Stalag I-B Hohenstein was a German
World War II
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 ...
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 ...
located west of Hohenstein,
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label= Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1 ...
(now
Olsztynek
Olsztynek (german: Hohenstein in Ostpreußen) is a town in northern Poland, in Olsztyn County, in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. It is the administrative seat of Gmina Olsztynek. It is part of the historic region of Masuria.
Geography
Ol ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
).
The camp was partially located on the grounds of the
Tannenberg Memorial
The Tannenberg Memorial () was a monument to the German soldiers of the Battle of Tannenberg, the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes and the medieval Battle of Tannenberg (1410). The victorious German commander, ''Generalfeldmarschall'' Paul vo ...
and initially included a set of wooden structures intended to house
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, ...
veterans during German Nazi festivities.
Established in 1939 to house
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
soldiers captured in the course of the
September Campaign, with time it was extended to house also
Belgians
Belgians ( nl, Belgen; french: Belges; german: Belgier) are people identified with the Kingdom of Belgium, a federal state in Western Europe. As Belgium is a multinational state, this connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cult ...
,
French,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
,
Serbian and
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
soldiers. Harsh conditions, malnutrition, maltreatment and recurring
typhoid
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
epidemics led to many deaths among the prisoners.
Notably during the winter of 1941–42 roughly 25,000 people died there, mostly Soviet soldiers.
It is estimated that altogether 650,000 people passed through this camp and its sub-camps. Between 50
and 55 thousand of them were buried in 500
mass grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of executi ...
s at the
Sudwa
Sudwa (german: Sauden) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Olsztynek, within Olsztyn County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately north-west of Olsztynek and south-west of the regional capital ...
cemetery located nearby. The site is commemorated with a memorial stone by Ryszard Wachowski. Since 1980 the Olsztynek-based municipal museum hosts a small exhibition devoted to the camp and its inmates.
Parts of the former camp were uncovered during construction of the
S7 Expressway.
References
External links
Plan of the camp at its greatest extentAerial photo of the camp(Broken)
{{Authority control
World War II prisoner of war camps in Germany
World War II sites in Poland