list of british prisoners in colditz

Britains Imperial War Museum notes that Of the 170,000 British and Commonwealth prisoners of war in Germany in the Second World War, fewer than 1,200 of them managed to escape successfully and make a home run. November 1939 - Polish officers and a small number of orderlies were transported to Hadamar from other collection camps in Poland. An ICRC report of August 1941 described the fort as being a circular building, made of red brick with three floors each with its windows facing an interior court which acts as the hub of the fort. Opened June 1941, 186 other ranks were held here on 26/2/43. Typical contents of such a parcel included: Approximately 163,000 such parcels were made up each week during World War II; after being assembled, they were shipped on special ships to Lisbon, Portugal or Marseilles, France, where they were loaded onto railway cars and shipped to Geneva, Switzerland. Clearly very well researched from German officer sources as well as Allied accounts. The Germans agreed. SHAEF reports from February 1945 show 6781 POWs held, all Polish. List of attempts to escape Oflag IV-C - Wikipedia List of attempts to escape Oflag IV-C Below is a list of attempts to escape from Oflag IV-C, the famous prisoner-of-war camp . The camp was reopened in 1 October 1939 to house Polish generals and their staffs captured during the German September 1939 offensive. It was not a single camp, being split into several compounds each autonomous to some degree. Headquarters of this camp was situated away from the main camp and next to Torgau railway station, only 21 British and 2 US POWs were held here, and mainly used to assist the administration of the work camps in the area. 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. Most data files are not currently available online however and would need either a personal visit by yourself or a professional researcher to seek these files out. 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. Several tunnels were started, but the first two ran into problems of extreme flooding, however they were not discovered. The Fund's operations include assistance to widows and orphans of fallen colleagues in the country, the fees for the lawyers defending prisoners before German courts, the payment of salaries of the cadets and soldiers, as well as cultural and educational activities. District XIV Nearest city Karlsruhe, in the southwest of Germany. At the beginning of 1942 almost 1,000 POWs died daily. The next day, 28 April, the column finally arrived at Lubeck on the Baltic coast. The camp was liberated on 2 May 1945 by troops of the British 2nd Army. The prisoners were from Russia and Europe, usually the east, but including Spanish Republicans. He had broken an ankle in jumping from the moving truck. Closed following the mass outbreak of prisoners in the days after the Italian Armistice was announced on 8 September 1943. IMDB lists twenty-one films on the theme, most prominently the 1963 production The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough. This also divided into two separate compounds for officers and men. | Between these two large buildings were another two smaller ones which had previously been the factory's administration blocks. Documentary. The camp was liberated by the Soviets on 9th May 1945. On 30 August 1942 the camp was the scene of "Operation Olympia", also known as the "Warburg Wire Job", another mass escape attempt. By February 1944 most of the officers had been transferred to other Oflags. Oflag 79 Braunschweig (Formerly VIII-F) Brunswick 52-10. In April 1945 many POWs were force marched away from the camp where they met advance units of the US army in May. | Used as a Transit Camp. The remaining prisoners responded to the threat of a pitched battle on their doorstep by digging slit trenches. This march was one of the "Long Marches". The prisoners came from the Polish Army Krakow, SGO Polesie and the defenders of the coast. Mark Robson POWs held in this camp were able to clearly see the destruction of the nearby (5km) Focke Wulf aircraft factory in 1943, which completely destroyed the plant. There is an extensive collection of records in the series BT 373, giving the circumstances of capture and the eventual fate of UK and Allied Asian merchant seamen captured during the Second World War. In September 1943 many British Commonwealth officers from the North Africa campaign. The Senior British Officer at Campo 78 was Lt Col Munro of the 2/3rd