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German POW Camp
In Germany, stalag (; ) was a term used for prisoner-of-war camps. Stalag is a contraction of "Stammlager", itself short for ''Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschaftsstammlager'', literally "main camp for enlisted prisoners of war" (officers were kept in an "Oflag"). Therefore, "stalag" technically means "main camp". Legal definitions According to the Third Geneva Convention of 1929 and its predecessor, the Hague Convention of 1907, Section IV, Chapter 2, these camps were only for prisoners of war, not civilians. Stalags were operated in both World War I and World War II and were intended to be used for non-commissioned personnel (enlisted ranks in the US Army and other ranks in British Commonwealth forces). Officers were held in separate camps called ''Oflag''. During World War II, the ''Luftwaffe'' (German air force) operated ''Stalag Luft'' in which flying personnel, both officers and non-commissioned officers, were held. The ''Kriegsmarine'' (German navy) operated '' Marlag'' f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Model Stalag Luft III
A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French language, French and Italian language, Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided into physical models (e.g. a ship model or a fashion model) and abstract models (e.g. a Numerical weather prediction, set of mathematical equations describing the workings of the atmosphere for the purpose of weather forecasting). Abstract or conceptual models are central to philosophy of science. In scholarly research and applied science, a model should not be confused with a theory: while a model seeks only to represent reality with the purpose of better understanding or predicting the world, a theory is more ambitious in that it claims to be an explanation of reality. Types of model ''Model'' in specific contexts As a noun, ''model'' has specific meanings in certain fields, derived from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luftwaffe
The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial German Navy, Imperial Navy, had been disbanded in May 1920 in accordance with the terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, which banned Germany from having any air force. During the interwar period, German pilots were trained secretly in violation of the treaty at Lipetsk (air base), Lipetsk Air Base in the Soviet Union. With the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Versailles Treaty, the Luftwaffe's existence was publicly acknowledged and officially established on 26 February 1935, just over two weeks before open defiance of the Versailles Treaty through German rearmament and conscription would be announced on 16 March. The Condor Legion, a Luftwaffe detachment sent to aid Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west. The territory has a varied landscape, diverse ecosystems, and a temperate climate. Poland is composed of Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 million people, and the List of European countries by area, fifth largest EU country by area, covering . The capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city is Warsaw; other major cities include Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, and Gdańsk. Prehistory and protohistory of Poland, Prehistoric human activity on Polish soil dates to the Lower Paleolithic, with continuous settlement since the end of the Last Gla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silesia
Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8,000,000. Silesia is split into two main subregions, Lower Silesia in the west and Upper Silesia in the east. Silesia’s culture reflects its complex history and diverse influences, blending Polish, Czech, and German elements. The region is known for its distinctive Silesian language (still spoken by a minority in Upper Silesia), richly decorated folk National costumes of Poland, costumes, hearty regional Silesian cuisine, cuisine, and a mix of Gothic, Baroque, and industrial-era Silesian architecture, architecture seen in its cities and towns. The largest city of the region is Wrocław. Silesia is situated along the Oder River, with the Sudeten Mountains extending across the southern border. The region contains many historical landmarks ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Żagań
Żagań (French language, French and , ) is a town in western Poland, on the Bóbr river, with 25,731 inhabitants (2019), capital of Żagań County in the Lubusz Voivodeship, located in the historic region of Lower Silesia. Founded in the 12th century by Polish monarch Bolesław IV the Curly, Żagań was the capital of an Duchy of Żagań, eponymous principality from 1274 to 1935. The main sights are the former Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, Żagań, Augustinian Monastery, one of the burial sites of the Piast dynasty, listed as a List of Historical Monuments (Poland), Historic Monument of Poland, the Ducal Palace and Park ensemble and the POW Camps Museum, located at the site of German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II, German-operated WWII prisoner-of-war camps for over 60,000 Allies of World War II, Allied soldiers of various nationalities, where the ''List of Allied airmen from the Great Escape, Great Escape'' took place. The town hosts the Polish 11th Armour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prisoner Of War
