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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag XII C in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XII, by an order of the General Army Office (Allgemeines Heeresamt, AHA), dated March 20, 1940. It began operation on April 1, 1940.¹ It was deployed in Wiebelsheim (map 4d) and the Generalgouvernement. The camp was initially subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District XII (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis XII).

Stalag XII C was notable for the separation of its facilities from each other. The camp proper consisted of approximately 15 barracks of a former Reich Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst, RAD) camp in Wiebelsheim. The majority of the commandant’s office (headquarters) was located in buildings in Oberwesel, directly on the bank of the Rhine, 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away. These buildings included, among others, the mail censor, the delousing facility, and the camp medical center.

The names of the following camp commandants are known:²

The campgrounds in Wiebelsheim and the work detachments were guarded by a Reserve Battalion (Landesschützenbattaillon). From December 17, 1940, to the end of 1941, Prisoner of War Construction and Labor Battalion 12 (Kriegsgefangenen Bau- und Arbeitsbataillon 12) was under the control of Stalag XII C while the battalion was deployed in the region.

Stalag XII C had field post number (Feldpostnummer) 42 709, assigned between July 30, 1941, and February 28, 1942, and withdrawn between March 1 and September 7, 1942. The number was then given to Stalag 380.

Stalag XII C was a medium-sized camp with a maximum of 18,000 prisoners of war (POWs), consisting of noncommissioned officers and enlisted men.³ It was primarily a camp for French and Polish soldiers, although 8 Belgians and 100 Serbians were also there for a short time. In 1940, a striking feature was the additional presence of around 2,500 so-called free workers who were housed in the camp. These were former Polish POWs who had been reclassified as civilian workers (contrary to the usual usages of international law). They also do not appear in the strength reports of the Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW).

During the deployment in Wiebelsheim, 95 percent of the prisoners were assigned to about 500 work details (Arbeitskommandos). Their work was mostly agricultural. There were also work detachments that did heavy labor, so-called punishment units, like the one in Baumholder for former members of the French Foreign Legion.

On the whole, the French were well treated. They also received regular food deliveries from relief organizations. The situation of the Poles was certainly worse, but still bearable. [End Page 471]

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Stalag XII C at Wiebelsheim. Outdoor washbasin, November 1940.

COURTESY OF ICRC.

The prisoners had a library available, and also had their own orchestra and theater group, which performed in the camp and for larger work detachments. The French published their own camp newspaper (L’an quarante). Taking regular showers was somewhat difficult, as it was possible only in Oberwesel, 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away. Clergymen, POWs themselves, conducted religious services on a regular basis.

Provision of medical services to the prisoners began first in the camp’s medical clinic, which was in Oberwesel. It was run by physicians and medical personnel from the POW population, under German supervision. The more serious cases were referred to military hospitals with POW wards, such as those in Koblenz, Bad Kreuznach, and Birkenfeld.

Only in Wiebelsheim did visits by various delegations take place. The following visit reports are available: ICRC: October 10, 1940; YMCA: December 1940 and August 22, 1941; Scapini Mission: June 28, July 20, and September 10, 1941. In every report, the overall assessment of the camp and the morale of the prisoners was “good.”

In September 1941, the operation of Stalag XII C in Wiebelsheim entered its final phase. On September 29, 1941, the OKW issued the order for the closure of the camp and the transfer of the headquarters to Końskie, in the Generalgouvernement. The labor detachments were handed over to Stalag XII A and Stalag XII D. The POWs from the camp proper and the buildings of the commandant’s office in Oberwesel were taken over by Stalag XII A. The Stalag was reassigned to the Commander of Prisoners of War for Special Tasks in the Generalgouvernement (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen z.b.V. im Generalgouvernement).

The commandant’s office of Stalag XII C arrived in Końskie on October 21, 1941, and began operating a camp there again. The prisoners were housed in barracks. These were all Soviet prisoners, without exception, several thousand of them. A large segment of them were deployed in work detachments.

The treatment of the prisoners was in keeping with the usual poor conditions for Soviet POWs, for example, with respect to the food supply and the provision of medical care. There were no visits from delegations to inspect the camp, and there were no food shipments from relief organizations either.

On November 5, 1941, the camp was moved from Końskie to Skarżysko-Kamienna, where the camp operation continued in the same manner. The guarding of this camp area and its work detachments was the responsibility of Reserve Battalions (Landesschützenbataillone) 377 and 818. On April 7, 1942, the OKW gave the order (converted to an AHA directive dated April 17, 1942) to terminate Stalag XII C and reclassify it as Stalag 380.