Stalag II-A

Stalag II-A Neubrandenburg was a World War II German Army Prisoner-of-war camp located in Fünfeichen near Neubrandenburg, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a province in northern Germany.

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 bitter cold. Others were sent to work on farms, they were the fortunate ones because they were better housed and fed
* 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 Nuebrandenburg 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.

More information

* 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 icluding 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, 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

References

Sources

* [http://www.ww-iiheroes.com/hhg3.html story of American Henry H. Gould] - includes description of Teterow.
* [http://www.olecko.com/zurowski/rodc.htm very detailed description of camp life] - in Polish, a family history.
* [http://www.buergerhaus-rostock.de/pdf/Tafel_Neubrandenburg_2.pdf#search=%22%22stalag%20II%20A%22%22 photos of Stalg II-A]

ee also

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