Stalag IV-B Zeithain

Stalag IV-B was one of the largest POW camps in Germany during World War II.

The sub-camp, originally Stalag 304 (Stalag IV-H), was built in April 1941 next to the military depot, training ground, and Jacobsthal railway station, to accommodate Soviet prisoners. In 1942 it became Stalag IV-B Zeithain, a sub-camp of Stalag IV-B Mühlberg.

By July 1941 about 11,000 Soviet soldiers, and some officers, had arrived, but by April 1942 only 3,279 remained. The rest had died from malnutrition and a typhus epidemic caused by the deplorable sanitary conditions. The bodies were buried in mass graves. After April 1942 more Soviet prisoners arrived and died just as rapidly. At the end of 1942 10,000 reasonably healthy Soviet prisoners were transferred to Belgium to work in the coal mines.

Stalag IV-B Zeithan, Summer, 1942

POW dogtag from Stalag IV-B