Wehrmacht and prisoners of war
Between the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and the unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945, around 10 million enemy soldiers were taken prisoner by German troops.
By far the largest group was made up of Soviet prisoners of war, followed by French prisoners of war, Italian military internees and Polish prisoners.
The guidelines for the treatment of prisoners were issued by the High Command of the "Wehrmacht" (OKW) on the basis of the applicable international law of war. During the Second World War, this consisted of international agreements that stipulated the rights and treatment of prisoners of war. The most important treaties were the Hague Land Warfare Convention of 1907 and the Geneva Convention of 1929.
Among other things, the Geneva Convention regulated the principles of treatment, accommodation and feeding of prisoners. The German Empire ratified the agreements on 21 February 1934, which became legally binding upon publication in the Reichsgesetzblatt.
System of prisoner-of-war camps
The Prisoner of War department in the High Command of the "Wehrmacht" (OKW) was responsible for the care of prisoners of war in German custody and the organisation of the camp system.
After their capture, the enemy soldiers were initially transferred from the assembly centres to Transit Camps ("Dulags") behind the front. They were then separated according to rank and housed in Officers' camps ("Oflags") or POW main camps for Service ranks and sergeants ("Stalags") in Germany, and later also in the occupied territories.
The territory of the German Empire was divided into "military districts", which were labelled with Roman numerals, e.g. military district XI Hanover. The prisoner of war camps were labelled with the number of the military districts and a capital letter, e.g. "Oflag XI A" Osterode or "POW base camp XI B" Fallingbostel. The camps for Soviet prisoners of war were given an additional number, e.g. "Prisoner of War base camp (Stalag 311 XI C)" (311) Bergen-Belsen.
The Stalags were responsible for the organisation and administration of labour deployment. From here, the prisoners were distributed to work details, which were organisationally assigned to the corresponding main camp. Prisoners were placed with employers via the labour offices, which set up branch offices in the Stalags for this purpose.
POW main camp on the territory of today's state of Lower Saxony
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The Bathorn and Neu Versen camps were set up in 1938 for prisoners of the judicial administration. The "Wehrmacht" (German armed forces) took over these and seven other camps in Emsland immediately after the start of the war. Prisoners of war of various nationalities were housed here.
The Groß Hesepe, Dalum Wietmarschen and Alexisdorf Subcamps were subordinate to Stalag VI C Bathorn, while the Oberlangen, Wesuwe and Fullen Subcamps were subordinate to Stalag VI B Neu Versen. After Stalag VI B Neu Versen was disbanded in May 1942, VI C Bathorn took over the camp, including the Subcamps.
The dead of the camps were buried in the cemeteries of Oberlangen, Wesuwe, Groß-Fullen, Dalum, Wietmarschen/Füchtenfeld and Alexisdorf (Neugnadenfeld).
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Stalag X B Sandbostel was established in 1939 to accommodate Polish prisoners of war. Until the end of the war, prisoners of war of many different nationalities passed through the camp.
From the end of October 1941, it also functioned as a reception and distribution camp for Soviet prisoners of war in order to relieve the "Russian camp" in Wietzendorf. At the same time, the camp was once again assigned its own labour deployment district. Around 3,000 Soviet prisoners of war died in Sandbostel in the winter of 1941/42 and the exact number of deaths up to the end of the war (at least 8,000) is still unknown.
In April 1945, the Schutzstaffel SS ("Protection Squadron") deported around 9500 prisoners from the main camp and several satellite camps of Neuengamme concentration camp to Sandbostel. Around 3,000 of them died of epidemics, exhaustion or violence by the guards.
The camp was liberated by the British army on 29 April 1945.
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Stalag X C Nienburg was established in 1940 and existed until the end of the war. As a so-called Shadow Camp, it was not intended for the reception of prisoners of war, but was only responsible for the administration of prisoners of war on labour deployment. Between 1940 and 1945, Stalag X C was responsible for up to 45,000 prisoners of war of various nationalities in the Weser-Ems region and Bremen.
