OFFIZIERLAGER (OFLAG) IX B
The Germans created Oflag IX B (map 4d) on November 7, 1939, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) IX, and deployed it to Weilburg. The camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District IX (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis IX).
From 1939 to 1940, the camp first held about 650 Polish officers and orderlies (batmen). As of September 1940, it contained 777 Belgian officers and orderlies plus 47 French enlisted men. From that point, the population declined to 21 Belgian enlisted men in January 1941.1
No information concerning conditions in this camp has come to light. For the Belgian and French prisoners, at least, the treatment was likely to have corresponded to the requirements of the Geneva Convention of 1929. The Germans began closing Oflag IX B on October 18, 1940, although some enlisted prisoners remained on the site, presumably doing work, until January 1941.
SOURCES
Primary source material about Oflag IX B is located in BA-MA (RW 6: 450–451) and WASt Berlin (Stammtafel Oflag IX B).
Additional information about Oflag IX B 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); and Gianfranco Mattiello, Prisoners of War in Germany 1939–1945 (Camps, Nationalities, Monthly Population) (Lodi: self-publishing, 2003), p. 207; 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, 1970), p. 150.
NOTES
1. Mattiello, Prisoners of War, p. 207.
