FELDSTRAFGEFANGENEN-ABTEILUNG (FStGA) 22
The Wehrmacht established FStGA 22 in March 1945 through the conversion of Field Penal Camp (Feldstraflager) II into a FStGA. Feldstraflager II was deployed with Army Group South (Heeresgruppe Süd) in Hungary at the time.1 FStGA 22 consisted of five companies, including a penal camp company and a penitentiary company (at least according to plans). Whether this restructuring—the background of which was similar to that of FStGA 21—had any notable practical effect on the prisoners during the last weeks of the war is unknown due to the lack of available source material.
On May 4 or 5, 1945, FStGA 22 was marching from the Horn camp to Zwettl in Lower Austria.2 The unit was captured by American forces shortly thereafter, and the men became prisoners of war.
SOURCES
See Sources, FStGA 1.
NOTES
1. Hans-Peter Klausch, “Von der Wehrmacht ins KZ: Die Häftlingskategorien der SAW- und Zwischenhaft-Gefangenen,” in Wehrmacht und Konzentrationslager, ed. KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme (Bremen: Temmen, 2012), p. 85; Georg Tessin, Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939–1945, Vol. 4: Die Landstreitkräfte 15-30 (Osnabrück: Biblio, 1974), p. 168. The field post number (Feldpostnummer) of Feldstraflager I was transferred to FStGA 21 on March 28, 1945 (see Norbert Kannapin, Die Deutsche Feldpostübersicht 1939–1945. Vollständiges Verzeichnis der Feldpostnummern in numerischer Folge und deren Aufschlüsselung. Bearbeitet nach den im Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv verwahrten Unterlagen des Heeresfeldpostmeisters, vol. 1 (Osnabrück: Biblio, 1980), p. 247.
2. According to notation found in documents in BArch PA, Erkennungsmarkenverzeichnis Feldstraflager II (Bd. 49871).
