Camp Fünfeichen

Camp Fünfeichen (German: Lager Fünfeichen) was built during World War II as the German Army Prisoner-of-war camp Stalag II-A Neubrandenburg in 1939, extended by officer camp Oflag II-E in 1940 (since 1944 Oflag-67), and from the Soviet takeover in 1945 until 1949 used as special camp NKVD-camp Nr. 9 of the Soviet secret service NKVD. The camp was located in Fünfeichen, a former estate within the city limits of Neubrandenburg in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, northern Germany. Today, the site of the camp is a memorial.

Stalag II-A

Timeline

• The camp was built in September 1939 to house Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive. The first ones arrived 12 September. Some were used for completing the camp construction while housed in tents during the winter. Others were sent to work on farms.
• May and June 1940 Dutch and Belgian prisoners arrived from the Battle of France, followed by French. A number of the French were black from the colonial regiments who 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 and Yugoslavian (mostly Serbs).
• In late summer 1941 Soviet prisoners from Operation Barbarossa 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 after the capitulation.
• November 1944 to early January 1945 American soldiers captured in various operations during the Allied drive westward arrived. Most were immediately sent to Arbeitskommandos.
• February to April 1945 Neubrandenburg was a waypoint in the forced march westward of Allied prisoners from POW camps further east.
• 28 April 1945 a Soviet armored 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. Within a few days they were liberated by British troops pushing eastward.

Prisoner census

• Official prisoner census 1 December 1944:
  • French 12,581; British 200; Poles 738; Serbs 1,976; Soviet 8,694; Italians 527; USA 950; Total 25,720 including 21 officers^[1]. 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, several miles west of Neubrandenburg, which held about 175 prisoners living in a multistory brick building. They worked on the railway lines. Another was Parchim

Oflag II-E

Timeline

• 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 armored division. Then a separate camp was built for them on the west side of the highway.
• May and June 1940 Dutch and Belgian prisoners arrived from the Battle of France, followed by French.
• In 1941 more officer prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign mostly British Yugoslavian. Serbs and Greeks
• By February 1944 most of the officers had been transferred to other Oflags. Only Dutch officers and a few Soviet officers remained. The camp was renumbered Oflag-67
• 28 April 1945 the camp was liberated by a Soviet armored division.

Prisoner census

• Official prisoner census 1 December 1944:
  • 1322 Netherlands officers; 372 Netherlands non-commissioned officers; 169 Soviet 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. About 15,000 men, women and children were interned in the camp, 5,000 of them died in the consequence, primarily of starvation and diseases.^[2] Between July and September, 1948, 5,181 detainees were released. 2,801 Häftlinge were transferred to other NKVD special camps, the former Nazi concentration camps in Buchenwald (then NKVD camp Nr.2) and Sachsenhausen (the NKVD camp Nr. 7).

Memorial

Since 1993, the site of the former camp is a memorial, the Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Fünfeichen.^[2]

References

1. ^ Stadtarchiv Neubrandenburgbüro,
2. ^ ^{a b} release of Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Fünfeichen

Sources

• "Just One More River to Cross" by John M. Ryan. American Heritage, June/July 2005.
• story of American Henry H. Gould - includes description of Teterow.
• very detailed description of camp life - in Polish, a family history.
• photos of Stalg II-A
• Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Fünfeichen

See also

• List of German WWII POW camps
• Oflag II-E Neubrandenburg