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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag 317 (XVIII C) on April 7, 1941. The camp was located in Markt Pongau, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XVIII (map 4f). Stalag 317 (XVIII C) had one subcamp (Zweiglager), designated Stalag 317 (XVIII C/Z), which was located in Landeck.¹ The camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District XVIII (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis XVIII). Unusually, for a Stalag that remained in the Reich throughout its existence, Stalag 317 received a field post number (Feldpostnummer), 09 559, which was issued sometime between February 1 and April 11, 1941, and struck on February 7, 1942.

The first commandant of Stalag 317 was Oberst Dr. Ulrich Frey. His successor was Oberst Küchler, who was later replaced by Oberst Ried (or Reid). Oberst Ried was followed by Oberst Behrens. The final commandant of the camp was Oberst Otto Kadelke. The counterintelligence (Abwehr) officers were Hauptmann Josef Steinklauber and Hauptmann Erhard Storch. The court officer (Gerichtsoffizier) was Dr. Hermann Radauer.²

Stalag 317 (XVIII C) was divided into two eight-hectare (20 acre) sections: the North Camp (Nordlager) and the South Camp (Südlager), each of which contained between 25 and 30 barracks, which were 45–50 meters (148–164 feet) in length. Construction of the camp began in April 1941 and was completed in early September of that year; prior to the completion of the barracks, the prisoners slept in tents. The barracks were made of stone or wood and equipped with triple bunk beds for the prisoners and three heating stoves per barrack.³

The first prisoners in the camp were 1,081 French (including an officer and 34 civilians) who arrived in a transport from Frontstalags in France on May 22, 1941.⁴ French prisoners would remain the largest national group in the camp for most of its operation. By June 1, there were also 1,529 Serbians, 19 Poles, and 2 Belgians in the camp. The Western Allied, Polish, and Serbian prisoners were kept in the Südlager. The first Soviet prisoners arrived at Stalag 317 in October 1941; as of November 1, 1941, there were 2,677 Soviets in the camp.⁵ The Soviet prisoners lived in the Nordlager, also referred to as the Russian camp (Russenlager). Beginning in September 1943, prisoners of other nationalities—including Dutch, British/Commonwealth, American, and Hungarian prisoners of war (POWs) and Italian military prisoners—were also present in the camp.⁶ Beginning in the fall of 1943, Stalag 317 also served as a transit camp for prisoners who were being transferred north from POW camps in Italy to other Stalags in the Reich.⁷

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Stalag 317 (XVIII C) at Markt Pongau. ICRC delegate Mr. Friedrich visits the camp, July 1942.

COURTESY OF ICRC.

The population of Stalag 317 (XVIII C) was relatively constant, ranging from approximately 15,000–23,000 prisoners throughout the war. However, most of the prisoners registered in the camp (more than 70% and at times as high as 93%) were not housed in the main camp but were instead working in the numerous work details (Arbeitskommandos) that were subordinate to Stalag 317.⁸ Some of the prisoners from the Stalag were sent to a labor camp known as Lager Lüdensee, near Bludenz.⁹ While conditions in the work details generally met the requirements of the Geneva Convention, Red Cross delegates who visited Kommando L 21253 in Wöth-Rauris in October 1941 noted that the French prisoners lived in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, did not receive sufficient food, and were mistreated by the commander of the detachment.¹⁰

Conditions for Western Allied and Serbian prisoners in Stalag 317 were generally decent. In most of their camps, the Germans usually treated these prisoners well and observed the requirements of the Geneva Convention of 1929, and that seems to have been the case in Stalag 317. However, prisoner Marcel Vuillamy wrote in late April 1943 that the prisoners’ quarters were infested with vermin and that their food rations were inadequate. Nonetheless, the prisoners kept their spirits high and demonstrated defiance toward their German captors by singing French patriotic songs.¹¹ [End Page 307]

