My father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken would have been in and around the area of Stalag VI-A in Hemer Germany, helping liberate the prisoners from April 19, 1945 to June 1, 1945, a total of 43 days.
1st Lieutenant Joe Colcord in the 75th Infantry Division wrote… “We captured several unnamed cities in the Ruhr Pocket and liberated a displaced person’s camp, the poor souls were wandering around weakly, near death since the German guards had left. Some lay in stacked beds too weak to walk. All were in effect skeletons. They almost seemed non-human. I suspect this was a work camp.” Joe continued… “There were many Displaced Persons, that by treaty were to be shipped home by the easiest rail line. These people did not want to go East. We had to nail the doors shut on the 40-8’s to keep them on board. At least until they left the marshaling yard. For many there was no home to go to, and this act may have been a death sentence. I can still see the sad faces as they were boxed up to go “home’.” There were literally hundreds of these work camps, so I can not verify if Joe is talking about Stalag VI-A or another work camp.
Dr. Nikolai Gubarew was a Soviet soldier captured and sent to Stalag VI-A as a 20 year old prisoner in 1942. He remained in the camp until it was liberated in April of 1945. In time he became an assistant to the StalagVI-A Captain Edmund Weller and thus he gained insight into the inner workings of the camp. The camp had a reputation among Soviets as the place Prisoners of War (POWs) went to die. Bread was the only hope to survive. For breakfast there might be a sip of liquid which was a replacement for coffee, lunch might consist of a thin soup with some turnips with unpeeled potatoes, sometimes with a bit of margarine. The best possible bread ration was 8 ounces which allowed for slow starvation. Soviet prisoners were always given the worst rations of food since the Germans considered then sub-human. Soviets would get 1 bowl of broth while other nationalizes got 2 bowls.
Clothing consisted of old uniforms marked with white phosphorus so a prisoner could be identified at night. Instead of shoes, prisoners were given old woolen pants which sometimes covered the feet. Clothing was regularly untied to fight the lice. If clothing got wet with outdoor work, then pneumonia was often the result. Prisoners slept in 3 story bunk beds. Being in the stone buildings was better than being in the wooden barracks since the wooden barracks were very drafty.
The death rates soured for prisoners who had tuberculosis and pneumonia. There were no drugs to treat the patients. Due to the risk of infection, these barracks were never entered by German camp staff. The door to the medial barracks was secured with a padlock and only Soviet medical personnel held the key. The dead would lie with the living in the bunks for a time, this allowed bread rations to be collected from the dead and distributed to the living. When bodies began to bloat, they had to be removed by medical staff with a horse drawn cart.
At 6am each day there was a roll call. If the numbers were not right then prisoners might have to stand for hours until the numbers were correct. Forced Laborers who were worked outside the camp would be marched away. During the night, illumination was provided solely by the beams of guard tower searchlights as they swept across the perimeter fences. Some guards were very brutal. They beat prisoners with truncheons.
POW camp staff enriched themselves by taking prisoner bread and other food. The food would disappear before getting to the camp warehouse. Staff would lift goods from the delivery train at the Hemer station to private trucks. Any meat, fat and bread would often be taken directly from the Stalag kitchen. Moldy bread is what usually would arrive at the Stalag with no replacement shipments. Bombing raids guaranteed late shipments. Potato and turnip supplies did run out. When serving food there was often chaos among the starved inmates.
Russian POW Dimitry Alexandrovich was a talented photographer. While in the Stalag, he was entrusted to work taking the pictures of incoming prisoners which were added to the inmate information card files. He also had to work on the mass burial detail, and at the risk of his own life, he photographed the grisly scenes of emaciated bodied being dumped into mass graves. Thanks to his access to the dark room, he was able to develop and print these scenes of horror.
On April 30, 1945, Adolph Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker.
Russians celebrate May Day on May 1st, which is a celebration of spring and renewal. The 75th Infantry hosted a May Day celebration at the camp where Generals gathered at a podium to speak. POWs lined up in tight military formations. American enlisted men and officers gave up their white bread rations for 3 days, so that the Soviets and other POWs could have more to eat at the ceremony. There was music, marching and the 75th Infantry Division General Ray E. Porter had a banquet set up for the delegates assembled.
May 8, 1945, was Victory in Europe day (VE Day), when Germany officially surrendered.
On June 1, 1945, the 75th Infantry Division was relieved by the British infantry since Stalag VI-A in Hemer Germany was in the British occupation zone.
Frohlinde means Joyful in German. The plague cross, known locally as the Bookenkreuz, dates back to the time of the Thirty Years’ War, when the plague raged (1618 and 1648). The farming communities of Frohlind95h e, Obercastrop, and Rauxel, as well as other surrounding villages, erected plague crosses and obligated themselves to hold annual processions to these crosses and distribute alms, bread, money, and other donations to the local poor.
The overall objective of General Ray Porter’s 9th Army Group was to drive east after crossing the Rhine River, and then attack south to defeat the estimated 370,000 German defenders trapped in the Ruhr Pocket. Dortmund Germany was the largest industrial City in the area of attack and Frolinde was on the north West outskirts of Dortmund.