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Photos of Stalag Luft I

 

Stalag Luft I consisted of a strip of barren land jutting into the Baltic Sea about 105 miles northwest of Berlin.  Two miles south of the main gate a massive Lutheran church marked the northern outskirts of the village of Barth.  A large pine forest bordered the west side of the camp and, to the east and north, the waters of Barth Harbor slashed against the shore less than a mile from the barbed wire fence. 

Enclosing the camp there stretched miles of barbed wire, in two rows four feet apart, attached to 10-foot posts.  Every hundred yards, a Guard Tower mounting a machine gun and a pair of spotlights provided constant vigilance and permitted an unobstructed view of all within the confines of the enclosure.

The Stalag was divided into five separate areas, called compounds.  There were four for prison compounds: South or West, North 1, North 2 and North 3.  The fifth area consisted of the German buildings, in the center, well constructed buildings, green grass, and attractive shubbery, "The Oasis" as the prisoners called this area, was in sharp contrast to the prison compounds.

 

 

Prisoners-of-war arriving at Barth train station

 Prisoners-of-war arriving at train station in Barth

Prisoners of war marched through Barth, Germany

POWs are marched to Stalag Luft I from the railroad station through the town of Barth. En route they pass through the Dammtor Gate, as seen in the background of this photo. The gate was built in the middle of the 14th century and is 35m in height and has an entrance of 4m in width.
 Photo courtesy of Roy Kilminster - RAF POW

  Guard Tower at Stalag Luft I - POW Camp - WW2

 

 

Stalag Luft I Guard Tower - One of many guard towers encircling the 3 compounds at Stalag Luft #1, Barth, Germany. Photo taken approximately May 10, 1945 after liberation by the Russian advance troops of armored division. Photo taken by a German camera confiscated from civilians.

 

The Vietnam-Era Prisoner-of-War/Missing-in-Action Database

This database contains 153,867 records.
Last Update: March 2009

This database has been established to assist researchers interested in investigating the U.S. Government documents pertaining to U.S. military personnel listed as unaccounted for as of December 1991. The title of this collection is "Correlated and Uncorrelated Information Relating to Missing Americans in Southeast Asia." The documents are declassified by the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) and released to the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, for public access.

Researchers using this database can identify documents of interest by using search terms such as last names, country names, service branches, keywords, and statements such as "downed over Laos." Once identified, copies of desired documents may be obtained in three ways: 

1. Researchers wishing to use this microfilm collection may come to the Library of Congress Microform and Machine Readables Collection Reading Room, located in the Thomas Jefferson Building, First Floor, Room LJ-139B.

2. Microfilmed copies of the material can be sent to the researcher's local library on inter-library loan for viewing. This service is free, but materials must be returned to the Library of Congress. 

3. Photocopies or microfilmed copies of desired documents can be ordered from the Library of Congress' Photoduplication Service. These copies must be paid for, but are retained by the researcher. 

When ordering photocopies or microfilm, researchers/libraries must provide reel number, and casualty REFNO, Source Number, or Subject of the document folder (the SUBJECT will be in upper case in the Subject/Title field). For ordering information, contact the Library of Congress, Photoduplication Service, Washington, D.C. 20540.

The Federal Research Division also maintains the documents from US-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs, which attempted to locate Americans thought to have been held in the former Soviet Union. 

Vietnam War - Lt. Comdr. John S. McCain III April 24, 1973
John McCain's 5 1/2 years of captivity in North Vietnam were divided into two phases. Early on, this son and grandson of high-ranking Naval officers was accorded relatively privileged status. Then he refused early release--which he saw as a public relations stunt by his captors--insisting that POWs held longer than him should be granted their freedom first. Thereafter, McCain was treated much more severely, but he also had an opportunity to bond with his fellow prisoners. Those experiences strengthened his resolve and eased his transition back into civilian life.

Vietnam War - Senator John McCain of Arizona Biography as a POW in Vietnam

John McCain: Experiencing War - Library of Congress Video Interview

Vietnam War - Senator John McCain of Arizona Biography - U.S. Navy Lt. Commander. John McCain (now a US Senator) suffered severe injuries in 1967 from bailing out of his A-4 over Hanoi and being beaten by a mob. A prize hostage because of his prominent father, he rejected offers of quick repatriation.
U.S. Navy Lt. Commander. John McCain (now a US Senator) suffered severe injuries in 1967 from bailing out of his A-4 over Hanoi and being beaten by a mob. A prize hostage because of his prominent father, he rejected offers of quick repatriation.

A Pentagon study provides new details--about bravery, torture, and endurance


 

 

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