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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag 371 (map 5), through the reorganization of Oflag VII D, on April 17, 1942. It was located in Stanislau (Polish: Stanisławów; today Ivano-Frankivs’k, Ukraine) in the Generalgouvernement.¹ A subcamp (Nebenlager) was established in Stryj (today Stryi, Ukraine) on May 28, 1943. There may have been an additional subcamp in Tarnopol (today Ternopil’, Ukraine). The camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War with the Armed Forces [End Page 375] Commander for the Generalgouvernement of Poland (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen beim Wehrmachtsbefehlshaber im Generalgouvernement Polen). Stalag 371 received field post number (Feldpostnummer) 45 667 between March 1 and September 7, 1942. The number was struck on November 24, 1944.

The camp commandant was Major (later Oberstleutnant) Wilhelm Schimmer (b. 1889 in Munich). He was replaced as commandant in September 1942 by Oberstleutnant Adolf Rengert. Rengert, formerly the commandant of Stalag 237 in Petrikau (today Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland), was succeeded by Oberst Karl Blomeyer in May 1943. In September 1943, Oberst Dr. Hans Aichholz became commandant, and he remained in the position until the relocation of the camp in January 1944. One former camp staff member recalled that Schimmer was not a dedicated adherent of National Socialism and that he treated the men under his command harshly, factors which led to his eventual replacement. The deputy commandant was Hauptmann Alexander Faber du Faur. The counterintelligence (Abwehr) officer in the camp was Hauptmann Konrad von Kaas and the camp officer (Lageroffizier) was Hauptmann Rudolf Vogl. The camp doctor was Stabsarzt Dr. Wilhelm Berghoff. The camp was guarded by the 2nd Company and the 3rd Company of the 405th Reserve Battalion (Landesschützenbataillon); there were about 30 guards in total.² The commandant of the 3rd Company was Hauptmann Lindenberger.

In the first half of 1942, the camp held only Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). However, despite its nominal status as an enlisted men’s camp (Stalag), from August 1942, it held mainly Dutch officers, who were put in the camp as punishment. Most of the Soviet prisoners were transferred to other camps; fewer than 400 remained in Stalag 371. From May to October 1943, there were also some Serbian prisoners in the camp. Stalag 371 was a relatively small camp, with a maximum population of just over 3,000 prisoners in September 1943.³

While the treatment of the Dutch and Serbian prisoners generally conformed to the standards of the 1929 Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the treatment of Soviet prisoners often did not. Former staff members insisted after the war that the Dutch prisoners had been treated well in the camp and that they were not subject to any forms of abuse, while acknowledging that the conditions faced by Soviet prisoners were significantly worse. As in other camps for Soviet prisoners of war (POWs), malnourishment, disease, and poor sanitary conditions were the rule. At least 25 Soviet POWs died of typhus in April 1942, prior to the arrival of Dutch prisoners.⁴ At least one Dutch prisoner was shot by the guards while attempting to escape, but deaths among the Dutch prisoners were otherwise rare, as they were provided with adequate nutrition and medical care.⁵

Upon their arrival in the camp, the Soviet POWs were interrogated by the Germans regarding their background and knowledge of military operations (although, under the Geneva Convention, the prisoners were required to give only their name, rank, and serial number, German interrogators frequently tried to extract additional information). The Soviet prisoners were expected to work on tasks such as the expansion of the camp and construction of new barracks, as well as in the camp kitchen and undesirable duties such as cleaning the latrines. The Dutch prisoners were not required to work, as officers could not be compelled to work under the Geneva Convention. It is unclear whether the Serbian prisoners were required to work. The prisoners were segregated by nationality and the quarters of the different national groups were separated by barbed wire.⁶ Although conditions in the Soviet section of the camp were harsh and the prisoners were subject to mistreatment, witness testimony suggests that the “weeding out” (Aussonderung) of “undesirable” Soviet prisoners, such as Jews and political commissars, was done in the transit camps (Durchgangslager) prior to their arrival at Stalag 371. On January 20, 1944, the Germans reorganized Stalag 371 and it once again became an officers’ camp, designated as Oflag 67.⁷