Discovered in January 2008
We discovered that Google Earth has now way better satellite imagery for the following POW camps: Stalag Luft 1, Stalag Luft 6, Stalags 1A, 20A, and 20B. This means that many more details can be seen now, compared with what we saw in 2006, when we created the pages.
For example Stalag 1A Stablack. We can now very clearly distinguish the railway station building. We can even see the memorial at the Klein-Dexen cemetery. And we also see that the road that crossed the camp during WWII is still a road.
German POW camps of WW II are hard to locate today. Their prisoners of war lived several years (up till five) in regions with German names, with towns and villages with German names. Street names were German and even the local population was German. But at the end of WW II and the first years after the war, everything changed drastically.
Whole populations, several millions of people, were expelled from their homeland and millions of others were pushed into those lands. The whole collective memory was gone. Towns and villages and streets and people all of a sudden had Polish, Russian or even Lithuanian names. The new inhabitants did not know anything about their new "homeland". Not even what happened there during the recent war.
Behind the iron curtain
And all these territories came under Soviet rule and it was very difficult for those from the West to visit the regions were a lot of them spent several years of their lives. Even a large area of Germany, the former DDR or East Germany, was not freely accessible. This situation has lasted till 1991, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) collapsed.
No wonder that only few ex-prisoners of war have ever returned to the German POW camps where they had been retained during WW II. In 1991 the vast majority of them had passed the age of 70. And after 55+ years not many traces would have been left from that period in history.
It seems that most ex-prisoners of war have never talked a lot with their children about their live in captivity. Often, after their dead, their children find some notes, a diary and some photographs from that period in time and more and more children, and even grand-children want to know and understand where their father or grandfather has been and how his live was there.
On the following map we have indicated different zones with German POW camps.
Easy to trace and easy to visit
Those prisoners of war who were in one of the German POW camps in the zones "Germany" and "Austria" had a rather easy job to trace where they had been during the war, as none of the (place)names in their diaries had changed after the war. Immediately after the war Europe was one big mess, but in the 60's and 70's many ex-prisoners of war have returned to Germany or Austria, maybe with their children, to visit the regions were they passed several years during WW II. Probably they were lucky enough to find many traces of their camp and other points of interest.
Easy to trace, but difficult to visit
Those who had been imprisoned in one of the German POW camps in the zone "DDR" (East Germany) could easily retrace where they had been, as none of the names had changed. But as the region had become under Soviet rule, visit and freely drive around all places where they had been before, was not practically possible. An example of a POW camp in this region was Stalag Luft I at Barth.
Difficult to trace and difficult to visit
The zones "P1" and "P2" together form the actual country Poland. P2 was Polish during the war, but 90% of the population of P1 were Germans and everything there was German. Prisoners of war who were detained in German POW camps here, noted German place names and German family names in their diaries. At the end of WW II and the first years after the war, these people were expelled from their country and P1 also became 100% Polish. All names changed and a prisoner who had noted that he had been in Hohenstein, suddenly had to know that the place was renamed Olsztynek. Without this knowledge and without modern maps, it would have been very difficult to find the once known places. As Poland had become a Soviet satellite state, it would have been very troublesome to visit it after the war anyway. POW camps in this region, that we have studied in more detail, are Stalag 1B at Hohenstein, Stalag 20B in Marienburg, Stalag 20A in Thorn and Stalag Luft IV near Gr. Tychow. Famous from "The Great Escape", Stalag Luft 3, was also in this area.
Just for the curious. Hitler spent most of the time during WW II in zone P1 too. In his enormous bunker complex Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair), East of Rastenburg.
Memelland was a small stroke of land between the former Ostpreussen (East Prussia) and Lithuania. On the map we indicated it with "Lt". This land was also populated for almost 100% by Germans, and prisoners over there have also noted German place names and German family names in their diaries. In January 1945 these people were definitely chased away from their country and the land became part of Lithuania. Here all names changed too. As Lithuania was under heavy Soviet dominance after WW II, it was almost impossible to visit this region. Here we have the example of Stalag Luft 6 in Heydekrug .
Very difficult to trace and impossible to visit
After WW II the Soviets were very eager to have the Northern part of Ostpreussen, as this gave them two important ports at the Baltic Sea, Königsberg (Kaliningrad) and Pillau (Baltiysk). Two ports that can be kept ice free all winter long. Together with the Germans in Memelland and the German part of Poland, the German population of Northern Ostpreussen were expelled with brutal force from their homeland too. This land, indicated with "R" on the above map, became a Russian military restricted area. Till 1991 no-one has ever been able to enter this territory. All German names disappeared. Preussisch Eylau became Bagrationowsk, etc. In this area there was one German POW camp Stalag 1A Stablack. Very few ex-prisoners of this camp have ever returned to the grounds of "their" camp.
Conclusion
Even in 2006 it is rather hard to find out where they were. We have put some German POW camps back on the map and will try to add some more, but it is a hard job to find all the details, 60+ years after the facts.
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