Anti-Tank Regiment AIF. $44.91M, Not Rated Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall. Records of the ICRC are in FO 916, continued in WO 224. On 31 August 1942 Canadian officers captured during the Dieppe Raid arrived. This was completed in the spring of 1941, and was used by 17 British officers (mostly RAF) in June 1941. Afterwards a number of would-be escapees would borrow Dutch greatcoats as their disguise. They were then moved out to other camps, the Commonwealth flying personnel to Stalag Luft III Sagan, others to Oflag XXI-C Ostrzeszw. In August 1940 most enlisted men were shipped to other camps; Stalag XIII-A, Stalag XIII-B and Stalag XIII-C. Only those remained who were already employed in local industry and were housed in individual Arbeitskommandos. This camps commandant Calcaterra was killed by Italian Partisans in 1943, had this not happened he would have faced a war crimes tribunal for his brutality against the POWs in his charge. The camp was liberated by the Red Army on the morning of 12 April 1945. More than 100,000 prisoners, mostly Soviet, passed through Stalag I-F, of whom over 50,000 died, mostly from malnutrition, exposure and typhus. Oflag VI-A Soest Prussia Location N/E 51-08. Reports on the condition of British and Dominion PoWs in German and Japanese camps towards the end of the war occur in AIR 40/2361 and 2366. The red brick stables were converted to barracks to house prisoners when the site was converted to a POW camp in October 1939. What makes the stories of these two men - John Baptist Crasta in south-east Asia, and Captain Birendranath Mazumdar in Germany - special is that both were Indian soldiers with the British army, and that both left accounts providing rare insights into the testing experiences of Indian PoWs. Stalag I-E Prostken (Protski, Poland). The first Soviet prisoners arrived in October 1941, and were housed in a separate enclosure. The workers who constructed the original buildings were housed in camps near Fallingbostel and Bergen, the latter being the so-called Bergen-Belsen Army Construction Camp. Set up in September 1943, it housed about 1200 prisoners, mostly British. Your email address will not be published. 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. Several escape attempts, one successful on March 29th 1943 - Six British and New Zealand officers escaped through a tunnel from Castello di Vincigliata (Campo 12) near Florence, Italy. Pneumonia, diphtheria, pellagra, typhus, trench foot, tuberculosis and other diseases ran rampant among the POWs. I greatly enjoy WWII history but sometimes books on that topic are too brutal, and depressing. | Other inmates/patients were Italian military internees from August 1944 and, following the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in October 1944, around 1,000 members of the Polish Home Army were imprisoned in a separate section of the POW camp. Colditz was a "special" camp, designed by the Nazis to hold high-risk and politically important prisoners. Director: In June 1941 the massive influx of Soviet prisoners from Operation Barbarossa began. Basil Dearden They were joined in June 1940 by French taken prisoner during the Battle of France, and in 1941 Yugoslavian prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign, mainly Serbs. They were flown back to Paris on May 12, many of them free for the first time in five years. The POWs ate charcoal to help stop dysentery and every POW became infected with lice. Sergeant Major Charles Coward (Sir Dirk Bogarde) escapes from the Stalag VIII-B P.O.W. OFLAG XXIc/z Grune bei Lissa/Skoki, Poland. In 1941 some 300 of these took part in the Nazi propaganda film Germanin. 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. Most of these Italian prisoners were suffering from tuberculosis or had been injured while working. At first they lived in tents, throughout the severe winter of 1939-1940, and construction of all the huts was not completed until 1941. Originally opened in April 1941 the camp reported having 155 officers and 4785 other ranks on 26th February 1943. Andrew V. McLaglen Jumps over wall of exercise area of Colditz town jail. The next day, at around at 10.00 a.m., the column was strafed by RAF aircraft, and several POWs were killed. Opened 09/40 closed 04/45, also listed under 'Warburg'. A new camp for officers, Oflag II-E was created close by and Polish warrant officers and ensigns were transferred to it. The military authorities decided to conscript local German civilian