Altengrabow prisoner-of-war camp Stalag XI-A

Stalag XI-A, also known as the Altengrabow prisoner-of-war camp or Stalag 341, was a prisoner of war camp in World War Two. The camp was based in Dörnitz, Saxony-Anhalt.

Previous to World War Two, the camp was actually a military training area and had been so since 1893. In World War One the camp was converted into a prisoner of war camp known as Dörnitz Altengrabow holding some twelve thousand prisoners, after the end of the First World War it was back to normality as a training camp.

Right at the outset of World War Two the area became a prisoner of war camp again, initially called Stalag XI but quickly renamed to Stalag XI-A.

The camp was solely used as a place for prisoners taken from Allied forces and at the start of 1945 there were sixty thousand prisoners registered there.

Operation Violet was undertaken by the Allies on the 25th April 1945. Operation Violet was an airborne operation where men were dropped to free the camp into Allied hands, unfortunately the outcome was that the soldiers were captured themselves and interned in the camp.

Commandant, Col. Ochernal, the German in charge of the Stalag XI-A camp was urged by the prisoners of war to open up a radio link with the Allies. Stalag Commandant, Col. Ochernal did open up dialogue and allowed Allied forces to come and take the prisoners. Evacuation started with many prisoners being moved out, however the Russians were not happy with Polish prisoners being extradited to the West and gave the Allied forces two hours to collect belongings and be moved to the American area.

After this the Russians took control of the camp and after the war used the camp for the headquarters of a tank regiment up until 1990.

Fuhrerbunker

The Fuhrerbunker is best known as the place where Adolf Hitler committed suicude with his wife Eva Hitler (Eva Anna Paula Braun) at the end of World War Two. Eva killed herself through taking a capsule of cyanide and Hitler shot himself in the mouth while biting into a cyanide capsule.

The Fuhrerbunker, translating as "The Fuhrers Shelter" is a complex of underground bunkers built in Berlin, Germany under the gardens of the old Reich Chancellery building at Wilhelmstraße 77.

The bunker had 30 small rooms in total built in two levels, the first of which was built in 1936 and the second completed in 1943.

The Fuhrerbunker was protected by concrete walls that were around four metres thick so they could withstand a strong barrage and also had exits into the Chancellery and an emergency exit into the Chancellery gardens.

After the war the Soviet Union tried to blow up the Fuhrerbunker but only managed to damage the seperation walls. The East German government tried to blow up the bunker in 1959 but again did not cause much affect.


Images attributed to Das Bundesarchiv

German Prisoner of War Camps WW2

During the duration of World War Two all sides had their own prisoner of war camps (PoW camps for short). Everyone is well aware of the camps that the German Nazi regime had yet little is ever mentioned of the prisoner of war camps the United States and United Kingdom had with many German soldiers kept in them.

Today I have posted a list of German prisoner of war camps the Nazi regime established in World War Two for keeping soldiers of all allied countries prisoner.

The Nazi regime had different types of prisoner of war camps dependant on the type of allied military personnel kept there as shown below.

• Dulag or Durchgangslager (transit camp) – A collection point for POWs prior to reassignment.
• Stalag or Stammlager (base camp) – Enlisted personnel POW camps.
• Oflag or Offizier-Lager (officer camp) – Officers POW camps.
• Stalag Luft or Luftwaffe-Stammlager (Luftwaffe base camp) – Aircrew POW camps administered by the Luftwaffe.
• Marlag or Marine-Lager (marine camp) – Navy personnel POW camps.
• Milag or Marine-Internierten-Lager (marine internment camp) – Merchant seamen internment camps.
• Ilag/Jlag or Internierungslager (internment camp) – Civilian internment camps.

Attached in Excel is a list of all known German prisoner of war camps from World War Two, click here to download the Excel sheet with all the German prisoner of war camps.