Camp Fünfeichen
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Camp Fünfeichen () was a
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...
located in Fünfeichen, a former estate within the city limits of
Neubrandenburg Neubrandenburg (, Low German ''Niegenbramborg'', both lit. ''New Brandenburg an der Havel, Brandenburg'') is a city in the southeast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located on the shore of a lake called Tollensesee and forms the urban c ...
,
Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Wismar and Güstrow. ...
, northern
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. Built as Stalag II-A Neubrandenburg in 1939, it was extended by the officer camp Oflag II-E in 1940 (renamed Oflag-67, 1944). After the Soviet takeover in 1945 until 1949 it was used as special camp, NKVD-camp Nr. 9 of the
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
secret service (
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
). Today, the site of the camp is a memorial.


Stalag II-A

The camp was built in September 1939 to house Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive. The first POWs arrived on 12 September. Some were used for completing the camp construction while housed in tents during the winter. Others were sent to work on farms. From May/June 1940 Dutch and Belgian prisoners arrived from the
Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...
, followed by French. A number of the French were from African colonial regiments and were used for the worst work such as collecting trash. A new camp for officers, Oflag II-E was created close by and Polish warrant officers and ensigns were transferred to it. In 1941 more prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign mostly
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
and
Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...
ns (mostly Serbs). In late summer 1941
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
prisoners from
Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...
arrived and were placed in a separate enclosure built south of the main camp. In September 1943 some Italian internees were transferred to Stalag II-A from
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
after the capitulation. From November 1944 to early January 1945 American soldiers captured in various operations during the Allied drive eastward arrived. Most were immediately sent to ''Arbeitskommandos''. From February to April 1945 Neubrandenburg was a waypoint in the forced march westward of Allied prisoners from POW camps further east. The camp was finally liberated on 28 April 1945 when a Soviet armoured division reached Neubrandenburg.


Evacuation and repatriation

In the middle of April most of the prisoners in the camp and in the outlying ''Arbeitskommandos'' were marched westward ahead of the advancing
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
. Within a few days they were liberated by British troops pushing eastward.


Prisoner census

The official prisoner census of 1 December 1944 records: * 12,581 French * 8,694 Russians * 1,976 Serbs * 950 Americans * 738 Poles * 527 Italians * 200 British For a total of 25,720 including 21 officers.Stadtarchiv Neubrandenburgbüro Only about 3,500 were in the camp itself, the rest were in outlying sub-camps.


Sub-camps

Stalag II-A had about 50 subcamps, known as ''Arbeitskommando''. The largest was
Teterow Teterow () is a town of Germany, in the Rostock (district), district of Rostock, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. It is the geographical center of this federal state. It had a population of 8,852 in 2011. History The ''Stadtkirche St. Peter u ...
, several miles west of Neubrandenburg, which held about 175 prisoners living in a multi-storey brick building. They worked on the railway lines. Another was at
Parchim Parchim (; Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch dialect, Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch: ''Parchen'') is a town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is the capital of the Ludwigslust-Parchim district. It was the birthplace of Helmuth von Moltke the Elde ...
.


Oflag II-E

Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive were placed in Stalag II-A. After some time the officers were separated out and placed initially in the garages of the adjoining German Army armoured division. Then a separate camp, Oflag II-E, was built for them on the west side of the highway. From May and June 1940 Dutch and Belgian prisoners arrived from the
Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...
, followed by French. In 1941 more officer prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign mostly
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
,
Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...
n,
Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...
and
Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...
. By February 1944 most of the officers had been transferred to other Oflags. Only Dutch officers and a few Russian officers remained. The camp was renumbered Oflag-67. It was liberated by a Soviet armoured division on 28 April 1945.


Prisoner census

The official prisoner census of 1 December 1944 records: * 1,322 Dutch officers and 372 non-commissioned officers * 169 Russian officers


NKVD Special Camp Number 9

The Soviet administration of post-war Germany, SMAD, took over the former Stalag and turned it into a special camp of the Soviet secret service (
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
). About 15,000 men, women and children were interned in the camp, and 5,000 of them died, primarily of starvation and disease. Between July and September 1948, 5,181 detainees were released. 2,801 prisoners were transferred to other NKVD special camps, the former
Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...
in
Buchenwald Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...
(NKVD special camp Nr.2) and Sachsenhausen (NKVD special camp Nr.7).


Memorial

Since 1993, the site of the former camp has been a memorial, the ''Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Fünfeichen''.
release of Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Fünfeichen
'


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 () during World War II (1939-1945). The most c ...


Citations


General sources


"Just One More River to Cross"
by John M. Ryan. ''American Heritage'', June/July 2005.

€”includes description of Teterow.

€”a family history
Photos of Stalg II-A
(PDF)
Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Fünfeichen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Camp Funfeichen 1939 establishments in Germany 1948 disestablishments in Germany Neubrandenburg NKVD special camps NKVD Special Camp No.9 Stalag II-A