Stalag VI-B 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 ...

('' Stammlager''), located about east of the village of Versen in the

Emsland Landkreis Emsland () is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany named after the river Ems. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Leer, Cloppenburg and Osnabrück, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (district of Steinfur ...

district of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

, in north-western

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, close to the border with the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Camp history

The camp was established in 1938 as Lager IX Versen, one of the ''

Emslandlager Emslandlager ("Emsland camps") were a series of 15 moorland labor, punitive and POWs-camps, active from 1933 to 1945 and located in the districts of Emsland and Bentheim, Lower Saxony, Germany. The central administration was set in Papenburg whe ...

'' group of labour camps. It was designed to hold up to 1,500 political prisoners, who worked under the direction of the ''

Reichsarbeitsdienst The Reich Labour Service (''Reichsarbeitsdienst''; RAD) was a major organisation established in Nazi Germany as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the German economy, militarise the workforce and indoctrinate it with Nazi ...

'' ("State Labor Service") in the local

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...

s. After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 the camp was taken over by Military District VI, and designated Stalag VI-B, with sub-camps (''Zweiglager'') — designated Stalag VI-B/Z — a few kilometres away at

Oberlangen Oberlangen is a municipality in district (''Landkreis'') Emsland, Lower Saxony (''Niedersachsen''), north-western Germany. This was the location of the Prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for ...

, Wesuwe and Fullen. On 13 May 1942 Stalag VI-B and its sub-camps all came under the administrative control of

Stalag VI-C Stalag VI-C was a World War II German POW camp located 6 km west of the village Oberlangen in Emsland in north-western Germany. It was originally built with five others in the same marshland area as a prison camp (''Straflager'') for Germans ...

at Bathorn, and were renamed Stalag VI-C/Z. The camps of Stalag VI-B were first occupied by prisoners-of-war taken during the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

. In early 1940 these were replaced by POW from France and Belgium. In addition, there were Dutch, Polish, and later Russians in the camps. After the armistice of 1943 Italian prisoners arrived. From November 1944 prisoners from the

Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, th ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

were housed at Versen to work on the ''Friesenwall'', part of the

Atlantic Wall The Atlantic Wall (german: link=no, Atlantikwall) was an extensive system of coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defence against an anticip ...

between the Netherlands and Denmark. The camps were abandoned in March 1945, and the prisoners were moved by train or marched east to other camps. The camp at Versen was used after the war as a prison under the control of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Justice. After a fire in 1972, much of the camp was rebuilt. It currently operates as ''Justizvollzugsanstalt Meppen'' ("Meppen Correctional Institution").

References

{{Authority control World War II prisoner of war camps in Germany Defunct prisons in Germany Buildings and structures in Emsland

Camp history

See also

References