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17-742: According to the Third Geneva Convention of 1929 and its predecessor, the Hague Convention of 1907 , Section IV, Chapter 2, these camps were only for prisoners of war , not civilians. Stalags were operated in both World War I and World War II and were intended to be used for non-commissioned personnel ( enlisted ranks in the US Army and other ranks in British Commonwealth forces). Officers were held in separate camps called Oflag . During World War II,

34-407: A prisoner of war may keep and that the prisoner of war must be evacuated from the combat zone as soon as possible. Section 2 covers the internment of prisoners of war and is broken down into 8 chapters which cover: Section 3 (Articles 49–57) covers the type of labour that a prisoner of war may be compelled to do, taking such factors as rank, age, and sex into consideration, and that which because it

51-436: Is broken down into three chapters. This part is divided into several sections: Section 1 (Articles 109–117) covers the direct repatriation and accommodation in neutral countries. Section 2 (Articles 118–119) covers the release and repatriation of prisoners of war at the close of hostilities. Section 3 (Articles 120–121) covers the death of a prisoner of war. The Information Bureau is an organisation that must be set up by

68-406: Is divided into several sections: Section 1 covers the beginning of captivity (Articles 17–20). It dictates what information a prisoner must give ("surname, first names and rank, date of birth, and army, regimental, personal or serial number"), and interrogation methods that the detaining power may use ("No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion"). It dictates what private property

85-399: Is unhealthy or dangerous can only be done by prisoners of war who volunteer for such work. It goes into details about such things as the accommodation, medical facilities, and that even if the prisoner of war works for a private person the military authority remains responsible for them. Rates of pay for work done are covered by Article 62 in the next section. Section 4 (Articles 58–68) covers

102-458: The Luftwaffe (German air force) operated Stalag Luft in which flying personnel, both officers and non-commissioned officers, were held. The Kriegsmarine (German navy) operated Marlag for Navy personnel and Milag for Merchant Navy personnel. Civilians who were officially attached to military units, such as war correspondents, were provided the same treatment as military personnel by

119-631: The Conventions. The Third Geneva Convention, Section III, Article 49, permits non-commissioned personnel of lower ranks to be used for work in agriculture and industry, but not in any industry producing war material. Further articles of Section III detail conditions under which they should work, be housed and paid. During World War II these latter provisions were consistently breached, in particular for Russian, Polish, and Yugoslav prisoners. According to Nazi ideology, Slavic people were regarded as rassisch minderwertig ("racially inferior"). Starvation

136-740: The Detaining Power to facilitate the sharing of information by the parties to conflict and neutral powers as required by the various provisions of the Third Geneva Convention. It will correspond freely with "A Central Prisoners of War Information Agency ... created in a neutral country" to act as a conduit with the Power to which the prisoners of war owe their allegiance. The provisions of this part are contained in Articles 122 to 125. The central prisoners of war information agency

153-472: The convention covers the status of prisoners of war. Article 12 states that prisoners of war are the responsibility of the state, not the persons who capture them, and that they may not be transferred to a state that is not party to the Convention. Articles 13 to 16 state that prisoners of war must be treated humanely without any adverse discrimination and that their medical needs must be met. This part

170-417: The financial resources of prisoners of war. Section 5 (Articles 69–74) covers the relations of prisoners of war with the exterior. This covers the frequency of which a prisoner of war can send and receive post, including parcels. The Detaining power has the right to censor all mail, but must do so as quickly as possible. Section 6 covers the relations between prisoners of war and the detaining authorities: it

187-473: The parent stalag, which maintained personnel records and collected mail and International Red Cross packages and then delivered them to the individual Arbeitskommando . Any individuals who were injured in work, or became ill, were returned to the Lazarett (medical care facilities) at the parent stalag. Stalag Luft III , a large prisoner of war camp near Sagan , Silesia , Germany (now Żagań, Poland ),

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204-749: The prisoners alive. In the Soviet Stalags, the death rate during the entire war was 57.5 percent, although during the last months of 1941 this rate must have been much higher. In comparison, the mortality rate for Stalags for Western Allies was below 5 percent. More Soviet prisoners of war died every day in Nazi camps during the Autumn of 1941 than the total number of Western Allied POWs in the entire war. Prisoners of various nationalities were generally separated from each other by barbed-wire fences subdividing each stalag into sections. Frequently prisoners speaking

221-482: The same language, for example British Commonwealth soldiers, were permitted to intermingle. At each Stalag the German Army set up sub-camps called Arbeitskommando to hold prisoners in the vicinity of specific work locations, whether factories, coal-mines, quarries, farms or railroad maintenance. These sub-camps sometimes held more than 1,000 prisoners, separated by nationality. The sub-camps were administered by

238-542: The treatment of prisoners of war , is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions . The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was first adopted in 1929, but significantly revised at the 1949 conference. It defines humanitarian protections for prisoners of war. There are 196 state parties to the Convention. This part sets out the overall parameters for GCIII: This part of

255-511: Was a deliberate policy in the Stalags, particularly with regard to Soviet prisoners of war. The camps consisted of a field with barbed wire around it, in which thousands of people were crammed together. There was usually no room to sit or lie down. Also, there was often no shelter from the weather, which could be very cold in the Polish and Belarusian winter. The food provided was too little to keep

272-434: Was liberated by the U.S. 14th Armored Division following a short battle with SS soldiers of the 17th SS Panzer Grenadier Division on 29 April 1945. Stalag III-C is notable for the escape of US paratrooper Joseph Beyrle , who subsequently joined a Soviet tank battalion commanded by Aleksandra Samusenko , which returned to liberate the camp. Third Geneva Convention The Third Geneva Convention , relative to

289-527: Was the site of an escape attempt (later filmed as The Great Escape ). On 24 March 1944, 76 Allied prisoners escaped through a 110 m (approximately 360 feet) long tunnel. Of these, 73 were recaptured within two weeks, and 50 of them were executed by order of Hitler in the Stalag Luft III murders . The largest German World War II prisoner of war camp was Stalag VII-A at Moosburg , Germany. Over 130,000 Allied soldiers were imprisoned there. It

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