|
Oflag IV-A Hohenstein
An Oflag (from german: Offizierslager) was a type of prisoner of war camp for officers which the German Army established in World War I in accordance with the requirements of the 1899 Hague Convention, and in World War II in accordance with the requirements of the Geneva Convention (1929). Although officers were not required to work, at Oflag XIII-B ( Hammelburg) when the POWs asked to be able to work for more food, they were told the Geneva Convention forbade them from working.http://www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/Prisoner%20of%20War/PW%20Camps/Oflag%20XIII-B/Prell/Prell-Donald.pdf In some Oflags a limited number of non-commissioned soldiers working as orderlies were allowed to carry out the work needed to care for the officers. Officers of the Allied air forces were held in special camps called Stalags Luft but were accorded the required preferential treatment. The German Army camp commanders applied the Geneva Convention requirements to suit themselves. An ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oflag XIII-B Liberation
An Oflag (from german: Offizierslager) was a type of prisoner of war camp for officers which the German Army established in World War I in accordance with the requirements of the 1899 Hague Convention, and in World War II in accordance with the requirements of the Geneva Convention (1929). Although officers were not required to work, at Oflag XIII-B (Hammelburg) when the POWs asked to be able to work for more food, they were told the Geneva Convention forbade them from working.http://www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/Prisoner%20of%20War/PW%20Camps/Oflag%20XIII-B/Prell/Prell-Donald.pdf In some Oflags a limited number of non-commissioned soldiers working as orderlies were allowed to carry out the work needed to care for the officers. Officers of the Allied air forces were held in special camps called Stalags Luft but were accorded the required preferential treatment. The German Army camp commanders applied the Geneva Convention requirements to suit themselves. An exa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stalag Luft 3
, partof = ''Luftwaffe'' , location = Sagan, Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland) , image = , caption = Model of the set used to film the movie ''The Great Escape.'' It depicts a smaller version of a single compound in ''Stalag Luft III''. The model is now at the museum near where the prison camp was located. , map_alt = Sagan, Germany (pre-war borders, 1937) , map_type = Poland#Germany 1937 , coordinates = , type = Prisoner-of-war camp , controlledby = , open_to_public = , condition = , built = , builder = , used = March 1942January 1945 , materials = , demolished = , battles = World War II , events = The "Great Escape" , past_commanders = ''Oberst'' Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau , garrison = , occupants = Allied air crews Stalag Luft III (german: Stammlager Luft III; literally "Main Camp, Air, III"; SL III) was a ''Luftwaffe''-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stalag Luft III
, partof = ''Luftwaffe'' , location = Sagan, Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland) , image = , caption = Model of the set used to film the movie ''The Great Escape.'' It depicts a smaller version of a single compound in ''Stalag Luft III''. The model is now at the museum near where the prison camp was located. , map_alt = Sagan, Germany (pre-war borders, 1937) , map_type = Poland#Germany 1937 , coordinates = , type = Prisoner-of-war camp , controlledby = , open_to_public = , condition = , built = , builder = , used = March 1942January 1945 , materials = , demolished = , battles = World War II , events = The "Great Escape" , past_commanders = ''Oberst'' Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau , garrison = , occupants = Allied air crews Stalag Luft III (german: Stammlager Luft III; literally "Main Camp, Air, III"; SL III) was a ''Luftwaffe''-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aktion Kugel
The ''Kugel-Erlass'' ( en, bullet decree), also known as ''Aktion Kugel'', was a secret decree (''Geheimbefehl''), issued by Nazi Germany on 2 March 1944. The decree stated that escaped Allied prisoners of war, especially officers and senior non-commissioned officers, should be handed over to the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD) who should execute them, "im Rahmen der Aktion Kugel" ( Aktion Kugel), in Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. This order was in direct contravention of the provisions of the Third Geneva Convention. An exception was made for escaped British and American prisoners of war. Their fate was to be decided by the German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) on a case-by-case basis. The bullet decree was later amended to include British soldiers after the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III of 25 March 1944. The number of escaped prisoners of war executed by the Kugel-Erlass is not precisely known; estimates vary between 1,300 and 5,040 executed. The vast majority ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RSHA
The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and ''Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The organization's stated duty was to fight all "enemies of the Reich" inside and outside the borders of Nazi Germany. Formation and development Himmler established the RSHA on 27 September 1939. His assumption of control over all security and police forces in Germany was a significant factor in the growth in power of the Nazi state. With the formation of the RSHA, Himmler combined under one roof the Nazi Party's ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD; SS intelligence service) with the ''Sicherheitspolizei'' (SiPo; "Security Police"), which was nominally under the Interior Ministry. The SiPo was composed of two sub-departments, the ''Geheime Staatspolizei'' (Gestapo; "Secret State Police") and the ''Kriminalpolizei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Ernst Kaltenbrunner (4 October 190316 October 1946) was a high-ranking Austrian SS official during the Nazi era and a major perpetrator of the Holocaust. After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, and a brief period under Heinrich Himmler, Kaltenbrunner was the third Chief of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), which included the offices of Gestapo, Kripo and SD, from January 1943 until the end of World War II in Europe. Kaltenbrunner joined the Nazi Party in 1930 and the SS in 1931, and by 1935 he was considered a leader of the Austrian SS. In 1938, he assisted in the ''Anschluss'' and was given command of the SS and police force in Austria. In January 1943, Kaltenbrunner was appointed chief of the RSHA, succeeding Reinhard Heydrich, who was assassinated in May 1942. A committed anti-Semite and fanatical Hitler loyalist, Kaltenbrunner oversaw a period in which the genocide of Jews intensified. He was the highest-ranking member of the SS to face trial (Himmle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General (Germany)
