Grupa Brytyjczyków, którzy w kwietniu 2011 odwiedzili nasze muzeum w poszukiwaniu losów swojego przodka przesłali nam, stworzone po powrocie do Wielkiej Brytanii, podsumowanie ich wizyty w Toruniu. Udostępnili oni nam dokumenty i wspomnienia z pobytu w Stalagu XXA jeńca wojennego - Russella Bella. Publikujemy oryginalny tekst w języku angielskim.
Stalag XXA was a POW camp located at Torun (Thorn) in Poland, some 150kms. south of Gdansk (Danzig). The official German name for the camp located to the south of Torun was - “M-XXA Thorn Stammlager Sud”. It was not a single camp but a complex of 17 forts that surrounded the city of Torun. These forts had been built by the Prussians at the end of the 19th century to defend the western boundary of Prussia.
Some were named:
• Fort XI – Stefan Batory (Poznanska Street)
• Fort XII – Wladyslaw Jagiello (located on military training area)
• Fort XIII – Charles Knaiziewicz (Kniaziewicza Street)
• Fort XIV – Joseph Dwernocki (Lodzka Street)
• Fort XV – Jaroslaw Dabrowski (Podgorska Street)
• Fort XVI – Rudacka (the railway crossing)
• Fort XVII – Michael Zymirskiego (near main Torun railway station)
Fort IV built between 1878 -1884, is one of the best preserved and currently, is a tourist attraction. A description of its characteristics if given below:
Fort IV: Yorck-Zotkiewski (53º02’27.43”N 18º37’56.33”E)
During the period 1878 – 1914, about 200 different fortified buildings were erected. Fort IV was a standard artillery fort, designed as a one rampart fort in the shape of a flattened pentagon. The front and shoulders are made up of an earth bulwark with positions for artillery, depots and shelters. The central part is a 2 storey block of barracks with soldiers’ and officers’ rooms, kitchens and warehouses. Behind the barracks are gunpowder magazines and a casement block for a shell warehouse and ammunition laboratories. The fort is surrounded by a moat of a brick lined counterscarp going round the caponiers. For the moat’s defence, a head caponier and 2 one-sided shoulder caponiers were built.
Fort V (53º02’35.13”N 18º36’18.46”E)
This black & white image clearly shows the moat around the fort and the entrance compound. This fort was used as a military base for a number of years after WW2.
Stalag XXA 1939 – 1945
During WW2, the Germans converted the forts to prisons. By September 1939, some of the forts were used as POW camps for Polish prisoners, specifically those captured after the surrender of the Polish fort at Westerplatte at the mouth of the river Vistula (Weichsel in German and Wisla in Polish) and on the Hel peninsula. Polish civilians were held in Fort VII and Fort VIII. In June 1940, additional forts were used to accommodate British soldiers. The first to arrive were 403 from the Allied campaign in Norway. Later, about 4,500 arrived from Dunkirk and men of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division captured at St. Valery-en-Caux. The Germans converted Forts XI to XVII to prisons. British POWs were held at Forts XI, XII (also Russians were held here for a short time) and Fort XIII, known as the “English Camp.” Fort XIV was the camp hospital. Fort XV held French POWs and officers. Fort XVI served as the detention centre. The Headquarters of the camp was in Fort XVII, until mid 1940, when a two-storey house opposite Fort XIII, now in Okolna Street, was taken over.
Incoming POWs arrived either at the railway platform or the siding beside the main station. They were then taken to Fort XVII which served as a transit camp (Durchgangslager/Dulagu). There they were recorded and distributed to appropriate accommodation within the camp or taken elsewhere, outside of Torun. Many POWs were located in sub-camps such those located at Annowo, Boguszewo, Allahbad, Brusy, Bydgoszcz, Cierpice, Chelmo, Chojnice, Grudziadz, Gutowo, Jarantowice, Kikol, Naklo, Novogorod, Przylubie, Krajenskie, Radzyn, Chelminski, Solec, Kujawski, Siemkowo, Tuchola, Tuszkowo, Crow, and Wytrebowice. Some are small villages and settlements. POWs had to work on the land but some worked in factories, coal mines (in this region of Poland there are not any coal mine), brickworks or whatever was deemed essential to the Nazis.
