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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag VI B (map 4a) on September 28, 1939, in Neu Versen, near Meppen, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) VI. It had three subcamps (Zweiglager), located in Oberlangen, Fullen, and Wesuwe. On June 10, 1942, Stalag VI B ceased to be an independent camp and became a subcamp of Stalag VI C.¹ The camp was under the authority of the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District VI (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis VI).

Stalag VI B initially held Polish prisoners of war (POWs), who arrived in late September and early October 1939. In 1940, French and Belgian POWs were placed in the camp, and, in 1941, Serbian and Soviet prisoners were added. The camp population reached a maximum of 21,632 in September 1941 but had declined to between 12,000 and 13,000 by the following spring.²

The Germans treated the Western Allied and Serbian prisoners decently and the conditions they experienced were generally satisfactory and in compliance with the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (1929). However, the treatment of Soviet POWs and their living conditions were inhumane, and they experienced a high mortality rate, mainly from malnutrition and disease. From December 1, 1941, to April 1, 1942, the number of Soviet prisoners in the camp decreased by 1,869. Because the camp was in quarantine during this period due to a typhus epidemic and no prisoners were transferred in or out, it can be inferred that this decrease in population was entirely due to prisoner deaths.