“Hell camp” hidden in the forest – the materiality of Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf

ABSTRACT

The history of imprisonment in Lamsdorf (in Polish: Łambinowice) is long and complicated – prisoner-of-war (POW) and resettlement camps were operating near the village from the times of the Franco-Prussian War, through the Great War, the interwar period, 1939–1945 to 1945–1946. During the First and Second World Wars a number of British Empire soldiers, among others, were held behind the barbed wire in Lamsdorf. Today, the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War is an institution that researches, protects and manages the post-camp landscape as well as the history, heritage and memory of people detained there in the past. In this article we present (i) the activities of the Museum in the context of the history and heritage of British POWs held in Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf during the Second World War, and (ii) the results of non-invasive archaeological work carried out in 2022 in the area of the former camps.

KEYWORDS:

• Lamsdorf
• POW archaeology
• non-invasive archaeology
• remote sensing
• materiality
• forest
• Second World War

Introduction

The Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War (Poland) is the only institution of its kind in Europe that documents, researches and disseminates knowledge on the fates of soldiers held in captivity during different military conflicts. Since the 1960s it has been taking care of the former camps established in Lamsdorf and their varied heritage. The landscape consists of POW and resettlement camps that functioned near the village between 1870–1946 (Nowak 2006a, 2006b). The formal scope of camp management and its ownership structure has changed over the years in this several-hundred-hectare and mostly forested area. Currently the Museum administers an area of over 33 hectares, constituting 10% of the terrain of the former camps, with the ruins of Stalag 318/VIII F (344) among the most well-preserved remains of the Lamsdorf camps from the Second World War. Extant buildings of the Wehrmacht artillery training ground headquarters from the 1930s currently house the Museum’s exhibition. The memorial site also includes relics of Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf and three war cemeteries, which are located on the land belonging to other owners, and much less visible remains of camps from periods other than the Second World War (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Location of Łambinowice on the map of Poland and Europe (prepared by K. Karski).

Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late-1991, the post-war memory of German captivity on Polish lands for former British soldiers was strongly influenced by the Cold War and its circumstances. The locations of the largest Wehrmacht POW camps, such as the present-day Łambinowice, remained on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain and were difficult to access for citizens of the West (although their delegations participated, among others, in the ceremonial unveiling of the Monument of Martyrology of Prisoners-of-War in 1965). It was not until the democratic changes after 1991 that veterans and their families were allowed to visit the site without any restrictions. However, and notwithstanding that in the last three decades the Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice has been visited by official delegations, it is descendants of the POWs detained here – the second and the third generation, and sometimes even the fourth – who are the most frequent guests to the Museum (Wickiewicz 2018, 129–133).

An important component of the activity of POW families and the cultivation of memories of their relations are visits to the Museum and the Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice. The institution guarantees access to relevant research findings and source material, guidance on the direction of further research and also offers tours of the site to help experience the material traces of the places formerly inhabited by their ancestors. By functioning as an institutional repository of memory it supports and complements the families of POWs in enabling the passing of memory down to the next generations. The Museum works intensively in this role, for example by building a collection of family memorabilia from British POWs (donors receive copies) which are then subjected to conservation and digitization before being made accessible online and in publications and exhibitions (Figure 2). Relatives of POWs visiting the Museum and all others interested in planning a visit can count on receiving support and guidance, while the institution also cooperates with British veterans’ communities to assist travel planning for group visits, various meetings, seminars and attendance at the anniversary of the liberation of Stalag 344 Lamsdorf (17 March).

Figure 2. Examples of objects (without scale) related to POWs of Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf (author E. Góra, source: the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War).

Another example of activities devoted to British heritage in Lamsdorf is the multidisciplinary scientific project entitled Science for society, society for science at the Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice. It includes historical, ethnographic and archaeological research related to the history of imprisonment in Lamsdorf. The most important component of the work is what we have tentatively called the Archaeology of the Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice.

The archaeological part of the project is based on the commonly used methodology of researching places from the recent past, specifically a programme of desk-based research and non-invasive work followed by excavation (e.g. Kobiałka et al. 2023). In focusing on POW camp archaeology this work contributes to a growing body of research conducted over the past decade, both in Poland and many other countries (e.g. Banks 2012, 2013, 2020; Camp 2016; Jasinski and Stenvik 2010; Kobiałka 2017; McNutt 2020, 2021; Myers 2013; Myers and Moshenska 2011; Rees-Hughes et al. 2016).