It is understood that Cpl. Russell Bell worked at Tuchola, in a brick-works, and it was there where he met Jan Glowacki.
Stalag XXA held the 54,637 POWs of the following nationalities:
• Russians – 21,181
• British – 12,296
• French – 5,322
• Italians – 15,197
• Belgans – 90
• Poles – 124
• Americans – 13
• Serbs – 413
• Norwegians – 1 (?)
Between October 1940 and December 1941, there were 44 deaths. The dead were buried in the garrison cemetery at Torun. The funerals observed military custom – the coffins were draped with the national flag and 20 colleagues were allowed to attend.
Living conditions for the western European POWs was in accordance with the principles of the Geneva Convention – lack of food was always a problem but they were allowed to barter with Poles working at the camp. Intellectual entertainment was permitted – there was a library, a camp newspaper, a band and a theatre. Sports were allowed.
Punishment for offences against the regulations such as attempts to escape, arrogant attitude, theft, bad work, disobedience resulted in prison sentences of 7, 14 or 21 days in accordance with the Convention. Sentences could not exceed 30 days.
In 1941 and 1942 Soviet prisoners arrived. They were accommodated in Stalag 312 and some in Fort XII (Politrucy) and Fort XVII.
Life for the Russian POWs was somewhat different to that of those from Britain and the Western Europe.
Stalag 312
The Russians were held at M-Stammlager 312/XXC also known as Stalag 312 (Clay) or Glinki. It covered 92 ha (36 ha built up) surrounded by double wire, “hedgehogs,” machine gun towers and searchlights. The Germans called it, “Sowietheide” or “Koprenikus Lager Thorn.” The Germans relied more on their ladder of 41 races and nationalities than the Geneva Convention. The Nazis forced the Russians to live in intolerable conditions – lack of medical care, intentional starvation and ill-treatment meant that life at Glinki became a living grave. Overcrowding resulted in many living outdoors in hand dug pits in the ground. Russian POWs were given the most dangerous work which lasted an average 10-12 hours per day. Mortality was frightening. 3 – 6 carts filled with dead bodies, 25-30 dead per cart were taken to Clay Cemetery. Near the former Stalag 312, in the woods between the city and Cierpicami, there is a mass grave cemetery, mainly Soviet and Italian POWs where 14,291 bodies are buried. There are another 2,219 individual graves. (?)
Stalag XXA was liberated 1 February 1945 by the Soviet Army.
Contemporary descriptions of Stalag XXA
These details are taken from Sean Longden’s book, “Dunkirk – the men they left behind” 2008:
“At Thorn the train arrived directly outside the gates of a vast complex of forts that had been constructed in the nineteenth century following the Franco-Prussian War.
Fred Coster recalled when the cattle wagon doors finally opened to allow them out:
“They shouted Raus! Raus! As we jumped out we all just flopped to the ground. Then we dragged ourselves up to walk into the camp. For me, as I was walking along, it didn’t feel like it was me walking – it was as if my spirit was pulling me along.” (p315)
A loudspeaker announced that, “They had refused to fight for Churchill” which was a crude attempt at propaganda designed to humiliate them. It is unlikely these men, suffering from exhaustion and malnutrition would be bothered by such tactics. Another contemporary account describes Thorn as follows:
“My view was dominated by 2 massive gates made of wood, laced with barbed wire. These gates I then noticed were the entrance to a vast flat piece of ground which was surrounded by a double fence of barbed wire. I noticed that each corner of this compound held a raised machine gun post manned by German guards. The 2 gates were also manned by 2 guards, one of whom opened the gates on our arrival. We were told to enter whilst the other guard counted us in. It was all so bewildering, especially as I was aware of a commotion inside the compound where there were already many, many POWs settled in.” (p319-326)
There were 3 categories of prisoner
1. Officers who lived in separate quarters to the men they had led in battle. They lived in segregated camps or in enclosures away from the men. The officers did not live in better conditions.
