DURCHGANGSLAGER (DULAG) F/(DULAG) VI F
The Germans established Dulag F in late August 1939 in the Deutz district of Köln (Cologne) (map 4a), in Defense District (Wehrkreis) VI; the camp was actually in operation on September 10.1 The camp also operated under the designation Dulag VI F. The camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District VI (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis VI).
On October 3, 1939, the German Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW) ordered the camp’s conversion into Stalag VI F; a follow-on order of October 7 directed the camp staff to take on the functions of a Stalag. On November 5, the OKW ordered the camp to move to Bocholt as Stalag VI F as soon as the facilities there were complete, but, as of December 1, Dulag F was still in operation in Köln-Deutz.
Dulag F held Polish prisoners of war. Specific information about conditions in the camp is unavailable, but conditions in such camps were generally poor, with inadequate shelter and food supplies. Most of the prisoners were immediately sent to forced labor, mainly agricultural labor.
SOURCES
Primary source material about Dulag F is located in BA-MA (RH 49) and WASt.
Additional information about Dulag F can be found in the following publications: Gianfranco Mattiello and Wolfgang Vogt, Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen- und Internierten-Einrichtungen 1939–1945. Handbuch und Katalog: Lagergeschichte und Lagerzensurstempel, 2 vols. (Koblenz: self-published, 1987), vol. 1: p. 12; vol. 2: pp. 67, 69; and Rüdiger Overmans, “Die Kriegsgefangenenpolitik des Deutschen Reiches 1939 bis 1945,” Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, vol. IX/2 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2005), pp. 729–875.
NOTES
1. Mattiello and Vogt, Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen- und Internierten-Einrichtungen, vol. 2: p. 69; the alternate name of the camp is erroneously given as “IV F” instead of “VI F.”
