Stalags XI-B, XI-D, and 357
Stalag XI-B was a German Army POW camp near Fallingbostel in Lower Saxony, north-western Germany.
Timeline
- Originally a work camp at the west end of the huge German Army training grounds Bergen, it was transformed into a POW camp at the end of 1939, to serve as a base for prisoners working in Arbeitslager.
- In July 1941 over 10,000 Soviet army officers were imprisoned here. Thousands of them died in the winter of 1941/42 as a result of a typhoid fever epidemic.
- Later prisoners of many other nationalities were incarcerated here.
- On 11 October 1944 475 women fighters of the Warsaw Uprising were transported to Fallingbostel. 90 officers and 9 orderlies were transferred to sub-camp Bergen-Belsen, then later transferred to Oflag IX-C in Molsdorf. The balance were later transferred to Stalag VI-C in Oberlangen.
- In December 1944 members of the US Army 42nd Division, Co. B and G, 232 Infantry Regiment captured during the Battle of the Bulge were brought to Stlag XI-B.
- On April 16, 1945 the camp was liberated by the British 8th Army.
Arbeitskommando
Close to 1,000 smaller Arbeitslager, called Arbeitskommandos were operated by this stalag, including:
- Eibia GmbH, Bomlitz - production of explosives and gunpowder. Under the Third Geneva Convention the use of POWs for this type of work was prohibited. However the German Army used Soviet prisoners because for them they disregarded this prohibition.
- Army Ammunition Factory, Muna
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See also
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