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

On November 29, 1939, the Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW) ordered the formation of Oflag V A (map 4f) in Weinsberg, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) V, as the duty station of the “Commandant of Officer Prisoner of War Camp V A (Oflag V A).”¹ The camp compound was established in a former Landwehr training camp located in the am Mühlrain area of Weinsberg. The housing for the prisoners consisted of wooden and stone barracks.

Field post number (Feldpostnummer) 15 895 was assigned to Oflag V A before January 1, 1940.² This measure, which dates from the period before mobilization planning, seems, in retrospect, to have been unnecessary, as field post numbers were meant for units stationed outside the Reich proper. Until it was shut down, Oflag V A remained in Weinsberg. It never left the territory of the Reich, and its postal service functioned under the stated place name. The entire time, the camp was under the authority of the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District V (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen in Wehrkreis V).

The commandant of the camp from March 28 to September 2, 1940, was Major Wegner. He was succeeded by Major Seeger, who served as commandant from September 3, 1940, to January 15, 1941. He was followed by Oberstleutnant Baumgärtl, who held the position from July 15 to November 12, 1941. He was replaced by Oberstleutnant Comlicki, who remained at the camp until May 15, 1942, when he was succeeded by Oberstleutnant Alfred Teubner. The final known commandant of the camp was Oberstleutnant Neugebauer who took control on October 7, 1942.³ The camp was guarded by Reserve Battalion (Landesschützenbataillon) 970.

Oflag V A was a very small prisoner of war (POW) camp. From 1940 to the beginning of 1945, the prisoner strength averaged only around 1,000 officers and, at most, 200 orderlies (enlisted personnel).⁴ The first POWs arrived on June 10, 1940. They were Dutch officers, who stayed in the camp for only a few weeks. Their presence is not mentioned in the monthly reports of the OKW. This was evidently just a short stopover to break the journey to the camp that was their ultimate destination. On June 22, 1940, the first French POWs arrived, and, until October 1943, the camp was used solely for French POWs. From December 1943 onward, almost all of these officers were replaced with British officers. One Belgian and three Americans also were in the camp, in each case for only a few weeks.

There were no fixed work detachments in keeping with the Geneva Convention, though a few French officers voluntarily joined work units. More precise information on this sensitive subject, however, has not survived, as these officers were charged after the war, in France, with collaboration. Activities in support of internal camp operations, however, were customary.

The treatment of the POWs in the camp met the highest standard, and there was a reason for this. All the prisoners were nationals of Western countries, and because of this they received extensive support from relief organizations and certain concessions from the Germans. Beginning in mid-1944, the conditions became considerably worse, because the wartime circumstances permitted care packages to reach the camps only to a limited extent. As a result, the rations supplied by the Germans were all that was available to the prisoners. These rations did comply with the regulations, but the food was not to the prisoners’ liking and, in the final analysis, was insufficient in quantity. In addition, the problems in postal service due to the interruption of communications with foreign countries substantially lowered morale in the camp.

The POWs had a library available, and they organized their own orchestra and had a theater group. There was a major focus on lectures and classes, known as “université libre” by the prisoners. They had workshops for handicrafts, equipped with the appropriate tools. POWs in the group who were members of the clergy held religious services on a regular basis. Several attempts to escape were made, but none of them ended in success. There were also high-profile prisoners in the camp, such as Jacques Georges (later president of UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations) and Guy Mollet (later French prime minister).

Oflag V A received numerous visits from delegations, which then produced corresponding reports. The International [End Page 241] Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited on November 4, 1940, November 11, 1940, March 12, 1941, August 23, 1941, February 5, 1942, June 7, 1944, and November 8, 1944. The YMCA visited in November 1940, December 3, 1940, and December 22, 1940. Finally, the Scapini Mission visited on July 17, 1941, August 22, 1941, and November 12, 1941.

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Oflag V A at Weinsberg. Visit by the ICRC delegate, Dr. Roulet, November 1940.

COURTESY OF ICRC.

The visit reports of the ICRC, in particular, covered the full range of living conditions. Each report also contained an overall evaluation. In the first years, it was judged to be an “excellent camp.”⁵ During this time, Weinsberg was regarded as a “model camp,” a showpiece for foreign delegations.

Medical care was provided to the prisoners at two levels. Treatment began first in the camp medical center, which was operated by physician prisoners and personnel under German supervision. More serious cases were referred to a military hospital outside the combat zone (with a POW ward), in Heilbronn.

The operations of the camp began to wind down in the spring of 1945. On March 31, 1945, the prisoners were evacuated by rail and transported to Stalag VII A in Moosburg and Oflag VII B in Eichstätt. On May 12, 1945, the now-empty camp compound was destroyed by an Allied air attack. The compound was liberated by American forces on April 13, 1945.