Stalag XIII-C was a German Army

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 opposing ...

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. ...

('' Stammlager'') built on what had been the training camp at

Hammelburg Hammelburg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It sits in the district of Bad Kissingen, in Lower Franconia. It lies on the river Franconian Saale, 25 km west of Schweinfurt. Hammelburg is the oldest winegrowing town (''Weinstadt'') in Francon ...

Lower Franconia Lower Franconia (german: Unterfranken) is one of seven districts of Bavaria, Germany. The districts of Lower, Middle and Upper Franconia make up the region of Franconia. History After the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria the state was totally ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, Germany.

Camp history

Hammelburg was a large German Army training camp, set up in 1893. Part of this camp had been used as a POW camp for Allied army personnel in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After 1935 it was a training camp and military training area for the newly reconstituted German Army. In May 1940 the camp was established in wooden huts at the south end of the training ground. The first prisoners included Belgian, Dutch and French soldiers taken during the Battle of France. In May–June 1941

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

n, predominantly

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

n prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign, and soon after in June–July 1941 Australian and other

British Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

soldiers arrived, captured during the

Battle of Crete The Battle of Crete (german: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, el, Μάχη της Κρήτης), codenamed Operation Mercury (german: Unternehmen Merkur), was a major Axis airborne and amphibious operation during World War II to capture the island ...

. In April 1943

Oflag XIII-B Oflag XIII-B was a German Army World War II prisoner-of-war camp for officers ('' Offizierslager''), originally in the Langwasser district of Nuremberg. In 1943 it was moved to a site south of the town of Hammelburg in Lower Franconia, Bavaria, ...

was opened nearby, with officers transferred from Oflag XIII-A at

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

. As was usual for Stalags, many of the prisoners were located in ''

Arbeitslager ''Arbeitslager'' () is a German language word which means labor camp. Under Nazism, the German government (and its private-sector, Axis, and collaborator partners) used forced labor extensively, starting in the 1930s but most especially durin ...

'' ("Work camps") on farms or adjacent to factories or other industrial operations. The Stalag served as the base for distribution of

International Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

packages and mail. A Lazarett (hospital) cared for prisoners that were sick or had been injured in industrial accidents or air-raids. A number of enlisted men and

NCOs A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

were housed in the adjacent Oflag to provide necessary services. American soldiers that had been captured during the

Battle of Normandy Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...

arrived in June–July 1944, and more from the

Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in ...

in January 1945. In March 1945 a large group of prisoners arrived in deplorable condition after marching the 500 miles (800 km) from

Stalag VIII-D Stalag VIII-D was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp ('' Stammlager'') located at the outskirts of Teschen, (now Český Těšín, Czech Republic). It was built in March 1941 on the grounds of a former Czech barracks. It was later known as ...

in severe winter conditions. The camp was liberated by Combat Command B of the U.S. 14th Armored Division on 6 April 1945.

In television

The 1960s and 1970s American television program '' Hogan's Heroes'' was situated in a fictitious POW Camp called "Luft-Stalag 13" located near

, likely based on actual Luftwaffe POW camps administered by them for Allied POW combat pilots and aircrew shot down over German territory. However, there was no resemblance to the actual Stalags XIII-A, -B or -C other than name and location.

Footnotes

External links

*
Story of Cpl. Furman Grimm

in French

{{Main German WWII POW camps 1944-1945 World War II prisoner of war camps in Germany