2. the NCOs above the rank of corporal who were excused from work by the conditions of the Geneva Convention
3. the vast majority of POWs were employed at the work camps. There were advantages in going out to work – trade with the local workforce, parole! Walks in the countryside! But men were pitted one against another, the atmosphere was terrible, there were arguments, some stole from each other. Those who gave the Nazi salute were beaten by their fellow POWs. Sometimes gangs formed and took over life in compounds – cosh boys and razor gangs from the pre-war city slums. Usually discipline was controlled by senior NCOs. There were some “rotten NCOs” who looked after themselves and their ilk but generally the senior men looked after and organised the POWs. At Thorn, apparently a Scottish sergeant-major was responsible for making many of the POWs into soldiers again. (p356)
The prisoners arriving at Thorn were sent into tented camps for registration but first their heads needed to be shaved then delousing took place in a steaming shower room. The de-louser didn’t kill the lice! They were photographed holding their POW number, issued with a rectangular tag or disc stamped with their identification number which they would wear every day for the next 5 years.
They were then searched. All spare clothing was taken away. They filled in Red Cross Forms which were used to notify British authorities that they were POWs. Then they were washed down with high pressure hoses. The spray knocked them down. A small rough towel and some soap was made available for use and new uniforms (which smelt like a damp bog) and wooden clogs were issued. They slept on the straw covered floor in a subterranean storeroom. The POWs were then sent to Fort 17 which was a series of wooden huts, sheds which housed about 1000 prisoners. They spent hours cracking lice! The latrines stunk. Graham King describes the accommodation:
“the rooms contained beds, the same design as those seen in pictures of concentration camps. Three shelves were against the wall, about 6 ½ ft. wide with a gap of 1 m between the bottom shelf and the middle and between the middle and the top. The best position was the top because there was more light there and there was no-one tossing and turning above you, vomiting or suffering loss of bladder control. In each room there were about 30 men living.”
The rooms “were like semi tunnels; all the ceilings were arched to give strength. The perpendicular walls were about 3m high and the height to the arched roof was about 5m. The width of the room was about 5m and the length about 15. Three tiered wooden bunks provided sleeping spaces and 32 men would sleep, eat, argue, smoke, fart, cough, snore, groan, moan, play cards, have nightmares and read in each of those rooms…each had 2 small windows over which blackout blinds had to be fitted every night. Theses allowed no ventilation. By the end of the night the air was solid and everyone would have a headache due to oxygen starvation.”
The forts were mainly underground with prisoners living in 2 storeys, in 50 dark rooms, each holding around 30 men that ran along the rear. At the front of the fort were open courtyards below ground level. A POW, Graham King later discovered that the moat contained a surprise:
“It was a dry moat, rather overgrown but surprisingly teeming with rabbits. In our early days in this fort we had tried to trap some using snares but were told by the Germans that snares were banned in Germany and the punishment was quite severe.”
Most men lost weight quickly. There was a shortage of food. Life revolved around food and water. The first task was to find something to hold food – no container, no food! Graham King recorded his daily rations in the early weeks at Thorn:
“The day began at 6am with coffee made from roasted acorns. For lunch they received a litre of vegetable soup with no meat or fat. At 4pm they received 1,500 gram loaf of black bread, one between 5 men. With this they received a little margarine, honey, jam or very occasionally liver sausage. He recalled that after the deprivation of the journey from France, so much food seemed like a feast. That said it was still not enough to help them recover.”(p328)
The rations were supplemented by the Red Cross parcels. When they arrived at Thorn is unknown but elsewhere, some arrived in August 1940. Others had to wait until March 1941 - a cardboard box no bigger than a shoebox, brought joy to the lives of the POWs. Gold Flake cigarettes were currency - a loaf of bread could be bartered for! Tins of condensed milk and a tin of kippers had to be shared out. (p352) The reality was that there were too many prisoners and not enough food:
“The vast numbers of prisoners absorbed into the stalag system meant that resources were stretched beyond even Hitler’s expectations.” (P336)
Sickness was rife within all POW camps and some of the weakest men gave up and died, hundreds found themselves so weak they could barely move. Life continued to revolve around dreaming of food and then rushing to the stinking latrines as the men were gripped by stomach cramps and diarrhoea. (P330) The situation was succinctly summed up as follows:
“I don’t think anyone did a solid crap the whole time they were prisoners.” (P331)
Other illnesses such as TB struck the men. At Stalags 20A and 20B there were deaths among the TB patients, resulting in some being transferred to Stalag3A (P372). Some went mad – one POW jumped off a roof. (P381/2) They suffered from skin sores, loss of teeth, hair loss, stomach cramps and diarrhoea.
