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Anniversary of the establishment of Dulag VIII B
Today marks an important anniversary: 84 years ago there was established the first of the Wehrmacht camps at Lamsdorf where soldiers of armies who fought against the Germans during the Second World War were held.
Guidelines on the organisation of temporary camps for prisoners-of-war were issued by the German High Command of the Armed Forces as early as May 1939. The first camps were established on the eastern border of the Third Reich, a few days prior the aggression against Poland. One of them was Dulag (Durchgangslager) VIII B, established on 26 August.
The camp was established in the south-eastern part of the Lamsdorf military training ground. Its first commandant was the Silesian aristocrat Lt. Col. Castell-Castell, but he resigned due to illness and was replaced as early as 28 August by Lt. Col. Nikisch von Rosenegk.
The first prisoners-of-war were soldiers of the Polish Army who were taken to the Dulag at the beginning of September 1939. They were only held there temporary, and then taken to other camps in the heartland of Germany. Altogether, in the first weeks of the war, there came through the camp about 43,000 Polish soldiers and civilian internees.