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The POW main camps X D (310) in Wietzendorf was one of a total of twelve camps set up in the German Empire in the summer of 1941 specifically for Soviet prisoners of war. Wietzendorf was at times the largest camp for Soviet prisoners of war in Germany.
Between July 1941 and March 1942, around 14,300 Soviet prisoners of war died of malnutrition and exhaustion in the Wietzendorf camp. In July 1942, Wietzendorf was taken over by Stalag X B Sandbostel as a Subcamp. It now served primarily as a hospital for Soviet prisoners of war. From autumn 1943, tens of thousands of Italian prisoners of war came to Wietzendorf. They were registered here and most of them were immediately sent to work details in military districts X and XI.
From 1944, Wietzendorf was used as Oflag 83 to house Italian officers. It was the largest officers' camp for Italian military internees in the German Empire until Liberation in April 1945. In February 1945, the "Wehrmacht" (German armed forces) transferred 3,000 French officers from Arnswalde, Sandbostel and Nienburg to Wietzendorf.
Between August 1941 and April 1945, at least 16,000 Soviet prisoners of war, 30 Italian military internees and one French prisoner of war died in Wietzendorf.
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POW base camp XI B Fallingbostel existed for the entire duration of the war from 1939 to 1945 and was one of the largest camps of the "Wehrmacht" (German armed forces) with 95,000 prisoners of various nationalities at times. Most of them were distributed across more than 2,000 work details in the area of military districts XI. Stalag XI B also had a hospital with 800 beds. In 1942/43, the (previously independent) Bergen-Belsen and Oerbke prisoner of war camps were incorporated into POW base camp XI B Fallingbostel as branch camps.
POW base camp XI B Fallingbostel was liberated by British troops on 16 April.
In Fallingbostel, 132 French, 81 Yugoslav, 35 Belgian, 28 British, 28 US, 25 Polish and 20 Slovakian prisoners of war died, as well as one Canadian, one South African and one Dutch soldier. The number of Soviet prisoners of war who died is not known.
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POW main camp XI C (311) Bergen-Belsen was one of a total of twelve camps set up in the German Empire in the summer of 1941 specifically for Soviet prisoners of war. A hospital for Soviet prisoners of war with initially 700 and later 1,200 beds was attached to the camp.
Due to the inadequate rations for the prisoners, malnutrition and deficiency diseases occurred in the Bergen-Belsen camp and epidemics broke out due to the catastrophic sanitary conditions. By the end of March 1942, 14,000 Soviet prisoners of war had died. Stalag XI C (311) was dissolved in June 1943. The Prisoner of War hospital was taken over as a branch camp of the POW base camp XI B Fallingbostel - the main camp had been handed over to the Schutzstaffel SS ("Protection Squadron") shortly before.
From 1944, the Bergen-Belsen Subcamp also housed Italian military internees and, for a short time, Polish prisoners of war from the Warsaw uprising as well as French prisoners of war. The "Bergen-Belsen Subcamp" was dissolved on 15 January 1945 and the buildings were taken over by the Schutzstaffel SS ("Protection Squadron").
In total, around 19,600 Soviet prisoners of war, 142 Italian military internees and nine Polish prisoners of war died in the Bergen-Belsen prisoner of war camp.
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POW main camp XI D (321) Fallingbostel-Oerbke was one of a total of twelve camps set up in the German Empire in the summer of 1941 specifically for Soviet prisoners of war. Around 12,000 Soviet prisoners of war died in Oerbke between August 1941 and April 1942.
In April 1942, Stalag XI D (321) was dissolved and the camp and its prisoners were taken over as a branch camp of the neighbouring POW base camp XI B Fallingbostel. It continued to be used to house Soviet prisoners of war.
From autumn 1943, Italian prisoners of war also came to Oerbke. They were taken in, registered and in most cases immediately transferred to the work details in military districts XI. In the camp itself, the "Wehrmacht" (German armed forces) set up a hospital for the Italian military internees: 379 prisoners died there. In the summer of 1944, the hospital was moved from Oerbke to Bergen Belsen; British prisoners of war were subsequently housed here (Stalag 357).