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Oflag VIII-F

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Oflag VIII-F
Wahlstatt, Silesia (now Legnickie Pole, Poland)
Benedictine Abbey in Legnickie Pole
Oflag VIII-F is located in PolandOflag VIII-FOflag VIII-FShow map of PolandOflag VIII-F is located in GermanyOflag VIII-FOflag VIII-FShow map of Germany
Coordinates51°08′43″N 16°14′36″E / 51.145413°N 16.243226°E / 51.145413; 16.243226
TypePrisoner-of-war camp
Site information
Controlled by Nazi Germany
Site history
Built1719-1731
In use1940–1944
Battles/warsWorld War II
Garrison information
OccupantsAllied POWs

Oflag VIII-F was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp for officers (Offizierlager) located first in Wahlstatt, Silesia (now Legnickie Pole, Poland) and then at Mährisch-Trübau, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now Moravská Třebová, Czech Republic). It housed mostly French POWs.

Camp history

Oflag VIII-F was first established at Wahlstatt in July 1940 and housed French and Belgian officers taken prisoner during the Battle of France. It was located in a former Benedictine Abbey dedicated to Saint Hedwig of Silesia, that had been a military school between 1840 and 1920, and used by the Nazis as a "National Political Educational Institution" from 1934.

In July 1942 a new camp at Moravská Třebová in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, about 200 km (120 mi) to the south, was designated Oflag VIII-F, while the original camp was redesignated Oflag VIII F/Z, a sub-camp of Moravská Třebová. The prisoners were transferred to other camps, though a small number stayed behind to carry out construction work as the site was adapted for the use of GEMA (Gesellschaft für und mechanische elektroakustische apparate) in developing radar systems. The sub-camp was closed in June 1943.

The camp at Moravská Třebová contained around 2,000 officers, mostly British captured in North Africa and the Greek Islands, but there were also numbers of Greek, French and American POW. In April 1944, most of the prisoners were transferred to Oflag 79 near Braunschweig and the camp was closed.

See also

References

  1. ^ Megargee, Geoffrey P.; Overmans, Rüdiger; Vogt, Wolfgang (2022). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV. Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. pp. 257–258. ISBN 978-0-253-06089-1.
  2. ^ "Kriegsgefangenenlager (Liste)". Moosburg Online (in German). 2012. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  3. Funck, Ronald (2012). "Legnickie Pole / Wahlstatt". timediver.de (in German). Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  4. "Legnickie Pole - Forum Eksploracyjne". sztolnie.fora.pl (in Polish). 2012. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  5. Постановление Государственного комитета обороны «О вывозе лабораторного оборудования и аппаратуры немецкого радиолокационного института фирмы "Гема" деревня Вальштадт (10 км юго-восточнее г. Лигниц)» № 8603 от 16.05.1945. — www.soldat.ru
  6. Johnson, E.B.W. "Ted" (2012). "Leros 1943 and the aftermath". BBC WW2 People's War. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
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