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Sign announcing the location of Oflag IID when arriving at Rederitz and Spiniewo (Zipnow) |
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The day before, we had left the transit camp of Dortmund, and, for once, the trip was made in a convoy of passenger cars and we were able to enjoy the landscape of the German countryside (*).
At the end of the afternoon, we had crossed a Berlin entirely decked out and yet not quite in a popular jubilation. That's how we learned about the signing of the French-German Armistice.
And on June 26, 1940, in the early morning, our convoy stopped: at first we thought it was one of the many stops on our journey from Dortmund; but the sound of unlocked doors and the shouts of our guards soon made us realize that we had reached our destination.
| Pre-war postcard of the GROSS-BORN camp, The camp was used at that time to house German workers for the construction of the barracks of the very large military complex of GROSS-BORN of about 19,000 hectares. To enlarge the photo in another file, click on the pictogram  |
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When we got off the train and lined up in rows of five, as we were already used to, we saw that a few hundred metres from the tiny station where our train had stopped, there was a collection of barracks, topped from place to place by watchtowers. This was the Gross-Born camp and we were going to occupy some of these. At first sight, the camp stood out against a backdrop of forest which surrounded it on three sides, the southern side from which we arrived being open onto a wide plain dotted with a few farms and crossed by the railway. The ascent to the camp which overlooked the track was rapid and, as we approached, we could see that the whole right-hand side of the camp was already occupied by a large number of prisoners who had arrived a few days before us. We were directed to the left side which was still empty and which was to become block I of Oflag IID, the right side consisting of blocks II and III.
But let us first situate this camp geographically, and to do this, let us take up the description given by Abbé Flament in his thesis: "The small town of Gross-Born is 17 kilometres south-southwest of Neustettin, 24 kilometres southwest of Hammerstein, and 30 kilometres north-northwest of Schneidemühl, the former border station to Poland. "To the south, Deutsche Krone is 27 kilometres away. To the west, 115 kilometres away, is the large port of Stettin, at the mouth of the Oder. Finally, the border of the former Poland passes 36 kilometres southeast of Gross-Born and 46 kilometres to the east" (1) (**) (***). This camp (Oflag IID) was a very small part of a German army training camp, a huge square measuring 15 kilometres on each side.
I take up the description given by Abbé Flament: ' The camp can roughly be inscribed in a rectangle, the surplus of land to the southeast being compensated for by the lack of space to the southwest.
It was 480 metres long from west to east, 310 metres wide from north to south, and covered an area of about 150,000 square metres, measured outside the barbed wire. (*) Other officers passed through the Mainz transit camp and were transferred to Gross-Born by cattle car.
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| Staff map showing the location of the GROSS-BORN camp To enlarge the photo in another file, click on the pictogram |
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Drawing of a watchtower To enlarge the photo in another file, click on the pictogram |
"In fact, it is necessary to deduce two areas forbidden to all prisoners, in the central part, facing south (see detailed plan) (*). One, the "Vorgarten", covers 6,500 square metres. The other included the barracks designated on the plan by the words: "Arrest, Hunde, Süd-Wache, Post, Kammer, Lagerführung", to which were added a certain number of barracks reserved for the German guard, forming an area of 18,500 square metres, i.e. a total of 25,000 square metres that could not be used by the prisoners. From this, we must subtract the surfaces occupied by the barbed wire, some 2,500 metres long and 4 metres wide, or 10,000 square metres. This left 115,000 square metres, or 11.5 hectares, as habitable land for the whole camp. (2) This area was divided into three blocks.
In the southeast of the camp, Block III covered only 23,500 square metres.
To the northeast, Block II, to which the "Kantine" or festival hall and its surroundings were attached, was 34,000 square metres. Finally, the entire western part of the camp, the largest, was 57,500 square metres. It originally formed Block I, which was the last to be occupied ; but soon five large barracks were built, block IV, which at the beginning of the captivity had been housed a few kilometres away in a stone camp, called the protectorate. The whole area was guarded by six watchtowers spread all around the camp.
