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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag V A (map 4f) from Dulag H on October 16, 1939, in Ludwigsburg, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) V. Until the beginning of 1944, the camp had a subcamp (Zweiglager) in Münsingen. French troops liberated the camp on April 21, 1945.¹ The camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District V (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis V).

Stalag V A initially held Polish prisoners of war (POWs). In 1940, the Polish POWs were transferred to other camps; French and Belgian POWs replaced them. In 1941, Serbian and Soviet prisoners arrived in the camp. In May 1943, Dutch prisoners arrived, and in September 1943, Italian military internees were brought to the camp.

Stalag V A was one of the largest POW camps in Germany, with an average population of over 30,000 prisoners (the majority of them French), and a peak population of 39,460 in September 1944.² The majority of the prisoners worked in labor detachments (Arbeitskommandos), deployed throughout the region in locations such as Rosswalden, Salach, Göppingen, and Steinkirch.³ Factories that employed prisoners from Stalag V A included Daimler-Benz A.G. Stuttgart-Untertürkheim⁴ and Deutsche Gelatine Fabrik A.G.⁵

The German guards treated the Western Allied prisoners decently and the conditions in their sections of the camp were generally satisfactory and in compliance with the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (1929). They had some access to recreational and cultural activities in the camp. The Catholic prisoners had the opportunity to [End Page 422] attend daily mass and two services on Sunday, provided by a French Catholic priest. Similarly, Protestant prisoners could attend daily evening prayers and a Sunday service led by an Evangelical minister. The camp had a large library with several thousand volumes. Football games were organized twice a week in both the main camp and the labor detachments.⁶

By contrast, the Soviet prisoners were treated very poorly and faced terrible living conditions. Overcrowding, malnutrition, and disease led to a high mortality rate. In September and October 1941, a Gestapo squad screened the Soviet prisoners to separate out “undesirables,” such as political commissars and Jews, who were sent to a concentration camp for execution.⁷

Beginning in November 1944, the camp authorities converted two large horse stables within the main camp into barracks for a Dulag for newly captured Western Allied prisoners. The first prisoners to arrive were Americans captured in late October of that year. The first 200 arrived on November 9 and an additional 150 arrived the following day. Initially, conditions within this Dulag were harsh. The men were kept inside the unlit, vermin-infested stables for days at a time in deplorable hygienic conditions.⁸ However, the conditions soon improved. By February, the stables had been cleaned considerably and overall hygiene and sanitation facilities were satisfactory. Since many of the prisoners in the Dulag had come straight from the front, a doctor from the neighboring POW hospital visited them daily. Prisoners stayed at the Dulag an average of two to six weeks. The facilities were considered adequate for up to 500 men but could quickly become overcrowded, as happened in late January 1945 when over 1,700 were held there.⁹