Szubin, the small Polish city was taken in September 1939 by the Nazi German occupation and was incorporated into the Third Reich under the new German name Altburgund. In an unusual and still not completely discovered way, its history is entwined with Allied prisoners-of-war held there by the Germans during WWII.
Beginning in autumn of 1939, a forced labor camp was established there for Polish people from Szubin County on property belonging to the pre-war Provincial Youth Detention Centre for boys. In January 1940 the prisoner-of-war camps, Stalag XXI-B for enlisted men and Oflag XXI-B for officers, were built. Initially, Polish soldiers and officers captured during the Invasion of Poland were held there. From June 1940 to September 1942, it was a camp for French officers, and between September 1942 and April 1943 it was a camp for British officers and Soviet officers. Beginning June 1943 and lasting until January 1945, the Nazi German Offizierslager, known as Oflag 64, was established on the same property to detain captured American officers of the US Army Ground Forces.
The purpose of this blog is to record the most complete history of Oflag 64 possible, which has been studied in detail by the author since 2008. I hope to show the history of this unusual camp as it was seen and remembered by the ex-POWs who were held there in captivity. I’d like to write this history based on their own accounts of their captivity in the camp as they have preserved them for themselves and their families, as well as, on the recent recollections of those few last veterans and survivors of Oflag 64. ‘The Oflag 64 Record’ will be the historical record of Oflag 64, based both on well-known English-language sources and also on those not widely published, including some previously unpublished sources.
Szubin, 31.05.2015
Mariusz Winiecki
©Mariusz Winiecki
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