The March (1945) - Timeline of POW Evacuations

Timeline of POW Evacuations

• April 1944 – Fifty POWs were executed after escaping from Stalag Luft III at Sagan.
• 13 July 1944 – -evacuation of Stalag Luft VI at Heydekrug in Lithuania begins, to Stalag Luft IV at Gross Tychow involving a force march and 60hr journey by ship to Swinemunde, or by force march and cattle train to Stalag XX-A at Thorn in Poland.
• 17 December 1944 – The SS shot seventy-one captured American POWs in the Malmedy massacre.
• 24 December 1944 – POW work camps near Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) are evacuated.
• 27 December 1944 to April 1945 – POWs at Stalag VIII-B (formerly Stalag VIII-D) at Teschen began their forced march through Czechoslovakia, towards Dresden, then towards Stalag XIII-D at Nuremberg and finally on to Stalag VII-A at Moosburg in Bavaria.
• 12 January 1945 – Red Army launched offensive in Poland and East Prussia.
• 19 January 1945 – evacuation from Stalag Luft 7 at Bankau, near Kreuzberg, Poland, begins in blizzard conditions – 1,500 prisoners were force marched then loaded onto cattle trucks and taken to Stalag III-A at Luckenwalde, south of Berlin.
• 20 January 1945 – Stalag XX-A at Thorn, Poland started evacuation.
• 22 January 1945 – Stalag 344 at Lamsdorf, Silesia was evacuated.
• 23 January 1945 – Evacuation began at Stalag XX-B at Marienburg, Danzig.
• 27 January 1945 – Red Army liberates Auschwitz.
• 27 January 1945 to February 1945 – evacuation began at Stalag Luft III, Sagan, to either Stalag III-A at Luckenwalde, 30 km south of Berlin, or to Marlag und Milag Nord, near Bremen, or to Stalag XIII-D, near Nuremberg, then onto Stalag VII-A near Moosburg, Bavaria.
• 6 February 1945 to March 1945 – Evacuation from Stalag Luft IV at Gross Tychow, Pomerania began an eighty-six day forced march to Stalag XI-B and Stalag 357 at Fallingbostel. Many prisoners were then marched from here at the end of the war towards Lübeck.
• 8 February 1945 – Stalag VIII-C at Sagan was evacuated. The POWs marched across Germany to Stalag IX-B near Bad Orb, and arrive there 16 March.
• 10 February 1945 – Stalag VIII-A at Gorlitz was evacuated.
• 14 February 1945 – Commonwealth and US bomber squadrons attacked Dresden.
• 19 March 1945 – Hitler issued the Nero Decree.
• 3 April 1945 – Stalag XIII-D at Nuremberg was evacuated.
• 6 April 1945 – Stalag XI-B and Stalag 357 at Fallingbostel were evacuated.
• 16 April 1945 – Oflag IV-C, (Colditz Castle), was liberated.
• 16 April 1945 – POWs left behind at Fallingbostel were liberated by the British Second Army.
• 17 April 1945 – Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated.
• 19 April 1945 – POW column was attacked by allied aircraft at Gresse resulting in 60 fatalities.
• 22 April 1945 – Stalag III-A at Luckenwalde was liberated by Soviet forces.
• 27 April 1945 – US and Soviet forces met at the River Elbe.
• 29 April 1945 – Stalag VII-A at Moosburg was liberated by Patton's Third United States Army.
• 30 April 1945 – Berlin falls to the Red Army and Hitler commits suicide.
• 4 May 1945 – German forces surrendered on Luneburg Heath.
• 8 May 1945 – The last POWs evacuated from Stalag XI-B at Fallingbostel are liberated on VE day.
• 12 May 1945 – The Red Army releases Commonwealth and US POWs at Stalag III-A, Luckenwalde.