Fort X1 (52º59’09.70”N 18º34’31.38”E)
British POWs were held here. Graffiti within the barracks/cells shows that soldiers from the Inniskilling Fusiliers, Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry, 4/Worcesters & 5/Gordons were held here. Pawel Bukowski, a local historian and guide, took the following photographs of graffiti in this fort.
Fort XII (52º59’05.33”N 18º35’39.79”E)
Fort XIII (52º58’59.10”N 18º36’59.66”E)
Pawel Bukowski believes this to be the site of Camp 3A. It is located within a Polish Military Base and access is not permitted.
Corporal Russell Bell was held at Stalag XXA and given the POW number 10558.
POWs were allowed letters home – 4 postcards and 2 specially designed lettercards each month. No news of conditions within the camps or military details were allowed.
There are 6 letters from Russell Bell:
11.06.1940 Stalag XXA - Camp not indicated
“Dear Father – I am a prisoner of war and am OK, do not worry, my wound is now healed, have a good parcel ready when you receive my next letter. So cheers and God bless you all. Russell”
25.06.1940 Stalag XXA Camp 3A
“Dear Father and family, I am keeping OK send me parcels regular with food such as meat pastes and spice cakes also OXOs and a bar of soap sometimes. Tell Ena and write to Connie address is 41A Bondgate. Let me have all the news and where is Fred, send you a photo. Russell”
Notes:
• Ena is Ena Birney (Bell), a cousin from Ireland who named her youngest son after Russell
• Connie was his girlfriend
• Fred ?
01.07.1940 Stalag XXA Camp 3A
“Dear Father, brother and sisters. The wound in my right arm is now healed and I’ll be home when you take the potatoes up. Send me plenty of good solid food and chocolate and black sweets. Write often and let me know if Ray Brown, John Walton alive. Russell”
Notes:
• Ray Brown was killed
• John Walton was a POW and worked in coal mines in Poland. He survived the war.
03.11.1940 Stalag XXA Camp 3A
“Dear Father and Family, I hope you are all OK the same as me and I wish you many happy returns of your birthday Nov.5. You may use that money of mine for anything you like and I hope you have a happy Christmas. So cheeri,o Russell”
05.04.1941 Stalag XXA Camp 17
“Dear Father, hope you are all OK at home the same as I am. I would like you to send me a pair of boots because mine are done and also send me some chocolate. Well the weather here is much warmer now and I can picture what it is like in England. So cheerio, Russell”
28.02.1943 Stalag XXA Camp 5
“Dear Doreen, I hope you have heard from Madge about the ring, give her all the money she wants for a good one. They are very dear these days. Oh I had a lovely letter from Aunt Sadie. She asks about you all, you have got to write. I received a 100 cigs. Do you know who sent them. Russell”
Notes:
• Aunt Sadie – Russell’s father’s sister in America
• Madge – Marjorie Peart?
There is also an undated note which states:
“..we were very good pals in France but we were separated in action. Also tell Mrs. Brown that I’m sure Ray will turn up.” Sadly, Raymond didn’t turn up. Father has done well to have a dog like that. I wish I had been there to take him out. I was never……”
Note:
• Russell was captured at Villiers, France 20 May 1940 on the same day that his friend 19 year old Private Arthur Raymond Brown, 10/DLI from Copeland Row, Evenwood was killed. He is buried at Bucquoy Road Cemetery, Ficheux, France.
Back to life in the POW Camps - and what of plans for escape? Escape Committees were formed but:
“The reality was that escape never entered the minds of most prisoners. Working prisoners couldn’t be bothered digging escape tunnels since they had little energy left by the end of their shifts. Prisoners on work details on farms or in forests could have just walked away without anyone noticing but knew they had little chance of getting way to safety.” (P364)
There was an Escape Committee at Thorn and attempts were made. Perhaps the officers, NCOs and other ranks felt that it was their duty to keep the German guards occupied regardless of the consequences.
RAF prisoners were sent to Thorn between February and July 1941. In May of that year, 4 RAF officers and an Army officer managed to leave the camp but were arrested shortly afterwards.
