Stalag VIII-D
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Stalag VIII-D was a World War II German POW camp located south of Teschen, (now Ceský Tešín, Czech Republic). It was built in March 1941 on the grounds of old Czech barracks..
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[edit] Timeline
The camp was created in 1941 as the base camp for a number of sub-camps (Arbeitskommandos) for prisoners of war working in the mines and industries of Upper Silesia. By early 1942 they housed 7,000 prisoners from Belgium, France, Poland and Yugoslavia. In September 1942 it was placed under the overall administration of Stalag VIII-B Lamsdorf. In late 1943 there was a reorganization. A large number of prisoners were transferred to Reschen and it became Stalag IV-B, whereas Lamsdorf was renamed Stalag 344. Because of these organizational and number changes there is considerable confusion in accounts of prisoners, even in ofiial German records.
At the end of 1943 within Stalag VIII-B Teschen there were about 50,000 Soviet prisoners, and another 10,000 from other countries, including Great Britain, the British Commonwealth and Italy, In general, the conditions in the main Teschen camp and in all the sub-camps were deplorable.
[edit] Arbeitkommandos
Among the sub-camps of Oflag VIII-D Teschen were:
- Kommando E535 - coal mine at Milowitz, mainly New Zealanders
- Kommando E 715 - IG Farben Monowitz (Monowice), 1,400 British prisoners from the North Africa campaign
[edit] Evacuation and Repatriation
21 January, 1945, many of the prisoners, particularly British and Commonwealth, were marched through Nazi-occupied Czech provinces to Stalag XIII-C in Bavaria or Stalag XIII-D Nürnberg. The march in sub-zero temperatures caused great distress. The Czech people in the villages and towns, through which they passed, passed food and clothing to them. Many prisoners managed to escape and were sheltered in private homes.
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