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

After the Wehrmacht conquered Poland, the Germans reintegrated Graudenz (map 4c) (today Grudziądz, Poland) into Germany as part of Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen. The penitentiary there was converted into an Armed Forces Prison (Wehrmachtgefängnis, WG). One, albeit vague, clue as [End Page 671] to the size of the prison comes from information on the original Graudenz Prison, built in 1883, which could hold 674 male and 239 female prisoners and had an additional 57 single cells as well as space for “15 juvenile offenders.”¹ The first soldiers convicted under military law arrived at WG Graudenz on January 2, 1940.²

Under the “enforcement plan” of September 10, 1941, WG Graudenz was to hold Wehrmacht soldiers from Military Districts (Wehrkreise) I, XX, and XXI as well as the northern and central Generalgouvernement; Luftwaffe airmen from Air Districts (Luftgaue) I and II; and sailors from the Naval Station (Marinestation) Ostsee (shared with WG Anklam), all of whom had received sentences of more than six weeks’ imprisonment. Until November 17, 1941, the prison also held Wehrmacht soldiers from the northern and central areas of the occupied Soviet Union.³ From November 17, 1941 on, WG Graudenz only received such prisoners if they were sentenced to prison terms of three months or more. It received such prisoners from the area of Army Group Center (Heeresgruppe Mitte), including its rear areas, and from the territory of Armed Forces Commander (Wehrmachtsbefehlshaber) Ostland via the Wartime Armed Forces Prison (Kriegswehrmachtgefängnis, KWG) Borissow (today Barysaŭ, Belarus).⁴ Prisoners from the area of Army Group North (Heeresgruppe Nord), its rear areas, and from Armed Forces Commander Ostland were sent via KWG Dünaburg (today Daugavpils, Latvia); in December 1941, KWG Dünaburg was relocated to Wilna (today Vilnius, Lithuania) and renamed KWG Wilna.⁵

Little is known about the labor that WG Graudenz’s prisoners had to perform. In 1941, some of them were sent to the Junker and Ruh firm in Graudenz to work in the production of infantry vehicles.⁶ There is no information available about the Military Prisoners’ Units (Wehrmachtgefangenenabteilungen, WGA) that were subordinate to WG Graudenz. An address directory from May 13, 1941, lists a WGA from Graudenz in Strasburg, West Prussia (today known as Strasburg [Uckermark]). Another directory from January 31, 1942, indicates that it had been replaced by a WGA at Georgenhof in Pestlin (today Postolin, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland).⁷

As in other WGs, Graudenz was not only a place where prisoners served out normal terms but also a site for “detaining” (Verwahrung) prisoners who, subject to confirmation by the judge or petition by the prison commandant, were classified as “irredeemable” (besserunsunfähig).⁸ This detention was carried out under especially harsh conditions in the so-called Penal Camp Unit (Straflagerabteilung). Significantly, the prisoners’ actual prison terms would only begin after the war. The strength of the Graudenz Penal Camp Unit was at least 100 men as of March 1, 1942, according to a report from April of that year.⁹

In parallel to the transfer of prisoners to the penal camps, since the beginning of the war, the prison authorities regularly selected candidates to receive suspended sentences through “front probation,” that is, through proving themselves in combat. Front probation could be served in normal combat units or in a battalion of the separate Probation Unit (Bewährungstruppe) 500.¹⁰ On February 12, 1942, the Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW) ordered WG Graudenz to “immediately re-evaluate” the prisoners to determine whether they could be recommended “for a suspension of sentence through probation” in combat.¹¹ The total number of those who were sent to Probation Unit 500 from Graudenz is unknown.

As the example of Armed Forces Detention Camp (Wehrmachtgefangenenlager, WGL) Donau demonstrates more clearly, in April 1942, the “center of gravity” of military prisoners’ punishment was moved from the WGs and their Penal Camp Units to the front, namely in the field prisoner battalions (Feldstrafgefangenen-Abteilungen, FStGA) and field penal camps (Feldstraflager).¹² The goal of this measure was to create a greater deterrent effect on the fighting troops by giving the military prisoners dangerous tasks, such as constructing frontline fortifications. In addition, this measure would reduce overcrowding in the WGs.

