Stalag II-B was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp situated west of the town of Hammerstein, Pomerania (now Czarne, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland) on the north side of the railway line. It housed Polish, French, Belgian, Serbian, Dutch, Soviet, Italian and American prisoners of war.
Camp history
thumb|left|upright|Polish POWs in Stalag II-B
The camp was situated on a former army training ground (Übungsplatz), and had been used during World War I as a camp for Russian prisoners. In 1933 it was established as one of the first Nazi concentration camps, to house German communists, however, it was dissolved after several months, and the prisoners were deported elsewhere. In late September 1939 the camp was changed to a prisoner-of-war camp to house Polish soldiers from the September Campaign, particularly those from the Pomorze Army. By mid-September 1939, there were some 3,000 Polish POWs in the camp, and the number further grew afterwards. At first they lived in tents, throughout the severe winter of 1939–1940, and construction of all the huts was not completed until 1941. Cold combined with poor sanitary conditions and food rations, resulted in widespread diseases and many deaths. In May–June 1940, during and following the German invasion of France and Belgium, French and Belgian prisoners began to arrive. To make room for them, many of the Poles were forced to relinquish their POW status to become civilian slave laborers, in a violation of the Geneva Conventions, and some were offered to sign on the Volksliste. Faced with poor results, the Germans subjected the Poles to starvation and terror, as well as deportations to heavy labor subcamps. Polish Jewish POWs were assigned to hard and humiliating work. In December 1940, 1,691 Polish prisoners were recorded as being there. Lack of warm clothing and malnutrition resulted in high mortality among POWs from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, French Sudan, Madagascar and Indochina. In April 1941, Serbian POWs were brought to the camp.
Since October 1939, Polish POWs were sent to newly formed forced labour subcamps in the area, to work in forestry and agriculture. Eventually POWs of various nationalities were sent to numerous forced labour subcamps (Arbeitskommando) located in various cities, towns and villages in Pomerania and northern Greater Poland. Many POWs often recalled German abuse in the subcamps.
thumb|Barrack hut of Stalag II B under construction, 1941
On the initiative of the Polish POWs, a camp infirmary was organized, led by Polish doctor and POW Edmund Mroczkiewicz. The infirmary was also the focal point of the Polish resistance organization Odra, and Mroczkiewicz was its member. The organization was involved in intelligence, diversion and sabotage actions.
The construction of the second camp, Lager-Ost ("East Compound") began in June 1941 to accommodate the large numbers of Soviet prisoners taken in Operation Barbarossa, including ethnic Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Finns, as well as Polish civilians from Soviet prisons, often accidentally classified as POWs.
Description
thumb|right|Map of the Stalag IIB POW compounds
The camp sprawled over surrounded by the usual two barbed-wire fences. Additional fences formed compounds and sub-compounds. Ten thousand Russians were detained in the East Compound, while the other nationalities — 16,000 French, 1,600 Serbs, 900 Belgians — and the Americans were segregated by nationality in the North Compound. Within the American enclosure were the playing field, workshops and dispensary, showers, and delouser. At times more than 600 men were quartered in each of the three single-story barracks wide and long. Despite these extremely crowded barracks, conditions contrasted well with the Russian barracks which held as many as 1,000 POWs apiece. Barracks were divided in two by a centre washroom which had twenty taps. Water fit for drinking was available at all hours except during the last two months when it was turned off for part of the day. Bunks were the regulation POW triple-decker bunk beds with excelsior mattresses and one German blanket (plus two from the Red Cross) for each man. In the front and rear of each barracks was a urinal to be used only at night. Three stoves provided what heat there was for the front half of each barrack, and two for the rear half. The fuel ration was always insufficient, and in December 1944 was cut to its all-time low of of coal per stove per day. On warm days the Germans withheld part of the fuel ration.