OFFIZIERLAGER (OFLAG) 65
The Wehrmacht formed Oflag 65 (maps 4b and 4f) on May 26, 1942, from the staff of Oflag V C, which was located in the town of Wurzach (today Bad Wurzach).1 Beginning in July 1942, the camp was deployed in Lubny (113 miles / 182 kilo-meters east-southeast of Kiev, in Ukraine), where it replaced Dulag 132.2 On December 15, 1942, the camp was converted into Legions-Sammellager Lubny and used to train soldiers for the Ost-Legionen.3 On June 24, 1943, the prisoner of war (POW) camp was officially dissolved. On January 18, 1944, the camp was reestablished as Oflag 65, and, at some point after that, the camp deployed to Strasbourg, but information about the camp during this period is not available. At least from September 1944 to the end of January 1945, the camp was located in Barkenbrügge (later Barkniewko, Poland, about 4.75 miles / 7.7 kilometers west of Okonek).4
While it was deployed in Wurzach, Oflag 65 was under the authority of the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District V (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis V). In the summer of 1942, the camp was under the Commander of the Rear Area of Army Group B (Befehlshaber des rückwärtigen Heeresgebietes B). In the fall of 1942, the camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War of the Military Commander of Ukraine (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen beim Wehrmachtsbefehlshaber Ukraine), and, subsequently, to the 162nd (Turkoman) Infantry Division. While deployed in Barkenbrügge, it was under the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District II.
While it was deployed in occupied Ukraine, Oflag 65 held Soviet POWs. During the deployment in Barkenbrügge, the camp held primarily Serbian officers. On October 1, 1944, there were 1,608 Serbian officers and 205 Soviet and Serbian orderlies in the camp. On January 1, 1945, there were 2,606 Serbian officers and 306 Soviet and Serbian orderlies.5
At the end of January 1945, as a result of the approach of the Red Army, the camp evacuated to the west via Oflag II D. The Red Army liberated the camp on January 31, 1945.
SOURCES
Primary source material about Oflag 65 is located in BA-MA (RW 6: 450–453); WASt Berlin (Stammtafel Oflag 65); and BArch B 162/17761–17764: Überprüfung des Oflag 65.
Additional information about Oflag 65 can be found in the following publications: Gracjan Bojar-Fijałkowski, “Obozy jenieckie na Ziemi Koszalinskiej (1939–1945),” in Zbrodnie hitlerowskie na Ziemi Koszalińskiej w latach 1933–1945, ed. Andrzeja Czechowicza (Koszalin: Okre gowa Komisja badania zbrodni hitlerowskich, 1968), pp. 104–105; Tadeusz Gasztold, “Obozy jenieckie na Pomorzu Zachodnim w łatach 1939–1945,” Zapiski Koszalińskie 2, no. 26 (1966); G. Mattiello and W. Vogt, Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen- und Internierten-Einrichtungen 1939–1945. Handbuch und Katalog: Lagergeschichte und Lagerzensurstempel, vol. 2 (Koblenz: self-published, 1987), p. 24; Czesław Pilichowski, Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939–1945. Informator encyklopedyczny (Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1979), p. 92; 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. 266.
