Stalag I-F was a German

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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 just north of the city of

Suwałki Suwałki ( lt, Suvalkai; yi, סואוואַלק) is a city in northeastern Poland with a population of 69,206 (2021). It is the capital of Suwałki County and one of the most important centers of commerce in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. Suwałki ...

in German-occupied

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Camp history

Construction of the camp began in April 1941, before the attack on Russia, to accommodate the expected POWs. It was carried out by

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and

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prisoners. The camp opened in May 1941 as Oflag 68, but was renamed Stalag I-F in June 1942. Covering the camp contained a kitchen, bakery, latrines and bathhouse, and was surrounded by a double barbed-wire fence with five gates and four guard towers (later increased to nine). The prisoners lived outdoors in

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until 1943 when 43 barrack huts were built, though due to overcrowding, many were still forced to live underground. More than 100,000 prisoners, mostly Russian, passed through Stalag I-F, of whom over 50,000 died, mostly from

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and

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. In October 1944, as 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 ...

approached, the guards abandoned the camp leaving the prisoners behind.

Sub-camps of Stalag I-F

There were also six ''Zweiglager'' ("sub-camps"), designated Stalag I-F/Z: * Prostki (''Prostken'') * Dłutowo (''Fischborn'') *

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(''Zichenau'') * Liese über Mischienitz, Zichenau *

Nesterov Nesterov (russian: Не́стеров), until 1938 known by its German name ( lt, Stalupėnai; pl, Stołupiany) and in 1938-1946 as Ebenrode, is a town and the administrative center of Nesterovsky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, locat ...

(''Ebenrode'') * Priekulė (''Prökuls'')

References

{{Reflist Suwałki World War II prisoner-of-war camps in Germany World War II sites in Poland

Camp history

Sub-camps of Stalag I-F

See also

References