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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag XII A on January 23, 1940, by order of the Deputy Corps Headquarters of XII Army Corps in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XII, by reorganizing Dulag G, which was already located at the site in question.¹ The site of the camp remained unchanged until liberation, in an area at the western edge of Limburg an der Lahn (map 4d). Today the area is part of the district of the neighboring town, Diez. The prisoners were housed in wooden barracks. Stalag XII A was the first one organized in Defense District XII. Over the long term, it played a special role, as reflected, in particular, in its numerous special tasks.

From the outset, the Stalag was under the sole control of the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District XII (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis XII).

Five officers are known to have served as camp commandants:²

The campgrounds and the labor detachments were guarded during the first few months by Reserve Battalions (Landesschützenbataillone) XV/XII and IX/XVII, then by Reserve Battalions 776, 785, 861, 874, and 876.

Limburg was a medium-sized camp in the territory of the Reich, with occupancy figures between approximately 23,700 (on September 10, 1940) and approximately 42,200 (on January 1, 1945), according to the monthly reports of the Armed Forces High Command (OKW) to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).³ The prisoners of war (POWs) came from many different countries, and they varied in number and by time period. There were French, Belgian, Polish, Serbian, Soviet, British, Italian, American, and also a small number of Dutch and Bulgarian POWs. Individuals of other nationalities may indeed also have been in the camp, as the reports of the OKW were not complete.

Around 85 percent of the POWs were not in the main camp itself but rather were deployed in one of the approximately 800 work detachments (Arbeitskommandos), which, in some cases, were more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the main camp. The area of responsibility of Stalag XII A encompassed several regional employment-office (Arbeitsamt) districts but was subject to frequent organizational changes. For example, there was a big change in 1942, when control over the work detachments of the regional employment-office district of the Rhineland was surrendered to Stalag XII D. In exchange, the work detachments of Stalag XII B were taken over from the employment-office districts of Mannheim, Heidelberg, and Mosbach. In the deployment of work detachments, the main emphasis was on agriculture, with midsized industries also playing a large role.

In Stalag XII A, the treatment of the POWs did not differ from the conditions in other Stalags within the territory of the Reich. Those who came off best, in terms of food, labor deployment, support, care packages, and so on, were the POWs from Western Europe and the United States. This was largely due to the substantial support this group received from international relief organizations. These POWs had, especially in the main camp, a library, educational classes, a theater group, and an orchestra. The French published their own camp newspaper, Demain (Tomorrow).⁴ Also in Stalag XII A, the “Mouvement Pétain,” a propaganda organization of the Vichy regime, sought to induce the French prisoners en masse to collaborate with the Germans.

Next in the prisoner hierarchy were the Poles and the POWs from the Balkans. On the lowest rungs and receiving the worst treatment in every respect were the Italians, followed by the Soviets.

The Germans provided medical care to the POWs at several levels. Treatment always began in the camp’s medical facility, where POW personnel worked under German command. The more serious cases were referred to a reserve hospital (Reserve Lazarett) with a POW ward. Depending on the patient’s location—in a work detachment or in the main camp—the hospitals in question were those in Hadamar, Limburg, Koblenz, Wiesloch, Bad Kreuznach, Trier, Maria Laach, Heppenheim, and Bad Ems.

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Stalag XII A at Limburg an der Lahn. Indian POWs carrying food, October 1943.

COURTESY OF ICRC.

If the distance to the main camp was too great, larger medical facilities for work detachments, like the one in Wiesbaden, were interposed. These were run by Stalag XII A with its own personnel,⁵ and they operated like the medical clinic in Limburg. Another special feature of the camp was the central dental lab that made dentures for POWs in Defense District XII.

The camp and the labor detachments were frequently visited by delegations from various institutions. Their visit reports often give a detailed picture of life in the camp.⁶ The following visit reports are known:

US Embassy: November 1940, May 1941

ICRC: October 18, 1940; February 5 and September 23, 1941; August 28–29, 1942; March 5 and October 30, 1943; August 7 and November 24, 1944; February 11, 1945

YMCA: December 1940; April 19, July 10, and September 9, 1941; June 30, August 1, and September 30, 1942, March 5, 1943

Scapini Mission: June 27, July 18, August 18, and October 11, 1941; April 11, 1942; July 7, 1943

Belgian POW delegation: July 18, 1942; January 25, 1943

Swiss Legation: July 28 and November 15, 1944.

Stalag XII A had numerous special tasks and special functions. For a short time in February 1940, it continued to perform the tasks of Dulag G, which was closed down. Also in February 1940, it admitted Polish POWs whom the Germans had previously interned in Slovakia. On November 26, 1940, [End Page 468] Defense District XII issued an order for Stalag XII A to organize the staffs of POW Construction and Labor Battalions (Kriegsgefangenen Bau- und Arbeitsbataillonen) 36, 39, and 42.

On April 26, 1941, the General Army Office (Allgemeines Heeresamt, AHA) ordered Stalag XII A to organize the headquarters of Stalag 312, Frontstalag 322 and 352, using its own personnel. When Stalag XII C was closed (October 1941), Stalag XII A took over its POWs, the labor detachments, and some of the buildings. During the intermittent deployment of parts of POW Glazier Battalion XIII and POW Construction and Labor Battalions 13 and 39 in the region, these battalions received organizational support from Stalag XII A.

In 1942, Stalag XII A functioned as a central assembly camp in Defense District XII for French POWs involved in the “Relève” system of prisoner exchange. In addition, in its capacity as the central reception camp for the northern part of Defense District XII, it admitted and redirected POWs when other camps were being reorganized.

From October 1943 on, by an order of the OKW dated October 29, 1943, Stalag XII A served as the reception camp for all Soviet volunteers (Hiwis)/Legion members from the West who were excluded from the Wehrmacht, before their further transport to various destinations, including the Mauthausen concentration camp.⁷ From October 1944, British and US POWs who were part of the enemy paratroops, antiaircraft artillery troops, and air landing troops from the West were placed in the central camp in Limburg before being sent on to Dulag West in Wetzlar.

In 1944, the “army interrogation center,” with administrative headquarters in Oranienstein Castle in Diez, was affiliated with Stalag XII. The end for Stalag XII A loomed as early as December 23, 1944, when large parts of the camp facilities were destroyed in an Allied air raid and 80 American POWs were killed.

In February 1945, the American POWs were evacuated by train, headed in the direction of Berlin. The camp area in Limburg was liberated by the US Army on March 26–27, 1945.