Stalag VIIIB/344 Prisoners of War

COMMEMORATING 70 YEARS SINCE THE OUTBREAK OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

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WELCOME

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.

LATEST ADDITION

Letter from Mrs Olga Twist of Leeds

My husband was taken prisoner in the Middle East and was eventually a POW in Italy, so he was in the first march into Germany when Italy came out of the war. He ended up in Stalag VIIIB and he was there quite a while. Then he was on another dealth march as the German soldiers raced away before the Russians - anyone who stopped to relieve themselves were in danger of being killed.

My husband teamed up with a young Belglian lad and they tied a few boards together and took turns at pulling each other. He said that when they passed a deserted farm the little old ladies came out and passed hot potatoes to the lads. A few weeks beofre the march he had received a parcel from me that contained boots, socks and flea powder, so they were useful on the march. As the boots got wet through, he said he never took them off at night as they would hav frozen solid. Some lads had made that mistake - it might just have cost them their lives.

My husband kept in touch with the Belglian lad for a while but as he wasn't a letter writer they soon lost touch.

He never spoke of life inside the camp. Even though all the lads had a terrible time, and for year after year, I'm glad they were where they were and not in Japanese hands - their lives must have been horrific.

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.

Philip Baker writes: Thank you so much to everyone who has sent information, photographs, documents etc for this website. 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 if you want to join us for the trip to Lamsdorf in September 2010 - call on 0800 04 39 384 (if outside UK: +44 1843 862190). Or email camino@uk2.net. It is also possible to book on-line, using the link above.

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.

Since February 19th 2009: