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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag 321 (map 4a) on April 28, 1941, near Oerbke, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XI.¹ During its deployment in Defense District XI, it was also known as Stalag XI D. The camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District XI (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis XI). Stalag 321 (XI D) received field post number (Feldpostnummer) 09 924 between February 1 and July 11, 1941. The number was struck between January 27 and July 14, 1942.

Stalag 321 (XI D) held Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). The Germans designed the camp to accommodate as many as 30,000 prisoners. The first transports arrived on July 14, 17, 24, and 30, 1941. By the end of July, the number of prisoners in the camp totaled about 8,000. Two subsequent groups of prisoners, around 4,000 in all, were brought to Oerbke on September 23 and 25, 1941. The last groups of prisoners arrived from Minsk on October 16 and 23, 1941 (the last known POW registration number is 22793). In the early days of the camp’s existence, there were no permanent structures, and the prisoners were kept outside in a field surrounded with barbed wire. To protect themselves from bad weather, they dug holes in the earth and made shelters from whatever materials came to hand. In November, there were approximately 14,000 prisoners in the camp. The construction of wooden barracks began at that time. On December 1, 1941, some of the prisoners were transferred or handed over for registration to Stalag XI В in Fallingbostel. From November 1941 to February 1942, the camp was in quarantine because of a typhus epidemic. In this period, 12,000 men died of malnutrition, exposure, and disease.² On December 1, 1941, there were 10,797 prisoners in the camp. By January 1, 1942, the number had dropped to 5,688, and on February 1, 1942, only 1,119 prisoners remained.³

Between August and October 1941, a Gestapo team regularly screened the prisoners in the camp to separate out “undesirables,” such as Jews and Communists, who were sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where they were killed. On September 9, 1941, 30 prisoners were sent to Sachsenhausen for execution; on September 26, 1941, 7 were sent; and on October 7, 1941, 55 were sent.⁴ According to Emil Büge, a prisoner in Sachsenhausen who witnessed the unloading of the transports of Soviet prisoners from Oerbke, the men were already in very bad shape upon their arrival in [End Page 311] the camp. He noted that “all [were] very meager, starved soldiers … very ragged” and that most were shot shortly after arrival.⁵ The Germans disbanded Stalag 321 (XI D) with an order dated March 6, 1942, and the site became a subcamp (Zweiglager) of Stalag XI В in Fallingbostel.