Stalag VI F

Germany / Nordrhein-Westfalen / Bocholt /
 Second World War 1939-1945, concentration camp
The camp was used for allied prisoners of war (POW's) and got the name Stalag VI F (camp number "F" in the Wehrkreis "VI", Münster).
A short history of the camp:
November 13th 1939:
the first 400 prisoners from poland arrived who left between 17th to 27th.
May 10th 1940:
border troups from the Netherlands came.
May 12th 1940:
1000 more prisoners came
May 19th 1940:
3500 more prisoners came who stayed not so long in Bocholt
May 22nd 1940:
2300 prisoners from England, France and Senegal came.
October 1941 to 1942:
more than 1736 Soviet prisoners died because of hunger and epidemic typhus. Not so long ago in the newspaper of Bocholt there were a lot of discussions because it is assumed that much more prisoners died in this camp. I try to write a bit more about this in a few weeks...
Septmeber 16th 1944:
first Allied prisoners from the Netherlands arrived. Ca. 100 English men and 10 soldiers from America.
September 18th 1944:
the camp got evacuated. Now Stalag VI F was in Münster. 2200 prisoners were brought eastern.
Winter 1944/45:
the camp was used for thousands of workers of the Westfalenwall. Also a lot of Soviet "Fremdarbeiter" were still there. During the biggest bombardement of Bocholt in March 22th hundreds of citizens of Bocholt left the inner part of the city and went to the camp.
about July 20th 1945:
the Soviet "Fremdarbeiter" were brought away.
about Septemer 10th 1945:
hundreds of prisoners from Hungary came
about September 20th 1945:
it were 900 people from Hungary, later it were thousands
February 24th 1946:
the POW's from Hungary left Bocholt and got to Eselsheide in der Senne near Paderborn
March 1946:
Transit and reception camp for families from the Netherlands
September 1946:
2500 prisoners from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were arrested in Bocholt. These were former SS members! They were cought in Danmark and before detained in Belgium. Those prisoners were now called DP's (displaced persons) because they could not go back to their countries which were occupied by the Soviets.
January - October 1947:
Jews from concentration camps (morstly from Bergen-Belsen) used Bocholt as a transit camp on there way to Israel via Marseille for 3 weeks.
May 1947:
Hundreds of POW's with their families from Yugoslavia came who fought with the German Wehrmacht against Tito.
July 1947:
750 more prisoners from Yugolsavia arrived. The camp was absolutely overcrowded.
August 1947:
2060 persons in camp.
September 1947:
Yugoslavian families were brought to Borghorst or emigrated to England. Partially war criminals were delivered to Tito (maybe got killed?!?)
October 1950:
500 people from poland and 200 from Ukraine came.
July/August 1948:
An epidemic came up, 250 people got ill, 50 children died.
July 1949:
250 people from Poland arrived.
June 1950:
2000 people in the camp: about 1200 from Poland; 400 from Yugolsavia; 400 from Baltic states, Hungary and Ukraine. A lot of them came from camps which did not exsist anymore like Münster or Borghorst.
somewhere in 1950:
200 DP's from Bocholt emigrated into Australia.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   51°51'21"N   6°39'6"E

Comments

  • My grandfather's brother died in this camp. He was captured in Crimea in April 1942. Arrived into Stalag vi F in August 1942. Died on January 2, 1943.
  • My grandfather was held prisoner in this camp in 1941 (he was there in July for sure). He escaped. Anymore information on this camp would be appreciated. JF, France.
This article was last modified 13 years ago