Oflag VI-B

Oflag VI-B Dössel (Doessel) was a World War II German POW camp for officers located 5 km (3.1 mi) SW of the small town Dössel (now part of Warburg) in north-western Germany.

Timeline

In 1940 the camp was built on what had been originally intended to be an airfield. At first French and British officers were housed in the camp.

In August 1942 the camp was the scene of the "Warburg Wire Job", a mass escape by 41 prisoners who got over the fence on makeshift storming ladders. Three of them made home runs.^[1]

In September 1942 the prisoners were transferred elsewhere and replaced with Polish officers. 1077 of them were brought from Romania, where they had been interned in September 1939. Another 1500 were transferred from other camps in Germany.

The British had begun digging an escape tunnel. The Poles continued and on 20 September 1943, 47 of them crawled out. Within four days, 20 of them had been captured and returned to the camp. But then they were transported to the Buchenwald concentration camp and there they were executed. In the next few days 17 more were captured and taken to the Gestapo prison in Dortmund were they were murdered. Only 10 managed to remain free, some returning to Poland, others finding their way to the Allied lines.

On the night of 27 September 1944 another tragedy occurred. British bombers aiming at the railroad junction in Nörde, dropped some bombs on the camp killing 90 officers. Altogether 141 prisoners died in Oflag VI-B. They are buried in the cemetery near the center of the town and a memorial was erected in 1980.

The camp was liberated by the U.S. Army on 3 April 1945.

Aftermath

In 1960 Polish survivors organized the club Klub Dösselczyków. Journals of ex-Polish prisoners are kept in the Museum of Prisoners of War in Lambinowice, near Opole Poland.^[2]

Notable inmates

• Douglas Bader, legless British air ace, (October 1941 to May 1942).^[3]
• General Walerian Czuma, commander during the siege of Warsaw, September 1939
• Sydney Dowse, RAF pilot and Great Escape survivor
• Jock Hamilton-Baillie, serial escaper
• Peter Conder, ornithologist

See also

• List of prisoner-of-war camps in Germany
• Oflag

References

1. ^ The Times: Obituary of Jock Hamilton-Baillie
2. ^ Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej - Centralne Muzeum Jeńców Wojennych w Łambinowicach-Opolu
3. ^ Sergeant Pilot William A. Brew; From Pilot to POW in One Short Sweep

External links

• Story and photographs of Oflag VI-B Dössel

Coordinates: 51°31′01″N 9°09′05″E / 51.516898°N 9.151289°E / 51.516898; 9.151289