Oflag

An Oflag (from German: Offizierslager) was a prisoner of war camp for officers only, established by the German Army in both World War I and World War II in accordance with the requirements of the Geneva Convention (1929) (or the 1899 Hague Convention in World War I).

Officers cannot be required to work. A limited number of non-commissioned soldiers working as orderlies were allowed in Oflags to carry out the work needed to care for the officers. Officers of the Allied air forces were held in special camps called Stalags Luft but were accorded the required preferential treatment.

In general the German Army complied with the provisions of the Geneva Convention regarding care of officers of the armies of the western Allies, including Poland. There were notable exceptions, for example the execution of recaptured prisoners, specifically from Stalag Luft 3 and Oflag IX-C. However, the inhumane treatment of Soviet prisoners, soldiers as well as officers, did not comply with these provisions, according to Joseph Goebbels "because the Soviet Union had not signed the Convention and did not follow its provisions at all"

Oflag 64

Oflag 64 was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp for officers located at Szubin a few miles south of Bydgoszcz, in Pomorze, Poland, which at that time was occupied by Nazi Germany. It was probably the only German POW camp set up exclusively for U.S. Army ground component officers. At most other camps there were several nationalities, although they were usually separated into national compounds.

The camp was built around a Polish boys' school by adding barracks. Initially it was Stalag XXI-B for Polish soldiers until December 1940. It then it became Oflag XXI-B for French and British Commonwealth officers, subsequently for Soviet officers until June 1943. They were then moved out to other camps, the Commonwealth flying personnel to Stalag Luft III Sagan, others to Oflag XXI-C Ostrzeszów. It was then re-numbered.

Camp history

On June 6, 1943 the camp was redesignated Oflag 64; it became an American officers-only camp with the arrival of officers captured in the North Africa Campaign in Tunisia. In late 1943 an escape committee started digging a tunnel which was to pass under the barbed wire fence, but in March 1944, upon receiving news of the disastrous results of the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III the escape committee ordered a shut-down of the operation. In June 1944 senior American officers captured in the Battle of Normandy were sent to Oflag 64.

Oflag 79

Oflag 79 was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp for Allied officers. The camp was located at Waggum near Braunschweig in Germany, also known by the English name of Brunswick. It was located in a three-story brick building that had previously been the home of a German parachute regiment, near the Herman Göring aircraft engine factory.

Camp history

Offizierslager 79 ("Officers Camp 79") was established in December 1943 with men transferred from camps in Italy, mainly British Commonwealth officers from the Battle of Crete and North African Campaign. More prisoners arrived in July 1944 transferred from Oflag VIII-F. On 24 August 1944 the camp was strafed by American and British aircraft. Three men were killed, and 14 seriously wounded. The camp was liberated by the U.S. Ninth Army on 12 April 1945.

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