Arbeitskommandos L71A near Boxwitz (or Bockwitz), Germany
Oct 21, 2021 13:00:14 GMT -5
jrwentz likes this
Post by connie on Oct 21, 2021 13:00:14 GMT -5
OVERVIEW of CAMPS that Held Members of the 106th 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/752/thread
MAP of GERMAN POW CAMPS: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/4961/thread
FINDING a POW's WORK CAMP: jrwentz attached two helpful posts near the bottom of the following thread: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/4942/thread
Arbeitskommandos L71A near Boxwitz (or Bockwitz), Germany
sketch from Weldon Lane's account (click to enlarge)
"close enough to Dresden to see the lights and the bombing of that city"- Lawler
"The Camp at L-71A consisted of two fenced in compounds with about ten foot high cyclone fencing topped with barbed wire. The administration building was a wooden barrack type frame building setting outside the fencing except for a part in the rear. In the rear of the building, was an entrance to the shower area. There was always a guard on duty at the entrance. This building was also the barracks for the guards. Also in it was the kommandant’s office and the sick bay. A compound adjacent to ours housed about 400 Russian POWs. The compound where the Americans were housed contained a wooden frame building that was divided into three rooms, each with its own entrance. The 90 or so Americans were more or less divided equally into three rooms. I would estimate that the room was about twenty feet wide by thirty feet long. The bunks consisted of two sloped racks on each wall along the length of the room, one over the other. The mattresses were burlap burial bags filled with straw. Between the two rows of bed racks were two tables that went the long way of the room. Between the two tables was a pot-bellied stove. The only other building in our compound was a latrine. Also there was a large trench dug for an air raid shelter..." - Lane
Lane, Weldon V. 423/2nd Bn.HQ Co/ Anti-tank Platoon IV-B, L-71: www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/Prisoner%20of%20War/PW%20Camps/Stalag%20IV-B%20Mulberg/Weldon%20Lane/Weldon%20Lane.htm
Lane and Lawler appear to have followed the same route marching to a train & experiencing the bombing of the rail yard at Limburg. "We finally arrived at Stalag IVB on December 30, 1944. After disembarking from the train, we were assembled in a building near the gate that we had come through when entering into the Stalag. Sometime during the night we were taken to another building where we were told to strip for showers and delousing. We then went into a large shower room. I had heard about the gas chambers and I remember the fear I felt that we might be in for more than a shower. After the shower, we were given an inoculation. The shot was given in the chest. Again, a fearful experience. By the time everyone had been processed, dawn was breaking on the last day of 1944, a very eventful year.At this point, we were assigned and escorted to a barracks (Building No. 10), where we joined prisoners who had been in the camp for a long time. These prisoners were mostly British; however, I recall there were also a few Yugoslav POWs also. The British had been there since they were captured in North Africa. That night to celebrate New Years Eve, the barracks had a party. The British put on a show and welcomed the newly arrived Americans. The theme of the show was that we hoped we would welcome 1946 in a more joyous manner than we were welcoming 1945.... On another occasion, I was assigned to a work detail outside the camp. A group of us were given a wooded wagon with steel rimmed wheels and a tongue on the front to steer and pull it. We pushed and pulled the wagon to a field filled with mounded rows of potatoes topped with straw. These rows were filled with layers of straw and potatoes covered by dirt. We filled the wagons with potatoes and returned to camp..."
"...sometime in January, 1945, I was shipped out to Arbeit Kommando L-71A, in Bokwitz, Germany along with about 90 other American POWs... The Americans were divided into a number of work details. I was assigned to a work group to work in a factory where they processed brown stage coal into coal brickettes, to be burned like hard coal. One group of GI’s, for what reason I don’t know, were chosen to go to school to become machinists. They attended school with preteen age German kids. They were given a block of steel and a file. Their task was to file the cube flat and square. This was their task the whole time they were in school.We worked six days a week, Sunday was our day off. A typical day: we were awakened at about 4:45 a.m., allowed about a half hour to wash up and get ready to move out, and at about 5:15 a.m. we fell out to march to the factory. The group consisted of thirty-one Americans and three Russians. At the same time we fell out, there was a group of Russians that went to work at the same time we did. When we arrived at the factory there was about a half hour before we had to go to work. We started work at 7:00 a.m. There was a small heated building with tables and benches that was used by the factory workers to eat their lunch. We were allowed to rest there until we started work. We worked until about 5:00 p.m., at which time we were marched back to our compound. Our time was our own for the rest of the night."
Lawler, Loy Dean, Pfc. 423 E, 1st platoon POW IV-B, Arbeitskommando L71A: www.ericsiegmund.com/fireant/2017/06/170608-loysstory.html
back-up copy of this wartime bio of Lawler: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5058/thread
Lawler saw the sadness and tears on the face of Col. Cavender when he announced they were going to surrender... After a march... "The morning of December 21st we were given a piece of bread and put in boxcars." After stopping at Limburg, he experienced the bombing of that site....We arrived at Stalag IVB about December 30th and was assigned to barracks December 31st. Several of the men were too weak to move and had to be carried off the boxcar. ...Here they were "deloused before being given a small bowl of warm oatmeal. That was the best meal I ever had-and the last for several months." While at IVB, we were in bunks (hard planks) that were so close together we could hardly turn over. There was a latrine at the end of the barracks with two barrels outside the door. With so much dysentery, most of us couldn't wait our turn and had to go in the barrels... Our diet at IVB was watery soup with very little solids.
