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The bronze medal has been issued to commemorate the STALAG I B for the allied POW and to preserve the memory of the soldiers held captive from 1939 to 1945 at this camp.
Stalag IB Hohenstein - a prisoner of war camp near Olsztynek ( Hohenstein ), in the village of Królikowo.
av. The inscription in
Polish, the church in Olsztyn (Allenstein)
rv. The barbed wire;
inscription STALAG I B, Olsztynek
size – 80 mm x 78 mm, (2
“)
weight – over 1/5 kg
metal – bronze, patina
Poles , French , Russians , Italians , Belgians and Serbs were imprisoned in the camp . As of
October 30, 1939, there were 18,276 privates and 11 Polish officers and 1,413
civilian prisoners. Individual national groups were strictly isolated from each
other. It is estimated that during the entire war there were 650,000 prisoners
(about 60,000 of them died). It was one of the largest POW camps in Eastern Europe. The first to arrive in
the camp were Polish prisoners of war, already in the first days of September
1939. In 1940, the first transports of French prisoners of war arrived at
Stalag IB, from mid-1941 Soviet
prisoners of war were brought to the camp . About
25,000 people died in the camp in the winter of 1941/1942. Those
who died in the camp were buried in the cemetery in Sudwa . It is estimated that the
bodies of 55,000 prisoners were buried there in over 500 graves. The
memory of the dead was commemorated by erecting a monument designed by Ryszard
Wachowski. An exhibition of camp documents and memorabilia has been
open in Olsztynek since 1980
In 2011, traces of the camp were found during the
construction of the S7 expressway in
the village of Królikowo. Archaeological work was carried out in the area of 473
ares until October 2011