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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag IV B/Z on September 1, 1942, in Zeithain, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) IV (map 4e). The camp was located on the former site of Stalag 304 (IV H), which was transferred to Leuven, in Belgium, at the beginning of September 1942. Stalag IV B/Z was not an independent camp but rather a subcamp (Zweiglager) of Stalag IV B in Mühlberg (also referred to as Stalag IV B/H, for Hauptlager, or main camp).¹ The camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District IV (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis IV).

Like its predecessor, Stalag IV B/Z held Soviet prisoners of war (POWs), with a maximum population of about 6,600 prisoners.² After the redesignation of the camp as Stalag IV B/Z, the camp in Zeithain also became the site of the main POW hospital in Defense District IV, which was known as Kriegsgefangenen-Reservelazarett IV. Most of the prisoners in the camp at this time were sick prisoners who were sent to the hospital for treatment; healthy prisoners who arrived at Zeithain were either sent to the work details or transferred to Stalag IV B/H, and the prisoners from Stalag 304 who were capable of working had been transferred to Belgium with the camp staff, where they primarily worked in that region’s coal mines.³ Only a small percentage of the prisoners who remained in Stalag IV B/Z were healthy enough to be sent out to work; for example, in the population report from January 1, 1943, only 552 of the 3,765 prisoners in the camp (less than 15%) were assigned to work details, a much smaller proportion than in most other camps at that time.⁴

The hospital was divided into two sections: a tuberculosis ward with a capacity of 3,000 prisoners and a “therapeutic section” with a surgical ward, an ophthalmological clinic, and a dental clinic. The hospital eventually reached a capacity of almost 8,000 beds. The hospital was overseen by Wehrmacht doctors, but most of the day-to-day care for the patients was performed by Russian doctors and nurses. Prisoners who were [End Page 416] in the camp during its transition from a regular POW camp to a POW hospital recalled that the conditions improved somewhat during this time, relative to the horrible conditions that had characterized life in Stalag 304; survivors particularly noticed an increase in food rations. However, the hospital often found itself short of medication and the doctors and nurses often provided prisoners with little more than moral support.⁵ It is not known how many prisoners died in Stalag IV B/Z while it operated under this designation; witnesses reported that about two to three people died each day (though this number rose as high as 35 on some days), primarily due to diseases, with smaller numbers of deaths due to hunger and exposure to cold weather.⁶ Stalag IV B/Z was dissolved on February 1, 1943, but the POW hospital continued to function until April 23, 1945, when it was liberated by the Red Army.⁷