- Oflag II-C
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Oflag II-C Woldenburg was a World War II German Army Prisoner-of-war camp located about 1 km from the town Woldenburg, now Dobiegniew in western Poland. It is close to Gorzów Wielkopolski which was called Landsberg before 1945. The camp housed Polish officers and orderlies. and had an area of 25 ha (62 acres) and had 25 brick huts for prisoners and another six for kitchens, class-rooms, theater, administration.
Contents
Timeline
- In October 1939 500 Polish prisoners from the German Invasion of Poland (1939) were brought here to build the camp and lived initially in tents
- May 1940 as the building progressed Polish officers were transferred in small groups from other POW camps..
- July 1941 a group of officer-cadets (podchorąży) were brought here from Stalag II-A. They were divided among the 25 huts to work as orderlies, in addition to the lower ranks that were already doing this work.
- In April 1942 the last group of Polish officers was brought here from Oflag X-C near Lübeck. The number of inmates reached its highest peak of 5944 officers and 796 orderlies.
- In 1944, Polish POWs were granted permission by their Nazi captors to stage an unofficial POW Olympics in 1944, showing that the Olympic spirit can transcend war.[1]
See also: 1944 Summer Olympics
- October 1944 a small number of higher rank officers arrived from the Warsaw Rising of 1944.
- 28 January 1945 the inmates were assembled and started to march westward. But two days later Soviet tanks liberated them.
More information
Cultural life in the camp was very extensive. A large number of classes were conducted by 80 officers who were professors or teachers in civilian life. These classes included philosophy and law, as well as French and English. Mathematics was taught by a well known specialist in this field - prof. Jerzy Hryniewiecki. A number of the prisoners were able to complete full university courses which were recognized after the war.
In the theater a number of plays were presented by two professional directors - Kazimierz Rudzki and Jan Kocher. Some new plays were written including a three act drama called "Mały (The little one) written by the Warsaw writern Adrzej Nowicki, There was a symphony orchestra under the direction of Józef Klonowski.
In 1942 a secret radio receiver was built and the news distributed throughout the camp in newsletters.
Escapes
There were several escape attempts but only two were successful. Early 1942 three officers managed to hide inside empty boxes in a truck that was unloading food supplies. They were successful. On Christmas Eve 1942 a number of officers arranged a fight outside one of the huts. While the guards were engaged in breaking up the fight, toward which the searchlights were all directed, three officers managed to cut through the barbed wire and escape from the camp.
A larger scale attempt was unsuccessful. In 1943 a tunnel was being dug from a hut closest to the wires. About 150 officers were preparing to get out through it. Unfortunately, just as the tunnel was within a few feet of its end it was discovered.
POW Olympics
In the summer of 1944 prisoners camp were granted permission by their German captors to stage an unofficial POW Olympics from July 23 to August 13. An Olympic Flag made with a bed sheet and pieces of colored scarves was raised. The event has been considered to be a demonstration of the Olympic spirit transcending war.[1]
Sources
- "Zapomniany oflag II C Woldenberg" by Teofil Lachowicz - article in "Przeglad Polski" of 14 September 2001 - in Polish.
- detailed description of camp life in Polish (part of a long family history).
- ^ Grys, Iwona (1996), "The Olympic Idea Transcending War", Olympic Review XXV (8, April-May 1996): 68.
See also
- List of German WWII POW camps
- Oflag
- www.lagerpost.info
References
Categories:- World War II prisoner of war camps
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