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a range of legitimate and illegitimate reasons. These may include isolating them from enemy combatants still in the field (releasing and Repatriation, repatriating them in an orderly manner after hostilities), demonstrating military victory, punishment, prosecution of war crimes, labour exploitation, recruiting or even conscripting them as combatants, extracting collecting military and political intelligence, and political or religious indoctrination. Ancient times For much of history, prisoners of war would often be slaughtered or enslaved. Early Roman gladiators could be prisoners of war, categorised according to their ethnic roots as Samnites, Thracians, and Gauls (''Galli''). Homer's ''Iliad'' describes Trojan and Greek soldiers offeri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft III (; literally "Main Camp, Air, III"; SL III) was a ''Luftwaffe''-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel. The camp was established in March 1942 near the town of Sagan, Lower Silesia, in what was then Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland), south-east of Berlin. The site was selected because its sandy soil made it difficult for POWs to escape by tunnelling. It is best known for two escape plots by Allied POWs. One was in 1943 and became the basis of a fictionalised film, '' The Wooden Horse'' (1950), based on a book by escapee Eric Williams. The second breakout—the so-called Great Escape—of March 1944, was conceived by Squadron Leader Roger Bushell of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and was authorised by the senior British officer at Stalag Luft III, Herbert Massey. A fictionalised version of the escape was depicted in the film '' The Great Escape'' (1963), which was based on a book by for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a aid agency, humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of Law of war, rules of war and promoting Humanitarianism, humanitarian norms. State parties (signatories) to the Geneva Convention of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977 (Protocol I, Protocol II) and Protocol III, 2005 have given the ICRC a mandate to protect victims of international and internal war, armed conflicts. Such victims include war wounded persons, prisoners, refugees, civilians, and other non-combatants. The ICRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, along with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and 191 List of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, National Societies. It is the oldest and most honoured organization within the movement and one of the most widely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arbeitskommando
Forced labor was an important and ubiquitous aspect of the Nazi concentration camps which operated in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe between 1933 and 1945. It was the harshest and most inhumane part of a larger system of forced labor in Nazi Germany. Origins Traditionally, prisoners were often deployed in penal labor performing unskilled work. During the first years of Nazi Germany's existence, unemployment was high and forced labor in the concentration camps was presented as re-education through labor and a means of punishing offenders. Nazi propaganda idolized work, in contrast to the view of work as punishment. Prisoners in early camps were forced to perform economically valueless but strenuous tasks, such as farming on moorland (for example at Esterwegen). Other prisoners had to work on constructing and expanding the camps. German state governments complained at being required to pay the upkeep of the camps, which was eventually taken over by the SS with costs r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bloodlands
''Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin'' is a 2010 book by Yale historian Timothy Snyder. It is about mass murders committed before and during World War II in territories controlled by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In this book, Snyder examines the political, cultural, and ideological context tied to a specific region of Central and Eastern Europe, where Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union and Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany committed mass murders of an estimated 14 million noncombatants between 1933 and 1945, the majority outside the death camps of the Holocaust. Snyder's thesis delineates the "bloodlands" as a region that now comprises Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), northeastern Romania, and the westernmost fringes of Russia; in this region, Stalin and Hitler's regimes, despite their conflicting goals, interacted to increase suffering and bloodshed beyond what each regime would have inflicted independently. Snyder draws sim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timothy Snyder
Timothy David Snyder (born August 18, 1969) is an American historian specializing in the history of Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust. He is on leave from his position as the Richard C. Levin, Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University (as of 2025), with plans to transfer to the University of Toronto for an indefinite time. He is a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. Snyder serves on the Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds the inaugural Chair in Modern European History, supported by the Temerty Endowment for Ukrainian Studies, at the Munk School at the University of Toronto; he will teach at the school during the 2025–26 academic year. Snyder has written many books, including ''Bloodlands, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin'' (2010), ''On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Mistreatment Of Soviet Prisoners Of War
During World War II, Soviet Union, Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) held by Nazi Germany and primarily in the custody of the German Army (Wehrmacht), German Army were starved and subjected to deadly conditions. Of nearly six million who were captured, around three million died during their imprisonment. In June 1941, Germany and Axis powers, its allies Operation Barbarossa, invaded the Soviet Union and carried out a war of extermination with complete disregard for the laws and customs of war. Among the Criminal orders (Nazi Germany), criminal orders issued before the invasion was for the Commissar Order, execution of captured Soviet commissars and disregard for Germany's legal obligations under the 1929 Geneva Convention. By the end of 1941, over 3 million Soviet soldiers had been captured, mostly in large-scale encirclement operations during the German Army's rapid advance. Two-thirds of them had died from starvation, exposure, and disease by early 1942. This is one of the high ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
