Lager XV Alexisdorf

History (info: Wikipedia)

Camp Alexisdorf was established in May 1939 as one of eight new penal camps in the Emsland. However, soon after the outbreak of the war, it was converted into a prisoner-of-war camp under the watchful eye of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), mainly for Russian prisoners. Serbs were also forced to stay there in the last year of the war.

No records have been preserved from 1939-1940. It is suspected that the camp was used as a transit camp for Poles, French and Dutch during that period. The camp became part of Stalag VI C Bathorn. As an Emslandlager. it is known as Lager XV Alexisdorf. Alexisdorf does not appear in the official German list of concentration camps. On 19 September 1941, 3,900 Russian prisoners of war were housed in camp Alexisdorf, the highest occupancy during the war. At the beginning of 1945, all prisoners were transferred to camp Wietmarschen. On 17 February there were still twenty-five soldiers in the camp. Space had been made for 3,000 Serbian officers. At the beginning of March they were housed in Alexisdorf, but not for long, fourteen days later they set off on foot towards Hannover.

Conditions

The prisoners of war had to work under difficult conditions. There was a lack of even the most basic facilities and care. The camp was isolated from the outside world several times due to epidemics. In the absence of food, the prisoners ate grass. Many prisoners died of disease, starved or froze to death. According to a German eyewitness, 150 of them were clubbed to death by the guards during a revenge attack. While they had to cover long distances on foot, sometimes through the snow, many prisoners lacked footwear.

After the war

After the end of the war, the camp was used to accommodate refugees from Poland and Ukraine. They were all members of the Moravian Brethren Community. Many of them came from the village of Gnadenfeld. A new settlement, Neugnadenfeld, was established on the site of the camp, which has since grown into a reasonable village. Little remains of the old camp. A cemetery has been established near the site of the old camp. Six hundred unknown Russians are buried there. Until the spring of 1943, the dead were buried in Dalum. In the middle of the remote cemetery stands an obelisk with the inscription: "Den hier ruhenden ausländischen Kriegstoten zum Gedenken". A bronze plaque at the entrance reads: "Here we live in Sammelgräbern ca.

A bronze plaque near the entrance reads "About 600 Soviet prisoners of war, whose names are unknown, rest here in collective graves. Most of them died of malnutrition and epidemics."

https://www.gedenkstaette-esterwegen.de/geschichte/die-emslandlager/xv-alexisdorf.html

Monday 22nd July 2024

transformer house: this was the entrance to the camp, the attached house stands on the site of the guardhouse.

church was officers mess