1945 map of Stalag IV-B in Mühlberg, Germany
1945 map of Stalag IV-B in Mühlberg, Germany, one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps during World War II
‘My grandfather had to make a death march (20 hours a day) all the way to this camp after being captured by the Germans in Ravenna, Italy. One small piece of bread every 48 hours is all they gave him to eat, and if he didn’t keep up they put a gun to his head … Oh I got a hold of my Grandfather’s pow reclamation request (he couldn’t work after coming back home due to what he lived through), it described in detail what happened to him from capture to liberation. The death march was horrendous, and several of his fellow servicemen died by friendly fire from allied combat aircraft as they marched North. There was no mention of torture or forced anything pertaining to his actual imprisonment in the camp itself, however, he did have to spend 2 months in a British hospital for malnourishment after being liberated’–svmtl81