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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag XVIII A on March 1, 1941, by converting Oflag XVIII B into a Stalag.¹ The camp was located in Wolfsberg, 48.5 kilometers (32 miles) southwest of Graz, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XVIII (map 4f). Between October 3, 1942, and August 1, 1944, Stalag XVIII A had a subcamp (Zweiglager) in Spittal an der Drau (previously, the independent Stalag XVIII B), which was designated Stalag XVIII A/Z. One section of this camp also served as a prisoner hospital (Lazarett), while the other was subsequently converted into Ilag XVIII. A second subcamp was established at Marburg an der Drau (today Maribor, Slovenia) from the former Stalag 306 (XVIII D)/Stalag XVIII B/Z in the spring [End Page 489] of 1943. Other branch camps were located at Wagna, near Leibnitz, and Unterpremstätten, near Graz.² Stalag XVIII A was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District XVIII (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis XVIII).

Stalag XVIII A was located on the site of the former barracks of the III Bataillon, Gebirgsjägerregiment 139 in the district of Priel, in the southern part of Wolfsberg. The original barracks were too small to hold the number of prisoners the Germans wished to keep at the camp, so the Wehrmacht purchased 10 hectares (24 acres) of private land surrounding the camp. By the end of the war, there were a total of 35 barracks at the campsite. There were two separate sections of the camp: Lager I, which held Western Allied prisoners, and Lager II, which held Italian military prisoners and Serbian prisoners of war (POWs). An additional camp section for British prisoners was fashioned out of seven stables in April 1943; these prisoners were later moved to three new barracks that were constructed in early 1945.³

The first camp commandant was Oberst Richard Flechner. He was succeeded in 1942 by Oberstleutnant Werner von Reckow. Oberstleutnant von Reckow was replaced by Oberst Georg Keller shortly before the end of the war. The adjutant was Hauptmann Anton Hopfer.⁴ The first camp officer (Lageroffizier) was Major Johann Knaus.⁵ His successor was Hauptmann Ferdinand Steiner; the latter was regarded by the prisoners as an understanding officer who followed regulations on prisoner treatment diligently.⁶ The counterintelligence (Abwehr) officers in the camp were Hauptmann Küchler, Hauptmann Wladimir Kosurik, Hauptmann Gehard Ebenbichler, Major Gebhard Braun, Hauptmann Josef Steinklauber, Hauptmann Josef Küritz, and Major Dr. Karl Pollak.⁷

Stalag XVIII A was a relatively large camp, with a population that never fell below 21,000 prisoners; the maximum population of the camp was 47,844 prisoners in February 1944.⁸ The first prisoners to arrive were French and British POWs transferred to the camp from Stalag XVII A in Kaisersteinbruch. The French remained the largest prisoner group in the camp throughout the war, while the British were the second-largest group for most of the camp’s existence. The number of British prisoners increased substantially in late 1943 with the transfer of prisoners from camps in Italy northward to Stalag XVIII A.⁹ This camp had the highest concentration of British, Australian, and New Zealand prisoners of any camp in the Reich.¹⁰ As of March 31, 1941, the first date for which population statistics are available, there were 25,668 French prisoners (including 8 officers) and 518 British prisoners in the camp. Beginning in July 1941, there were smaller numbers of Belgian prisoners (never more than 1,000) and Serbian prisoners (maximum population of 177) in the camp.¹¹ Soviet prisoners were first brought to the camp in November 1941, and their numbers greatly increased after the closure of the so-called Russian camp (Russenlager) in Spittal in August 1942.¹² The first Italian military prisoners were brought to the camp in October 1943, and a small group of Dutch prisoners arrived in December of that year. Finally, a small group of Americans (63 men) was brought to the camp in January 1945.¹³ Although the camp’s official population was quite large, the majority of the prisoners registered in Stalag XVIII A (over 80%) did not reside in the main camp but were instead deployed in the numerous work details (Arbeitskommandos) outside the camp.¹⁴

As in most camps, the Germans’ treatment of Western Allied and Serbian prisoners of war was decent and within the requirements of the Geneva Convention of 1929. In April 1944, a delegate from the International Committee of the Red Cross who visited the camp went as far as to declare that Stalag XVIII A was a “good” Stalag. There was a camp kitchen operated by the prisoners, as well as a camp infirmary, which was staffed by British doctors supervised by the camp doctor (Lagerarzt), Dr. Toppler. The prisoners’ food rations and the sanitary conditions in the camp were deemed adequate by international observers, and the prisoners’ clothing was in good shape.¹⁵ A normal meal in the camp consisted of vegetable soup and black bread with margarine; the prisoners received 30–40 grams (1–1.4 ounces) of meat once a week.¹⁶ Prisoners noted that the German guards sometimes amused themselves by abusing the prisoners, particularly during morning roll call, which was often dragged out for as long as two hours by the guards’ chicanery.¹⁷

