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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag IV B (map 4e) on September 29, 1939, in Mühlberg, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) IV.¹ From September 1942 to February 1, 1943, Stalag IV B had a subcamp (Zweiglager) in Zeithain, designated Stalag IV B/Z. The camp was subordinated to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District IV (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis IV). The camp commandant in 1941 was Oberstleutnant Sperl, and the chief camp physician was Oberstabsarzt Dr. Krusche.

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Stalag IV B at Mühlberg. Group of French POWs waiting for soup, June 1940.

COURTESY OF ICRC.

Stalag IV B initially held Polish prisoners of war (POWs). When the first Polish prisoners arrived in October 1939, there were no buildings in the camp. The prisoners built the first stone barracks, followed by a kitchen and a storeroom; construction of camp facilities by Polish prisoners continued until the spring of 1940. While the camp buildings were constructed, the prisoners lived in the so-called tent camp, composed of tents that were 35 meters long, 12 meters wide, and as high as 3.3 meters tall (115 by 39 by 11 feet). Both the tents and the newly constructed barracks were infested with fleas and other parasites.²

From October to December 1939, more than 17,000 Polish prisoners were registered in Stalag IV B. However, the number of prisoners who passed through the camp is much higher, because some prisoners already registered in other camps were brought through Stalag IV B without being reregistered. Thus, by the spring of 1940, as many as 30,000 Polish prisoners may have passed through the camp.

In the spring of 1940, most of the Polish prisoners were transferred to different camps and were replaced by French and Belgian prisoners. By June 16, 1940, the camp already held 26,000 French prisoners and about 1,000 Belgian prisoners. In 1940, in total, about 60,000 French and Belgian prisoners were registered in the camp, and most of them were transferred to different camps. In April 1941, the first Serbian prisoners were brought to the camp. By May 1, 1941, more than 6,100 Serbians had been registered, although most of them were subsequently transferred to different camps.³

On May 14, 1941, Stalag IV B held 5,885 prisoners: 4,714 French, 962 Serbs, 39 Belgians, 97 Poles, 52 Ukrainians, and [End Page 414] 21 Belarusians.⁴ In July 1941, the first British and Soviet POWs were brought to the camp. In mid-1943, Dutch POWs were brought to the camp, followed by Italian military internees in September 1943, American POWs in August 1944, and prisoners from the Warsaw Uprising and Slovak National Uprising in the fall of 1944.

Upon arrival in the camp, all new prisoners were subjected to the same procedure, referred to as “intake” (Annahme). All of their personal possessions were taken and inspected while the prisoners themselves underwent a medical examination and were checked for parasites. They then received inoculations against smallpox, typhus, and typhoid fever, after which their heads were shaved to prevent the spread of lice. They were given an opportunity to shower while their clothing was disinfected.⁵ Despite these efforts, the poor hygienic conditions in the camp led to frequent infestations of lice, pubic lice, and fleas, which rendered the barracks “unlivable” at times.⁶

Food was scarce in the camp, and what food was available was often of poor quality. The rations provided were so inadequate that prisoners often resorted to scrounging in garbage bins, hunting for discarded bits of food.⁷ The prisoners who worked in the camp kitchen brazenly stole food and sold it on what became a flourishing black market. While goods such as potatoes were relatively cheap (25 cooked potatoes fetched about 1.7 Reichsmark), items like bread (5–6 Reichsmark for a 1.4 kilogram [3-pound] loaf) and chocolate (10 Reichsmark for 250 grams [almost 9 ounces]) were quite steep. Goods such as soap, which were always in high demand, were also at a premium (3.5 Reichsmark for a small piece).⁸

Despite the problems with vermin and food, the conditions experienced by the Western Allied POWs in Stalag IV B were generally tolerable.⁹ The prisoners had reasonable opportunities for recreation and cultural activities. For example, the prisoners were allowed to build a pool where they could swim by permission of the camp commandant.¹⁰ Prisoners also published handwritten newspapers and magazines. For example, the British prisoners published the handwritten magazine Cymro.¹¹

As of March 1943, there were a total of 14 French-speaking clergymen in the camp (13 French and 1 Belgian) who held mass every Sunday. There was no Polish priest in the camp at that time, so the Poles attended the French services. The Yugoslav prisoners had a priest of their own, who held services in the reserve hospital (Reserve Lazarett) outside the camp. The library facilities were somewhat limited, with only 4,000 books available in the French language, less than one for every two Francophone prisoners. The library held 315 Polish books, more than enough for the camp’s small Polish population at that time, but only 20 books in Serbo-Croatian. Because few of the prisoners were in labor detachments (Arbeitskommandos), many courses were taught in the camp, especially by the French prisoners, who counted many teachers among their ranks. The French prisoners also led a camp orchestra, choir, and theater group. The prisoners had ample access to sports facilities; they played football and volleyball and held boxing matches, in addition to swimming in the aforementioned pool.¹²

The International Committee of the Red Cross considered the treatment of Western prisoners adequate as late as August 1944, with a good infirmary, regular supply of clothing, and sufficient rations. Although discipline in the camp was considered harsher than others, Western Allied prisoners continued to have significant privileges and facilities not provided to Soviet prisoners.¹³

As events on the western front continued to develop, conditions changed for newly captured troops. The Stalag also began to serve as a transit camp in all but name, for Allied troops only. Between August and November 1944, an estimated 10,000 British and American troops passed through the camp.¹⁴ In January 1945 alone, 8,000 American prisoners were processed through Stalag IV B.¹⁵ Thousands of other captured troops were sent there prior to being reassigned to other camps. Most of the remaining British and American prisoners were noncommissioned officers who did not work.¹⁶ As a result, Stalag IV B was highly centralized and did not have significant numbers of work detachments and subcamps in the surrounding area, unlike many other camps with Western prisoners.

This shift in the nature of the camp had profound consequences for the prisoners’ living conditions. Between July 1944 and February 1945, overcrowding went from episodic to endemic. Prisoners slept two to a bed, with many others on floors and any open space. Barracks quickly fell into disarray, with broken windows, unstable bunks, and poor hygiene. Overcrowding led to a rise in disease and infection in the camp, with many of the men falling ill with diphtheria. Clothing and food supplies were quickly exhausted by new arrivals.

American prisoners were particularly affected by the declining circumstances in the camp, as they often arrived in weakened states. Men recounted forced marches of up to 20 miles per day with only a single loaf of bread for the entire journey from the front lines to the camp. Others arrived after several days in crowded, unsanitary boxcars. In many cases, no medical treatment was offered between capture and arrival at the camp. Given their weakened condition, they were particularly susceptible to problems stemming from overcrowding, with several dying from pneumonia and diphtheria shortly after arrival.¹⁷

As in other camps, the conditions for Soviet POWs were terrible from the start. Their section of the camp was overcrowded, and they were provided little food and medical care, which, combined with deliberate mistreatment, led to a high death rate. Of the 3,026 prisoners known to have died in the camp, 2,368 (78%) were from the Soviet Union.

Stalag IV B was liberated by the Red Army on April 23, 1945. About 30,000 prisoners remained in the camp at that time.