OFFIZIERLAGER (OFLAG) 58
The Wehrmacht formed Oflag 58 (maps 4e and 5) on April 8, 1941, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) VIII.1 It was initially deployed in Neuhammer (today Nowa Kuźnia, Poland)2 but was redeployed in Siedlce, in the Generalgouvernement, a few months later.3 On August 30, 1941, it was placed at the disposal of the Commander of Prisoners of War (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen) z.b.V. Lublin.4 On October 28, 1941, the Germans converted the camp into Stalag 366.5 The 991st Reserve Battalion (Landesschützenbataillon) guarded the camp. The camp received the field post number (Feldpostnummer) 08 529 between February 1 and July 11, 1941; the number was struck between July 12, 1941, and January 26, 1942.
Conditions in the camp were the same as in other camps that held Soviet prisoners of war. The camp was overcrowded, the food was inadequate, and sanitation and medical care were nonexistent. The result was an extremely high mortality rate, which abuse by the guards exacerbated. The Germans screened newly arrived prisoners to separate out “undesirables” (Jews and political commissars), who were shot by the guards or Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, SD).6
SOURCES
Primary source material about Oflag 58 is located in BA-MA (RW 6: 450–453); WASt Berlin (Stammtafel Oflag 58); and BArch B 162/17616–17617: Überprüfung des Oflag 58.
Additional information about Oflag 58 can be found in the following publications: G. Mattiello and W. Vogt, Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen- und Internierten-Einrichtungen 1939–1945. Handbuch und Katalog: Lagergeschichte und Lagerzensurstempel, vol. 2 (Koblenz: self-published, 1987); and Georg Tessin, Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939–1945, Vol. 5: Die Landstreitkräfte 31-70 (Frankfurt/Main: Biblio, 1971), p. 223.
NOTES
1. Tessin, Verbände und Truppen, p. 223; Mattiello and Vogt, Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen- und Internierten-Einrichtungen, p. 22.
2. OKW, Abt. Kriegsgefangene, Berlin, den 16.6.1941, Betr.: Kriegsgefangenenwesen im Fall Barbarossa (BA-MA, RW 4/578); OKW, Abt. Kriegsgefangene, Berlin, den 26.6.1941, Betr.: Erfassung und Behandlung der russischen Kriegsgefangenen (BA-MA, RW 19/5705).
3. Tessin, Verbände und Truppen, p. 223; Mattiello and Vogt, Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen- und Internierten-Einrichtungen, p. 22.
4. Liste der Kriegsgefangenenlager (Stalag und Oflag) in den Wehrkreisen I–XXI 1939 bis 1945: BA-MA, RH 49/20; BA-MA, RH 49/5.
5. Tessin, Verbände und Truppen, p. 223; Mattiello and Vogt, Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen- und Internierten-Einrichtungen, p. 22.
6. Überprüfung des Oflag 58, BArch B 162/17616–17617.
