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

The Wehrmacht established Ilag VII Z as a civilian internment camp for Americans located in the Tittmoning castle (map 4f). The camp was a branch of the larger Ilag VII located 20 kilo-meters (14 miles) to the south in Laufen. The Wehrmacht first used the Tittmoning castle as a prisoner of war camp for officers, Oflag VII D, from February to November 1941. From November until February 1942, Oflag VII D was redesignated as Oflag VII C/Z, a subcamp of the Laufen officers’ camp. In February, the Germans sent all these prisoners to Oflag VII B in Eichstätt. The Laufen camp, thereafter, became Ilag VII, and Tittmoning became its subcamp, Ilag VII Z.

Starting in the fall of 1942, Ilag VII Z held prisoners from North and South America. The majority held passports from the United States, and a small minority were from countries in Central and South America. In June 1943, of 369 internees, 327 had US citizenship. In April of the following year, 206 of 272 internees were nominally from the United States. Though they held American passports, most internees came from Poland and only a minority spoke English.¹ Many of the Polish men were separated from their families, some still in Poland, others in different civilian internment camps. The inhabitants ranged in age considerably. A significant number were over the age of 60 and suffered from chronic diseases. An international observer in April 1944 suggested that 54 of the 306 internees were not healthy enough to remain interned.²

A high proportion of the inhabitants at the camp were Jewish. In July 1943, 92 of the prisoners (over 25%) were Jews from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.³ Some were American expatriates, while others, such as Zvi Rosenwein, had been fortunate to obtain passports to countries like Paraguay in the midst of the war.⁴ They had their own rabbi in the camp and were allowed to hold religious services. When one died, he was buried according to Jewish rites. This group was able to remain at Tittmoning through to liberation in 1945.

When the first civilian internees arrived at the camp, they regarded it as a step down from the well-equipped Laufen camp.⁵ The heavy and imposing medieval castle offered security and insulation, but these came with substantial trade-offs for the internees. The interiors of the three main buildings had dim lighting, and, although electric lighting was wired throughout, the small nearby town could not sustain the power necessary to keep the building well lit.⁶ The bordering Salzach River created a damp environment, and the combined dark and dank attributes of the castle contributed to a low state of morale.

The buildings could not be adapted to the number of inhabitants of the camp. Although there were sufficient beds for the internees, the castle buildings varied considerably in size and quality of accommodations. Some rooms held up to 40 inhabitants, while others held as few as 8. In one building, prisoners—several of them elderly—slept on the second floor and had to descend into the basement to access the bathrooms.⁷ Nearly 200 prisoners had to share six toilets, and the cesspools were located just outside the inhabitants’ windows, which raised health concerns, particularly in the hot summer months, but, due to the nature of the castle structure, the authorities were unable to alter the situation.⁸

Upon first arriving, many believed the quarters to be only temporary. As a result, the inmates made little effort to improve the facilities through gardening or minor repairs, as happened in many other civilian camps. Temporary quarters became permanent, and the prisoners grew increasingly resentful. As one International Red Cross observer noted in August 1943, “So the miscontentment [sic] is ever growing and the conditions which might be regarded as bearable are slowly felt as inhuman.”⁹

Prisoners also initially exhibited a hostility toward work, fearing that any type of activity might advance the German war effort. The commandant initially proposed gardening and farming activities outside the camp, but these were rejected out of hand. By the summer of 1943, 31 prisoners had volunteered for work outside the camp, but the internees’ representative refused to allocate these men their share of aid packages because of a belief they were “collaborating with the detaining power.”¹⁰