The history of Stalag IVA set out in this blog is incomplete
and skewed by virtue of the sources used to gather information. Its focus is on
British, and to some extent also American, PoWs held in the Stalag itself at
Hohnstein or in its hundreds of work camps. This means that I have little
information on the extent to which it was a prison for the military personnel
of other Allied nations, though I know that it also housed Poles, Dutch,
Belgian and French prisoners in the Castle or, with Russians, in work camps. The
sources I have used are generally from UK archives, for the most part those
held at the National Archives in Kew, West London. I have augmented the
material available from Kew with papers written by my father while a prisoner
in a work camp in Dresden and from those of other PoWs in the area at the time.
The sources may be summarised as the following:
·
My father’s camp diary and his correspondence
with the Chief British Man of Confidence at Hohnstein Castle while a prisoner
in K1326;
·
Extracts from the reminiscence of a fellow PoW
in his work camp;
·
Information and photographs from the relatives
of PoWs from Poland, France, Holland, the United States, Germany and the United
Kingdom;
·
The forms required to be filled in by PoWs
returning to the UK at the end of the war (Liberation Questionnaires);
·
The reports on conditions in the Stalag and its
work camps prepared by officials of the Protecting Power (the USA until the end
of 1941 and Switzerland thereafter);
·
Reports by representatives of the International
Committee of the Red Cross on visits to the Stalag and its work camps;
·
Reports on prison camps compiled by the UK Government
during the war, particularly to identify locations to avoid during the Allied
air offensive;
·
National internet sites archiving records of
PoWs held in District IV, including those of France and Holland.
I
have not relied on independent internet sources such as Wikipedia or on
published PoW reminiscences, neither (but especially the former) being entirely
reliable. The Wikipedia entry on Stalag IVA is well wide of the mark. In other
words, so far as possible the sources are contemporaneous with the events they
describe or written very soon afterwards. If any reader of the blog has
suggestions as to new sources to plunder, I should be grateful to hear from
them.
However,
while every effort has been made to check facts published here, and to review them
periodically, it is impossible to guarantee the accuracy of all the information
in the blog. I should be grateful for any corrections, suitably substantiated,
or additions to the information already available. I hope to include
photographs of the Stalag and of work camps and would welcome assistance with
that from anyone with photographic records of Stalag IVA’s prison camps.
July
2020
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