''General'' () is the highest rank of the German Army and German Air Force. As a four-star rank it is the equivalent to the rank of admiral in the German Navy. The rank is rated Ranks and insignia of NATO armies officers, OF-9 in NATO. It is grade B8 in the pay rules of the Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany), Federal Ministry of Defence. Rank insignia On the shoulder straps (Heer, Luftwaffe) there are four golden pips (stars) in golden oak leaves. ;''Bundeswehr'' sequence of ranks: Early history By the 16th century, with the rise of standing armies, the List of states in the Holy Roman Empire, German states had begun to appoint generals from the nobility to lead armies in battle. A standard rank system was developed during the Thirty Years War, with the highest rank of ''General'' usually reserved for the ruling sovereign (e.g. the Kaiser or Prince-elector, Elector) and the actual field commander holding the rank of ''Generalleutnant''. ''Feldmarschall'' was a lower ran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. He was one of Adolf Hitler's closest and most devoted acolytes, known for his skills in public speaking and his deeply virulent antisemitism, which was evident in his publicly voiced views. He advocated progressively harsher discrimination, including the extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust. Goebbels, who aspired to be an author, obtained a Doctor of Philology degree from the University of Heidelberg in 1921. He joined the Nazi Party in 1924, and worked with Gregor Strasser in its northern branch. He was appointed ''Gauleiter'' of Berlin in 1926, where he began to take an interest in the use of propaganda to promote the party and its programme. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry quickly gained a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Crimes Against Soviet POWs
During World War II, Nazi Germany engaged in a policy of deliberate maltreatment of Soviet prisoners of war (POWs), in contrast to their general treatment of British and American POWs. This policy, which amounted to deliberately starving and working to death Soviet POWs, the bulk of whom were Slavs, was grounded in Nazi racial theory, which depicted Slavs as sub-humans (''Untermenschen''). The policy resulted in some 3.3 to 3.5 million deaths.Peter Calvocoressi, Guy Wint, ''Total War'' — "The total number of prisoners taken by the German armies in the USSR was in the region of 5.7 million. Of these, the astounding number of 3.5 million or more had been lost by the middle of 1944 and the assumption must be that they were either deliberately killed or done to death by criminal negligence. Nearly two million of them died in camps and close on another million disappeared while in military custody either in the USSR or in rear areas; a further quarter of a million disappeared or di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oflag IX-C
Oflag IX-C was a German prisoner-of-war camp for officers (''Offizierlager'') during World War II, located just to the south of the village of Molsdorf, near Erfurt in Thuringia. Camp history The camp housed women officers of the ''Armia Krajowa'' ("Home Army") captured after the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. It consisted of seven wooden barrack huts and an administration building, originally built in 1938 for slave labourers from nearby Buchenwald concentration camp who were working on the autobahn near Erfurt. The camp now came under the administrative command of Stalag IX-C near Bad Sulza. In December 1944, 380 women officers, 38 female orderlies, and three children were brought there from other POW camps: Stalag XI-B Fallingbostel, Stalag XI-B/Z Bergen-Belsen, Gross-Rosen, Stalag IV-E Altenburg, Stalag 344 Lamsdorf, and Stalag X-A Sandbostel. The Senior Polish Officer was Major Wanda Gertz. The camp was one of the worst Oflags operated by the German Army during the war. The officer i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stalag
In Germany, stalag (; ) was a term used for prisoner-of-war camps. Stalag is a contraction of "Stammlager", itself short for ''Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschaftsstammlager'', a literal translation of which is "War-prisoner" (i.e. POW) "enlisted" "main camp". Therefore, technically "stalag" simply means "main camp". Legal definitions According to the Third Geneva Convention of 1929 and its predecessor, the Hague Convention of 1907, Section IV, Chapter 2, these camps were only for prisoners of war, not civilians. Stalags were operated in both World War I and World War II and were intended to be used for non-commissioned personnel (enlisted ranks in the US Army and other ranks in British Commonwealth forces). Officers were held in separate camps called ''Oflag''. During World War II, the ''Luftwaffe'' (German air force) operated ''Stalag Luft'' in which flying personnel, both officers and non-commissioned officers, were held. The ''Kriegsmarine'' (German navy) operated ''Marlag'' f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prisoner Of War
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war in custody for a range of legitimate and illegitimate reasons, such as isolating them from the enemy combatants still in the field (releasing and repatriating them in an orderly manner after hostilities), demonstrating military victory, punishing them, prosecuting them for war crimes, exploiting them for their labour, recruiting or even conscripting them as their own combatants, collecting military and political intelligence from them, or indoctrinating them in new political or religious beliefs. Ancient times For most of human history, depending on the culture of the victors, enemy fighters on the losing side in a battle who had surrendered and been taken as prisoners of war could expect to be either slaughtered or enslaved. Ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
