Camp Quedlinburg

Camp Quedlinburg was a prisoner-of-war camp 2 Kilometers north of Quedlinburg), Germany, during the First World War. The POW camp was built on the Ritteranger two kilometres north of Quedlinburg in September 1914. From 1914 to 1922, an average of 12,000 to 18,000 prisoners of war were accommodated here.[1] Around 27,000 people lived in the neighbouring city of Quedlinburg at that time. A second settlement was therefore established here in terms of size. There were three official branch offices in Staßfurt, Atzendorf and Aschersleben[2] as well as other unofficial offices in Egeln, Halberstadt, Schönebeck, Groß Rodensleben, Schadeleben and Hedersleben.

The camp

The camp was built on 104 hectares with 48 barracks for the prisoners. Barbed wire fences were erected to prevent escape attempts. In eight double rows there were three barracks on each side of the gable. To the northeast there were eight barracks for the guards and on the western side of Ditfurter Weg a number of large administrative buildings. Northwest of the camp were three isolated sick shelters. Guard towers with machine guns stood in the middle of each long side and at strategically important points. The wooden barracks were about 52 meters long and 12 to 15 meters wide. The interior of the barracks was sparsely furnished. Each prisoner slept in an approximately 80 cm wide 2 metre long wooden bed on straw sacks covered with woollen blankets. The barracks were divided into halves by transverse walls, each heated by an oven in the middle. At the southwest end of a block of six barracks was a kitchen building.[3]

During the war mainly Russian, French, Belgian and English, since 1917 also Italian soldiers were interned. From the beginning they were used to build up the camp and later as workers in labour detachments, especially in agriculture.[4] On 9 December 1918 Theodor Cizeck Zeilau (1884-1970), a Captain in the Danish Army, made an inspection visit of the camp at Quedlinburg.[5]

Even after the war it was used as a transit camp. It was not until 1921 that the last Russian prisoners left the camp, whereupon it was burned down. 703 prisoners of war were buried on a special part of the Quedlinburg central cemetery.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Wozniak, Thomas (2011): „... das Lager ist in jeder Beziehung musterhaft ...“ Kriegsgefangene des Ersten Weltkriegs in Quedlinburg (1914–1922). Jahrbuch für die Geschichte Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands (57): 125–154, here p. 125.
  2. ↑ Rapports des délégués du gouvernement espagnol sur leurs visites dans les camps de prisonniers français en Allemagne 1914–1917. Paris 1918, pp. 291-293.
  3. ↑ Demuth, Volker (2009). "'Those Who Survived the Battlefields' Archaeological Investigations in a Prisoner of War Camp Near Quedlinburg (Harz / Germany) from the First World War". Journal of Conflict Archaeology. 1 (5): 163–181.
  4. ↑ Dienemann, Martina; Wozniak, Thomas (2009): Das Quedlinburger Kriegsgefangenenlager des Ersten Weltkrieges in französischsprachigen Quellen. Quedlinburger Annalen (12): 139–148.
  5. ↑ Dorothy Jones (2018): Quedlinburg men’s camp – Christmas in Denmark, revised 16.1.2018, p. 2, 11.6.2018.
  6. ↑ Wozniak, Thomas (2008): Militärseelsorge für ausländische Soldaten von 1914 bis 1919. Tretschock, Christoph; Wozniak, Matthias; Wozniak, Thomas (Ed.): 150 Jahre Katholische Kirche Sankt Mathilde Quedlinburg 1858–2008. Quedlinburg, pp. 73–80.

Bibliography

Memoirs

  • Emden, Richard van (2000). Prisoners of the Kaiser. The last POWs of the Great War. South Yorkscher: Pen & Sword.

Secondary works

  • Demuth, Volker (2009). "'Those Who Survived the Battlefields' Archaeological Investigations in a Prisoner of War Camp Near Quedlinburg (Harz / Germany) from the First World War". Journal of Conflict Archaeology. 1 (5): 163–181. , doi:10.1163/157407709X12634580640452
  • Wozniak, Thomas (2011). "„... das Lager ist in jeder Beziehung musterhaft ...". Kriegsgefangene des Ersten Weltkriegs in Quedlinburg (1914–1922)". Jahrbuch für die Geschichte Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands (57): 125–154. , ISSN 2191-9909, ISSN 0075-2614, doi: 10.1515/9783110236651.125

Coordinates: 51°48′28″N 11°11′20″E / 51.807825°N 11.189008°E / 51.807825; 11.189008

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