OFFIZIERLAGER (OFLAG) 63
The Germans formed Oflag 63 (map 4c) on April 8, 1941, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XIII; shortly thereafter, it was transferred to Defense District I.1 The camp was deployed to Fischborn (today Dłutowo, Poland).2 It received the field post [End Page 218] number (Feldpostnummer) 10 587 between February 1 and July 11, 1941. On June 15, 1942, the camp was made a branch camp (Zweiglager) of Stalag I F Sudauen; its field post number was struck between January 27 and July 14. The camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District I (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis I).
Oflag 63 held Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). Although it was officially designated as an officers’ camp, the camp actually held enlisted men. The conditions were similar to those in other camps for Soviet POWs. The food was inadequate, the camp was horribly overcrowded, and sanitation and medical care were almost nonexistent. The resulting malnutrition and disease led to a high mortality rate, and the number of prisoners in the camp dwindled quickly from several thousand men to several hundred. On February 1, 1942, 3,102 prisoners remained in the camp; on April 1, 1942, there were 838; on May 1, 1942, there were 106; and on June 1, 1942, there were 98 prisoners.3
As in other camps, the Germans screened new arrivals to separate out “undesirables” (Jews and political commissars), who were then shot near the camp. The Białystok Gestapo performed the selections and members of the Schutzpolizei carried out the shootings. For example, on September 4, 1941, a squad from 1st Company of the 13th Reserve Police Battalion shot 67 prisoners, and on October 3, 1941, they shot 51 more.4
SOURCES
Primary source material about Oflag 63 is located in BA-MA (RW 6: 450–453); WASt Berlin (Stammtafel Oflag 63); GARF; and BArch B 162/30122–30123: Ermittlungen ZSt Dortmund 45 Js 16/70 gg. H. Errelis u.a. Angehörige der Stapostelle Allenstein wg. der Tötung russischer Kriegsgefangener aus den Offizierslagern (Oflag) 56 in Prostken und 63 in Fischborn/Ostpreussen am 4.9.1941.
Additional information about Oflag 63 can be found in the following publications: I. A. Makarov et al., eds., Katalog zakhoronenii sovetskikh voinov, voennoplennykh i grazhdanskikh lits, pogibshikh v gody Vtoroi mirovoi voiny i pogrebennykh na territorii Respubliki Pol’sha (Moscow, 2003); G. Mattiello and W. Vogt, Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen- und Internierten-Einrichtungen 1939–1945. Handbuch und Katalog: Lagergeschichte und Lagerzensurstempel, vol. 2 (Koblenz: self-published, 1987); Rein-hard Otto, Rolf Keller, and Jens Nagel, “Sowjetische Kriegsgefangene in deutschem Gewahrsam 1941–1945,” in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 56, no. 4 (2008); Czesław Pilichowski, Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939–1945. Informator encyklopedyczny (Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1979), p. 155; 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. 256.
NOTES
1. Tessin, Verbände und Truppen, p. 256.
2. Liste der Kriegsgefangenenlager (Stalag und Oflag) in den Wehrkreisen I–XXI 1939 bis 1945: BA-MA, RH 49/20; BA-MA, RH 49/5; Otto, Keller, and Nagel, “Sowjetische Kriegsgefangene in deutschem Gewahrsam.”
3. OKW/Kriegsgef. Org. (Id), Bestand an Kriegsgefangenen im Ost- u. Südostgebiet u. in Norwegen, 1942–1944, BArch B 162/18251: Bestandsmeldungen Kriegsgefangenen/Oflag-Stalag.
4. Kriegstagebuch Nr. 3 der l./Res.Pol.Btl.13, GARF 7021-148-186 (entries for September 4, 1941, and October 3, 1941).
