The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945

The Wehrmacht established Stalag X B in September 1939 in Sandbostel, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) X (map 4a). Until June 30, 1940, the camp was subordinate to Gruppe Ic of the Deputy General Command of the X Army Corps (Stellvertretendes Generalkommando / X Armeekorps); thereafter, the camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District X (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis X). The practical effect of this transfer of power was minimal.¹ In August 1942, Stalag X B took over the site of the former Stalag 310 (X D) in Wietzendorf, which became a subcamp (Zweiglager) known as Stalag X B/Z; this camp was later converted into Oflag 83.²

The first commandant of Stalag X B, from September 1939 to January 1940, was Oberst Büttner. He was succeeded by Oberst Arnold von Engelbrechten, who remained at the camp until May 1941. Von Engelbrechten was replaced by Oberstleutnant Gerhard von Hirsch in June 1941. In April 1942 von Hirsch was succeeded by Major (later Oberstleutnant) Kurt-Hermann Lefevre, who remained the commandant through March 1944. He was replaced by Oberstleutnant (later Oberst) Bernhard Karl Waldemar von Foris, who remained the commandant until January 1945. The next commandant of Stalag X B was Oberst Lühe, who remained at the camp until April 20, 1945. The commandant for the final days before the camp’s liberation was Oberstleutnant Heinrich Ferdinand Westphal. The camp was guarded by four (later six) companies of Reserve Battalion (Landesschützenbataillon) personnel.³

Stalag X B was originally constructed in 1932 as a camp for civilian laborers who had lost their jobs due to the Great Depression. It was taken over by the Reich Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst) in 1933. In 1939, it was turned over to the Wehrmacht for use as a prisoner of war (POW) camp.⁴ As the first POW camp in Defense District X, it was originally designated Stalag X A; however, it later switched designations with the Stalag in Schleswig and became Stalag X B. It was part of a larger camp complex that also included an officers’ camp (Oflag X B) and a camp for interned naval and merchant marine personnel (Marlag-Milag Sandbostel). The Marlag-Milag was relocated to Westertimke, about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) south of Sandbostel, at the end of 1941.⁵ The entire complex covered 35 hectares (86.5 acres) and consisted of more than 150 buildings. The Stalag was located in the northeastern quadrant of the complex.⁶

Stalag X B was one of the largest POW camps in Nazi Germany. More than 300,000 prisoners from 55 countries are estimated to have passed through the camp during the war.⁷ The largest prisoner groups were Soviet and French [End Page 459] POWs, with large numbers of British, Polish, and Serbian prisoners and small numbers of Romanian and Czechoslovak prisoners, as well as other nationalities, also present. The camp also held Italian military prisoners. Stalag X B reached a maximum population of 50,697 in November 1944.⁸ Many of the prisoners in Stalag X B were assigned to one of the hundreds of work details (Arbeitskommandos) that were subordinate to the main camp. Many of the French and Belgian prisoners worked as laborers in the numerous industries located in the area around Hamburg—including some who were forced to work on military production, in violation of the Geneva Convention. Soviet POWs were primarily used as agricultural laborers.⁹

The first prisoners to arrive in Stalag X B were Polish POWs whom the Germans captured during their invasion of Poland in September 1939. As in other camps for Polish prisoners during this time, there were no permanent buildings in the camp yet, and the prisoners slept in tents while they built the camp structures. The original intended capacity of the camp was 10,000 prisoners in 40 barracks, but it was expanded to hold 30,000 in the spring of 1940.¹⁰ In July 1940, the first French and Belgian prisoners arrived at the camp. In the spring of 1941, Serbian prisoners captured during the German invasion of Yugoslavia were brought to the camp, followed a few months later by Soviet prisoners from the eastern front. In September 1943, the first Italian military prisoners arrived at Stalag X B.¹¹ Many other nationalities were represented in smaller numbers in the camp’s population.

The Germans generally observed the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War in their treatment of Western Allied POWs. However, conditions in the first year of the camp’s existence, before the completion of construction on the camp facilities, were diffi-cult, as they were in most camps for Polish prisoners in the early stages of the war. For example, there were no permanent sanitary facilities available to the prisoners. By the time the first Western Allied prisoners arrived, conditions had improved and were generally decent for most of the war.

The prisoners slept in large wooden barracks with a capacity of 240 men per barrack. Each barrack was divided into two main halls, which were further subdivided into four rooms each, with a capacity of 30 men per room. The men slept on wooden double bunk beds. Between the two halls of each barrack was a washroom, which had running hot and cold water. Latrines and bathing facilities were located outside the barracks, and the prisoners had opportunities to take hot showers, a luxury not available in many other camps. Stalag X B also had its own delousing facilities, which had a capacity of between 700 and 1,000 prisoners per day.¹² Food supplies were generally adequate during this period. In the final months of the war, the conditions in Stalag X B deteriorated once again, as was the case in most camps in the Reich, due to the supply difficulties Germany was facing. Food decreased in quality and quantity and sanitary conditions worsened due to increasing overcrowding in the camp, which resulted from the evacuation of prisoners from camps farther to the east to Stalag X B. Prisoners relied heavily on Red Cross food parcels to maintain adequate nutrition during this period.¹³

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Stalag X B at Sandbostel. General view of the camp, March 1944.

