Stalag VIII-F was a German
prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war.
There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...
for Soviet
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
and Polish
Home Army
The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...
(, abbreviated AK) prisoners during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. It was located at the northern end of a Germany Army training area at Lamsdorf,
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, ...
, (now
Łambinowice
Łambinowice is a village in Nysa County, Opole Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Łambinowice. It lies approximately north-east of Nysa, Poland, Nysa and south-west of the region ...
,
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 Ukrai ...
) just to the north of
Stalag VIII-B
Stalag VIII-B was most recently a German Army (Wehrmacht), German Army administered prisoner-of-war camp#Military District VIII (Breslau), POW camp during World War II, later renumbered Stalag-344, located near the village of Lamsdorf (now Łambin ...
.
Camp history
Opened in July 1941, it was initially designated Stalag 318, but was renamed Stalag VIII-F towards the end of the year. In June 1943, it came under the control of the nearby Stalag VIII-B, and the complex of camps were in turn redesignated Stalag 344 in November. The camp was known locally as the ''Russenlager'' ("Russian camp"), but also held Poles, Italians, Yugoslavs, and Greeks, as well as small numbers of French and Romanians.
Physical and sanitary conditions were very poor, and of the estimated 200,000 Soviet prisoners who passed through the camp, about 40,000 died of starvation, mistreatment and disease.
The Germans did not apply the provisions of the
Third Geneva Convention
The Third Geneva Convention, relative to the treatment of prisoners of war, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was first adopted in 1929, but significantl ...
to Soviet prisoners on the grounds that the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
was not a signatory.
In October 1944, about 6,000 soldiers of the Armia Krajowa arrived after being captured in the
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...
.
About 400 women soldiers of the AK were also held there temporarily, before being transferred to another camp. At about the same time 1,500 prisoners from
Slovak Uprising arrived.
In late January 1945 the camp was evacuated, and the POWs forced to
march westward away from the advancing Soviets. The sick were left behind, and most were dead by the time that detachments of the Red Army reached the camp on 17 March 1945.
Memorials
Most of the camp has been demolished, but a fenced area with a reconstructed watch tower and hut contains an exhibition dedicated to the Soviet POWs.
The former Administration block now houses the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War.
In 1997 a granite obelisk, crowned with a cross, was erected to commemorate the Warsaw insurgents.
See also
*
List of prisoner-of-war camps in Germany For lists of German prisoner-of-war camps, see:
* German prisoner-of-war camps in World War I
* German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II
Nazi Germany operated around 1,000 prisoner-of-war camps () during World War II (1939-1945).
The most c ...
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
Camps in Silesia
External links
Central Museum of Prisoners of War in Łambinowice-Opole
{{Authority control
World War II prisoner-of-war camps in Germany
World War II sites in Poland