| Original caption: “Captain John Hamel of Detroit chats with inmates of a German prison camp at Arnoldsweiler after it was seized by the American First Army. All these girls are Polish.” A Kriegsgefangenenlager (“prisoner of war camp”), consisting of 30 shacks with guard towers were constructed starting March 28, 1940, near the town of Arnoldsweiler, for the Reich Labor Service on Friedenstrasse – today Cormeillesstrasse. These 30 shacks were the prisoner of war camp Stalag (Stammlager) VI-H Arnoldsweiler-Düren. Along with Stalag VI-G in Bonn, it was the largest Stammarbeitslager (“Main Labor Camp”) in the Rhineland. Through this camp, prisoners of war were distributed as forced laborers to Arbeitskommando (AK; “Subordinate Labor Camp”). The International Committee of the Red Cross visited the camp on October 17-21, 1940, and their report stated that each man had a straw mattress and 2 blankets, adequate but not abundant food, good shoes, religious, dental, medical, and pharmaceutical support. The delousing station could treat 2 to 300 men a day. The camp could hold up to 800 prisoners of war. Initially thousands of Polish, French, and British prisoners of war were interned for forced labor in Stalag VI-H Arnoldsweiler-Düren. Even 2 Spanish Republicans who fled the Nationalist regime after the Spanish Civil War were arrested by the Gestapo and were sent to Stalag VI-H. Conditions changed as the war turned against the Nazi Germans; food and medicine became restricted, and work increased to the point that the prisoners died. When the Poles and French died off, later Russian prisoners of war were shipped in. About 9,200 prisoners of war passed through this camp in total. These Soviet prisoners had to perform forced labor under often the cruelest conditions in companies and factories in the Düren region and in agriculture, because many local German men fought as soldiers in the Wehrmacht (“Nazi German Armed Forces”). Rations and medical care were extremely poor. They had to hold out in icy cells no larger than 6 feet (1 meter). Only movement kept them warm. Rations were once a day in the form of coffee and 330 grams of bread. The guards not only demanded that the exhausted Soviets perform torture-like tasks, but in several documented cases they also shot the prisoners – allegedly because they refused to work or attempted to escape. The recipe for “Russian bread” issued by the Reich Ministry of Food in 1942 shows how inhumane the Nazi regime was. This bread was given to Russian prisoners of war alongside a thin vegetable broth. In addition to 50 percent rye meal, it consisted of 20 percent sugar beet pulp, 20 percent wood flour and 10 percent straw flour. The camp near Arnoldsweiler, on the Roer river, was known to the population and was viewed as a natural part of the city. Its presence is revealed by a postcard from 1942; the camp is featured next to Arnoldsweiler’s sights. Especially for the French-speaking prisoners of war (Belgian Walloons and French), who initially formed the largest group there, it was very tempting to try to escape duet the proximity to France. If they succeeded, they often followed the course of the Roer River because they knew that it flows westwards and leaves Germany near Roermond. This way, they didn’t need to ask for directions. Initial preparations for handling recovered allied military personnel were instituted shortly after attachment of a United States Army Prisoner of War Exchange Officer (PWX officer) and III Corps prisoner of war exchange contact officers on October 30, 1944, from Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). The 1st large installation to be overrun was located at Arnoldsweiler and was reported to SHAEF on March 1. All prisoners of war formerly confined in this installation had been evacuated to nearby localities and in accordance with 1st Army Standard Operating Procedure, these recovered personnel were considered as displaced persons (DPs). They were collected in the company with other DPs with no military background and evacuated to Stolberg Caserne (garrison), near Aachen, operated by G-5 Civil-Military Operations 1st Army. The Army Prisoner of War Executive (“PWX”) Branch contact officer was dispatched to this Caserne to interrogate and roster all personnel claiming military status, except those of Italian nationality, who were treated as ex-enemy DPs. Approximately 2,000 persons claiming military status were processed at this time and were evacuated as displaced persons inasmuch as they had not remained in their Arbeitskommando, instead roaming the area for food and revenge against the Nazi Germans. United States Army Captain John Kenneth Hamel (November 3, 1916 – August 17, 2009) of the 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, 1st United States Army, interviews Polish and Soviet women interned in Stalag VI-H Arnoldsweiler-Düren. The other American is unidentified. They were serving as medical personnel PWX evaluating DPs for transfer to their respective countries. In film taken the same day, male and female internees are made to cheer American liberators, and the women were made to walk arm in arm with American soldiers and to be kissed by other internees for the cameras. When the camp cemetery was excavated in 1960, a total of 1,552 dead were found, most of them Russian prisoners and civilian workers. About 500 who died in the main camp were transferred to the Soviet war cemetery in Simmerath-Rurberg. Today, nothing remains of the camp in Arnoldsweiler. The only reminder is a memorial board with the name Gedenkstätte Stalag Arnoldsweiler (“Stalag Arnoldsweiler Memorial”). On the corner of Cormeillesstrasse and Neußer Strasse there is a stele by the artist Ulrich Rückriem (born September 30, 1938) commemorating the victims, and a memorial plaque is attached to the entrance area of the Old Parish Church. There is also a memorial stone at the former cemetery in the Merzenicher Heide. Arnoldsweiler was incorporated into the municipality of Düren in 1972. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0561.jpg |
| Image Size | 248.84 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1300 x 1137 |
| Photographer | Allan Jackson |
| Photographer Title | United Press International |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 13, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Arnoldsweiler |
| State or Province | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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