ARBEITSKOMMANDO 1326

 

Arbeitskommando 1326, Stalag IVA

PoWs held prisoner by the Replacement Army (Ersatzheer) in Saxony were housed in a wide variety of locations and buildings, from the British soldier who lived with the family of a watchmaker over his shop in the Radebeul district of Dresden, to those incarcerated with thousands of others in a large multi-national main camp like Stalag IVB Mühlberg. Most other-ranks PoWs would have lived in a work camp, an arbeitskommando, of which during its existence Stalag IVA may have had over a thousand. An October 1942 Protecting Power report on Stalag IVA mentions 700 work camps in existence at that time, but the shape and size of the work camp estate changed constantly. Existing camps could be closed down and their PoWs moved elsewhere as the needs of employers and the economy changed and as the air war took its toll on factories and infrastructure. As more PoWs arrived from enemy action on the eastern, western and southern fronts, and from the air war, new camps had to be established.

With such a large number of work camps, no one camp in operation for less than a year can stand as typical of the others. But examination of one camp can throw a light on the kind of experience PoWs had in other camps. To that end this section looks at K1326, in which my father, Corporal Tom Gregory, was held from November 1944 until its evacuation in April 1945.

Although there were mobile work camps (Bau und Arbeits Bataillon) under the control of some stalags elsewhere in the Reich, Stalag IVA’s work camps appear to have been static. That is, they were located either where the PoWs worked or they provided accommodation from which the PoWs were taken to their workplace. K1326 was one of the latter.

K1326 received its first PoWs early in November. It appears that the PoW estate run by Stalag IVA was expanded at this time to accommodate Allied soldiers captured in the weeks before, particularly during Operation Market Garden. A substantial number of Arnhem veterans arrived in Stalag IVB and were then dispersed to other stalags, with the existing cadre of longer-imprisoned PoWs being moved around to accommodate them.  In November and December 1944, therefore, the PoW population of K1326 was gradually expanded so that by the beginning of 1945 it held around 220 men. Perhaps around half of these PoWs were Arnhem veterans.

The camp was located at 26 Scharfenberger Strasse in Ubigau, a major industrial area on the northern outskirts of Dresden, and just over 2 miles from the centre of the city across the river Elbe. The site appears to have been cleared before a camp was created, probably in anticipation of the latest influx. The PoWs were held in 4 large wooden huts, each capable of holding well over 50 men. Each of these was divided in 2, with a dormitory with bunk beds at one end and a dining area at the other. There was also accommodation for the lagerführer in charge of the camp and his staff, a sick room and a punishment hut for PoWs on a charge. There was a large open space in the camp, which was surrounded by a wire fence. From the camp one could get views down to the Elbe and across to Dresden. There was a brick-built barracks directly opposite, the Nachrichten Kazerne. It appears that some of the services and facilities needed for the work camp were in this barracks. For instance, the kitchens for the work camp were there, to which some PoWs were sent to act as cooks to prepare meals, which were then transported in large metal containers for distribution to the huts. It is likely that, for security reasons, the barracks housed the work camp’s stores, including Red Cross and individual parcels sent from Stalag, and that some PoWs might be sent to work there, for instance to repair military radio sets (though this contravened the Geneva Convention).

In early February 1945, the PoWs in K1326 elected both a Man of Confidence (MoC) (Corporal S T Gregory) and a Camp Leader (Sergeant A Bestwick), with the various tasks divided between them. These included control and distribution of Red Cross and personal parcels, organising work detachments, overseeing the operation of the PoW kitchens, internal discipline and relations with the lagerführer and his and the MoC’s counterpart at Stalag etc. They were supported by a PoW acting as translator (Gunner R A Deegan).

The lagerführer was Feldwebel Krebs until the camp was evacuated, when Oberfeldwebel Make took command. The guards were members of the Replacement Army and were generally men who, by virtue of age or injury, were not candidates for front-line duty. Some would have been local men. The camp, while administered from Stalag IVA at Hohnstein south of the city, came under the jurisdiction for security purposes of a Replacement Army company under Hauptman Bertold based in Radebeul. There was a Secret Police office further along Scharfenberger Strasse.

Within the camp, the PoWs elected the men to be leaders in each hut and those who were to be the cooks. The MoC and Camp Leader oversaw the elections and dealt with disputes and complaints among the PoWs. However, their most significant tasks were to distribute Red Cross parcels, and chase them up when they did not arrive, and to organise who went on the work detachments. These 2 ‘officials’ also had the task of maintaining discipline among the PoWs, a role made more difficult by the reluctance of the men, particularly those newly captured, to submit themselves to the orders of colleagues only just, if at all, their senior in rank. In serious cases, like the one in which a PoW was accused of stealing from others, they might have to ask the lagerführer to transfer the man to another camp. The MoC was also increasingly involved in checking on the condition and whereabouts of PoWs recaptured after escaping and in trying to defend any PoW charged with a serious or capital offence. In one such case, a Canadian from the camp was detained while allegedly looting meat from bombed-out premises in Dresden. In this case he was executed without the MoC being informed beforehand.

Depending on the seriousness of the illness, PoWs taken ill were treated on site by a medical orderly from among the PoWs, by a visiting German or New Zealand PoW doctor, by medical staff at a lazarett dedicated to PoWs or, in a small number of cases, by one of the hospitals in Dresden itself.

The PoWs were taken out of the camp to work in Dresden. They were engaged in a variety of labouring tasks, for instance, repairing sewers. However, with the destruction of central Dresden by Allied bombing in mid-February, they were deployed in retrieving the bodies of those civilians who were killed and in dealing with the physical damage to the city.  The camp itself was not damaged during the February air raids, though a PoW (Private Norman Lee) had been killed in a raid in January, probably off-site. PoWs were marched to work in small detachments and had sometimes to work alongside PoWs from other Allied armed services or civilians. This provided opportunities for bartering food and other items, often with cigarettes as currency, and for surreptitious fraternising with local women.

The camp remained in existence until 14 April 1945, when the PoWs, along with those in other work camps in Dresden, were marched south to avoid their falling into the hands of the advancing Red Army. They went south along the Elbe to Konigstein, and then west to modern-day Cunnersdorf, Rosenthal-Bietal and Sneznil, before settling at the latter (which is now in the Czech Republic). Many took the opportunities created in the confusion of the repeated attacks by Red Army aircraft to make their escape in an effort to reach the American lines more quickly. On 8 May, now at nearby Tisa, the war ended with those members of K1326 who had not already absconded leaving to find the American lines under the leadership of their MoC with whatever stores they could get onto a hand cart. In the end the cart was abandoned and the remaining PoWs dispersed: at that point K1326 ceased to exist.

Revised May 2021 with the help of former K1326 prisoner, Clifford Hales.