Glenn Flickinger, Nancy Putnam, and Marilyn Walton share the history of the liberation of US POWs from German prisoner of war camps in the closing weeks of World War II.
April 1945 marked a period of swift and determined Allied advances into Nazi Germany, resulting in the liberation of dozens of Prisoner of War (POW) camps scattered throughout the Reich. These were not the infamous concentration camps of the Holocaust, but German-run military camps—Stalags (for enlisted personnel) and Oflags (for officers)—which held tens of thousands of captured Allied servicemen, including large numbers of American infantry and airmen. The liberation of these camps was often hasty and chaotic, occurring as Allied forces moved deeper into German territory amid collapsing German resistance and growing humanitarian urgency.
By April, many of the German guards at POW camps were either fleeing westward, surrendering, or in some cases, preparing to evacuate prisoners toward the interior of Germany to avoid capture by the Soviets. American and British forces liberated many of these camps in Central and Western Germany as they advanced on a broad front from the west.
One of the first major American POW camps liberated in April was Stalag VII-A, located in Moosburg, Bavaria. It was the largest POW camp in Germany, holding over 76,000 prisoners of war by war’s end, including a substantial number of American airmen. On April 29, 1945, the U.S. 14th Armored Division of General George Patton’s Third Army captured the camp after a brief firefight with German forces in the vicinity. The American tanks rolled into Moosburg to find the camp severely overcrowded, with prisoners of multiple nationalities held in worsening conditions due to months of inadequate rations and medical supplies.
Another key liberation occurred at Stalag Luft I, a camp near Barth on the Baltic Sea coast in northeastern Germany, which held approximately 9,000 airmen—mostly American, along with some British and other Allied flyers. As Soviet forces approached from the east, German guards abandoned the camp. On May 1, 1945, Soviet troops officially entered and liberated the facility. Prior to that, the senior American officers in the camp had refused German orders to evacuate westward, correctly anticipating that Soviet forces would soon arrive. The camp’s American commander, Colonel Hubert Zemke—an accomplished fighter ace himself—played a crucial role in maintaining discipline and morale until the Red Army arrived.
Further south, Stalag Luft III, located near Sagan (now Żagań, Poland), had been evacuated by the Germans in January 1945 ahead of the Soviet advance. The prisoners, including many Americans, were forced to march west in freezing conditions in what came to be known as the “Long March” or “Death March.” They eventually reached Stalag VII-A or other camps deeper inside Germany. Though Stalag Luft III was not liberated in April itself, many of its former inmates were among those rescued when American forces overran camps like Moosburg.
Stalag IX-B in Bad Orb, one of the more notorious camps due to poor conditions and mistreatment of American prisoners, especially Jewish GIs, was liberated on April 2, 1945, by units of the U.S. 44th Infantry Division. The camp had housed thousands of Americans, many of whom were suffering from malnutrition and disease. Several hundred American POWs had been singled out there for forced labor based on their religion or ethnicity.
Another important liberation took place at Oflag XIII-B near Hammelburg on April 6, 1945, by elements of the U.S. 14th Armored Division, just a few days after an earlier ill-fated attempt to free the camp. That earlier mission had involved Task Force Baum—a controversial unauthorized raid ordered by Patton to rescue his son-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel John Waters, who was imprisoned there. Though the March 26 raid failed and resulted in heavy casualties, Waters survived, and the camp was successfully liberated ten days later.
Stalag Luft VII-A, in Moosburg, also deserves mention for the sheer diversity of its prisoner population by April 1945. In addition to American troops, it held British, French, Russian, and other Allied servicemen. American airmen made up a substantial portion, many having been shot down during the strategic bombing campaigns of 1943–1945 over Germany.
Stalag IX-A, located in Ziegenhain, near Kassel, was liberated on March 30, 1945, just ahead of the April wave. It held a mix of American and British prisoners. Nearby, Stalag IX-C at Bad Sulza was liberated by American forces on April 11, 1945, and among the prisoners were American medical personnel and other servicemen who had been captured during the Battle of the Bulge and other late-war operations.
Conditions in many of these camps had sharply deteriorated in the final months of the war, with German logistics collapsing under Allied pressure. Food shortages, overcrowding, and disease were rampant. The liberation of the camps often took place without formal fighting; German guards frequently fled or surrendered without resistance, though some did attempt to relocate prisoners ahead of advancing armies.
In the days and weeks following liberation, the U.S. Army and Red Cross worked to stabilize conditions for the former POWs. Thousands were repatriated quickly through operations such as Operation Revival and Operation Exodus, massive Allied efforts to return liberated prisoners from Germany to their home countries. For many, liberation came not with joy alone but also exhaustion, disorientation, and long-lasting trauma.
The liberation of the POW camps in April 1945 was not a single event but a series of overlapping rescues carried out by converging Allied armies amid the chaotic collapse of Nazi Germany. While some prisoners had been on the move for weeks—relocated on foot or by rail to evade advancing armies—others were found in place, emaciated and sick but alive. Their liberation marked the end of a long ordeal and the beginning of the effort to reintegrate tens of thousands of captured servicemen back into postwar life.
We’re grateful to UPMC for Life for sponsoring this event!