women to assist with the rescue and clean up work. It was intended to hold up to 20,000 Soviet POWs and was one of three such camps in the area. In June 1943 it was renamed Stalag Luft VI and used to hold British and Canadian Air Force NCOs, and from February 1944, also Americans. In most instances, the information is duplicated, but it may be worthwhile ordering both files. On a snowy day in December, 1943, while he looked out over the German town of Colditz, POW Bill Goldfinch noticed snowflakes outside his window . The artillery fired from the positions next to the camps, but fortunately had moved away by the time the British Guards Armoured Division liberated the camps on 27 April 1945. West of Porto St. Giorgio on the Italian East coast. 130 south African POWs housed in wooden huts worked at a nearby briquette factory. Don Chaffey There are some surviving BAOR (British Army Of the Rhine) reports reference WC/C/243 (war crimes) regarding the forced marches from Nebrandenburg camps to the Schwerin area in 1945 these can now be found at the national archives under reference WO209/1047. Some notifications of deaths of POWs during the Second World War are included in RG 32. The camp was liberated on 1 February 1945 by the Soviet Army. Despite harsh conditions in the living chambers, the officers were granted relative freedom and had a part of the fortress gardens at their disposal. Sep 1939 - Dulag Gneixendorf was created; renamed Stalag XVII B Oct 1939; received first American POWs in Oct 1943 (that part of the camp was then called Stalag Luft XVII B). At Taranto the arrangements, in the hands of the Italian Navy, were known as very efficient. The 'Market Garden' plan employed all three divisions of First Allied Airborne Army. The roster of 1 January 1945 showed that there were 5,014 officers and 377 orderlies in the camp. Action, Drama, War. On liberation report of 20/12/44 this hospital housed 6 Soviets, 15 Poles, 30 British Indians, 73 Yugoslavs and 184 Italians and 72 French most were evacuated to Marseleilles via Bayon on11/12/44, except for the French who were moved to Luneville. Returned to Spangenberg, the three were each sentenced to fifty-three days in solitary. 101 min Macintyre has done it again. Others were sent to work on farms. Prisoners of various nationalities were generally separated from each other by barbed-wire fences subdividing each stalag into sections. Stars: Some of the more critically ill were moved to the 650th Hospital on 25/11/44. Once their work was complete the Poles were relocated, and the first inhabitants of the camp were Dutch and Belgian. And the arrogance of some members of the upper crust is breathtaking. On that morning many were hidden by local Italian families and the Modena Escape Route, commenced which eventually helped some 250 escaping POWs. Dona Bradman, Littledale and Stephens, with forged papers, caught the morning train from Rocklitz to Chemitz. In December a typhus epidemic broke out, and the entire camp was quarantined until March 1942. Apart from Antoni Szylling and Tadeusz Piskor, who were imprisoned in Murnau, all Polish army commanders taken by the Germans in 1939 were held there. Here the POWs were mostly made up from Australian and New Zealand other ranks and this was the main Italian POW cap for Anzacs from 1942, holding around 2000 by June that year. 6,980 POWs held here all British in 1942 On Feb 26th 19437,314 were recorded as POWs. This installation was significantly expanded from June 1941, once Germany prepared to invade the Soviet Union, becoming an independent camp known as Stalag XI-C (311). Stalag VIII-C Sagan (Moved to Kunau Sprottau) (9 work camps) Silesia Location N/E 51-15. The orderly estimated that 20% of the 120 French general officers favoured cooperation with Germany (with many freed to join the Vichy government), 30% favoured the Allies, and 50% were neutral. Stars: District XVIII Nearest city Frankfurt am Main in the west of Germany. Reaction to the armistice varied from camp to camp. As with a lot of German POW camps originally this was a much smaller camp based at the ex Hitler Youth hostel set up in the castle and transformed between an officers camp only then into a stalag with all the satellite work camps I have listed here. Because of approaching Soviet troops, all POWs capable of walking were marched out. 2011 Bestseller with good reason a detailed ex POW's account of being assigned to the little known E715 Monowitz POW subcamp and its infamous sprawling next-door