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Oflag VI-B Dössel
An Oflag (from ) 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. 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 example was as to the amount of food/meat to be provided to each POW. In Oflag XIII-B when a dead horse was brought into the camp, its total we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oflag XIII-B Liberation
An Oflag (from ) was a type of prisoner of war camp for Officer (armed forces), officers which the German Army (Wehrmacht), German Army established in World War I in accordance with the requirements of the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907), 1899 Hague Convention, and in World War II in accordance with the requirements of the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War (1929), 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. In some Oflags a limited number of non-commissioned soldiers working as Batman (military), 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag 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 personnel. The camp was established in March 1942 near the town of Sagan, Lower Silesia, in what was then Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland), south-east of Berlin. The site was selected because its sandy soil made it difficult for POWs to escape by tunnelling. It is best known for two escape plots by Allied POWs. One was in 1943 and became the basis of a fictionalised film, '' The Wooden Horse'' (1950), based on a book by escapee Eric Williams. The second breakout—the so-called Great Escape—of March 1944, was conceived by Squadron Leader Roger Bushell of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and was authorised by the senior British officer at Stalag Luft III, Herbert Massey. A fictionalised version of the escape was depicted in the film '' The Great Escape'' (1963), which was based on a book by former ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aktion Kugel
The ''Kugel-Erlass'' (), also known as ''Aktion Kugel'', was a secret decree (''Geheimbefehl''), issued by Nazi Germany on 2 March 1944. The decree stated that Allied prisoners of war who attempted to escape but were recaptured, 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 British and American prisoners of war who unsuccessfully attempted to escape. 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 prisoners of war 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 k ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RSHA
The Reich Security Main Office ( , RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and , the head of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The organization's stated duty was to fight all "enemies of the German Reich, Reich" inside and outside the borders of Nazi Germany. From its very inception, the RSHA was a central institution for the Nazism, Nazis, playing a pivotal role in orchestrating and executing the Holocaust. Formation and development In 1934, the Nazi regime accelerated the centralization of state power, abolishing the sovereignty of Germany's federal states and subordinating them directly to the Reich government. Even before the formal creation of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), the Gestapo under Himmler had already asserted nationwide authority, laying the groundwork for a unified security apparatus. These moves toward central control were further reinforced by the establish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Ernst Kaltenbrunner (4 October 1903 – 16 October 1946) was an Austrian high-ranking SS official during the Nazi era, major perpetrator of the Holocaust and convicted war criminal. 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 antisemite, Kaltenbrunner played a pivotal role in orchestrating the Holocaust and Nazi genocide intensified under his leadership. He oversaw the coordin ... [...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 B10 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 r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. He was one of Adolf Hitler's closest and most devoted followers, known for his skills in public speaking and his 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 doctorate in philology 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 progr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Crimes Against Soviet POWs
During World War II, Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) held by Nazi Germany and primarily in the custody of the German Army were starved and subjected to deadly conditions. Of nearly six million who were captured, around three million died during their imprisonment. In June 1941, Germany and its allies invaded the Soviet Union and carried out a war of extermination with complete disregard for the laws and customs of war. Among the criminal orders issued before the invasion was for the execution of captured Soviet commissars and disregard for Germany's legal obligations under the 1929 Geneva Convention. By the end of 1941, over 3 million Soviet soldiers had been captured, mostly in large-scale encirclement operations during the German Army's rapid advance. Two-thirds of them had died from starvation, exposure, and disease by early 1942. This is one of the highest sustained death rates for any mass atrocity in history. Soviet Jews, political commissars, and some officers ... [...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 offic ... [...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'', literally "main camp for enlisted prisoners of war" (officers were kept in an " Oflag"). Therefore, "stalag" technically 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 '' Marl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prisoner Of War
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person 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 for a range of legitimate and illegitimate reasons. These may include isolating them from enemy combatants still in the field (releasing and Repatriation, repatriating them in an orderly manner after hostilities), demonstrating military victory, punishment, prosecution of war crimes, labour exploitation, recruiting or even conscripting them as combatants, extracting collecting military and political intelligence, and political or religious indoctrination. Ancient times For much of history, prisoners of war would often be slaughtered or enslaved. Early Roman gladiators could be prisoners of war, categorised according to their ethnic roots as Samnites, Thracians, and Gauls (''Galli''). Homer's ''Iliad'' describes Trojan and Greek soldiers offeri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
