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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag 306 with an order dated March 26, 1941, in Marburg an der Drau (today Maribor, Slovenia) (map 4f), in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XVIII. It began operation by June 1, 1941, at the latest. The camp was redesignated Stalag 306 (XVIII D) sometime before February 25, 1942. Stalag 306 was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District XVIII (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis XVIII). Stalag 306’s field post number (Feldpostnummer), 20 199, was issued sometime between February 16 and July 18, 1941; the number was struck between February 15 and July 30, 1942.¹

Stalag 306 (XVIII D) was located on the site of an abandoned Yugoslavian Army barrack in Maribor. The prisoners’ barracks were about 60 square meters (646 square feet) in area and divided into rooms that held 45 men each. An infirmary that treated minor illnesses and injuries was located near the entrance to the camp; more severe cases were transferred to the prisoner hospital (Lazarett) at Stalag XVIII B in Spittal an der Drau.² The first commandant of Stalag 306 was Major von der Marwitz, who was succeeded by Oberst Manfred Ulbrich. The deputy commandant was Hauptmann Hermann Hüttenhain and the adjutant was Hauptmann Schug. The counterintelligence (Abwehr) officers were Hauptmann Heinrich Küpper and Hauptmann Hernekamp, and the camp officer (Lageroffizier) was Hauptmann Heinrich Gronheid.³

Stalag 306 (XVIII D) initially held Serbian prisoners of war (POWs) captured during the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 and British and Commonwealth prisoners captured during the Axis campaign in Greece (among them 4,500 New Zealanders).⁴ Stalag 306 became one of the primary camps for Australian and New Zealander (ANZAC) prisoners captured in Greece.⁵ As of June 1, 1941, there were 4,046 prisoners in the camp, of whom 3,838 were Serbian and 208 British.⁶ Most of the Serbian prisoners were transferred to other camps in August 1941 because Serbian POWs were not allowed to work in labor units in Wehrkreis XVIII at that time; however, the French and British prisoners were sent out to work.⁷ The first French prisoners were brought to the camp in August 1941, and they immediately became the largest group in the camp; of the 10,532 prisoners in the camp on September 1, 1941, 6,978 were French. After this point, most of the remaining prisoners in the camp were British, aside from a period between November 1941 and April 1942 when Soviet POWs were held here; the maximum number of Soviet prisoners was 5,192 in January 1942.⁸

Conditions experienced by the Serbian and Western Allied prisoners in Stalag 306 (XVIII D) were generally worse than those encountered by these groups in other German POW camps. While the Germans usually observed the requirements of the Geneva Convention of 1929 in their treatment of these prisoners, a Red Cross inspector who visited in October 1941 observed that the prisoners’ quarters were inadequate and hygienic conditions were poor. British-Palestinian prisoners were forced to sleep on the floor of a granary with only straw for bedding. Between 400 and 500 men were crowded into this small building, which was infested with lice; it had previously been used by Yugoslav prisoners, many of whom had died. The inspectors regarded it as “by far the worst of the camps in [Wehrkreis] XVIII.”⁹ The prisoners received a cup of ersatz coffee and bread in the morning, and soup and a piece of bread for lunch and dinner. As British-Palestinian prisoner Ralf Bogo recalled, when the prisoners were awoken by the Germans in the morning, the first 10 or 15 men out the door would be allowed to push the food transport wagons; in exchange for this work, they would receive an extra cup of soup.¹⁰

Despite the relatively difficult conditions, the prisoners in Stalag 306, particularly the French, were able to create a wellorganized cultural life.¹¹ A YMCA delegate who visited the camp on November 7, 1941, reported that the prisoners had built up a library of about 2,600 books and that they partook in sports when possible despite the lack of equipment. Religious services for the Protestant and Catholic prisoners were provided by clergy in the camp, and these clergymen were also able to visit some of the work details (Arbeitskommandos) in the surrounding area.¹² The French prisoners published a camp newspaper called Les Dix Huit Dés (The eighteen dice).¹³

Soviet prisoners in Stalag 306 experienced the worst conditions and were treated in a manner that was inconsistent with the provisions of the Geneva Convention. The Soviet prisoners lived outdoors in a huge foundation pit in the courtyard of a school. A barbed wire fence with guard towers surrounded the perimeter of the pit. To provide some shelter from the bad weather, the prisoners used makeshift materials to construct something like a tent. Their quarters were [End Page 290] overcrowded and unsanitary and they received minimal food and medical care. Malnutrition and an epidemic of typhus led to a large number of deaths among the Soviet prisoners in the camp.¹⁴ In total, from the end of October 1941 until the end of March 1942, 1,863 Soviet prisoners died in the camp and were buried in the Franciscan cemetery in the Pobrežje district of Maribor.¹⁵

As in other camps for Soviet POWs, the Soviet prisoners in Stalag 306 (XVIII D) were subject to “weeding out” actions (Aussonderungen) in which the counterintelligence officer screened the prisoners to identify “undesirables,” such as Jews and political commissars, who were then executed; it is unclear where and by whom these executions were carried out at Stalag 306, but the testimony of witnesses at subsequent war crimes trials suggests that it did take place. In addition, on at least one occasion, the Germans executed a group of between 55 and 60 Yugoslav civilians accused of partisan activity near the camp on the orders of an SS officer named Lurker (first name and rank unknown).¹⁶

On August 1, 1942, Stalag 306 (XVIII D) was converted into a subcamp (Zweiglager) of Stalag XVIII B in Spittal an der Drau and was redesignated Stalag XVIII B/Z. The headquarters of Stalag 306 was officially dissolved on September 4, 1942. Stalag XVIII B/Z was dissolved on November 11, 1942; however, the camp was reopened in the spring of 1943 as a subcamp of Stalag XVIII A in Wolfsberg and redesignated Stalag XVIII A/Z.¹⁷