lines. As with all POWs, escape was always in mind. One of the most highly decorated POWs of the war was kept here, the only fighting soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice. In the third section were 8,000 civilian prisoners in appalling conditions, described in the Army medical history as "utterly horrifying"; "everywhere the dead and dying sprawled amid the slime of human excrement.". The likely centre for the main part of the camp was in Willenberg, 3km south of the catle on the river Nogat. In the late 1930s the German Army built a large base and training ground at which the XIX Army Corps of General Heinz Guderian was based. Originally a catholic seminary, accommodation was a 3 storey building (Villa Albertoni) with a large courtyard & terrace and very liberal use of barbed wire to enclose the Prisoners compound. By the end of October 1940 all these prisoners had been transferred to other camps, and the castle was then used to accommodate evacuee children from Hamburg and Berlin. An excellent book on Colditz, much more realistic and rounded than some of the previous accounts which seemed to glamourise the legend. Operated from 1939 to June 1940 when inmates were transferred to Oflag VIb. Newly released documents at The National Archives show the three remarkable and successful escape attempts made by three British-born Officers - Flight Lieutenant Hedley S Fowler, Lieutenant. Four were recaptured. At 07.30 the escape party left the store, timed to be shortly after the change of the German sentries the idea being that the new sentries would be unaware of who had already entered the store. It was surrounded by a countryside divided into huge fields of wheat and oats, and the city of Altamura could be seen in the distance. A huge sprawling camp holding up to 11000 POWs in 6 separate compounds, by far the largest camp for US fliers in German hands. In 1941 and 1942 Soviet prisoners arrived. 134 min The eight-day total distance of the march was 70-90 miles (120-150 Kilometers). Listen. In their place British, French and other Allied officers were transferred to Hadamar from the citadel of Mainz. Near to the town of Aquila, this was a transit camp. Fowler died March 1944, Escape through kitchen into German yard, across yard into Kommandantur cellar, out cellar into dry moat. Anthony Steel, POWs received: one blanket, a towel, a cup, a spoon and a piece of soap. With so many escape-prone prisoners housed together it was inevitable that they would plan escapes. Then a separate camp, Oflag II-E, was built for them on the west side of the main road. On Christmas Eve 1942 a number of officers arranged a fight outside one of the huts. During the Second World, War Oflag IV-C, situated in the thousand-year-old Colditz Castle, was one of the most famous German Army prisoner-of-war camps for enemy officers. Upham was soon recaptured and sent to the infamous Oflag IV-C (Colditz) on 14 October 1944. | Researchers should note that these reports mostly relate to the European, Mediterranean or North Africa theatres of war. Damian Lewis, The first to arrive were 403 men from the Allied campaign in Norway. Those who died in Stalag XXA were buried in the garrison military cemetery except Soviet POWs who were buried in a mass grave in the forest near Stalag 312, between Glinki and Cierpice. A command was issued to march from the camp westwards on the night 28/29 of January 1945 in advance of the Soviet Army. -Also known as Stalag 344, Stalag IV b/z and Stalag VIII-b. (Small camp with around 25 prisoners at any one time). They were all counter-intelligence operatives parachuted into Hungary to prevent it joining forces with Germany. Over the next few weeks the prisoners were transported via Klagenfurt to transit camps in Bari and Naples, from where they were eventually repatriated. 1,015 Officers held here as of 26/2/43 originally opened October 1942. (Pontedera is on the main Pisa autostrada today and was home to the Piaggio aircraft factory (since 1946- the Vespa scooter factory). Located at Schirwindt (Sirvintos) in Lithuania. From February to April 1945 Neubrandenburg was a waypoint in the forced march westward of Allied prisoners from POW camps further east. Attempted to walk out disguised as a woman. The sounds of the encroaching American artillery could be heard getting louder and louder at this camp. 42521 (4546 British) POWs with 1029 officers in total held at this camp and the surrounding work camps. Records concerning Royal Air Force and Allied Air Force prisoners will be found in the correspondence of the Air Ministry in AIR 2 (code B 89), as well as in the Unregistered Papers (PoWs) in AIR 20 (code 89). 20,770 POWs here (53 British) with 1735 Officers. 117 min A SHAEF report dated 10/2/45 confirmed this move and the dispersal of the POWs amongst various camps. District XXI Nearest city Saarbrucken, Germany, on the French border. These magazines were published monthly and sent to prisoners families. An air strike on 6 December 1944 killed 118 POWs, there being no air raid shelter provided. 9 of the Soviet secret service (NKVD). Broadcast Sun 26 Feb 2023 at 9:30pm. Jack Hedley, Tous Public OFLAG XXIc/z Grune bei Lissa/Skoki, Poland. In 1941 more officer prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign mostly British, Yugoslavian, Serbs and Greeks. The others were at Oerbke (Stalag XI-D (321)) and Wietzendorf (Stalag X-D (310)). Michael Caine, There was also a further 'camp' adjacent called 'Belaria' which was opened in 1944 and used to house those suspected of attempting or aiding escape(rs). The Colditz Glider. Ben Macintyre has done it again. On reflection, these sources do show some relevant information and surprisingly confirm that Red Cross inspection visits were made to selected far east camps, although the integrity of these visits is debatable. 23 wooden huts were burnt down. It contained as many as 20,000 men at its peak, although up to 60,000 were incarcerated there at one time or another. Basil Dearden Originally designed to hold 4,000 in July 1942. In June 1942 the Polish officers were transferred to other camps, such as Oflag VII-A Murnau and Oflag VI-B, Dssel. Conditions in this camp were deplorable, as the rules of the Third Geneva Convention were not observed for Soviet prisoners. Eventually the camp from 1942 to early 1944 accommodated two thousand Dutch officers who between 1940 and 1942 were taken prisoner in the Netherlands. In good weather there was a fine view of the Alps to the south. Up until October 1943 - 2459 officers and 302 other ranks, 1 October 1943 - 2561 officers and 292 other ranks. 201 Bergamo hospital (also listed as H 201).

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