The German
military authorities’ control of PoWs in stalags and work camps in Dresden as
elsewhere in the Reich was exercised through a tiered organisational structure,
at the head of which was Hitler, to whom reported the head of the Oberkommando
Wehrmacht (OKW). For much of the
war, responsibility under the OKW for PoWs lay with the head of the Erzats
Herre (Replacement or Reserve Army), which branch of the military also had
responsibility for recruitment and training for the Wehrmacht. In District
IV its HQ was in Dresden under the Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im
Wehrkreis. Below that were the individual stalags, the commandants of which
had responsibility for the work camps under their control. Alongside this were
the individual battalions of the Reserve Army’s Landesschutzen. These were
organised into areas, each of which had a group of work camps with its own
senior Landesschutzen officer who could act on behalf of the more remote Stalag
or his superiors at Dresden HQ. In Dresden itself there were 2 areas into which
work camps were organised, Dresden Links (i.e. on the left bank of the river
Elbe in the city) and Dresden Rechts (right bank). The senior officer in the
Dresden Rechts Area, where work camp 1326 was located (this work camp is described in the next section), was
the commanding officer (Chef) of the 5th Company of the 396 Battalion, Hauptman Bartold. His Company HQ was in Radebeul, a suburb of Dresden.
Alongside
this arrangement were the civil and the secret police (Gestapo) forces, together with
those members of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (the Reich Main Security
Office) responsible for dealing with escaped prisoners. Any or all of these
could be called in by camp, Area or Stalag officials, for instance to search a
work camp. Guards in the camps were members of the Reserve Army. From October
1944 the Schutsaffel (SS) under Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler was given control of the Reserve Army after its senior staff
were implicated in the attempt in July that year to assassinate Hitler. This led to a reorganisation of the senior command, but the organisational arrangements stayed the same at
Wehrkreis level.
This German
control structure was replicated by that created by the PoWs themselves and
permitted by the German authorities. At each level there was a Man of
Confidence (MoC), the PoW who represented his fellow other ranks PoWs in
relations with the Germans. This position was created by Article 43 of the 1929
Geneva Convention and was intended to exist in all camps holding PoWs whose
nation states had signed the Convention. (Different arrangements for
leadership/representation applied to officers held in Oflags and Stalag Lufts.)
Thus, a
Chief British Man of Confidence (CBMoC) (Sergeant A Smith) resided at Stalag
IVA in Hohnstein Castle, with Area Men of Confidence (AMoC) in each of the Reserve
Army’s areas. So, for instance, in Area Dresden Rechts Driver H E Cramp was the
AMoC and below him were the MoCs in each of the work camps. Whether this hierarchy
functioned as a command structure depended very largely on the rank and
personality of the CBMoC. Where, as in a large camp like Stalag IVB, the CBMoC
was a senior NCO, the incumbent would ensure that the usual military
conventions of command based on rank would prevail. Where, as in Stalag IVA,
the CBMoC was of middling rank and in charge of only a small number of support
staff with him at the castle, the relationship with Area and camp MoCs was more
facilitative than commanding and controlling.
The Geneva
Convention not only created the role of MoC, by Article 42 it also, gave its holder
the right to petition the Protecting Power on matters relating to the welfare
of PoWs. So, by virtue of the Geneva Convention, a work camp MoC could take up
issues concerning his camp with the lagerfuhrer, the Protecting Power (if its
representative visited the camp) or either the CBMoC or the AMoC, depending on
the nature of the issue.
September 2021
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