About the middle of January, 1945, I was transferred to a Russian work camp, arbeit Kommando L71A near Boxwitz, Germany. We were close enough to Dresden to see the lights and the bombing of that city. I was with a group of 100 Americans and 400 Russians. Thirty-one of us and four Russians were assigned to work 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, in a coal brickette factory in Boxwitz (or Bockwitz). It was called Fabrique Eine und Zwie. We got out of bed at 4:30 in the morning, stood outside in formation for roll call. The guard would hit anyone with their hand in their pockets because it was not soldier-like. This was before daylight. We then walked one hour to work, before the 12-hour workday.
Wentz, William J 423-M POW IV-B,work camp L-71 at lignite mines, IV D, time in hospital in Liebenwerda (near Mühlberg) 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/4941/thread
(The Roster lists William Wentz as being at 4-B, 4-A Hohnstein, Saxony, KDO4, months a POW but his son has found nothing in the info from to indicate time spent at 4-A or Hohnstein)
In my father's tiny notepad he had as a POW he recorded his locations as: Arrived 4B 12-28 Muhlberg on Elbe, Moved 4D 1-18 Muckenberg
There is also an unreadable section on the scan that appears to relate to Liebenwerda and from other papers and what he told us he spent a little time at a "hospital" in Liebenwerda, which was near Muhlberg.
Nothing in the information he left for us indicates anything about 4-A or Hohnstein. We know he was in a work camp strip mining lignite (brown coal). I did find there were lignite mines near 4-A. Researching Muckenberg on modern maps returned a location in the far north of Germany. Dad told us his camp was between Berlin and Dresden, and mentioned being able to see the glow in the sky when Dresden was bombed.
Near the bottom of the page he scanned I can make out L 71 A, which turns out to be the ID for his work camp, most often listed as L-71. Dad had told me there were two separate work groups at his camp mining lignite. Their quarters were in the same area, but apparently they worked in different locations and had A & B designations."We know he was in a work camp strip mining lignite (brown coal). I did find there were lignite mines near 4-A. Researching Muckenberg on modern maps returned a location in the far north of Germany. Dad told us his camp was between Berlin and Dresden, and mentioned being able to see the glow in the sky when Dresden was bombed..." Prior to his time in POW camps Wentz also experienced the bombings of the railroad yard near near Limburgh See Limburgh for other links to this event: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/4081/thread
MAP of GERMAN POW CAMPS: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/4961/thread
FINDING a POW's WORK CAMP: jrwentz attached two helpful posts near the bottom of the following thread: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/4942/thread
Arbeitskommandos L71A near Boxwitz (or Bockwitz), Germany
sketch from Weldon Lane's account (click to enlarge)
"close enough to Dresden to see the lights and the bombing of that city"- Lawler
"The Camp at L-71A consisted of two fenced in compounds with about ten foot high cyclone fencing topped with barbed wire. The administration building was a wooden barrack type frame building setting outside the fencing except for a part in the rear. In the rear of the building, was an entrance to the shower area. There was always a guard on duty at the entrance. This building was also the barracks for the guards. Also in it was the kommandant’s office and the sick bay. A compound adjacent to ours housed about 400 Russian POWs. The compound where the Americans were housed contained a wooden frame building that was divided into three rooms, each with its own entrance. The 90 or so Americans were more or less divided equally into three rooms. I would estimate that the room was about twenty feet wide by thirty feet long. The bunks consisted of two sloped racks on each wall along the length of the room, one over the other. The mattresses were burlap burial bags filled with straw. Between the two rows of bed racks were two tables that went the long way of the room. Between the two tables was a pot-bellied stove. The only other building in our compound was a latrine. Also there was a large trench dug for an air raid shelter..." - Lane
Lane, Weldon V. 423/2nd Bn.HQ Co/ Anti-tank Platoon IV-B, L-71: www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/Prisoner%20of%20War/PW%20Camps/Stalag%20IV-B%20Mulberg/Weldon%20Lane/Weldon%20Lane.htm
Lane and Lawler appear to have followed the same route marching to a train & experiencing the bombing of the rail yard at Limburg. "We finally arrived at Stalag IVB on December 30, 1944. After disembarking from the train, we were assembled in a building near the gate that we had come through when entering into the Stalag. Sometime during the night we were taken to another building where we were told to strip for showers and delousing. We then went into a large shower room. I had heard about the gas chambers and I remember the fear I felt that we might be in for more than a shower. After the shower, we were given an inoculation. The shot was given in the chest. Again, a fearful experience. By the time everyone had been processed, dawn was breaking on the last day of 1944, a very eventful year.At this point, we were assigned and escorted to a barracks (Building No. 10), where we joined prisoners who had been in the camp for a long time. These prisoners were mostly British; however, I recall there were also a few Yugoslav POWs also. The British had been there since they were captured in North Africa. That night to celebrate New Years Eve, the barracks had a party. The British put on a show and welcomed the newly arrived Americans. The theme of the show was that we hoped we would welcome 1946 in a more joyous manner than we were welcoming 1945.... On another occasion, I was assigned to a work detail outside the camp. A group of us were given a wooded wagon with steel rimmed wheels and a tongue on the front to steer and pull it. We pushed and pulled the wagon to a field filled with mounded rows of potatoes topped with straw. These rows were filled with layers of straw and potatoes covered by dirt. We filled the wagons with potatoes and returned to camp..."
