[The following is in regards to the relocation of prisoners in Nazi Germany’s prison system during the last phases of the war.]
A prison governor described the fate of prisoners on a forced march in late January and February from the prison at Preußisch Stargard, to the south of Danzig:
The weather conditions were disastrous. The progress of the trek was hindered by the heavy snowfall, the cold, the mass of refugees and army vehicles as well as the flooding back of masses of troops, prisoners of war, etc. Every road was jammed, so that the treks sometimes had to wait for hours in one spot, just to move a few hundred metres forward.
Like the hapless concentration camp prisoners, the captives of the prison system were constantly on the move during the last weeks of the Nazi regime. Many died of exposure, exhaustion or hunger, or were shot by their guards along the way.
Source:
Bessel, Richard. “Murder and Mayhem.” Germany 1945: From War to Peace. New York, NY, HarperCollins, 2009. 53. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Quoted in Wachsmann, Hitler’s Prisons, p. 326.
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