Page 10 - Edward 'Ted' Cachart

Stalag IV-B was one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps in Germany during World War II. Stalag
is an abbreviation of the German Stammlager ("Main Camp"). It was located 5 miles north-east of
the town of Mühlberg in the Prussian Province of Saxony, just east of the Elbe river and about 30
miles north of Dresden. From 1944 to 1945 it belonged to the Province of Halle-Merseburg. Now,
the area is in Brandenburg. A sub-camp, sometimes identified as Stalag IV-B/Z, Stalag 304 or
Stalag IV-H was located at Zeithain, 6 miles to the south in Saxony.
The camp, covering about 30 hectares (74 acres), was opened in September 1939. The first
inmates were about 17,000 Polish soldiers captured in the German September 1939 offensive. For
the first two months they dwelt under the open sky or in tents. Most of them were transferred
further to other camps. In May 1940 the first French soldiers arrived, taken prisoner in the Battle of
France. In 1941 British, and Australian soldiers arrived after the fall of Greece, and later in the
year Russian POWs from the invasion of the Soviet Union. In September 1943, further numbers of
British, ANZAC, and South African soldiers, previously captive in Italy, arrived after the Italian
capitulation. In October 1944 several thousand Poles arrived, members of the Armia Krajowa
("Home Army") captured after the Warsaw Uprising, including several hundred women soldiers. In
November 1944 the Polish women were transferred to other camps, mainly Stalag IV-E
(Altenburg) and Oflag IX-C (Molsdorf). At the end of December 1944 about 7,500 Americans
arrived from the Battle of the Bulge. At least 3,000 of them were transferred to other camps,
mostly to Stalag VIII-A. On 23 April 1945 the Red Army liberated the camp. Altogether soldiers
from 33 nations passed through the camp.

When the Soviet Army arrived at the camp in April 1945, there were about 30,000 crowded into
the facilities, of these 7,250 were British. About 3,000 died, mainly from tuberculosis and typhus.
They were buried in the cemetery in neighbouring Neuburxdorf, Bad Liebenwerda. Today a
memorial and a museum commemorate them. The Soviet liberators held the British and American
prisoners in the camp for over a month. Individual soldiers "escaped" from the camp and made
their way on foot to the American lines.

In August 1945 the Soviet secret police NKVD opened on the area of Stalag IV-B one of its special
camps No. 1 using the shacks of Stalag IV-B. More than 22,800 persons were imprisoned and
over 6,700 of them died until operation of the camp was ceased in 1948.