My father was a British POW at a satellite work camp at Sonderhausen and was wondering if anyone had any info about this camp or who i could contact for info.
On edit: "Sonderhausen" doesn't appear to be a German town, however, "Sondershausen" is, and is located in Thuringia. I found this on the German Wikipedia. From 1936 to 1945 Sondershausen was a garrison town of the Wehrmacht. The disused Potash mine shafts 3 and 4 were converted in 1937/1938 to army munition establishments in which 1,000 forced laborers were later put to work. Further groups of women and men were put to forced labor at Brunnquell & Co., and Lindner & Co., at the manor in Großfurra. These armaments-related activities were the reason for a heavy bombing by the Allies at the end of the war, which led to heavy damage to the town. The bombing on 8 April 1945 destroyed 40% of the town center and killed 180 residents before U.S. troops, preceded by artillery fire, entered the town. Cheers BW
Found a bit more. The POW labor at Sondershausen was apparently from StaLag IXC at Bad Sulza. Some wartime photos of the camp can be seen at Heinz Renkel - GS - Das Stalag IX/C in Bad Sulza According to this website, when the area was overrun by U.S. troops in April 1945, some 650-700 POWs were liberated in the camp itself, but 55,000 (!) POWs were liberated in the outlying facilities at which they were put to labor. The German militia unit responsible for guarding POWs at the Sondershausen sites was Landesschützen-Bataillon 635. An English-language website on StaLag IXC is The Wartime Memories Project - STALAG 9c POW Camp . Cheers BW
Hello Mr. Wilson, I am interested in getting the wartime photos you say available at Heinz Renkel site, but unfortunately the site is no more online. Perhaps did you save some pics when it was available ? Can you share them ? (I am pretty sure my father was prisoner and worked in a mine in Sondershausen). Thnaks in advance. Amelio