All POW labor in Wehrkreis XVIII was coordinated through Stalag XVIII A.¹⁸ The prisoners worked primarily in agricultural labor and construction around the camp, and their work requirements generally conformed to the provisions of the Geneva Convention. Some work details consisted of large numbers of prisoners; however, others were simply small groups of prisoners assigned to work on private farms and quartered by the owners of the farms.¹⁹ However, a group of about 110 French prisoners was sent to work on defensive fortifications on the Hungarian border, which violated the Geneva Convention’s prohibition on the use of prisoner labor for projects of an explicitly military nature.²⁰

The conditions in Stalag XVIII A deteriorated late in the war, as was the case in most camps within the Reich, although the problems were generally less severe than in many other camps, and Red Cross inspectors continued to give positive reports on the status of the camp even as late as the summer of 1944, noting adequate supplies of food and clothing at that time.²¹ However, by early 1945, food supplies for the prisoners had decreased, and the prisoners increasingly relied on Red Cross food parcels to meet their dietary needs.²² Overcrowding (due to the transfer of prisoners from other camps) and lack of fuel for heating were also major issues.²³ These problems had been exacerbated when the camp was accidentally bombed by the Allies on December 18, 1944. Seventy-two bombs hit the camp, killing 46 prisoners and damaging or destroying 10 barracks (mainly in Lager II), requiring the [End Page 490] confinement of larger numbers of prisoners in the remaining barracks. The camp infirmary was also badly damaged, and most ill or injured prisoners were transferred to the main (civilian) hospital in Wolfsberg.²⁴

Stalag XVIII A also had a hospital, which was located in the West Camp (Westlager) of the former Stalag XVIII B/Stalag XVIII A/Z in Spittal an der Drau. An American prisoner, Private Benjamin Eagleman, who was in the camp infirmary after the bombing, stated that the food rations and medical supplies were inadequate and that the prisoners’ sleeping quarters were crowded and uncomfortable (double bunk beds with straw mattresses).²⁵

The prisoners had access to cultural and religious activities within the main camp. Religious services were held for Catholic, Protestant, and Serbian Orthodox prisoners. The camp had a library of about 15,000 books, and the prisoners organized educational courses (19 as of August 1942). There was a small British orchestra as well as a theater troupe that performed in a section of one of the barracks, which had been designated for cultural activities, that had a capacity of 200. The prisoners were also allowed to play sports like soccer during their spare time, although lack of sports equipment was a problem, according to prisoners’ complaints to a visiting YMCA delegate.²⁶ The French prisoners published a camp newspaper called L’Echo du XVIII A (The echo of [Stalag] XVIII A).²⁷ Similar activities were organized on a smaller scale in the branch camps and work details.²⁸

Information about the treatment of Soviet and Italian prisoners in Stalag XVIII A is limited. In general, the Germans treated both of these groups of prisoners very poorly, and death rates among them were high. However, the number of Soviet prisoners in Stalag XVIII A was low during the winter of 1941–1942, when the largest number of deaths occurred among the Soviet prisoners in other camps (most of the Soviet prisoners were at the Russian camp at Stalag XVIII B during this time). There was an outbreak of typhus among the Russian prisoners, with estimates of deaths ranging from 100 to 500 (some French prisoners also died during the epidemic).²⁹ However, of the 121 prisoners buried at the camp cemetery, only 46 were from the Soviet Union (although this figure does not include prisoners who died at the camp in Spittal or those who died in transit to Stalag XVIII A); it is unclear where the remaining deceased Soviet prisoners were buried. French prisoners assisted the Soviets by passing food from the kitchen (operated by French soldiers) to them through the fence separating their sections of the camp.³⁰ A postwar investigation found no evidence of selections (Aussonderungen)—in which Soviet prisoners were screened and those identified as Jews and political commissars were executed—at Stalag XVIII A.³¹

There were no evacuations from the main camp of Stalag XVIII A (or most of the other camps in Wehrkreis XVIII) since this area was part of the German Alpine Fortress (Alpenfestung), which was purported by German propaganda to be impenetrable to Allied forces; however, some work details in the eastern part of Austria were moved further west to Stalag 317 (XVIII C) in Markt Pongau. Stalag XVIII A was reached by British paratroopers from MI9 on May 8, 1945; at this time, the commandant handed control over to the British.³² Two units of the British Eighth Army, the 27th Lancers and the Irish Guard Fusiliers, arrived on May 11, 1945, to formally liberate the camp.³³