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

The Germans established Oflag VI D (map 4a) on July 10, 1940, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) VI, and deployed it in Münster. They issued the order to disband the camp on January 25, 1945, but its prisoners had been transferred to Oflag VI A in Soest in September 1944, at which time Oflag VI D had effectively ceased to function.

The camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District VI (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis VI). There were six prisoner commanders over the course of the camp’s existence: Fouchon, Le Mouel, Fuchs, Cohade, Magne, and Meunier, all colonels.

The camp held almost entirely French officers and enlisted orderlies, with just a few Polish and Soviet prisoners arriving in the last month of the camp’s operation. The number of prisoners in the camp ranged from about 1,175 to nearly 2,600.¹

The conditions in the camp were satisfactory and generally in compliance with the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (1929). The prisoners organized a theater as well as a university in which classes in various academic disciplines were held. There was also a library with up to 16,000 works.

Between 1941 and 1943, eight French officers died in the camp. They all held the rank of lieutenant: Georges Buffon, Raymond Anty, Roger de Montfort, Jean Lefevre, Gaston Tisserand, Auguste Gambet, Larcher, and Roger Febvuet.