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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag XXI D (map 4c) from Stalag XXI A/Z on August 1, 1940, in Posen (today Poznań, Poland), in (Wehrkreis) XXI. Reserve Hospital (Reserve Lazarett) Schildberg (today Ostrzeszów, Poland) was subordinate to the camp. Stalag XXI D had subcamps (Zweiglager) in Litzmannstadt (today Łódź, Poland) from April 1943, in Schildberg from June to December 1943, and in Montwy (today Mątwy, Poland) from September to December 1943. The camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District XXI (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis XXI). On February 1, 1945, the Germans ordered that Stalag XXI D be disbanded.¹

The camp held French, British, Belgian, Dutch, Serbian, Polish, and Soviet (from February 1943) prisoners of war (POWs), and Italian military internees (from December 1943). The camp reached a maximum population of 7,250 in October 1944.² The conditions for Western Allied prisoners were generally satisfactory and in keeping with the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (1929). They were divided between two separate compounds: the main section of the camp, in which the prisoners lived in wooden barracks, and “Fort Rauch.” International observers who visited the camp in July 1944 reported that conditions were very good at Fort Rauch, where the prisoners lived in small, well-heated rooms. The conditions in the barracks in the main camp were never very satisfactory, particularly in winter, but the repair of a previously faulty water system quelled most of the complaints.³

The prisoners’ food rations were at a normal level, though as of the second week of July 1944, they had not received meat in five weeks. As in other camps, the prisoners relied on Red Cross food parcels as an important source of supplemental nutrition. The sanitary facilities in the camp were in good order; the men were not able to take hot showers, but they could take cold showers whenever they liked and had the opportunity to bathe in a nearby river several times a week. There were no vermin reported in the barracks at that time.⁴

The highest-ranking medical officer in the prison was Major Lawson, from Britain, who had been sent to Stalag XXI D from Stalag VIII B. In July 1944, he reported eight minor illnesses at the fort, four more severe illnesses in the main camp [End Page 501] infirmary, and four psychological cases, which had been transferred to the Tiegenhof hospital. Eighty-four more seriously ill and injured patients were sent to Camp Hospital Wollstein, as was standard procedure. Major Lawson expressed the desire to vaccinate the entire prisoner population against typhus.⁵

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Stalag XXI D at Posen. ICRC delegate Dr. Mayer visits the camp, April 1943.

COURTESY OF ICRC.

Both Protestant and Catholic chaplains were available to lead religious services at the camp. The prisoners had access to well-organized theater and music programs and were able to partake in various sports at the camp’s athletic fields, using supplies provided by the Red Cross.

The conditions for Soviet prisoners were far worse; insufficient rations, inadequate medical treatment, and deliberate abuse by German camp personnel led to a high mortality rate. In the second half of 1944, as the camp became increasingly crowded, the conditions for the Western Allied prisoners became significantly worse, though still not as bad as those experienced by the Soviet prisoners.