Stalag X-B

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Stalag X-B was a World War II German Prisoner-of-war camp located near Sandbostel in north-western Germany. Sandbostel lies 9 km south of Bremervörde, 43 km northeast of Bremen. Placed on swampy ground,with a damp, cold climate, it is one of the most notorious POW camps. Between 1939 and 1945 1 million POWs of 46 nations passed through. Nearly 50,000 died here of hunger, disease, or just simply murdered^[1].

Marlag und Milag Nord, the camps for captured Navy personnel and civilian sailors respectively, were originally in two separate enclosures at the Sandbostel camp. They were moved to a different location closer to Cuxhaven, to Westertimke, in 1942.

1 Timeline
2 References
3 Sources
4 See also

[edit] Timeline

The camp was built in 1933 as a Nazi internment camp for undesirables,
In September 1939 it was used to house British civilian internees and Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive. For lack of huts they were mostly housed in tents.
June 1940 French and Belgian soldiers taken prisoner during the Battle of France arrive.
May 1941 more prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign, mostly British and Yugoslavian.
In July 1941 they were followed by Soviet prisoners from Operation Barbarossa housed in the open in a separate enclosure.
On 1 December 1941 the prisoner count was: 1664 Poles, 18,210 French, 2,871 Belgian, 2,459 British, 5,361 Yugoslavs, 9,271 Soviets^[2].
September 1943 Italians interned after the capitulation of Badolgio arrived. Like the Soviets they were not accorded the protection of the Third Geneva Convention and were housed next to them.
October 1944 soldiers from the Polish Warsaw Rising came, including over 1,000 women soldiers and officers.
On 1 November 1944 the prisoner count was: 4,895 Poles, 11,337 French, 1,732 Belgian, 3,040 Yugoslavian, 20,169 Soviets, 9,453 Italians^[3].
March and April 1945, about 8,000 Concentration camp prisoners are brought here from Neuengamme and placed in the enclosure that had been Marlag
The camp was liberated by British troops on 29 April 1945.