Liberation of the Bad Orb POW CAMP - April 5, 1945

During World War II, more than 25,000 POWs at a time were housed here. An unknown number of those died.
A soldiers' cemetery near the camp holds at least 1,430 dead Soviet POWs, who were treated much worse than soldiers of other nations. Stalag IX-B was also the site of a segregation and removal of Jewish-American troops who, once identified, were transferred to the labor camp at Berga, in contravention of international law. After World War II, the camp served to house ethnic Germans displaced from Poland and the Czech Republic. It eventually reverted to the use it had seen in the 1920s, as a summer camp for school children from Frankfurt. The camp, much renovated and rebuilt, still serves that purpose today.

[@LJWalter78]

Great information here, thank you.

[@user-xj3zq1pv6w]

My father, a senior lieutenant in the Red Army, was in the Bad Orb POW camp from the summer of 1943 to the summer of 1944. When he first got there, he spent 10 days in a cold punishment cell on water and soup. In the next cell sat a French prisoner of war, who shared with him a little of what the Red Cross gave him. In the summer of 1944, he escaped with his friend, also a Red Army officer, from the camp. They escaped in the early morning before the formation of prisoners. They cut the barbed wire and jumped over the moat and disappeared into the ravine. The German guards found their tracks, rushed after them with dogs, but they had already hidden, and the Germans did not find them.This was a rare case of escape of Soviet prisoners of war from the Bad Orb camp (Stalag 9B)..
Мой отец, старший лейтенант Красной Армии, был в лагере военнопленных Бад-Орб с лета 1943 по лето 1944. Когда он только попал туда, он отсидел в холодном карцере 10 суток на воде и похлебке. В соседней камере сидел француз-военнопленный, который делился с ним немного из того, что давал ему Красный крест. Летом 1944 он бежал со своим другом, также офицером Красной Армии из лагеря. Они убежали ранним утром до построения пленных. Они перерезали колючую проволоку и перепрыгнули через ров и скрылись в овраге. Немецкие охранники обнаружили их следы, бросились с собаками за ними, но они уже спрятались, и немцы их не нашли.Это был редкий случай побега советских военнопленных из лагеря Бад Orb (Шталаг 9Б)..

[@jeffpfannenstiel1011]

At 1:17 that is my grandfather, Pfc Edmund Pfannenstiel, shaking hands with the American soldier that was part of the liberating force. My grandfather was the CMOC at the camp since he spoke fluent German.

[@harrybkidd]

Jeff - If you send me an email - I'll do a frame grab of that frame and send it to you..

[@harrybkidd]

[e-mail]

[@chetparzych4316]

www.axpow.org_ETO-STALAG-9B.pdf details Pfannenstiel's actions.

[@eodmax]

My father PFC William Maxwell 106th Inf Div 422nd Inf was captured during the Battle of The Bulge and was interned at Bad Orb.