Jump to content
News Ticker
  • I am now accepting the following payment methods: Card Payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal
  • Latest News

    PoW Camp Related SB &WP


    Recommended Posts

    It is a collecting area that doesn't seem to get the attention of many other areas but it can be a cheaper area to collect and sometimes well known or infamous places crop up. While most PoW Camp guards ony have their main unit listed in the Soldbuch or Wehrpass such as a Landesschuetzen-Btl, other examples will actually have the camp noted.

    Here is an example of a Soldbuch to an older serviceman who had previously served in World War 1 and who was assigned to a Marine Landesschuetzen Kompanie and was sent to be a guard at Marlag-Milag Nord which was the main PoW Camp for Royal Navy & Merchant Navy sailors who were captured (approx 5,000) and located near Bremen. The liberation of the camp is on Youtube.

    5ae9b0877bcce_GILLES002.jpg.0a53c6f0aee8ba5770c5c37b3768b1f5.jpg5ae9b09614c85_GILLES007.jpg.f31972343db07115af65f1b6503a949c.jpg5ae9b0a1641eb_GILLES008.jpg.7691972bdf1cb6b04b28be11a4a002d4.jpg

     

    This Wehrpass is to another older soldier who was assigned to Stalag 343. After the Germans occupied Lithuania in 1941 Stalag 343 was used to hold, and kill, Russian PoW's. To begin with it was located near Alytus in Lithuania before a camp near Bobruisk was renamed Stalag 343. Thousands of Russian prisoners died at the camp in Lithuania due to starvation and disease, and in the nearby forest of Vidzgiris over 60,000 Jews were murdered.

    5ae9b24484699_Kallwitz003.jpg.3612541b0f1adfdeaf9387712bda5c8c.jpg5ae9b258265e9_Kallwitz006.jpg.ff31a48c0b5125eadb09234ad7a6204e.jpg

     

    And here is a Wehrpass to a soldier who was transferred to the Luftwaffe and assigned to a Luftwaffe Landesschuetzen Kompanie. This unit was used to guard Stalag-Luft III and this soldier was guarding the camp during the period of arguably the the most well known escape from the PoW Camp system, The Great Escape on 24th March 1944.

    Pigal003.jpg.a779e844e6e6c279aa5beec8b676d053.jpgPigal006.jpg.a38aea3c972d79947dec0ad091f8d17d.jpg

     

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    • 2 weeks later...

    What´s also interesting about these POW-Guards Wehrpässe or Soldbücher, in many cases these guys were trained on a lot of captured firearms. This guy guarding the Oflag VII-A in Murnau ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oflag_VII-A_Murnau ) was trained on the belgian version of the BAR!!

    Eder 2.jpeg

    Eder 6.jpeg

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    The issue of captured firearms of all kind to german soldiers durig WWII is a really interesting topic, in my opinion!

     

    This guy was a veteran of the Battle of Tannenberg and served as a CO or XO at Oflag 2C.

    Some more information:

    http://gmic.co.uk/topic/59526-rittmeister-later-major-johann-heinrich-reschke/?tab=comments#comment-557463

     

    Wehrpaß Reschke 2.JPG

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    5 hours ago, turtle said:

    The issue of captured firearms of all kind to german soldiers durig WWII is a really interesting topic, in my opinion!

     

    Please feel free to start a separate thread on the topic - it will be interesting to see the scale and scope of foreign weapons issued.

     

    Thanks for the extra additions to this thread - Oflag IIC seems to have a fair bit of information on the internet including a list of 6,000 Polish PoW's and information on a prisoner Olympics in 1944.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Create an account or sign in to comment

    You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create an account

    Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now
    ×
    ×
    • Create New...

    Important Information

    We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.