Oflag II-A was a German
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
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 prisons. P ...
located in the town of
Prenzlau
Prenzlau (, formerly also Prenzlow) is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, the administrative seat of Uckermark (district), Uckermark District. It is also the centre of the historic Uckermark region.
Geography
The town is located on the Uecker, Ucke ...
,
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...
, north of
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
.
The camp, located just south of Prenzlau on the main road to Berlin, and was originally built in 1936 as a barracks
for Artillery Regiment 38.
It was opened as a POW camp in September 1939 and housed mainly Belgian and Polish officers. With an area of about the camp was divided into two compounds : ''Lager A'' which contained four three-storey prisoner blocks, and an administration and canteen block, and ''Lager B'' which contained various garages and workshops, some of which were used as additional prisoner accommodation. The camp was surrounded by a double barbed-wire fence with seven watchtowers.
In March 1945 two bombs dropped by a Russian aircraft hit Block B killing eight POWs, and injuring several others. The camp was liberated by the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
on the morning of 12 April 1945.
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 (german: Kriegsgefangenenlager) during World War ...
*
Raymond Troye Raymond Troye (1908–2003) was a Belgian officer and writer, born in Charleroi. During his imprisonment in Nazi Germany he wrote 5 novels of which two were published after the war.
As a young lieutenant in the Belgian army, he was captured by ...
References
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Oflags