Oflag VIII-F
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oflag VIII-F was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp for officers (Offizierlager) located first in Wahlstatt, Silesia (now Legnickie Pole, Poland) and then at Mährisch-Trübau, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now Moravská Třebová, Czech Republic). It housed mostly French POWs.
_ID_593490.jpg)
| Oflag VIII-F | |
|---|---|
| Wahlstatt, Silesia (now Legnickie Pole, Poland) | |
Benedictine Abbey in Legnickie Pole | |
| Site information | |
| Type | Prisoner-of-war camp |
| Controlled by |  Nazi Germany |
| Location | |
  Oflag VIII-F  Oflag VIII-F | |
| Coordinates | 51.145413°N 16.243226°E |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1719-1731 |
| In use | 1940–1944 |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Garrison information | |
| Occupants | Allied POWs |
Camp history
Oflag VIII-F was first established at Wahlstatt in July 1940[1][2] and housed French and Belgian officers taken prisoner during the Battle of France. It was located in a former Benedictine Abbey dedicated to Saint Hedwig of Silesia, that had been a military school between 1840 and 1920, and used by the Nazis as a "National Political Educational Institution" from 1934.[1][3]
In July 1942 a new camp at Moravská Třebová in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, about 200 km (120 mi) to the south, was designated Oflag VIII-F, while the original camp was redesignated Oflag VIII F/Z, a sub-camp of Moravská Třebová.[1][2] The prisoners were transferred to other camps, though a small number stayed behind to carry out construction work as the site was adapted for the use of GEMA (Gesellschaft für und mechanische elektroakustische apparate) in developing radar systems.[4][5] The sub-camp was closed in June 1943.[2]
The camp at Moravská Třebová contained around 2,000 officers, mostly British captured in North Africa and the Greek Islands, but there were also numbers of Greek, French and American POW.[6] In April 1944, most of the prisoners were transferred to Oflag 79 near Braunschweig and the camp was closed.