Łambinowice (german: Lamsdorf) is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in Nysa County,

Opole Voivodeship Opole Voivodeship, or Opole Province ( pl, województwo opolskie ), is the smallest and least populated voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province's name derives from that of the region's capital and largest city, Opole. It is part of Upper S ...

, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Łambinowice. It lies approximately north-east of Nysa and south-west of the regional capital

Opole Opole (; german: Oppeln ; szl, Ôpole) ; * Silesian: ** Silesian PLS alphabet: ''Ôpole'' ** Steuer's Silesian alphabet: ''Uopole'' * Silesian German: ''Uppeln'' * Czech: ''Opolí'' * Latin: ''Oppelia'', ''Oppolia'', ''Opulia'' is a city lo ...

. Łambinowice was the location of ''Camp Lamsdorf'' which served as a

prisoner of war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military priso ...

during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, and First as well as

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

s. When the area became Polish, the camp was maintained as ''Camp Łambinowice'' and served as a forced labour and resettlement camp for Germans.

Village

First mentioned under the name of Lambinowicz in 1273, the town shared the fate of the

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, locate ...

and the land of Opole throughout the ages. Much damaged by the wars of the 17th century, most notably the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battl ...

, it lost much of its meaning as a centre of commerce and was reduced to but a small village.

Camp

German Empire

In 1864 a large military training ground was established around the village. During the Franco-Prussian War a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is 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 ...

camp for French soldiers was located on the grounds of the training camp. In it more than 3000 men were incarcerated, 53 of them perished and are buried at the local cemetery. The camp was reactivated during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, when the Germans set up one of the largest camps for prisoners of war, housing roughly 90,000 internees, mostly from the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy and Serbia. Due to poor housing conditions roughly 7000 men died in captivity.

Nazi Germany

Closed down after the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1 ...

, the camp was yet again reopened on September 3, 1939, immediately after the outbreak of the

Polish Defensive War The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after ...

. The infamous Stalag VIII-B camp housed roughly 100,000 Polish prisoners. After the outbreak of the Soviet-German conflict some of the Poles were transferred to other places of detention while thousands of Soviet prisoners were amassed in tragic conditions in a separate camp named Stalag VIII-F. Altogether, throughout the World War II more than 300,000 Allied and Soviet prisoners have passed through the gates of the camp at Lamsdorf, between 40,000 and 100,000 of them died. Most of those who perished are buried in mass graves in the nearby village of

Klucznik Klucznik (german: Klausen) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Barczewo, within Olsztyn County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately south-east of Barczewo and east of the regional capital Ol ...

and at the local cemetery. In October 1944 soldiers and officers were brought here from the Warsaw Rising, including over 1,000 women. Later, most of them were transferred to other camps.

Poland

After the Soviet takeover of the area, on March 17, 1945 the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

took the camp over and continued to operate it, this time the institution housed German prisoners of war. A transit camp, run by the Ministry of Internal Security and commanded by Czesław Gęborski (later put on trial for crimes against humanity for his actions in the camp), was also created nearby, serving as an internment, labor and resettlement camp for German

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is spli ...

ns, as a "verification" point for

Silesians Silesians ( szl, Ślōnzŏki or Ślůnzoki; Silesian German: ''Schläsinger'' ''or'' ''Schläsier''; german: Schlesier; pl, Ślązacy; cz, Slezané) is a geographical term for the inhabitants of Silesia, a historical region in Central Eur ...

, as well as a camp for former veterans of the Anders' Polish II Corps, whom the new communist authorities of Poland saw as ''dangerous''. Out of 8000Gerhart Hoffmeister, Kurt Frank Reinhardt, Frederic C. Tubach, ''Germany: From the Nazi Era to German unification'', 2nd edition, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1992, p.57, , 1,500 out of 8,000 died internees, it is estimated that between 1000 and 1,500 German civilians died in the camp,Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Newsline, 02-09-17
"POLAND OPENS CEMETERY OF VICTIMS OF RESETTLEMENT TO GERMANY"
retrieved 8 July 2009" 1,000-1,500 died mostly by

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

and maltreatment from camp officials. More than 1,130 names are listed in the cemetery.

Memorial

Currently the memory of the inmates is preserved by a large monument devoted to all the victims of the camp, as well as th
Central Prisoner of War Museum
the only such institution in Poland and one of very few in the world.

References

External links

Official webpage

Prisoner of war museum

Lamsdorf Remembered

Jewish Community in Łambinowice
on Virtual Shtetl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lambinowice Villages in Nysa County World War II prisoner of war camps