Germany signed the Third Geneva Convention of 1929, which established norms relating to the treatment of prisoners of war.
Article 10 required PoWs be lodged in adequately heated and lighted buildings where conditions were the same as for German troops.
Articles 27-32 detailed the conditions of labour. Enlisted ranks were required to perform whatever labour they were asked if able to do, so long as it was not dangerous and did not support the German war-effort. Senior non-commissioned officers (sergeants and above) were required to work only in a supervisory role. Commissioned officers were not required to work, although they could volunteer. The work performed was largely agricultural or industrial, ranging from coal- or potash-mining, stone quarrying, or work in saw mills, breweries, factories, railroad yards, and forests. PoWs hired out to military and civilian contractors were supposed to receive pay. The workers were also supposed to get at least one day a week of rest.
Article 76 ensured that PoWs who died in captivity were honourably buried in marked graves.
While Germany largely adhered to the Geneva Convention when it came to other nationalities of prisoners of war, it disregarded it for the Soviet prisoners of war. Around 3 million of almost 6 million captured died, largely of starvation and disease, but also executions.[2]
Types of camp
Administration Barrack III in Oflag XD, drawn by Belgian officer POW Léon Gossens, 1944
Dulag or Durchgangslager (transit camp) – These camps served as a collection point for POWs prior to reassignment. These camps were intelligence collection centers.
Dulag Luft or Durchgangslager der Luftwaffe (transit camp of the Luftwaffe) – These were transit camps for Air Force/Air Corps POWs. The main Dulag Luft camp at Frankfurt was the principal collecting point for intelligence derived from Allied POW interrogation
Heilag or Heimkehrerlager (repatriation camps) - Camps for the return of prisoners. Quite often these men had suffered disabling injuries.
Ilag/Jlag or Internierungslager ("Internment camp") – These were civilian internment camps.
Marlag or Marine-Lager ("Marine camp") – These were Navy/Marine personnel POW camps.
Milag or Marine-Internierten-Lager ("Marine internment camp") – These were merchant seamen internment camps.
Oflag or Offizier-Lager ("Officer camp") – These were POW camps for officers.
Stalag or Stammlager ("Base camp") – These were enlisted personnel POW camps.
Stalag Luft or Luftwaffe-Stammlager ("Luftwaffe base camp") – These were POW camps administered by the German Air Force for Allied aircrews (including officers, e.g. Stalag Luft I).
Nomenclature
At the start of World War II, the German Army was divided into 17 military districts (Wehrkreise), which were each assigned Roman numerals. The camps were numbered according to the military district. A letter behind the Roman number marked individual Stalags in a military district.
e.g.
Stalag II-D was the fourth Stalag in Military District II (Wehrkreis II).
Sub-camps had a suffix "/Z" (for Zweiglager - sub-camp). The main camp had a suffix of "/H" (for Hauptlager - main camp).
e.g.
Oflag VII-C/H meant this is the main camp.
Oflag VII-C/Z meant this is a sub-camp of a main camp.
Some of these sub-camps were not the traditional POW camps with barbed wire fences and guard towers, but merely accommodation centers.
^Niklas, Tomasz. "Polscy jeńcy w Stalagu XX B Marienburg". In Grudziecka, Beata (ed.). Stalag XX B: historia nieopowiedziana (in Polish). Malbork: Muzeum Miasta Malborka. p. 29. ISBN978-83-950992-2-9.
Megargee, Geoffrey P.; Overmans, Rüdiger; Vogt, Wolfgang (2022). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV. Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. ISBN978-0-253-06089-1.
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