During the first months of our installation, the three blocks remained separate, with no possibility of communication from one to the other, except by special permission. The huts were made of wood,
very slightly raised above a sandy floor; the boards closing this "basement" were quickly removed by our guards who wanted to be able to keep an eye on it, after they discovered the relative ease of digging tunnels in very loose soil. The standard barrack consisted of four rooms and in each there were 16 three-storey beds for 48 occupants. The space for each person was really very small. These beds were arranged in a spike along the walls, and in the middle of the room, in the axis of the two windows, there was room for a relatively large stove, two tables and a few stools, which were clearly insufficient in number. In any case, it was unthinkable that everyone would be able to sit around one of the tables, at least as long as each room was fully staffed.
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| Plan of Oflag IID To enlarge the photo in another file, click on the pictogram |
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| Entrance to Gross-Born Oflag IID To enlarge the photo in another file, click on the pictogram |
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| Plan of Oflag IID To enlarge the photo in another file, click on the pictogram |
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| Gross-Born - Oflag IID = Prelude to a search or controls? Note the 3 German soldiers with their 2 German shepherds (unique photo in this site with police dogs). |
"Gathered on the quay and reformed in columns, we are directed towards a camp surrounded by scrawny trees. It looks empty and surrounded by barbed wire with a few watchtowers overhead. There is no activity to be seen and a heavy silence. It is gloomy. A large entrance door pierces this unwelcoming set. Inside, there are shacks lined up, just waiting for their new tenants. We soon learn that the Gross-Born camp (as it is called) was occupied for eight months by Polish prisoners. It is difficult to imagine the sad impression one gets for the first time when entering an internment camp. It is only then that you realise what the prisoner has become: human cattle. "
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| Photo given by Mr. Dariusz CZERNIAWSKI To enlarge the photo in another file, click on the pictogram |
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| French watch found
by Tomasz SKOWRONEK
To enlarge the photo in another file, click on the pictogram |
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| Gross-Born - Oflag IID: Block 3, between barracks 18 and 19. Photo given by Mr. Dariusz CZERNIAWSKI of Borne Sulinowo
To enlarge the photo in another file, click on the pictogram |
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| German map of the Gross-Born region To enlarge the photo in another file, click on the pictogram |
We are divided into barracks. The rooms are arranged on either side of a corridor. The beds containing the straw, superimposed on three levels, allow access by the foot, which gives the appearance of a series of hutches. A rustic table in the centre, a few stools, a stove for the winter; that's it for the furnishings. A light bulb for the evening until a certain time, the power being systematically cut off for the night. The rooms (Zimmer or Stube) are overcrowded. Soon, per barrack, we go through the search and the military administrative formalities; we are photographed like convicts with a numbered slate on our chests. This is our captive registration. It must be permanently displayed on a two-part rectangular aluminium plate bearing our prisoner number and the number of the registering Oflag. Thus, I became No. 1565 of Oflag IID. What a reference! The second part has a hole for nailing this half-plate to the coffin, if necessary : it is reassuring and practical. The whole thing is suspended by a grey cord around the neck like our old scapulars.
It will tickle our chest for 5 years. (3)
The first prisoners arrived at the Gross-Born camp on 20 June 1940: they were those who occupied block III. The other arrivals were staggered until the middle of July; the last ones, having been unable to find places in the camp itself, went to the stone camp to wait for the completion of the large barracks of block IV, which they could only occupy in the autumn.
On the basis of a relatively simple calculation, taking into account the number of rooms, the capacity of each of them evaluated at forty-eight officers, the number obtained for the first days in Gross-born gives a figure of around 6,000 (which is the figure generally adopted) or about one-fifth of the officers captured at the end of the French campaign. But very quickly, this figure evolved in decrease following successive departures. (*) First of all, the midshipmen whom the Germans did not consider as officers and who were grouped in a camp in East Prussia: they left at the beginning of September.
Then, it was the seniors who were sent in October to a more comfortable camp. The priests, veterans, left us at the end of October. On November 21, it was the turn of the Alsatians. Some veterans were liberated in December and above all, in August 1941, were repatriated the veteran reserve officers (270 officers). If we add to this the departure on captivity leave of a few officers claimed by their administration or their company, we can estimate that the camp's strength was reduced by about half, in some eighteen months, and that there must have been hardly more than 3,000 officers when, in May 1942, the camp was transferred to Arnswalde.
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| Oflag IID – Gross-Born : « cuisine » en plein air ! | Oflag IID – Gross-Born : cour du 1er Block IV appelé « Protektorat » par les Allemands. |
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