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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag XIII C (map 4d) on July 10, 1940, in Hammelburg, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XIII. The camp was also responsible for the Reserve Hospital (Reserve Lazarett) Ebelsbach/Main.¹ Stalag XIII C was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District XIII (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis XIII). The camp commandant from November 20, 1943, until April 1945 was Oberst Heinrich Westmann. His deputy was Oberstleutnant Behrens. The camp physician was Stabsarzt Dr. Koch.

Stalag XIII C was a large camp for noncommissioned officers and enlisted men, with separate compounds for prisoners of different nationalities, when practical. The conditions for Western Allied prisoners of war (POWs) were generally good early in the war, but began to deteriorate by 1944. The camp population on October 1, 1944, was 30,294 prisoners: 13,464 French; 870 British; 4,393 Belgian; 904 Polish; 2,477 Serbian; 7,914 Soviet; 270 Italian; and 2 American.

The barracks in which the men lived varied in size from about 18 meters (60 feet) by 4.3 meters (14 feet) to 36.6 meters (120 feet) by 7.6 meters (25 feet). The number of prisoners quartered in each of these barracks also varied, but they generally became more crowded in the last months of the war; while the larger barracks were designed to hold around 100 men, by 1945, they often held 250, and the smaller barracks eventually held as many as 135 men.² Most prisoners slept on wooden bunks, but as much as a quarter of the prisoner population slept on piles of straw on the floor in the more crowded barracks.³ The barracks were often infested with lice, particularly later in the war. The barracks were heated by coal or wood-fired stoves, but there was often insufficient fuel to keep the stoves burning, even during the winter months; at times, the prisoners received only enough fuel to provide two hours’ heat.⁴ They were occasionally allowed to leave the camp to gather firewood, under close supervision from German guards.⁵

Sanitary conditions in the camp also deteriorated late in the war. While the men had access to large washbasins and cold running water, they were rarely given the opportunity to take hot showers and did not have hot water with which to wash their clothing.⁶ The latrines in the American compound were completely unsanitary, consisting only of a pole over an open pit. The unsanitary and overcrowded conditions in this compound led to the spread of diseases such as pneumonia and dysentery, which affected nearly all the American prisoners.⁷

While the prisoners’ rations had generally been satisfactory until late 1944, they had begun to decline by early 1945. By that time, the prisoners’ daily fare consisted of ersatz tea or coffee in the morning (reported by American private Joseph Melosky to be “so putrid we used it to wash with”),⁸ about a liter of watery soup at lunch (which consisted of turnips and potatoes, pine needles, potato skins, and/or barley), and one seventh of a loaf of bread at dinner.⁹ These rations were sometimes supplemented with a small portion of cheese or [End Page 480] sausage about once a week, and occasionally some jam or cottage cheese.¹⁰ American private first class Donald S. Thompson reported that the caloric value of these rations was about 5 percent above starvation-level.¹¹

The NCOs suffered even worse conditions than those for the enlisted men. They were quartered in a former horse stable.¹² They slept on wooden triple bunk beds with straw mattresses that were filled with lice. The stable was constantly cold and damp and there was no covering on the cement floor. The water was “polluted and unpalatable,” according to Security and Intelligence Corps Agent William J. Counihan, who was interned there from January to March 1945.¹³ The latrines were primitive, like those in the enlisted men’s compound, and the prisoners had to bail them out every four to five days. The men were fed so poorly that some lost as much as 23 kilograms (50 pounds) in two months. They became weak and developed jaundice due to malnutrition. Agent Counihan reported that men died “daily” from pneumonia and malnutrition.¹⁴ The two American medical officers in that part of the camp were unable to treat the population of 150 men with the minimal supplies they had.

The medical facilities in the enlisted men’s compound were not much better. The infirmary had 90 beds but was poorly supplied. Few medications were made available by the Germans and the camp medical personnel depended almost entirely on the Red Cross for their stocks of medicines.¹⁵ American first lieutenant Leonard J. Lanzilotti reported that when he arrived at the Stalag XIII C hospital from Oflag 64 on March 9, 1945, the same bandage was left on his wound for eight days; the Yugoslav doctor who treated him told him he could not replace it because there were no supplies available. Lieutenant Lanzilotti also stated that at least one man at the hospital died and that this man would have certainly survived with proper medical care.¹⁶ There was no possibility of performing surgery in the camp, and the X-ray and laboratory facilities were poor. Urgent cases were generally sent to the nearby Oflag XIII B for treatment, while seriously ill men were sent to the hospital in Ebelsbach.¹⁷

Large numbers of prisoners were assigned to work details (Arbeitskommandos) in nearby villages.¹⁸ The majority of the prisoners were engaged in agricultural labor or forestry; in September 1944, it was estimated that approximately 90 percent of the British prisoners, for example, were engaged in agricultural work.¹⁹ American staff sergeant Melvin M. Kimes reported that he and other American prisoners were assigned to unload military equipment from boxcars at the rail station in Hammelburg, in violation of the provisions of the Geneva Conventions regarding the use of POW labor.²⁰ Other prisoners were forced to perform other military tasks, such as digging machine gun trenches. The work to which the prisoners were assigned was invariably very hard, and there was, therefore, little in the way of recreational activity in the main camp.

Mistreatment by the German camp personnel only added to the misery that the prisoners experienced. The German block leader (Blockführer) over Block 4 in the American compound, for example, was notorious for abusing the prisoners.²¹ American staff sergeant Willard Smee witnessed a German guard punching and kicking an American prisoner in March 1945.²² Additionally, the prisoners were left exposed to the Allied aerial bombardments that became common near the end of the war; the Germans provided them with no shelter and men had to dig foxholes to protect themselves. Staff Sergeant Smee believed that American prisoners had been killed by strafing from Allied planes on at least one occasion.²³

Although the Western prisoners experienced poor conditions and treatment later in the war, their plight paled in comparison to that of the Soviet POWs. As in other camps, the Soviet prisoners were not afforded the protection of the Geneva Conventions and were treated inhumanely. They were subjected to deliberate starvation, complete neglect of their medical needs, and brutal treatment at the hands of the German camp personnel. These conditions led to a high mortality rate.

Stalag XIII C was the destination for many prisoners who had been evacuated from the camps in the east, such as Oflag 64 and Stalag VIII D, in advance of the Red Army’s arrival. On March 27, 1945, a number of prisoners were evacuated from Stalag XIII C as the American forces approached from the west. The American 14th Armored Division liberated the camp on April 7, 1945.²⁴