The German went up a rather complex and structured prison system, to understand it, one must already know that Germany, Austria and Poland were divided into 21 military regions for administrative purposes and command. These military areas are called "Wehrkreis" abbreviated as "Wk." Each of these military regions are numbered 1-21 by Roman numerals and their loads well-defined regions.
To these "Wehrkreis", it takes more about the presence of a "German general government" in Poland and "Reich Commissariat" for Ukraine and the countries of the East. All regions like the military, these governments are divided into "Districkt" to facilitate command, but with the difference that they are annexed states but not incorporated into the Third Reich.
The can counted several type of camp:
"Stalag" is the abbreviation of the word "Stammlager" which is an abbreviation of "Mannschafftsstamm-und-Straflager". These terms refer to an "ordinary military camp prisoner" intended for soldiers and noncommissioned officer. These camps offered exclusively to its military prisoners of war and not civilians according to the Geneva Convention of 1929.
"Oflag" is the abbreviation of "Offizierlager" which refers to a camp reserved only for the officers.
"Frontstalag" are prison camps established in the territory of Poland and the occupied French zone. They served early in the war to collect prisoners before sending them to Germany. Subsequently, the German will consist largely of soldiers from the colonies, as the German authorities were afraid of "tropical diseases" do not touch the German population, but also for fear of a possible "violations of the purity of blood Aryan ".
"Dulag" is the abbreviation for "Durchgangslager" which denotes a transition camp prisoner of war.
"LuftStalag" is the abbreviation for "Luftwaffe-Stammlager" these camps administered by the Air Force include only airmen, prisoners of war. Unlike "Stalags" simple airmen find themselves in the same camp as the officers.
"Marlag" is the abbreviation for "Marinelager". Administered by the Navy, these camps are for military navy.
"Milag" is the abbreviation for "Marine Internierten lager". Administered by the Navy, these camps are for sailors in the Merchant Navy.
"Ilag" /"Jlag" is the abbreviation for "Internierungslager" these prison camps are exclusively reserved for civilian prisoners held as "enemies of Germany."
"Heilag" is an abbreviation of "Heimkehrer Lager" which designates a repatriation camp.
"Kgf-Laz" is an abbreviation of "Lazarett für Kriegsgefangene" which designates the hospital for Prisoners of war.
"Res-Laz" is the abbreviation for "reserve-Lazarett" which refers to the reserve hospital.
About lists of German camps:
The lists below identify much different prison camps and their subdivisions, they are sorted in numerical order. Despite long research, all the camps are not able to enter because it is extremely difficult to make a complete list. Some data are not complete enough to ensure the véracitée number or location of these camps have been deliberately excluded so as not to induce errors in searches.
The camps are numbered with several systems:
- Roman numerals I to XXI corresponding to numbers of Wehrkreis
-Arabic numeral, from 1 (up to 410 of this website)
-with letter (for parts of dulags), A to W
Numbers with the suffix:
-"/H" indicates a main camp (Hauptlager)
-"/Z" indicates a subsection (Zweiglager)
The camps listed below may occur more than once, it's not a mistake, some camps have undergone changes in location, so the dates of opening and closing of the camps were added when these are known.
CLICK ONE OF THE IMAGES BELOW TO ACCESS LISTS AND INFORMATION ABOUT THE VARIOUS POW CAMPS AND THE LIST OF WEHRKREIS.
and the worst GERMAN CAMPS .... concentration camps - extermination camps Ghettos - Aktion T4