OFFIZIERLAGER (OFLAG) II A
The Wehrmacht established Oflag II A (map 4b) on August 28, 1939, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) II and deployed it to Prenzlau, Brandenburg. On November 20, 1944, the camp was converted into Oflag 80.1
The camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District II (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis II). The first commandant of the camp (until the beginning of June 1940) was Colonel Jesco von Puttkamer (1876–1959). The 5th Company of the 281st Reserve Battalion (Landesschützenbataillon) guarded the camp.2
The camp originally held Polish officers. At the end of March 1941, Belgian officers and noncommissioned officers (NCOs) replaced the Poles, who were transferred to Oflag II E in Neubrandenburg. Until July 22, 1943, the Belgian man of confidence was Luitenant-generaal Edouard van den Berghen. His deputy was Luitenant-generaal Alexis van der Veken.
The camp consisted of two parts, Camp A and Camp B. Camp A held roughly 2,700 officers, while Camp B held about 300 NCOs. Camp A consisted of seven three-story units [End Page 229] (A-E), which included three residential units and a gymnasium. Camp B consisted of six halls, the guards’ quarters, a garage, storage for preserved goods, workshops, and baggage storage. Two barbed wire fences surrounded the entire complex. Seven guard towers had also been established around the perimeter of the camp. A total of 36 soldiers guarded the camp during the day. At night, the number of guards in the towers was doubled, and guards patrolled the area between the fences.
Conditions for the officers were generally satisfactory and in accordance with the 1929 Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Housing varied by rank. Generals lived two to a room, colonels roomed by fours, majors by eights, and for the NCOs, it was 8, 16, or 34 people to a room, depending on the size of the room. The rooms were heated, and the beds had mattresses, pillows, and blankets. Each room had a table, chair, and stool. In every residential block, each floor had a bathroom and washroom. Cold water was provided every day at certain times, but hot showers were available only two to three times a month.
The camp had a chapel for religious services, a library with 6,000 books, a place for sports, a snack bar, a kitchen, two large canteens (generals and colonels ate separately) (in Block E), and a hospital (in Block D). Cultural and religious activities were an important part of the prisoners’ lives. The Polish officers, for example, organized an orchestra, led by Navy chaplain Captain A. Olszewski; a choir, led by Lieutenant Józef Grzyb; and a theater troupe, led by Lieutenant Stanisław Wolicki (who, after the war, became the director of the Olsztyn Theater). Courses were available on a variety of subjects, including agriculture, law, mathematics, architecture, and foreign languages, and there was a pedagogical training course, taught by Lieutenant Colonel Stanisław Kwiatkowski. According to one prisoner, “under the difficult living conditions in the camp, cultural life was one of the most important aspects of the prisoners’ community.”3
Medical personnel during the Belgians’ time in the camp included five Belgian doctors and some Belgian nurses under the control of the German doctor. There was a distinct lack of some medical specialties in the camp; for 3,000 prisoners, for example, there was only one dentist.
The prisoners were able to send two postcards with 6 lines and two letters with 20 lines once a month. Every 10 days, they were able to receive one letter or one postcard. The prisoners were able to order German, Belgian, and French newspapers and books or magazines.4
SOURCES
Primary source material about Oflag II A is located in BA-MA (RW 6: 450–453; RH 53: 2/16); WASt Berlin (Stammtafel Oflag II A); and BArch B 162/17364–17366: Überprüfung des Oflag II A. See also M. Timm and R. Timm, “Unveröffentlichte Quellen zum Oflag II A in Prenzlau,” Mitteilungen des Uckermärkischen Geschichtsvereins zu Prenzlau 4 (1995): 94–113.
Additional information about Oflag II А is available in the following publications: Rajmond Galon, “O życiu kulturalnooświatowym w niektórych oficerskich obozach jenieckich w Niemczech w latach 1939–1945,” Koszalińskie zeszyty muzealne 9 (1979): 113–122; Tadeusz Gasztold, Życie kulturalne obozach polskich jeńców wojennych na Pomorzu Zachodnim w latach 1939–1945 (Koszalin: Koszaliński Ośwodek Naukowo-Badawczy, 1977); G. Mattiello and W. Vogt, Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen- und Internierten-Einrichtungen 1939–1945. Handbuch und Katalog: Lagergeschichte und Lagerzensurstempel, vol. 2 (Koblenz: self-published, 1987); H.-H. Schmidt, Wollen das Beste hoffen: Eine Familiengeschichte im Schatten zweier Weltkriege (Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2008); Rainer Szczesiak, Nationalsozialistische Zwangslager im Raum Neubrandenburg (Neubrandenburg: Regionalmuseum Neubrandenburg, 2009); and Georg Tessin, Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939–1945, Vol. 2: Die Landstreitkräfte 1-5 (Osnabrück: Biblio, 1966), p. 127. See also, https://prenzlau-smb.de/piwigo/lexikon/Texte/Militaer/oflag-iia.htm.
NOTES
1. Tessin, Verbände und Truppen, p. 127; Mattiello and Vogt, Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen- und Internierten-Einrichtungen, p. 5; Liste der Kriegsgefangenenlager (Stalag und Oflag) in den Wehrkreisen I–XXI 1939 bis 1945: BA-MA, RH 49/20.
2. Schmidt, Wollen das Beste hoffen, p. 61.
3. Galon, “O życiu kulturalno-oświatowym,” 116–117.
4. Legrand, “Bericht über die Lebensbedingungen der gefangenen belgischen Offiziere im Oflag II A Prenzlau”; Überprüfung des Oflag II A (Barch B 162/17364–17366).