COURTESY OF ICRC.

The prisoners in Stalag X B were allowed to engage in a variety of sports and cultural activities. Catholic and Protestant chaplains provided religious services for the prisoners; a daily Catholic mass and three or four services on Sundays were held. Most large work details had their own chaplains, while smaller units were visited by chaplains from other details. There was a 20-man theater troupe, which put on performances two to three times a week, as well as a 25-man orchestra with instruments provided by the YMCA and a choir that performed religious music. The prisoners had access to a library that had approximately 8,000 volumes; however, most of these volumes were in French, with comparatively small numbers of books in other languages, such as Polish and Serbian. The prisoners played a variety of sports, including basketball, football, and volleyball, on a large sports field in the northern section of the camp.¹⁴ The prisoners organized courses in a variety of fields of study, including languages, mathematics, physics, theology, history, and technical subjects.¹⁵ The camp leadership saw cultural and sports activities as a valuable asset, both because they would help maintain prisoner morale (and therefore discipline) and because they would help them project a positive image of life in the camp to their superiors and international observers.¹⁶

As in other camps, the treatment of Soviet POWs in Stalag X B was harsh and in violation of the norms established by the Geneva Convention. The Soviet POWs lived in crowded conditions and received minimal food supplies and medical care. As a result, they experienced a high death rate, primarily due to malnutrition, exhaustion, and diseases such as typhus. The death rate was particularly high in the winter of 1941–1942, when epidemics were rampant among the Soviet prisoners.¹⁷ The death toll in Stalag X B is not known with certainty. Several thousand prisoners, the vast majority of them Soviet, are known to have died in the camp; at least 4,697 of them are known by name, and it is likely that thousands more died and were buried in mass graves without record.¹⁸ [End Page 460]

POW hospital (Lazarett) Sandbostel, was attached to Stalag X B. The hospital had a capacity of more than 1,000 patients. In early 1944, the hospital became an independent unit with its own administration, separate from Stalag X B. Shipments of supplies from the Red Cross could be sent directly to the hospital instead of having to pass through the Stalag first. As of 1944, the Sandbostel hospital was the only POW hospital in Defense District X. It handled all serious and chronic medical cases from the nearby Stalags and Oflags.¹⁹ The medical facilities were adequate, with well-constructed operating rooms and a dedicated, highly regarded team of medical officials. However, the facilities in the rest of the hospital were lacking. Linens and dressings were not cleaned properly due to a lack of laundry facilities. Low coal rations meant that the hospital was not heated sufficiently, which was exacerbated by a lack of extra warm clothing for the patients. The patients slept on hastily built and uncomfortable wooden beds. Nonetheless, Red Cross observers who visited the camp in April 1944 declared the Sandbostel hospital to be “one of the best [hospitals] for prisoners of war.”²⁰

Late in the war, concentration camp prisoners who had been evacuated due to the advance of Allied troops were brought to Stalag X B by the SS. They were housed in a separate compound, away from the POWs. These prisoners arrived in several transports during the last weeks of the war. On April 8, 1945, a transport of 2,500 prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp departed for Sandbostel, about 72 kilometers (44.7 miles) to the west. An additional 2,500 prisoners were picked up along the way in Schneverdingen. Hundreds of prisoners died en route to Sandbostel on the severely overcrowded train and were either buried in mass graves near the rail line or removed on arrival and buried in the Stalag X B cemetery. On April 18, as the Germans prepared to evacuate Stalag X B, 400 of the former Neuengamme prisoners were marched out of the camp in the direction of Flensburg via Bremervörde. It is unknown how many of these prisoners died on this forced march. The survivors were liberated by British troops on May 8, 1945.²¹

Stalag X B was liberated by British forces on April 29, 1945.²² There were about 25,000 POWs and 8,000 former concentration camp prisoners remaining in the camp at the time of its liberation. The POWs were generally in good shape, although there were 122 typhus cases reported by the French doctor attending to them in the camp infirmary. Captain R. Barer, who was part of the British unit that liberated the camp, reported that the POW camp was “well-run,” but that food was scarce (although Red Cross parcels remained plentiful) and that sanitary facilities were “poor but passable.” However, even the deteriorated conditions in the POW camp were much better than those in the compound in which the SS had kept the concentration camp prisoners.²³