Ilag
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Ilag is an abbreviation of the
Amongst the internees were British born citizens who were resident in the Channel Islands. In October 1941, Adolf Hitler ordered the internment of 8,000 British, in retaliation for the internment by the British Army of 800 Germans living in Iran. The order was not carried out until it was reissued by Hitler in September 1942. The German commander of the islands, based in Jersey, was ordered to deport to camps in Germany all British citizens not born in the islands. The numbers were reduced, with around 2,200 men, women and children being deported.
Internment camps in Austria
- Ilag XVIII Spittal
Internment camps in Czechoslovakia
- Ilag IV Eisenberg
Internment camps in France 1940–1944
There were 219 internment camps in France during the Second World War. Several Ilags were set up in France by the German Army to hold citizens of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth countries that were caught by the rapid advance during the Battle of France. The main camps were:
Besançon
The camp at Besançon was called Frontstalag 142, or Caserne Vauban. At the end of 1940, 2,400 women, mostly British, were interned in the Vauban barracks and another 500 old and sick in the St. Jacques hospital close by. In early 1941 many of them were released; the rest were transferred to Vittel.
Saint-Denis
The camp was located in the old barracks built in the middle of the 19th century at Saint-Denis, close to Paris. The camp was opened June 1940 and existed until liberated by the United States Army in August 1944. Part of the grounds were surrounded by barbed wire to provide open space for exercise. In early 1942, there were more than 1,000 male British internees in the camp. The meagre food rations were augmented by the
Vittel
Also called Frontstalag 121,
In early 1942, women over 60, men over 75 and children under 16 were released. The overall population was thus reduced to about 2,400. The inmates included a number of American families and women. Provisions for recreation included a local theatre and a park with seven tennis courts.
A young New Zealander and two British women escaped in August 1941 and made their way to England.[2]
Other camps in France
Internment camps in Germany World War II
Ilag V Liebenau
A camp in Liebenau , near Meckenbeuren in Württemberg, on Lake Constance, opened in 1940 and operated until 1945. It was in a castle and four adjacent buildings. Previously it had been a mental hospital run by nuns. On Adolf Hitler's orders about 700 of the patients were exterminated by injection under a program retrospectively named Aktion T4.[3]
The first internees were about 300 British citizens from Poland. More British were brought in 1941 from Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands and other countries. Red Cross packages augmented the food rations. The guards were older German veterans of World War I and treated the internees well. Several had been prisoners of war in British camps where they had been treated well. In January 1943 many of the married women were transferred to Vittel (see above).
Ilag V-B Biberach
Built in 1939 as barracks, this camp became an Ilag accommodating
In January 1943, the camp held 1,011 internees: 429 men, 437 women, and 145 children.[5]: 52–55
20 Channel Island civilians died in Biberach.
Ilag V-C Wurzach
This camp also held
12 Channel Island civilians died in Wurzach.
Ilag VII Laufen and Tittmoning
British and American citizens were interned in
Frank Stroobant, the camp senior, was invited in April 1943 to attend an inspection in the forest of Katyn in Russia where a massacre of 22,000, mainly Polish army and police officers, by Soviet forces had been uncovered. He was the only civilian witness at the event[8]: 118–145 From June 1943 the camp senior became Ambrose Sherwill.
Boredom was a major problem. Some internees were permitted to undertake paid work outside camp.[9]: 195 The moral view of whether work should be done was strongly debated in the camp, but as everyone was a private individual, it was up to each person to make their own decision.[8]: 82
In April 1944, Laufen held 459 British internees (417
Other camps in Germany
- Ilag 6 Bad Godesberg
- Ilag Bad Neuenahr
- Ilag Buchenwald
- Ilag Dachau
- Ilag 6 Dorsten
- Ilag 10 Sandbostel
- Ilag VII/Z Tittmoning
- Ilag 3 Treuenbrietzen
- Ilag XIII Wülzburg
Internment camps in the Netherlands
- Ilag Haaren, North Brabant
- Ilag Sint-Michielsgestel, North Brabant
Internment camps in Poland
- Ilag 21 Chludowo
- Ilag (Oflag 6) Kreuzburg
- Ilag (Stalag 344) Kreuzburg
- Ilag VIII/Z Kreuzburg
- Ilag Tost
- Ilag VIII Tost
- Ilag VIII/H Tost
Repatriation
- At least one small group of internees returned from D-Day in 1944.[10]
- A small number of Guernsey internees, considered too ill to remain in Laufen, were repatriated individually as the occasion arose accompanied by a couple of German soldiers and a Guernsey internee in his capacity as Red Cross representative. The route taken was across occupied France to St Malo where they would embark by boat to Guernsey; the accompanying party would return after a few days.
- After lengthy negotiations in Switzerland, 900 British internees, mostly elderly or ill, were exchanged in Lisbon for a similar number of Germans interned in South Africa in July 1944.
- In September 1944, 125 elderly and infirm Channel Islanders were repatriated on the SS Drottningholm via Sweden to the UK. Following a three-day January trip by the Laufen senior, Ambrose Sherwill to Berlin to meet the Swiss delegation, 24 from Laufen were included in a further 212 being repatriated in April 1945.[5]: 172–9
- The remainder of the Channel Islanders were repatriated after the camps were liberated by the French Army (Biberach) on 22 April 1945.[5]: 70–1 Wurzach was liberated on 28 April 1945 by a French Moroccan armoured unit who were unaware of the internees.[7]: 118 Laufen was liberated on 4 May 1945, by Americans of 40th Armoured Division.[8]: 152–7
See also
- Internment
- Internment of Japanese Americans
- List of concentration and internment camps
- Deportations from the German-occupied Channel Islands
References
- ^ New Zealand report p.146
- ^ a b c New Zealand report on civilian camps, p.95
- ^ "AAngela Maranian's Story - Internment Camps in Germany and France - Part 1". WW2 People's War. BBC Online. 4 June 2005.
- ISBN 3-9806818-2-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-0902633636.
- ISBN 978-0750966375.
- ^ ISBN 086120-008-X.
- ^ a b c d Stroobant, Frank. One Man's War. Guernsey Press 1967.
- ^ ISBN 978-1847531490.
- ^ See references in THE GERMAN OCCUPATION OF JERSEY: THE WARTIME DIARY OF LESLIE SINEL, and also the identity card of Frank Renouf Clements (ref D/S/A/3/A256), held in the Jersey Archive
Sources
- Deportation from Channel Islands
- Commonwealth citizens interned in France p.94
- Conditions in Ilags, p.439
- Story of Armenian woman living in Holland, interned in Libenau, etc
- Das war nicht nur "Karneval im August - by Adler, Reinhold. Biberach 2002 (ISBN 3-9806818-2-3) - in German.
- Das Wurzacher Schloss 1940 - 1945 - by Rothenhäusler, Gisela. Lindenberg 2008 (ISBN 978-3-89870-502-8) - in German
- Channel Island internees who died during internment
External links
- Ilag Wurzach
- List of Ilags in German