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The camp complex from the years of World War 2
The POW camps which were organized by the German authorities during World War 2, designed for privates and non-commissioned officers, were called stalags (abbreviation of the German name: Kriegsgefangenen Mannschafts-Stammlager). The basic aim of their existence was to isolate soldiers of the enemy’s armed forces and to use their labor for the benefit of the German economy. Between 1939 and 1945, there existed in Lamsdorf a complex of German POW camps which had been organized and modelled on other camps of this type in the Third Reich.
The first camp was established here on 26 August 1939, in the south-eastern part of the Lamsdorf military range. This was Dulag B (Durchgangslager), one of the several transitory camps which the German military authorities organized on the eastern borderland of the Reich, close to the future frontline. However, as early as in October 1939 Dulag B was given the status of a permanent camp designed for private soldiers and non-commissioned officers. It started to function under the name of Stalag VIII B Lamsdorf. It is here that, beginning with the first days of September 1939, soldiers of the Polish Army, who were taken prisoner in battlefields, were brought to be detained. Then, in 1940, part of them were transferred into the heart of Germany, and the others were released from captivity, having their status changed into that of civilian workers. Only until the first days of October there were about 43 thousand Polish soldiers and civilians (among them Father Maksymilian Kolbe) who had been detained in the camp.
Till the end of the War Stalag VIII B accommodated POWs of different armies fighting against Germany, chiefly the British – hence the popular name of the camp – Britenlager. Till our day there has been little left from the then camp infrastructure: fire protection ponds and remains of bunkhouses and storehouses; the Chestnut Alley which the POWs moved along while coming to the camp has also remained preserved.
In spring 1941, works on organizing the second camp – Stalag 318, renamed shortly afterwards into Stalag VIII F Lamsdorf – began. The camp was established at the distance of about 1.5 km north-west of the already existing Stalag VIII B. In 1943, there were successive organizational changes carried out, in the consequence of which Stalag VIII F Lamsdorf lost its independence and began to be subordinated to Stalag VIII B Lamsdorf, which soon afterwards had another one – Stalag VIII D Teschen (Cieszyn), located at a fairly long distance – subordinated to it, as well. As a result of these alterations, until the moment of the separation of the camp located in the Czech Teschen, Stalag VIII B Lamsdorf had been the largest POW camp in Europe.
Towards the end of 1943, in consequence of another reorganization, Stalag 344 Lamsdorf was established in Łambinowice. It consisted of two parts: Britenlager (formerly: Stalag VIII B Lamsdorf) and Russenlager (formerly: Stalag 318/VIII F Lamsdorf). The both functioned until the end of the War, the living conditions in the former being much more bearable than those in the latter. There were brick bunkhouses in Britenlager and the regulations of the Geneva Convention of 1929 were applied with reference to the POWs detained there, whereas Russenlager accommodated the most numerous group of all the POW national groups – the Soviets, who received the worst treatment from the Germans. The death toll among the latter was on a high level: until 1945 there were about 200 thousand soldiers of the Red Army brought to the camp, 40 thousand of whom died because of cold, diseases and exhaustion. At first, they were accommodated under the open sky. They had to take shelter from cold in pits dug with their own hands. In 1944, there were about 6 thousand Warsaw insurgents transported into Russenlager, among others, Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki, Colonel Jan Rzepecki, Lieutenant Colonel Franciszek Rataj, Silent Unseen Stefan Bałuk, Jan Kazimierz Zawodny, Aleksander Gieysztor, Witold Kula, Leon Schiller or Roman Bratny. The material traces of the this camp which have been preserved to our day include the unique remnants of the bunkhouses, the water-pumping station visible from afar, as well as the reconstructed sentry-tower and the fence.
There were about 300 thousand POWs in total who were interned in the Lamsdorf POW camps during the years of World War 2. They represented a few scores of nations. In January 1945, the POWs were sent out on the evacuation march. Detachments of the Red Army entered the area of the camps on the 17th and the 18th March 1945.