Stalag II-D

The Stalag II-D Stargard is a prison camp of war of the German Army, during the Second world war, located close to Stargard, today Stargard Szczecinski, in Poméranie, with 30 km in the east of Szczecin.

Chronology

the camp was established on a ground of military training in September 1939 for the Polish soldiers captured at the time of the German offensive of September 1939. During the first months, they lived in the open air or in tents during the first winter which was very cold. They built the huts out of wooden or bricks of the permanent camp.
In May and June 1940 of the Belgian soldiers French and taken at the time of the Bataille of France arrived at the camp
They were followed by Soviet prisoners after the release of the Opération Barbarossa during the summer 1941.
In September and October 1943, of the prisoners Italy NS arrived at the camp after the armistice with Italy and the invasion of this country by the German army.
Of the Canadian prisoners of the unhappy raid on Dieppe, in August 1942 was transferred to Stargard from the Stalag VIII-B in January 1944.
the camp was released by the Red Army at semi April 1945.

Evacuation and repatriation

The 25 fvrier 1945, because of progress of the Soviet offensive the majority of the prisoners were forced to carry out painful steps towards the west before being released by the allied troops in April 1945.

Living conditions

The prisoners of lower row of this camp knew much better conditions than those of other camps more in the south. They generally worked in farms and had the possibility of obtaining a better food. A flexible discipline reigned there. Albert Guedj (called Guetsch), captive French in this stalag since the fold of the Wing until November 41 - date on which it profited from a medical repatriation on a Lyons hospital (Dégenette) - confirms the relative amenity of the German guards. Moreover, him and other soldiers of the regiment of the 9° Zouave, to which it belonged, could dissimulate their Jewish origins thanks to hardly clever artifices, and were thus not sent towards the camps of dead for which the policy of extermination of Reich intended.

Escapes

It was relatively easy to escape from a farm, but much more difficult to avoid being begun again. The prisoners who worked in farms did not profit from the assistance which a Oflag could provide, with teams of specialists which manufactured false paper and prepared charts, without which it was extremely difficult to traverse hundreds of kilometers in Germany and to pass through many controls of the police force Nazi.

Gabriel Régnier, a French prisoner, told his escape bid missed with a French companion, the March 23rd 1942. A Polish civil worker of the farm helped them by hiding civil clothing for them. By one night very dark, they succeeded in reaching a goods train which changed its coaches at a station close to the farm. They succeeded in hiding in a covered truck filled with cases. When the train stopped with Szczecin to discharge, they got into another coach charged with barley bags, bound for Aachen, in the west of Germany, that they reached four days later. But whereas they sought a coach for the Netherlands, they were located by a driver which foot-note two people moving with hesitation along a train and they alerted the military police force. Begun again, they were returned to Stargard and spent 24 hours in solitary reclusion.

Sources

detailed Memories of a French prisoner
the experiment of a Canadian prisoner Bill Larin

Internal bonds

List of the prison camps of war of IIIe Reich
Stalag

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