In the course of this development, on April 13, 1942, WG Graudenz received the order to send 100 prisoners to WG Torgau-Brückenkopf, where Field Penal Camp II, with a planned strength of 600 men, was being organized. From June 1, 1942, all prisoners destined for the penal camps were to be sent via WG Torgau-Fort Zinna, which was thereafter given the responsibility for “collecting all those to be held in the penal camps” and which held sole responsibility for the Field Penal Camps.¹³

On April 14, 1942, the order for the establishment of the first three FStGAs was issued. WG Graudenz was ordered to send 50 prisoners to FStGA 3; they were interned in WG Anklam in the interim. WG Graudenz had to send the OKW monthly reports on “the number of prisoners to be sent to the FStGAs.”¹⁴ Based on these reports, the OKW determined the number of transports needed and made decisions on the creation of new FStGAs. No FStGAs were established at WG Graudenz itself.

Under the enforcement plan of March 10, 1941, Graudenz—along with WG Torgau-Fort Zinna and WG Germersheim—was also responsible for holding prisoners of war (POWs) who were sentenced to “prison terms of greater than 6 weeks.” Such prisoners came to Graudenz from Defense Districts I, II, VIII, XX, and XXI.¹⁵ Additionally, such prisoners were sent to Graudenz from military units for which Graudenz was the nearest WG. The enforcement plan of October 4, 1941 changed the responsibility so that it was determined by nationality, rather than location. Graudenz was to hold French POWs, while Torgau-Fort Zinna held British and Belgian prisoners. WG Germersheim was responsible for POWs from Eastern and Southeastern Europe (i.e., Poles, Soviets, Serbs, and Greeks). Under the enforcement plan of November 27, 1942, which came into effect at the beginning of 1943, WG Torgau-Fort Zinna was no longer responsible for POWs. Graudenz was given new responsibility for “Belgians, Britons, and Americans,” in addition to French prisoners.¹⁶ Ostensibly to discourage escape attempts, POWs were [End Page 672] sent to the WG that was farthest from their home countries. Information on the experience of POWs in Graudenz is not available.

With the expanded responsibilities for POWs, WG Graudenz lost its status as a detention center for Wehrmacht prisoners. Whether the WG’s Wehrmacht prisoners were all evacuated at the beginning of 1943 is unknown. It is also unknown what became of the group of officers for whom Graudenz was chosen as the central prison. In this capacity, it handled officers of the Replacement Army (Ersatzheer) who were sentenced to prison terms of more than three months without loss of rank. Possibly, they were sent to a subordinate WGA, as officers who received the same penalty in WG Glatz were.¹⁷

As in other locations for Wehrmacht prisoners, death sentences were also carried out in Graudenz. The execution site was the shooting range in the city forest. On April 14, 1940, Graudenz penal camp prisoners Heinrich Hammann (b. December 6, 1918), Alfred Krüger (b. June 18, 1918), and Hans Joachim Werner (b. May 9, 1917) were executed. All three were sentenced to death for desertion on March 27, 1940, by the court of the 156th Division.¹⁸ One day later, Wehrmacht prisoner Paul Remus (b. October 11, 1919) died in the same place, having received his death sentence for the same crime.¹⁹ Karl Möritz (b. March 2, 1911) and Gustav Jentsch (b. December 18, 1912) were sentenced to death by the court of the 428th Division and executed in the forest on August 18, 1941, and December 2, 1942, respectively.²⁰

It is unclear if WG Graudenz continued to hold prisoners sentenced to death after the changes at the beginning of 1943. In the time from the spring of 1943 to the end of September 1944, the Wehrmacht expanded the use of hanging and beheading as methods of execution.²¹ It was possible that prisoners sentenced to death from WG Graudenz were executed in the Investigative Detention Facility (Untersuchungshaftanstalt) in Posen (today Poznań, Poland) during this time, where there was a guillotine operated by a Reich Justice Administration (Reichsjustizverwaltung) executioner under the leadership of a martial law council (Kriegsgerichtsrat). This could have been the case with the following soldiers, all of whom were sentenced in the court of the 152nd Division in Graudenz, and all of whom were executed in Posen: Kurt Schuchardt, executed on either June 16 or June 17, 1943, and Walter Keller and Viktor Tschedne, executed on March 28, 1944.²² On the latter date, a prisoner from Probation Unit 500 was also beheaded in Posen. The times of death of Tschedne (12:00) and Keller (12:06) suggest that the three were guillotined one after the other.

On January 30, 1945, Georg Itzel (b. January 6, 1909) was shot in Graudenz on the orders of the court of the 83rd Infantry Division.²³ However, it is questionable whether the execution was carried out in association with WG Graudenz, or if the prison had already been evacuated in the face of the advancing Red Army. Graudenz fortress was encircled by the Soviets on February 18, 1945; it capitulated on March 5.²⁴ The fate of the remaining Wehrmacht prisoners is unknown.