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

WG Anklam was mentioned in official documentation as early as November 1938, albeit with the additional designation “Zwischenunterkunft Glatz” (today Kłodzko, Poland).¹ The provisional unit in Glatz became necessary because the prison in Anklam, which had originally been intended as a [End Page 658] women’s detention center, would only be available in late 1940 due to construction delays.² WG Anklam had a capacity of 600 prisoners, but it was almost constantly overcrowded. In 1944 and 1945, there were consistently around 1,500 prisoners crammed into the individual and group cells at Anklam. It is estimated that, in total, more than 15,000 prisoners passed through Anklam (map 4b).

Oberstleutnant Heinrich Tschersich, who had served as commandant of Zwischenunterkunft Glatz, was subsequently named commandant of WG Anklam. Tschersich was a professional soldier of 16 years. In early 1944, he volunteered to be sent to the eastern front but was instead deployed with the Feldgendarmerie in southern Poland. Oberstleutnant Nickel replaced him as commandant of Anklam in the summer of 1944 and remained there until its evacuation.

Under the “enforcement plan” of September 10, 1941, Anklam was to hold Wehrmacht soldiers from Defense District (Wehrkreis) II and XI, Luftwaffe men from Air Defense District (Luftgau) XI, and sailors from the Baltic Sea Naval Station (Marinestation Ostsee) sentenced to prison terms of longer than six weeks; it shared responsibility for the sailors with WG Graudenz (today Grudziądz, Poland). Later, prisoners from the occupied areas of Northern Europe and Fin-land were also sent to Anklam.³ Under the enforcement plan of November 27, 1942, which came into effect on January 1, 1943, the responsibilities of WG Anklam were expanded because WG Graudenz was redesignated (possibly temporarily) as a reception center (Aufnahmeanstalt).⁴ Afterward, Anklam also received army prisoners from Defense District I, Luftwaffe prisoners from Air Defense District I, and Wehrmacht prisoners from the rear area of Army Group North (Heeresgruppe Nord) and part of the territory of the Armed Forces Commander (Wehrmachtbefehlshaber) Ostland. In 1944, British and Belgian officers were temporarily brought to Anklam, having been sentenced to several months’ imprisonment for “threats” or “insults” to Germans. Under the enforcement plan that took effect in January 1943, the overcrowded WG Graudenz was responsible for the “French, Belgians, English, [and] Americans” being sentenced for violations of military law; this responsibility presumably passed to Anklam after Graudenz was converted into a reception center.⁵

Like the other WGs, Anklam not only was a place where ordinary prisoners served out their sentences but also was for the “detention” of those prisoners who, by virtue of confirmation by the judicial authorities or application on the part of the prison commandant, were classified as “incapable of improvement.” This detention was carried out under harsher conditions in the so-called penal camp unit (Straflagerabteilung), in which the actual sentence would begin only after the war ended. The strength of the Anklam penal camp unit, which existed until April 1942, was at least 100 men as of March 1, 1942.⁶

Alongside the transfer to penal camp units, candidates were continuously selected for a “commutation” of their sentence to “front probation” in combat roles. These “front probationers” could be deployed alongside normal combat units or in a battalion of the separately established Probation Unit (Bewährungstruppe) 500.⁷ On February 12, 1942, the OKW ordered the commandants of the WGs to “immediately re-examine” their prisoners to determine whether they could be recommended “for a commutation of sentence to probation” in a combat role.⁸ The total number of prisoners from Anklam who were sent to front probation is unknown.

Beginning on March 25, 1942, the forced use of the possibilities for front probation was accompanied by a “reorganization” of the prison system, which was to be implemented “according to uniform criteria, in battalions with companies” from that point forward.⁹ Along with the labor companies, in which military drill took place before and after the work as well as during the marches to and from the labor sites, a socalled training company (Ausbildungskompanie) was also established at Anklam. In the training company, those who were soon to be sent to the front were no longer required to work but performed military drills instead (sometimes with weapons, but with no ammunition).

Along with “parade drill and exercises to encourage toughness and courage,”¹⁰ the other German prisoners were also sent on labor details. Prisoners from WG Anklam worked at the Arado Airplane Factory, Oldenburg Furniture Factory, Pomeranian Sugar Factory, the property of the Baron von Schwerin in Ziethen, Burmeister Sawmill, Breitsprecher Coal Plant, and the Ruhrbeck and Raiffeisen firms. WG prisoners were also used for community labor, such as the construction of a bridge on Greifswalder Strasse and the construction of temporary shelters on the Ringstrasse in Anklam. Military construction projects were set up at the air base in Anklam and the airfield in Sanitz.

Alongside the labor details, in which military drill took place before and after work, a so-called training company was also established in Anklam. In the training company, men who were soon to be returned to the front were no longer sent to labor but rather only performed military drills. Former Anklam prisoner Werner Ulrich belonged to this company in late 1944. He recalled that “in the training company we also practiced on a training-Panzerfaust [antitank rocket launcher]. We were often required to perform exercises at the Richthofen Airport. We trained not only during the day but also at night. There were 30–40 kilometer [18.6–25 mile] night-marches. When we returned from those, we lined up alphabetically. Then the day duty began later.”¹¹

