Stalag VIIIB/344 Prisoners of War

Lagergeld: money the Prisoners of War on working parties could earn.

Stalag VIII-B Lamsdorf was a large, German prisoner of war camp, later renumbered Stalag-344. It is located in Poland near the small town of Lamsdorf (now called Lambinowice) in what was then known as Upper Silesia. The nearest city is Opole, and the University of Opole maintains a museum on the site dedicated to prisoners of war. The camp initially occupied barracks built to house British and French prisoners in the First World War, but there had also been a prisoner camp during there during the Franco Prussian War of 1870-71.

In 1939 the camp housed Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive. Later more than 100,000 prisoners from Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Greece, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and the United States passed through this camp. In 1941 a separate camp, Stalag VIII-F was set up close by to house the Soviet prisoners.

In 1943, the Lamsdorf camp was split up, and many of the prisoners (and Arbeitskommandos) were transferred to two new base camps Stalag VIII-C Sagan and Stalag VIII-D Teschen. The base camp at Lamsdorf was re-numbered Stalag 344.

THE CLARION

The Clarion was a magazine made and distributed at Stalag VIIIB/344 between January 1943 and December 1944. We are fortunate to have copies of every issue, sent to us by the family (to whom we offer many grateful thanks) of George Whiteside of The Border Regiment who was at Lamsdorf from 1940 - 1945. There are only a couple of pages missing, otherwise the collection is complete. The magazines give a wealth of information about Lamsdorf, the lives of POWs and about the inmates - and much else besides. They present one of the best primary resources about Stalag VIIIB/344 available.

Uploading these magazines onto this website is a huge job, so we will be doing it issue by issue. We have already uploaded issue number 1 from January 1943. Watch out for further issues during the coming months.

To see the magazines click on 'The Clarion' link on the left of the screen (or click HERE). Next click on the page you would like to read. At the bottom of the page, click on 'Full Size' and the page will come up in another window, which you will have to maximise to see completely.

Issue no.1 January 1943: names mentioned in this issue are:

H. Charles, Dvr Bernard Collogan, Gnr John Colligan, CQSM Lawrie, Sgt. Bill Lee, W.O.1 J. Lowe, RSM Roberts, RSM S. Sherriff.

LAWRENCE HARGREAVES



Driver Lawrence Hargreaves of the Royal Engineers was captured in Egypt in 1940 and was not released until 1945. Lawrence's family have sent us a wealth of material relating to his time as a prisoner of war at Lamsdorf, and you can see it by clicking here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CHARLES!

Charles Saunders, who was the starting-point of this website and of our trips to Lamsdorf, celebrated his 90th birthday on 23rd December. Many happy returns to him!

Before being captured in 1940 Charles was hidden, along with 4 other soldiers, by the Abrass family in Le Portel, Boulogne, France. The family took many risks to do this, of course. After three months they were discovered by German troops and sent to Stalag VIIIB - the family was sent to a labour camp in Germany for the rest of the war. The family survived and after the war Charles found the Abrass family again and renewed their friendship. After 67 years the friendship continues. The older members of the Abrass family died some time ago, but Marie-Christine, who was only 6 years old in 1940, now Marie-Christine Lannoy, is 73 and a grandmother. As a teenager she spent a happy holiday with Charles and his wife in Britain, and they still keep in contact. Charles made the journey to only Le Portel a few weeks ago to take the family his Christmas greetings.

Above: Charles (3rd from left) with the Lannoy family(Marie-Christine, centre)

For many years Charles has been the double-bass player in the Broadstairs and St Peter's Concert Band, and in 2001 the band gave a concert in Le Portel as a 'thank-you' to all those brave French folk who aided allied servicemen during the war. The Mayor of Le Portel hosted a civic reception and the event was covered by the French media. The pubicity for this event resulted in many former prisoners of Stalag VIIIB and their relations getting in touch , seeking information or old friends. Eventually this website was developed, and at Charles' suggestion we organised the first of our Lamsdorf trips, which are still continuing.

The Broadstairs and St Peter's Concert Band's Christmas concert this year will be in the Broadstairs Pavillion on Charles' 90th birthday, 23rd December and this will be followed by a birthday party.

Above: Charles with the Mayor of Le Portel and Marie-Christine Lannoy

Philip Baker writes: Thank you so much to everyone who has sent information, photographs, documents etc for this website, and for the DVD. There is so much! In due course this may well be the most comprehensive source of material about Stalag VIIIB/344 Lamsdorf anywhere! But it will take a long time to enter everything on the site, so your patience is appreciated. Among the documents received are copies of every edition of the Clarion magazine that was produced at the camp. I have already started to load these onto the site (see above). There are many fascinating accounts of life at Lamsdorf - and of the exit in 1945, with many, many names to list and a lot of photos to include.

Please get in touch as soon as possible if you want to join us for the trip to Lamsdorf in September 2008 - call on 0800 04 39 384.

There is a Prisoner of War Museum at Lamsdorf run by the University of Opole which is not far away. The museum has quite a lot of information about the camp (which dates back to before the first World War) and it is a fascinating place to visit. Unfortunately they don't have as much information as they would like about the British and Commonwealth experience there, and so I am making a documentary about this with the help of some sixth-form media studies students from Dane Court School in Broadstairs. The result will be a DVD that can be shown by the museum at Lamsdorf (or Lambinowice as it is now known) and that will be available to anyone else who wants it. I am sure that there will be much more material than we can use, so this website is a way of preserving the many stories, experiences, pictures and souvenirs of that time that have been sent to me - so that they will not be lost and so that it can all be appreciated by future generations.

It will take time to put everything onto this website, but it will gradually grow and improve, with more information and pictures, names and links.

GUESTBOOK

If you have any comments, queries or information please use the guestbook.

If you have any memories, photos, documents or anything else you would like to send, 

please email to: philip@caminojourneys.com

or post to Camino Journeys Ltd, PO Box 292, Broadstairs CT10 2DW, Kent, UK

telephone 01843 863904 (outside UK: +44 1843 863904)

I will, of course, return anything to you if you ask me to. I can copy photos and documents.