Stalag XVIII-A
Oflag XVIII-B/Stalag XVIII-A | |
---|---|
Wolfsberg, Carinthia | |
Coordinates | 46°49′47″N 14°50′15″E / 46.829605°N 14.837633°E |
Type | Prisoner-of-war camp |
Site information | |
Controlled by | Nazi Germany |
Site history | |
In use | 1939–1945 |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Garrison information | |
Occupants | Polish, Belgian and French officers (in Oflag XVIII-B) French, Belgian, British, Commonwealth, Soviet, Italian prisoners of war (in Stalag XVIII-A) |
Stalag XVIII-A was a
Camp history
The camp, first designated prisoners arrived in October 1941, and were housed in a separate enclosure.
In December a typhus epidemic broke out, and the entire camp was quarantined until March 1942. Many prisoners died, mainly Russians, as their living conditions and rations were substantially inferior to the other prisoners.[2] In June 1942, to ease overcrowding, three new barracks were built, and 400 British NCOs were transferred to Stalag XVIII-B at Spittal. In January 1943 the camp at Spittal became a Zweiglager (sub-camp) of Wolfsberg, and was redesignated as Stalag XVIII-A/Z. In March 1943 a Lazarett ("Camp Hospital") was built there.[2]
In November 1943, after the
On 18 December 1944 the camp was bombed by U.S. aircraft. Forty-six prisoners and several guards were killed. Both the British and French camp hospitals were hit, with the British hut being almost completely destroyed.[2] On the approach of Allied forces in April 1945 all fit prisoners from the camps and neighbouring labour units were marched east to Stalag XVIII-C.[2]
Officially, the camp was liberated by elements of the British 8th Army on 11 May 1945. In fact the prisoners had been in control of the camp since the 8th, the day of the German surrender. That day the Kommandant, Hauptmann Steiner, had handed over control of the camp to the Senior British Medical Officer and the "Men of Confidence". French and British prisoners disarmed their guards and took control of the camp armoury, and the local Post Office, Railway Station and Police Station. Over the next few weeks the prisoners were transported via Klagenfurt to transit camps in Bari and Naples, from where they were eventually repatriated. By the middle of June only Russian prisoners remained, these were eventually exchanged for British and American PoWs in Russian hands, near Graz. The camp then served as a British detention centre for ex-Nazis, before finally closing in mid-1947.[2]
Postwar
After the war, the camp was run by the British occupation forces for the internment and interrogation of former Nazi officials and war criminals from Carinthia and Styria; several were extradited to Yugoslavia or the Nuremberg trials. Renamed "Camp 373", it housed up to 7,000 inmates until its closure in 1948.
See also
- List of prisoner-of-war camps in Germany
References
- ^ Joffé, Constantin; Le Clercq, Jacques Georges Clemenceau, 1898-1972 (1943), We were free, Smith & Durrell, inc, p. 17
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d e f Brown, Ian (2005). "History of Stalag 18A". stalag18a.org.uk. Archived from the original on 26 October 2002. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
- ^ Brown, Ian (2011). "Work Camps". stalag18a.org.uk. Archived from the original on 8 May 2012. Retrieved 11 April 2012.