These prisoners had access to some cultural and recreational activities, including various sports, such as soccer, and a small orchestra and theater troupe that the prisoners formed.¹² However, gathering the entire orchestra together was difficult because of the wide distribution of the prisoners in the work details.¹³ There were Catholic and Protestant religious services, but the Serbian prisoners lacked an Orthodox priest and relied on a seminary student for their spiritual needs.¹⁴ The French prisoners published a monthly camp newspaper entitled Le Stalag XVIII C: Vous Parle (Stalag XVIII C: you speak). Its content was mainly cultural in nature and included discussions of both the cultural activities undertaken in the camp and more general commentary on French cultural life; for example, the September–October 1944 issue of the newspaper included both a review of plays performed in the camp during the previous months and an essay on the music of French composer Hector Berlioz.¹⁵

By contrast, the Soviet POWs in the Nordlager were treated horribly, with complete disregard for the Geneva Convention. This section of the camp was severely overcrowded and hygienic conditions were abysmal. The prisoners received minimal food rations; many were so hungry that they resorted to eating grass and worms. The terrible living conditions and absence of medical care led to an outbreak of typhus during the winter of 1941–1942 that killed approximately 3,600 prisoners; it took careful efforts from the French doctors to prevent the spread of typhus to other segments of the prisoner population. Most of the Soviet prisoners who arrived in the camp during this early period died within weeks of their arrival.¹⁶ As in other camps, the Soviet prisoners were subject to selections (Aussonderungen) in which the counterintelligence officers and the court officer screened the prisoners to separate out “undesirables,” such as Jews and political commissars; those so identified were turned over to the Salzburg Gestapo, who executed them.¹⁷

Postwar war crimes investigations conducted by the United States revealed the excessive cruelty with which the Germans treated Soviet prisoners. A German officer named Leutnant Kraft was accused of handing 50 Soviet prisoners (including one woman) over to the Gestapo; these prisoners were subsequently executed (whether this was a selection operation or some other type of execution is unclear).¹⁸ Another German officer, Karl Ohnmais, became particularly notorious as the commander of the Golling labor camp, where about 500 Soviet prisoners from Stalag 317 (XVIII C) were held. The prisoners in this camp were forced to work 12–16 hours per day removing stones from a quarry and building and repairing railroad lines in the area. The prisoners’ food rations—a cup of ersatz coffee in the morning, half a liter of thin soup at lunch, and a piece of bread at dinner—were insufficient to sustain them given the difficulty of the labor they were performing. From April 9, 1945, until the liberation of the labor camp on May 4, these prisoners received no food at all from the Germans and their meals consisted mainly of a soup of grass boiled in water, which they prepared for themselves. The prisoners also received no medical care; a Russian doctor was present but was given no supplies with which to treat the prisoners. As a result, 30–40 prisoners collapsed each day from exhaustion and malnutrition and many died.¹⁹

During the final months of the war, the conditions deteriorated significantly even for the Western Allied prisoners. Evacuations from other camps farther to the north and east to Stalag 317 (XVIII C) led to severe overcrowding—some 13,000 prisoners were crammed into the Südlager alone. Problems with the prisoners’ housing, such as leaky roofs, went unfixed because of a lack of supplies. Due to a shortage of fuel, the prisoners had to go into the forest and gather their own firewood. Food rations decreased and hygienic conditions were very bad; the water supply in the camp was so contaminated that the prisoners had to boil the water before it could be drunk. The deteriorating conditions allowed another outbreak of typhus to begin in May 1945, just before the camp was liberated.²⁰

As order broke down in the camp in early May 1945, a group of 300 prisoners attempted to raid a freight train stopped in Markt Pongau. As a result of this incident, the camp commandant met with the men of confidence for each prisoner group and it was decided that only certain prisoners would be allowed to leave the camp (with the commandant’s approval). Stalag 317 (XVIII C) was liberated by American forces—who had been sought out by prisoners permitted to leave the camp and look for them—on May 8, 1945, the day of the German capitulation.²¹ A war crimes investigation in 1967 did not result in any charges, as all of the camp’s commandants, as well as the counterintelligence officers and the court officer, had already died by that time.²²