Stalag No.s and locations

Stefan,
Thanks very much for the suggestions. We have tried our contacts at wartimeguides but their reply seems a little unlikely, based on what we know so far.
Had a look at the story of Pte W Jones. Interesting to see XXA (3) but no clue there either
Thanks again
Barbara

 

Hi Barbara - I've just seen this: Stalag XXID

And (at Laufen, at least) the PoWs had room numbers - is it likely this could be what it is?

Jules

Added: sorry - scrap that idea - have just seen Stalag XX.I.D.9: Stalag XXID

 

Thanks Jules, the idea still has merit. Much appreciated.
Barbara

 

Barbara,
Have you seen this.

BBC - WW2 peoples war - 1/7th Royal Warwickshire Regiment C Company

There is a reference to Stalag XXA (3A)

 

Barbara,

I came upon this when looking at something else.

Have you seen this.

google ' wartime memories project bab 20 '

Please scroll to the entry for Charles Leslie ' Timber ' Woods Northumberland Fusiliers
Within this account there are references to 11A 12A & 13A at Stalag XXA Thorn They are described as temporary camps.

Just a further thought. Is the 3A that you are searching for actually 13A ? I put this forward as a suggestion, as the Fort numbers at Thorn that housed the POW's appear to be Fort X ( 10 ) through to Fort XV11 ( 17 )

 

Thank you. All these points are possible.

 

Barbara,
In further relation to Stalag XXA 3A. I thought I would pass this onto you as it just may be helpful - I don't know.

I have only the other day unearthed a letter from a bunch of papers that I have never seen before. It is a letter sent to my father who was at Stalag XXA, from his brother. The letter is dated 28th April 1941. It is of course addressed to my father, and the final line of the address reads, Stalag XXA 5. Now, I know for certain that in April 1941 my father was at a camp at Bromberg, which was a sub camp of Stalag XXA.

Does the 3A that you seek & in this case the 5 happen to indicate the areas of work that the POW's from Stalag XXA were sent to. ???

This of course is a pure guess, because I do not have any other letters to help compare address headings.

 

Alucard, THANKs for that insight. That’s possible isn’t it.
B

 

Hello Barbara

Just a little something that may be of interest around 'numbers of camps' at Stalag XXA. I came across a small write up in the Joint War Organisation, prisoners of war department, monthly journal of September 1942. The information that appears in these journals generally appears to be around five months following the event.

Here is the pertinent detail re Stalag XXA
' This camp is divided into three forts and camp 13a, which is a work camp. '

A later edition of the journal put the number of forts in use at Stalag XXA as four.

From what I have so far researched Stalag XXA was made up of Fort X through to Fort XV11.

I do know from personal documentation passed to me from a former pow at Stalag XXA, that in November 1941 there were at least two forts in use at Stalag XXA, ie. Fort X11 and Fort XV and also a place that had formerly been used as a balloon hanger. ( Which to date, the location of what had been the former balloon hanger, eludes detection.)

Therefore taking these journal items into consideration. The number of forts used may have increased as and when space was required. However I have found at times that some of these official statements on pow camps differ from personal experiences of those who were in the location.

Best wishes.

 

Alucard, thankyou again for this information.
As you say, it’s likely the number of forts increased when needed. I’ll pass this on to Steve Foster too.

How was your father captured?
Was he on the Forced March? If so, I hope he survived.

Regards
Barbara

 

Hello Barbara.

I hope it is useful to your research around Stalag XXA.

Thank you for asking. My father was captured at Etretat in Normandy on 17th June 1940. His first pow camp was Stalag XXA, from where he was also sent out to a sub camp at Bromberg and also worked on a state farm in East Prussia. He was moved from Stalag XXA in early 1942 to BAB 20 at Reigersfeld, Heydebreck, Blechhammer South, in Ober Silesia, to work on building the factory complex there. It was from BAB 20 that he was on the 1945 march westwards, from 22nd January to 23rd April. When he returned home he had lost five and a half stone in weight and spent a few months in hospital. Most of those at BAB 20 - those who had been there a while - were underweight before they set out marching.

Best wishes

 

Hello Barbara,

Something that you may find of interest in regard to added numbers at Stalag XXA. It looks like it is becoming clearer that the added numbers relate to work camps associated with Stalag XXA

In a Red Cross report from 1943 in regard to Stalag XXA, it mentions:

Work Camp 35. This has two sections and is to be divided into two separate camps. One section held 240 pow's who worked for different firms, and the other held 192 pow's.

Work Camps 51 and 157 are small camps of agricultural workers.

At Work Camps 185 and 173 the pow's work at sugar factories.

Stalag XXA ( 127 ) in 1943 was a farm.

Stalag XXA ( 173 ) was also a farm.

Best wishes

 

Hi,
Thank you so much for passing this on to me.
Regards
Barbara

 

Hi A,
That’s a very moving story. I’ve just read it. What a terrible ordeal. He must have been a very strong and lucky man to survive.
B

 

Hello Barbara,

You are most welcome. If I find others I will pass them on to you.

My father was at Stalag XXA from the end of August 1940 until beginning of March 1942.

Best wishes

 

Have you read this book?

 

Steve Foster may be interested to read this too.

 

Hello Barbara,

I asked Torun tour guide about this via Facebook. He said that the numbers in brackets relate to the Fort number. He confirmed that (2) represents Fort X11 and (3) represents Fort X111. I hope this information is useful.

 

To add to this. Arbeitskommandos or "Working Units" (which I take to mean farms, factories etc) were given a number prefixed with E.

As there were hundreds of these I wonder if mail addressed to POWs was addressed to the Stalag with the Arbeitskommando suffix. I have quite lot of POW letters from and to XXa and XXb, I will dig them out and see what the addressing is.

If that is so then I would imagine the mentions of XXa (3) etc were the forts as there is no E prefix. Just guessing.

 

Stalag XIII-D
There’s a research project at Nuremberg Museum on the POW camp housed in the Nuremberg Rally building during the War.
Website- https://tinyurl.com/yxgm8a2v