OFFIZIERLAGER (OFLAG) VIII H
The Wehrmacht established Oflag VIII H (map 4e) on August 1, 1940, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) VIII and deployed it to Oberlangendorf (today Horni Dlouha Loučka, Czech Republic). The camp had one branch, Oflag VIII H/Z Eulenburg (today Sovinec, Czech Republic). The camp was disbanded on August 18, 1942.1
Oflag VIII H was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District VIII (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis VIII). The camp commandant was Oberstleutnant Hugo von Willamowitz-Möllendorf.2 The commandant of the camp at Eulenburg was Oberst Donner-Grobois. The staff of the main camp consisted of 3 officers and 25 enlisted men. The camp was guarded by reserve (Landesschützen) personnel.
The camp held French, Belgian, and British (until 1941) officers and batmen. The camp in Eulenburg also held French officers. The population of the camp ranged from 430 to 720 prisoners in 1941 and 1942.3 Specific details on conditions in Oflag VIII H are not available, but the Germans generally treated Western officers well.
SOURCES
Primary source material about Oflag VIII H is located in BArch B 162/27796 (copy at USHMM RG-14. 101M.2619.00001003–00001047); BA-MA (RW 6; RH 53-8/18); and WASt Berlin (Stammtafel Oflag VIII H).
Additional information about Oflag VIII H can be found in the following publications: 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. 13; Stanisław Senft and Horst Więcek, Obozy jenieckie na obszarze śląskiego okręgu Wehrmachtu 1939–1945 (Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1972); Souvenirs d’Oberlangendorf: Oflag VIII. H, Moravie, septembre 1940 (Paris: Librairie de Montsouris, 1945); and Georg Tessin, Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939–1945, Vol. 3: Die Landstreitkräfte 6-14 (Frankfurt/Main: Biblio, 1972), p. 113.
NOTES
1. Mattiello and Vogt, Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen- und Internierten-Einrichtungen, p. 13. Mattiello and Vogt and Tessin mistakenly give August 18, 1943, as the date of the camp’s dissolution. In OKW/Kriegsgef. Org. (Id), Bestand an Kriegsgefangenen im Ost- u. Südostgebiet u. in Norwegen, 1942–1944, there is no mention of the camp after August 1942. The disbanding of the camp is mentioned in OKW/Chef Kriegsgefangenen, Organisationsbefehl No. 49: Übersicht über Veränderungen in der Organisation des OKW/Chef Kriegsgef. v. Anfang Mai b. Mitte November 1942. In accordance with this order, the camp buildings were turned over to the Hitler Youth for elementary military training.
2. Vorermittlung gegen ehemalige Angehörige des Oflag VIII H, BArch B 162/27795, Bl. 31R (copy at USHMM RG-14.101M.2619.00001024).
3. OKW/Kriegsgef. Org. (Id), Bestand an Kriegsgefangenen im Ost- u. Südostgebiet u. in Norwegen, 1942–1944, BArch B 162/18251.
