Stalag X-B

Stalag X-B
Camp huts housing the exhibition, 2013
Stalag X-B
Coordinates	53°23′59″N 9°06′35″E / 53.399642°N 9.109811°E / 53.399642; 9.109811
Type	Prisoner-of-war camp
Site information
Owner	Stiftung Lager Sandbostel
Controlled by	Nazi Germany
Open to the public	yes
Site history
In use	(as POW camp) 1939-1945
Demolished	1945

Stalag X-B was a World War II German Prisoner-of-war camp located near Sandbostel in Lower Saxony in north-western Germany. Between 1939 and 1945 several hundred thousand POWs of 55 nations passed through the camp. Due to the bad conditions in which they were housed, thousands died there of hunger, disease, or were killed by the guards. Estimates of the number of dead range from 8,000 to 50,000.

Sandbostel lies 9 km south of Bremervörde, 43 km northeast of Bremen. In what was then the Province of Hanover, the Lutheran Church of the State of Hanover opened a camp for out of work singles and employed them in public works (roadworks, amelioration) in 1932, during the Great Depression.

In 1933, the Reichsarbeitsdienst took over the camp and used it later as a Nazi internment camp for undesirables.

In August 1939, a commission of Heeresbauamt Bremen (military construction department) decided to create a Mannschafts-Stammlager (POW camp) for the local Wehrkreis X. In September, construction of the camp began between the village of Sandbostel and the Arbeitsdienstlager in the Teufelsmoor. The latter area was now used as barracks to house the Wehrmacht guards.

Beginning in September 1939, Polish POWs were used to expand the camp. Initially, huts for around 10,000 prisoners were built. Once it began operating, the camp was divided into several sub-camps:

At first, prisoners were housed in tents, but from spring 1940 inmates constructed masonry huts. Later, prefabricated wooded huts were added. By 1941, there were over 100 huts housing prisoners as well as latrines, kitchens, buildings for punishment confinement and the commandant's office. In addition, there was a hospital (Reservelazarett X-B) and a punishment work camp of two huts inside the moor. By 1940, after the German victory over France, the camp was filled beyond capacity. Stalag X-B was then expanded to house a total of 30,000 prisoners.