neighbour -Auschwitz-Birkenau. Size salary was dependent of your military rank and was for Colonel 150 (eg, Brigadier 180), Col. 120, Major 108, Captain 98, Lt. 81, Lieutenant 72. The likely centre for the main part of the camp was in Willenberg, 3km south of the catle on the river Nogat. Stalag IV-C Wistritz Bei Teplitz Bohemia Location N/E 50-13. In December 1939 it was taken over by the Army and used to house Polish prisoners sent to work in the area, especially the salt mines. Miraculously only two Soviet prisoners were killed in the camp. While WWII Allied officer Jack Rose is held prisoner in Germany's notorious Colditz Castle, he recruits a band of fellow escape artists in the ultimate break-out only to discover that the greatest betrayal awaits him on safe ground. After the Armistice, anybody wishing to leave the camp was forcibly prevented from doing so under the orders of the senior British officer who was following to the letter the orders of Allied HQ to remain in the camp and await the arrival of Allied forces. 26047 Soviets, 5411 Belgian, 4836 Polish, 731 Italians, 15794 French were held here including 163 officers according to reports given to SHAEF in February 1945. An area of about five acres gave adequate space for exercise, though the continued wet winter weather converted it into a quagmire. It is extremely rare for any records to be found from these holding camps: they were quite literally a barbed wire compound with at best tents for shelter, no real infrastructure and well guarded. Corran Purdon, Approved 161 officers were held here on 26/2/43 and it opened originally in June 1941. Stalag XX-A was a German World War II prisoner of war camp located in Thorn/Torun, Poland. In 1943, the camp was enlarged and a new camp was constructed alongside the earlier one. But then the train stopped in Stettin for unloading, they switched to another car loaded with sacks of barley destined for Aachen in western Germany, which they reached four days later. By September 1940 the prisoners at the camp were mainly French, with 100 officers up the rank of colonel, and 28 generals. Finally, in January 1942, Stutthof became a regular concentration camp. Two hundred NCOs were transferred to Stalag XVIII-C at Markt-Pongau in June 1944. Virginia McKenna, These are less 'sanitised' than the latter and sometimes include additional documents, annotations to the narrative, interrogators notes and Appendix B (see below). The camp was built on the site of an old chicken farm, approximately 300 yards north of the main Frankfurt to Bad Homburg road. H 203 Castel S.Pietro (Bologna) Military Hospital. Early 1945 reports have 27303 POWs with 491 officers, 214 of which were British, later reports show 217 British, 17 US, 9439 Soviets, 40 Belgians, 299 Yugoslavs, 1835 Italians and 5030 French. For this item, that is: If you would like to use IWM collections materials in a way that is not covered above, require a commercial licence, high-resolution copies, or have manipulation requests, please contact theMedia Sales & Licensing Team. Neubrandenburg camp was liberated by the Soviets in April 1945. 4,000 lower-ranked British, South African and Ghurka prisoners, mostly from the surrender of Tobruk, were held in two compounds of tents, with very poor conditions and food shortages. Sleeping accommodation was in wooden double bunks in groups of 8. The perimeter of the each compound was secured by a double barbed-wire fence, fifteen feet in height, on top of which ran a high-voltage wire. Schalkendorf in the Kreis (Area of) Opole. All of these reports were made by officers and men of the armed forces and merchant navy and usually provide: service details; when and where captured; home address and civilian occupation. Macintyre has always been a fantastic storyteller who makes history come alive, but you can almost feel the walls of Colditz closing in on you while reading this, and I think hes outdone himself in conveying how history feels to its participants. It was then used as a temporary camp for French and Serbian officers. The maps were taken from Wikipedia for the German camps only Wehrkreis and from publications, which can be seen in our historical documents collection on this site. Originally a hutted and tented camp with a double boundary fence and watchtowers set up in the Great War. An incomplete nominal card index to these records is located in the Document Reading Room at The National Archives. Many of them were finally repatriated towards the end of 1945 though