Stalag II-B

Stalag II-B was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp situated 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) west of the town of Hammerstein, Pomerania (now Czarne, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland) on the north side of the railway line. It housed Polish, French, Belgian, Serbian, Dutch, Soviet, Italian and American prisoners of war.

The camp was situated on a former army training ground (Übungsplatz), and had been used during World War I as a camp for Russian prisoners. In 1933 it was established as one of the first Nazi concentration camps, to house German communists, however, it was dissolved after several months, and the prisoners were deported elsewhere. In late September 1939 the camp was changed to a prisoner-of-war camp to house Polish soldiers from the September Campaign, particularly those from the Pomorze Army. By mid-September 1939, there were some 3,000 Polish POWs in the camp, and the number further grew afterwards. At first they lived in tents, throughout the severe winter of 1939–1940, and construction of all the huts was not completed until 1941. Cold combined with poor sanitary conditions and food rations, resulted in widespread diseases and many deaths. In May–June 1940, during and following the German invasion of France and Belgium, French and Belgian prisoners began to arrive. To make room for them, many of the Poles were forced to relinquish their POW status to become civilian slave laborers, in a violation of the Geneva Conventions, and some were offered to sign on the Volksliste. Faced with poor results, the Germans subjected the Poles to starvation and terror, as well as deportations to heavy labor subcamps. Polish Jewish POWs were assigned to hard and humiliating work. In December 1940, 1,691 Polish prisoners were recorded as being there. Lack of warm clothing and malnutrition resulted in high mortality among POWs from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, French Sudan, Madagascar and Indochina. In April 1941, Serbian POWs were brought to the camp.

Since October 1939, Polish POWs were sent to newly formed forced labour subcamps in the area, to work in forestry and agriculture. Eventually POWs of various nationalities were sent to numerous forced labour subcamps (Arbeitskommando) located in various cities, towns and villages in Pomerania and northern Greater Poland. Many POWs often recalled German abuse in the subcamps.

On the initiative of the Polish POWs, a camp infirmary was organized, led by Polish doctor and POW Edmund Mroczkiewicz. The infirmary was also the focal point of the Polish resistance organization Odra, and Mroczkiewicz was its member. The organization was involved in intelligence, diversion and sabotage actions.

The construction of the second camp, Lager-Ost ("East Compound") began in June 1941 to accommodate the large numbers of Soviet prisoners taken in Operation Barbarossa, including ethnic Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Finns, as well as Polish civilians from Soviet prisons, often accidentally classified as POWs. It was located south of the railway tracks. In November 1941 a typhoid fever epidemic broke out in Lager-Ost, which lasted until March 1942, claiming some 40,000-50,000 victims. The Germans decided to treat the epidemic only when the first cases of disease occurred among German personnel. A total of 38,383 Soviet POWs were held Stalag II B.

There were attempts to escape from the camp or its subcamps. German guards shot at those escaping without warning, and POWs captured after a chase were either murdered or sent to penal subcamps and later to concentration camps, mainly Gross-Rosen and Stutthof.

In August 1943 the first American prisoners arrived, having been taken prisoner in the Tunisian campaign. From September 1943, also Italian POWs were brought to the camp. In April 1945 the camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army.

In August 1943 the Stalag was reported as newly opened to privates of the US ground forces with a strength of 451. The Hammerstein installation acted as a headquarters for work detachments in the region and seldom housed more than one fifth of the POWs credited to it. Thus at the end of May 1944, although the strength was listed as 4,807, only 1,000 of these were in the enclosure. At its peak in January 1945, the camp strength was put at 7,200 Americans, with some 5,315 of these out on 9 major Arbeitskommando ("Work Companies").