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Founded: 1939Category: Miscellaneous historic sites in Germany
Historical period: Nazi Germany (Germany)
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Stalag IV-B was one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps in Germany during World War II, located 8 km north-east of the town of Mühlberg. Stalag is an abbreviation of the German Stammlager ('Main Camp').
Stalag IV-B, a 30-hectare German POW camp, opened in September 1939 with 17,000 Polish prisoners. Over the war years, it held soldiers from 33 nations, including French, British, Australian, Soviet, Italian, South African, ANZAC, American, and Polish troops. Conditions were harsh—many died from disease and malnutrition. The Red Army liberated the camp in April 1945.
The camp also had a vibrant POW press. British inmates created handwritten newspapers like The Flywheel, The Observer, and The New Times. Welsh and Scottish prisoners produced their own publications, Cymro and The Scotsman, respectively.
After liberation, the Soviets detained Western prisoners for over a month. Later, the NKVD converted the site into Special Camp No. 1, imprisoning over 22,800 people; 6,700 died before it closed in 1948.
A nearby sub-camp, Stalag IV-B Zeithain, housed mainly Soviet POWs under horrific conditions. Thousands died from starvation and typhus. Later, it became a hospital camp, also holding wounded Italian and Polish soldiers from the Warsaw Uprising—remarkably, including women and children, with eleven babies born there.
Memorials now exist at Neuburxdorf, Zeithain, and the former camp site.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.