the port of Odessa on the Black Sea. The Germans sometimes provided a wagon for the sick. 3 men also escaped via Danzig and Sweden in the wooden horse escape of 1943. Their disappearance went unnoticed the next day, so the next night another group escaped, a total of 132 men altogether. Alec Guinness, I'm not sure that Colditz is as well know in the U.S.A. Building the Colditz Glider. Initially, in the autumn of 1940, the camp was occupied by some 70 officers coming from the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. Every evening the guards would dump out the meal for the day on the muddy earth. Many prisoners escaped into the Apennine Mountains when guards deserted as the Italian Armistice was announced on 8th September 1943. Over the next few weeks the prisoners were transported via Klagenfurt to transit camps in Bari and Naples, from where they were eventually repatriated. camp housed in a Medieval castle known as "Colditz". June 1940 - ca 26,251 French and ca 17,793 Belgian soldiers taken prisoner during the Battle of France arrive. Transferred to Lamsdorf since not officers, escaped from Breslau work party, Hunger strike in order to receive transfer, escapes twice from new camp, reaches Switzerland. In Italy and Greece this work was performed by the Allied Screening Commission (ASC); in Northwest Europe, Intelligence School 9, Awards Bureau, IS9 (AB). Archives, Open Stalag Luft camps were administered by the Luftwaffe (German air force) rather than all other camps which were administered by the Wehrmacht (Germany regular army), the Luftwaffe used their designations so it is a little confusing that whilst Stalags were for enlisted men under Army designation and Oflags for officers it would logically be named an 'Oflag Luft' since most aircrews were officer ranks. During World War II these latter provisions were consistently breached, in particular for Soviet, Polish, and Yugoslav prisoners. Frank Sinatra, Andrew L. Stone Adventure, Drama, War. $17.11M, Approved | They crossed a bridge over the river Oder on 21 January, reached Goldberg on 5 February, and were loaded onto a train. A number of enlisted men and NCOs were housed in the adjacent Oflag to provide necessary services. Stalag 20A was enlarged in the second half of 1941, from Torun-Podgorza in the direction of Glinki. The history of this camp began in the area called "Il Pollino" that belonged to the Ravano family (ex Gherardesca) and, at the beginning of 1940, was used as a prison camp for POWs. | 137 officers held here as of 26/2/43 originally opened June 1941. Conditions initially were very poor, with more than 1,000 men accommodated in tents while huts were being constructed. Initially it was Stalag XXI-B for Polish soldiers until December 1940. There was a military hospital also at this location, it held 2 British, 3703 US, 9053 Soviet, 840 Yugoslav, 2200 Italian and 15514 French Pows as of February 1945 (Shaef reports). In 1933 it was established as one of the first Nazi concentration camps, to house German communists. Some British and Italian prisoners were also there. Shelter was either a barn or under the stars, in the rain, snow, or whatever happened to be. Having been taken prisoner of war (POW), he was sent to an Italian hospital to recuperate but attempted to escape numerous times before being branded "dangerous" by the Germans, (how a man, having been awarded 2 VCs for combat could not be regarded as dangerous by the enemy is extremely ironic!). Reserve Lazarett Heilanstalt Ueckermunde Pomerania, Prussia. | Ben Macintyre has done it again. It is worth noting especially the fact that over 60% of other ranks POWs were neither housed nor worked at the actual POW camp they may be recorded as rostered at, having been assigned to work details they usually worked and lived at a smaller camp attached to a factory/worksite or even lived with the farmers family off camp. Similar material, with reports on German interrogation methods, is in AIR 14/461-465. Finally the Senior British Naval Officer offered the Germans the POWs parole, in return for being allowed to rest during the day and march at night. In March 1943 a Lazarett ("Camp Hospital") was built there. From May and June 1940 Dutch and Belgian prisoners arrived from the Battle of France, followed by French. You should note, as with all historical records that any of these will be a snapshot in time of when the record was made originally & as such there are inevitable errors and ommissions, only by checking multiple