In addition, WG Anklam supervised three armed forces prisoner units (Wehrmachtgefangenenabteilungen, WGAs) as of 1941: WGA Pinnow in Kreis Angermünde (later relocated to and renamed WGA Rathenow), WGA Bernau (near Berlin), and WGA Schwerin. By 1942, only WGA Bernau remained, and three new units were created: WGA Clauen (between Hannover and Braunschweig), WGA Fallingbostel (near Celle), and WGA Peenemünde auf Usedom.¹² In Pinnow and Clauen, the prisoners worked in the local [End Page 659] Wehrmacht munitions factories; in Rathenow, the prisoners worked at the Arado Airplane Factory; and in Peenemünde, the prisoners from Anklam worked at the rocket testing facility and as agricultural laborers on military property. Where prisoners from Anklam were used by nonmilitary entities, those employers had to pay hourly wages to the military. The prisoners (with the exception of those in the penal camp probationary units) received—conditional upon good behavior—a small part of this payment as “work remuneration.”¹³

In April 1942, the “majority of the punishment” of military prisoners was moved to the penal camp units in the area of the front, specifically the field penal battalions (Feldstrafgefangenenabteilungen, FStGA) and field penal camps (Feldstraflager).¹⁴ The goal of these measures was to intensify the deterrent effect of military prison for the soldiers at the front by introducing dangerous work such as the construction of battlefield fortifications. Additionally, it would reduce the overcrowding of the military prisons. On April 13, 1942, WG Anklam was ordered to send 100 prisoners to WG Torgau-Fort Zinna, where Feldstraflager I was to be formed with a strength of 600 men.¹⁵ In Anklam itself, six field penal battalions were formed later: on May 1, 1942, FStGA 3; on August 1, 1942, FStGA 4; on September 10, 1942, FStGA 8; on November 1, 1942, FStGA 11; on January 5, 1943, FStGA 14; and on March 20, 1943, FStGA 17.

WG Anklam also functioned as a remand prison (Untersuchungsgefängnis) and a detention facility for prisoners who were sentenced to death. Prisoners who were sentenced to terms in penitentiary were normally declared “unworthy of the military,” expelled from the Wehrmacht, and sent by the Reich Ministry of Justice to “detention” in the penal camps in the Emsland district of Germany. Those who were sentenced to death were sent to the death cells, which were located in the cellar of the south wing of the prison, where they were chained hand and foot. From October 14, 1941, to April 26, 1945, at least 123 prisoners are known to have been executed at WG Anklam, most for desertion or “subversion of the military’s strength” (Wehrkraftzersetzung). By 1944, several officers had also been executed at Anklam.

Between mid-April and mid-October 1943, no executions by firing squad took place in Anklam because of the “Führer Order” of March 4, 1943, which required that death sentences for military crimes “be carried out by beheading or hanging.”¹⁶ The “dishonorable” beheading and the “shameful” hanging were seen as worse punishments for these criminals compared with the “soldier’s death” by a bullet. Those who were held at Anklam awaiting their executions were sent to Posen (today Poznań, Poland), where they were beheaded in the investigative prison. It is likely that additional prisoners from Anklam were executed by guillotine or at the gallows.

From the end of October 1943, executions at Anklam were once again carried out by shooting, in large numbers. According to the former staff director (Stabsintendant) of Anklam, Karl Prill, the judicial officer (Gerichtsoffizier) in Anklam, Leutnant Bethke, strongly advocated for the return to the old method because the deterrent effect of shooting was believed to be stronger than that of beheading; the transport costs and escape risk from transferring prisoners to Posen likely played a role in the decision. Two Belgian citizens were also executed in WG Anklam: Georges Mommens, who was arrested by the SD in Brussels for “communist activities” died there on March 17, 1944; his compatriot Josef Gypen was executed on March 26, 1944, for “failure to fulfill duties.”¹⁷

Alongside the transfers to Probation Unit (Bewährungstruppe) 500, which had been continuous since 1941, in the late summer of 1944, three special transports were delivered to SS-Sonderformation Dirlewanger—officially known as the 36th Waffen Grenadier Division—which operated within the Waffen-SS as a “probation unit.” Around 1,000 military prisoners from WG Anklam were sent to SS-Sonderformation Dirlewanger during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, during the Slovak National Uprising, and, finally, to service on the eastern front.¹⁸

As Soviet troops overran the borders of the Reich, an “Alarm-Battalion Anklam” was created from men destined for front probation on January 21, 1945. This 200-man battalion, led by officers from the prison’s guards, was thrown against the Red Army near Schneidemühl. One member of the unit was “probation-gunner” Werner Beissel, who was executed for “false reports and unauthorized withdrawal” on February 24, 1945.¹⁹ Additionally, prisoners from Anklam were sent to Probation Unit 500 until March 1945. One of them was former U-boat commander Hartmuth Schimmelpfennig, who was sentenced to an 18-month term in Anklam in January 1945 for homosexuality; he was killed in action with Probation Unit 500 in the Battle of Berlin on April 27, 1945.²⁰

On April 28, 1945, the evacuation of WG Anklam began. After some of the prisoners and guards were marched toward Neubrandenburg (and possibly Küstrin) to be sent into combat against the Red Army, the remainder of the prisoners and guards set out to the west. The probable destination of their march was Zuchthaus Dreibergen Bützow, but the column was overtaken by the Red Army in Bad Sulza on May 1, 1945. Along with the men in the column, the longtime commandant, Oberst Heinrich Tschersich, who had returned to Anklam at the end of 1944, was captured. While other officers from Anklam had already returned to Germany in 1947, Tschersich was sentenced to a 25-year prison term.²¹ However, he was released in 1954. He moved from Anklam to Gelsenkirchen in West Germany, where he received a 2,000 deutsche mark pension as a “late returner” (Spätheimkehrer) and long-tenured officer.