10 June 1942: Squadron Leader B. Paddon D.S.O. R.A.F. (later Group Captain) arrived at the camp from Colditz to attend a Court Martial the following day at 9.00am. He left Thorn, 6.25 am on 11 June with a working party of British soldiers and was taken to a German occupied Polish farm about 6 miles south east of Thorn. He made his way to the woods then by rail to Weischel, to Gdynia and Danzig. On by tram to Neufahfwasser where he crossed the harbour by ferry and boarded a coal ship bound for Sweden. It sailed 15 June and 3 days later, it arrived at Gavle, Sweden. He surrendered himself to the ship’s captain who handed him over to the Swedish Police. He was visited by the British Consul 27 June, transferred to the British Legion at Stockholm 2 days later then after a short period he was sent to Britain.
Source: “Escape from Germany: True stories of POW escapes in WW2” the National Archives 2009 p148.
There were traitors amongst the POWs. Men probably risked everything, including their own lives, for extra food or favours from their captors. Fred Coster provided this account:
“The SS raided the camp and they found everything we had hidden – the tunnel, the escape kit. So we knew we had a mole and wanted to find out who. We thought it was someone on the escape committee. So the chaps running the committee gave every man a different piece of information. Then we had another raid and the Germans went to a particular place. So that showed who had given them the information. That bloke didn’t survive, he was bumped off. I quite agreed with it. When the latrines were drained they found his body in there. I don’t know who actually killed the traitor – and don’t want to know – but I’m glad they did it.” (P367 & 368)
Fort XIV: (52º59’26.74”N 18º38’14.99”E) the Hospital
The fort is currently used as a storage depot. The moat is under water.
“Mentioned in Despatches”.
The London Gazette dated 25 June 1944 announced that Corporal Russell Bell was mentioned in Despatches for Distinguished Service – the citation for this act of bravery has not been traced. Was it connected with the events surrounding his capture in May 1940 or events of his death in July 1943? Details remain unknown.
The Bell family have been told that Russell was killed whilst attempting to escape. The validity of this tale and the circumstances of his death remain unknown. Corporal Russell Bell died 24 July 1943
Malbork Commonwealth War Cemetery
The WW2 burials at Malbork are mostly men who died while POWs in nearby camps:
• Stalag XXB was a camp of some size at Malbork
• Stalag IA was at Stablack
• Stalag IIA was at Starograd
• Stalag XXA was at Torun (Thorn)
When hostilities ceased, the graves service of the British Army of the Rhine moved the graves from local burial grounds to this war cemetery. The largest number came from Torun. It contains 232 WW2 burials.
The prologue of Sean Longden’s book contains the following passage:
“As the parade came to a halt he (Les Allan, founder of the National Ex-POW Association) leaned forward and called out to one of the men standing near him.
“Hey, mate, which POW camp were you in?”
“Twenty A,” came the reply, “What about you?”
“Twenty B at Marienburg”
After a brief conversation, the parade moved on. Perplexed, a veteran officer seated beside him turned to ask how he knew this man, amongst all the assembled ranks was a fellow POW. Allan allowed himself a smile and replied.
“It’s simple. Look at his chest. The blokes with the least medals are always POWs.”
He’s right. There hadn’t even been a campaign medal for those who fought in France in 1940. The Dunkirk POWs – the soldiers left behind – were men who had shared all the horrors of war but none of the glory.”
The medals below are those which would have been awarded to 4456672 Corporal Joseph Russell Bell, 10/DLI and P.O.W. 10558 Stalag XXA.
Tuchola: 16 April 2011
information from Lucjan Glowacki, son of Jan Glowacki
Jan Glowacki was a POW at Tuchola. He had served in the Polish Army and was captured by the Germans. He worked in the brickworks where he met Russell Bell. There was a POW camp at Radzim, to the west of Tuchola, where it is believed Russell also worked. It is believed that Russell returned to Thorn after working at Tochula.
Lucjan was a child at the outbreak of war and he and his mother were sent to the west away from Tuchola. When they heard that Jan was a POW they returned to Tuchola but were not able to see him. In 1939, there had been massacres of the Polish residents in Tuchola and it was difficult to contact Jan.
Acknowledgements:
Pawel Bukowski
Grzegorz Borkowski
Hanna Gadziomska
Muzeum Historyczno-Wojskowe