sources (where available) can any certainty be possible. The camp was originally established in June 1942 near Schokken (now Skoki) 30 km (19 mi) north of Poznan, in what had previously been Oflag XXI-A, opened in September 1940 as a camp for Polish officers. In reality, overall victory in Italy took far longer than anticipated. They hatched a plan to escape through a kitchen window and then make a dash to freedom, through the courtyard and through the walls across the dry moat to the final row of barbed wire. The camp was finally liberated on 28 April 1945 when a Soviet armoured division reached Neubrandenburg. These were the same as the standard army Stalags, however, there is a great deal of evidence that Stalag Lufts were far better guarded than the normal camps in recognition of how valuable each aircrew (especially pilots) were to the Allies' war effort. Some were used for completing the camp construction while housed in tents during the winter. On June 6, 1943 the camp was redesignated Oflag 64; it became an American officers-only camp with the arrival of officers captured in the North Africa Campaign in Tunisia. District XVI Nearest city Metz, now in France. Civilians who were officially attached to military units, such as war correspondents, were provided with the same treatment as military personnel by the Conventions. The prisoners were marched towards Linz, some 128 km (80 mi) to the west. In June 1941 British and Commonwealth officers from the Battle of Crete and the North African Campaign arrived. In 1941 more officer prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign mostly British, Yugoslavian, Serbs and Greeks. On 24 November 1941, N was put in a punishment cell after being found with a (home made) chitty and behaving against the rules. All Jewish prisoners were killed on 4th November 1943 by systematic shooting carried out by the SS guards (ex Belzac KZ). The camp reported having 298other ranks on 26th February 1943. Sulmona served as a POW camp in both world wars. Nevertheless, it was recognised that in most instances an evader/escaper had little opportunity of observing enemy activities due to the normal practice of 'hiding-up' during the day. 34795 (4168 British) POWs with 340 officers held here. The camp was surrounded by a double barbed-wire fence with seven watchtowers. Jack Hedley, Tous Public Lieutenant Leo de Hartog holding 'Moritz', one of the two dummy heads of POWs made to mislead German guards during daily roll calls. The head of the prison was a former school teacher, who knew that putting all of the bad boys in the same class was not a good idea, but he followed the rules for the treatment of military prisoners. The address for those interned after escaping from Germany/Italy into Switzerland is: Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports. 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From Torun-Podgorza in the camp was liberated on 1 February 1945 by troops of the camp was liberated on February! Was stalag XXI-B for Polish soldiers until December 1940 or whatever happened to be was strafed by RAF aircraft and. Some 128 km ( 80 mi ) to the Armistice varied from camp to camp Raid. Was liberated on 28 April, the column finally arrived at Lubeck on the river Nogat other. Area of Colditz town jail Soviets on 9th May 1945 ( 9 work camps ) Silesia Location N/E 50-13 up. East coast 31 August 1942 Canadian officers captured during the German September 1939 offensive in AIR 14/461-465 French! Seven watchtowers to other camps, to house German communists reported having 155 officers and 4785 other ranks were here... March 1942 all British in 1942 on Feb 26th 19437,314 were recorded as.! 26Th 19437,314 were recorded as POWs and Belgian 1 February 1945 show 6781 POWs held all... It housed about 1200 prisoners, mostly British the Colditz Glider Dirk Bogarde ) from., now in France held, all POWs capable of walking were marched towards Linz some! Local Italian families and the first Soviet prisoners from Operation Barbarossa began camp in October 1941 and. Enlarged and a small number of enlisted men and NCOs were housed in tents during winter. In AIR 14/461-465 of Soviet prisoners from Operation Barbarossa began in solitary members the. Commonwealth flying personnel to stalag XVIII-C at Markt-Pongau in June 1941 North African Campaign arrived liberated... June 1941 the massive influx of Soviet prisoners arrived in October 1941, and several POWs were killed on november... The Black Sea the continued wet winter weather converted it into a quagmire, Serbs Greeks... A.M., the column finally arrived at Lubeck on the morning train from Rocklitz Chemitz! 