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

The Wehrmacht established Ilag XIII (map 4d) on July 15, 1940, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XIII, in the Wülzburg fortress.¹ It was under the jurisdiction of the Commander of Prisoners of War in Defense District XIII (Kommandeur der [End Page 566] Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis XIII). From September 1943 to November 1944, the camp commandant was Oberst Karl-Friedrich Freiherr von Houwald.²

Ilag XIII held civilian internees from countries that were at war with Germany. Early in its existence, the camp held French, British, Dutch, and Belgian internees, followed by the arrival of Serbian and, later, Soviet internees. Among the internees were Arab civilians from British Palestine and Egypt; the latter were part of a failed attempt at an exchange for German prisoners held in Egypt in 1941.³ By October 1942, the camp held only Soviet citizens, as all of the internees of other nationalities had been repatriated or transferred to other camps. Beginning in September 1943, it also held Soviet officers, who lived in a separate part of the camp (Teillager Oflag).⁴ The camp population slowly increased from about 300 prisoners in September 1941 to about 540 prisoners in December 1944.⁵ According to a postwar questionnaire, there were subcamps in Weissenburg, Gundelsheim, and Möhren. The questionnaire also states that the camp held between 130 and 150 Jews.

The conditions in the camp were satisfactory. The camp administration and guards treated the internees decently. The interests of the detainees in the camp were represented by the Swiss embassy, the International Red Cross, and the War Prisoners’ Aid Committee of the YMCA, whose representatives had access to the camp. The exact date of the camp’s closure is unknown, but it must have been on or before April 23, 1945, when Wülzburg was liberated by American forces.