"...sometime in January, 1945, I was shipped out to Arbeit Kommando L-71A, in Bokwitz, Germany along with about 90 other American POWs... The Americans were divided into a number of work details. I was assigned to a work group to work in a factory where they processed brown stage coal into coal brickettes, to be burned like hard coal. One group of GI’s, for what reason I don’t know, were chosen to go to school to become machinists. They attended school with preteen age German kids. They were given a block of steel and a file. Their task was to file the cube flat and square. This was their task the whole time they were in school.We worked six days a week, Sunday was our day off. A typical day: we were awakened at about 4:45 a.m., allowed about a half hour to wash up and get ready to move out, and at about 5:15 a.m. we fell out to march to the factory. The group consisted of thirty-one Americans and three Russians. At the same time we fell out, there was a group of Russians that went to work at the same time we did. When we arrived at the factory there was about a half hour before we had to go to work. We started work at 7:00 a.m. There was a small heated building with tables and benches that was used by the factory workers to eat their lunch. We were allowed to rest there until we started work. We worked until about 5:00 p.m., at which time we were marched back to our compound. Our time was our own for the rest of the night."
Lawler, Loy Dean, Pfc. 423 E, 1st platoon POW IV-B, Arbeitskommando L71A: www.ericsiegmund.com/fireant/2017/06/170608-loysstory.html
back-up copy of this wartime bio of Lawler: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5058/thread
Lawler saw the sadness and tears on the face of Col. Cavender when he announced they were going to surrender... After a march... "The morning of December 21st we were given a piece of bread and put in boxcars." After stopping at Limburg, he experienced the bombing of that site....We arrived at Stalag IVB about December 30th and was assigned to barracks December 31st. Several of the men were too weak to move and had to be carried off the boxcar. ...Here they were "deloused before being given a small bowl of warm oatmeal. That was the best meal I ever had-and the last for several months." While at IVB, we were in bunks (hard planks) that were so close together we could hardly turn over. There was a latrine at the end of the barracks with two barrels outside the door. With so much dysentery, most of us couldn't wait our turn and had to go in the barrels... Our diet at IVB was watery soup with very little solids.
About the middle of January, 1945, I was transferred to a Russian work camp, arbeit Kommando L71A near Boxwitz, Germany. We were close enough to Dresden to see the lights and the bombing of that city. I was with a group of 100 Americans and 400 Russians. Thirty-one of us and four Russians were assigned to work 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, in a coal brickette factory in Boxwitz (or Bockwitz). It was called Fabrique Eine und Zwie. We got out of bed at 4:30 in the morning, stood outside in formation for roll call. The guard would hit anyone with their hand in their pockets because it was not soldier-like. This was before daylight. We then walked one hour to work, before the 12-hour workday.
Wentz, William J 423-M POW IV-B,work camp L-71 at lignite mines, IV D, time in hospital in Liebenwerda (near Mühlberg) 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/4941/thread
(The Roster lists William Wentz as being at 4-B, 4-A Hohnstein, Saxony, KDO4, months a POW but his son has found nothing in the info from to indicate time spent at 4-A or Hohnstein)
In my father's tiny notepad he had as a POW he recorded his locations as: Arrived 4B 12-28 Muhlberg on Elbe, Moved 4D 1-18 Muckenberg
There is also an unreadable section on the scan that appears to relate to Liebenwerda and from other papers and what he told us he spent a little time at a "hospital" in Liebenwerda, which was near Muhlberg.
Nothing in the information he left for us indicates anything about 4-A or Hohnstein. We know he was in a work camp strip mining lignite (brown coal). I did find there were lignite mines near 4-A. Researching Muckenberg on modern maps returned a location in the far north of Germany. Dad told us his camp was between Berlin and Dresden, and mentioned being able to see the glow in the sky when Dresden was bombed.
Near the bottom of the page he scanned I can make out L 71 A, which turns out to be the ID for his work camp, most often listed as L-71. Dad had told me there were two separate work groups at his camp mining lignite. Their quarters were in the same area, but apparently they worked in different locations and had A & B designations."We know he was in a work camp strip mining lignite (brown coal). I did find there were lignite mines near 4-A. Researching Muckenberg on modern maps returned a location in the far north of Germany. Dad told us his camp was between Berlin and Dresden, and mentioned being able to see the glow in the sky when Dresden was bombed..." Prior to his time in POW camps Wentz also experienced the bombings of the railroad yard near near Limburgh See Limburgh for other links to this event: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/4081/thread