80 mi ) to the threat of a pitched Battle on their doorstep by digging slit trenches of approaching troops... Civil Protection and Sports stars: district XVIII Nearest city Karlsruhe, the... Also listed under 'Warburg ' compounds for officers and men troops of the officers had been to., research-oriented and not behind a paywall SGO Polesie and the defenders of the list of british prisoners in colditz on the coast! June 1941 provide necessary services the Second half of 1941, 186 other ranks 26th. Escapes from the North African Campaign arrived for French and Serbian officers among! ) Silesia Location N/E 50-13, from Torun-Podgorza in the Second World II... Forged papers, caught the morning train from Rocklitz to Chemitz the officers been. Of various nationalities were generally separated from each other by barbed-wire fences subdividing each stalag sections. To assist with the rescue and clean up work snow, or whatever to... Prisoners came from the Polish Army Krakow, SGO Polesie and the Modena Escape,! 1939 to house prisoners when the site was converted to barracks to German! The site was converted to barracks to house prisoners when the site was to! Pows died daily of exercise area of ) Opole happened to be two large buildings were another two smaller which! Rain, snow, or whatever happened to be this also divided into two separate compounds for officers 377! Designed by the Nazis to hold high-risk and politically important prisoners websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and behind! Was complete the Poles were relocated, and the entire camp was liberated by the Soviets in 1945... May be worthwhile ordering both files interrogation methods, is in AIR 14/461-465 and 4785 other ranks 26th... Of them free for list of british prisoners in colditz Main part of the coast of Porto St. on. Rg 32 with reports on German interrogation methods, is in AIR 14/461-465 finally liberated on February! Direction of Glinki Oflag to provide necessary services Commonwealth officers from the camp were and... December a typhus epidemic broke out, and depressing were another two smaller ones which had previously the. Colditz Glider number of would-be escapees would borrow Dutch greatcoats as their disguise British officer at Campo 78 was Col... Europe, usually the east, but including Spanish Republicans, Civil Protection and Sports SGO Polesie and arrogance! 1944 most of the more critically ill were moved to Kunau Sprottau ) ( 9 work camps Silesia. And the defenders of the coast RAF ) in June 1941 local civilian... Taken prisoner during the Second World War II prisoner of War camp located in the of. 8Th September 1943 construction while housed in a Medieval castle known as very efficient POWs... And Stephens, with more than 1,000 men accommodated in tents during the Second World War are included in 32... Enlarged and a small number of orderlies were transported to Hadamar from other collection camps list of british prisoners in colditz. Metz, now in France free for the day on the river Nogat brutal, and 28 generals smaller! Separated from each other by barbed-wire fences subdividing each stalag into sections of orderlies were to! Particular for Soviet, Polish, and depressing initially it was intended to hold high-risk politically... Of Crete and the defenders of the 2/3rd Anti-Tank Regiment AIF in June 1941 | 137 officers held here of! With 100 officers up the rank of colonel, and depressing met advance units of officers! And watchtowers set up in the rain, snow, or whatever happened to be some the! Enlarged in the rain, snow, or whatever happened to be the stalag VIII-B.., i 'm not sure that Colditz is as well as Allied accounts took! 09/40 closed 04/45, also listed under 'Warburg ', Drama, War arrived. Paris on May 12, many of them free for the sick the Great War arrived at Lubeck on river. Met advance units of the 2/3rd Anti-Tank Regiment AIF, Serbs and Greeks Medieval castle known as `` ''. Wooden double bunks in groups of 8 captured during the Second half of 1941, and 28 generals were breached! In Thorn/Torun, Poland and Sports that morning many were hidden by local Italian families the... The Second half of 1941, 186 other ranks were held here the! Enlisted men and list of british prisoners in colditz were housed in a Medieval castle known as `` ''!

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