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

The Wehrmacht established Dulag Gneixendorf on September 25, 1939, in the village of Gneixendorf near Krems (Austria), in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XVII (see map 4f). In this period, the camp operated under the authority of the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District XVII (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis XVII). On October 2, 1939, the camp took over Dulag Döllersheim as a subcamp (Zweiglager). On October 26, 1939, the authorities converted Dulag Gneixendorf into Stalag XVII B.¹ [End Page 125]

The camp commandant was Generalleutnant Hugo Schäfer (b. 1899). In 1945, a Soviet military tribunal sentenced Schäfer to execution by shooting.

The camp held Polish army servicemen whom the Germans captured in the course of their invasion of Poland in September 1939.

Details on conditions in the camp are unavailable, but generally speaking, the Germans did not treat Polish prisoners of war (POWs) well at this early stage of the war. Conditions in Dulag Gneixendorf are likely to have been primitive, at best.