One of the newer approaches in the context of POW archaeology exploits remote sensing data to document material transformations in the landscape associated with camp infrastructure and its day-to-day functioning (e.g. Kostyrko and Kobiałka 2020). In the case of Łambinowice, LiDAR technology has been particularly important for the study of forested areas that for decades were effectively inaccessible to archaeological research – they were a kind of terra incognita (Irlinger and Suhr 2017; Kobiałka 2017). The emergence of LiDAR has driven the development of forest archaeology which reveals a variety of heritage landscapes, including those related to armed conflicts (e.g. Banaszek 2015; Hesse 2010, 2013; Passmore and Harrison 2008; Passmore, Harrison, and Capps Tunwell 2014). The archaeology of the Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice draws on all the above-mentioned examples of research. Moreover, it is based on our personal experiences regarding the documentation of similar places, material heritage and social memory from both the First and the Second World Wars in Poland (e.g. Kobiałka 2017, 2018; Kostyrko and Kobiałka 2020).

In 2022, non-invasive and invasive archaeological research was carried out primarily on the territory of Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf (Kobiałka et al. 2023,). In this text we present some of the results based on the use of methods and sources characteristic of non-invasive archaeology (e.g. aerial laser scanning, historical aerial photographs, archival sources). First, we sketch the broader historical context and then focus on the detention of British POWs in Lamsdorf during the Second World War. Next, we discuss the applied methods and data. The discussion is devoted to the analysis of material traces related to the history of imprisonment in Lamsdorf, which have survived in various forms and conditions in the surrounding forests to the present day. The use of non-invasive archaeological methods reveals the diversity of this heritage.

Historical background

The history of the Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice is complex and closely related to the Franco-Prussian, Great and Second World Wars during and after which various camps intended to imprison selected categories of people were organized near the village – on a military training ground established by the Prussian military authorities in the 1860s. During the wars POW camps for captured soldiers were functioning in Lamsdorf, and after the wars existing infrastructure was reused for the purpose of resettlement camps for civilians. The first POW camp was organized during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) to isolate approximately 6,000 French soldiers. During the Great War, the camp infrastructure grew to the size of one of the largest Prussian POW camps. All in all, during four years of the conflict, over 90,000 POWs of the Entente countries passed through the gates of Lamsdorf (Rezler-Wasielewska 2017, 13).

Similarly, during the Second World War, one of the largest POW camp complexes in Europe – the Lamsdorf Stalags – operated near the village. Its construction began as a POW transit camp called Dulag B (Durchgangslager), organized before the outbreak of the war in August 1939. In October 1939, this facility was transformed into a permanent camp for private soldiers and non-commissioned officers – Stalag VIII B Lamsdorf (Mannschaftsstammlager). After the German attack on the USSR in June 1941, a new camp was opened over two kilometres away – Stalag 318 Lamsdorf. In these two places near the village, prisoners of many armies and nationalities were held until the end of hostilities in Opole Silesia. There were numerous changes in the organization of the camps during that time, including command structures and nomenclature. For a short time in 1943 the Lamsdorf complex was also subject to the distant control of Stalag VIII D Teschen (Czech Cieszyn). The Lamsdorf camps were a centre of cheap labour for agriculture and industry in Silesia during the Second World War. In very difficult living conditions, between 1939 and 1945, the Germans detained over 300,000 people in Lamsdorf – prisoners from many countries and continents. The largest groups included Red Army soldiers, Polish POWs (soldiers of the September Campaign of 1939 and Warsaw insurgents of 1944) and British POWs. For Soviet POWs, Lamsdorf turned out to be a place of extermination. The number of victims buried here, who died mainly due to inhumane treatment, hunger and exhaustion, is estimated at approximately 40,000 people. To these figures should be added significant numbers of victims from the evacuation march of POWs into the Reich, which began at the end of January 1945, and the numerous work units (Sawczuk and Senft 2006).

The civilian population here was interned as a result of both world wars: in the years 1921–1924, Lamsdorf was a non-repressive German camp for Germans who had left the areas incorporated into the borders of the reborn Polish state. On the other hand, between 1945–1946 in then Polish Łambinowice, a Polish labour camp was organized for German inhabitants of nearby villages waiting for resettlement deeper into Germany following the establishment of a new Polish-German border during the so-called ‘Big Three’ conference. The number of labour camp prisoners from 1945–1946 is estimated at 5,000 (Nowak 2006a; Pawlik and Rezler-Wasielewska 2006).

War cemeteries, which contain the remains of several dozen thousand soldiers and a number of civilians that are difficult to determine precisely, along with the remains of the camp buildings, are material traces of a painful past. Since 1968 they have functioned as the Monument of National Remembrance, which in 2002 was renamed as the Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice. The Old Prisoners-of-War Cemetery is one of three war cemeteries at the Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice and the only one where almost every deceased person has a tombstone with a name and surname. Here over 7,000 people were buried on an area of approximately 4.5 ha. The vast majority of them were POWs – soldiers of the Entente countries who died in Lamsdorf during the Great War. However, the necropolis was created much earlier in 1871 by the quarter of French POWs (52 graves) that still exists today. During the Second World War POWs were buried in the cemetery and outside its fence, but there are no marked graves from this period. However, the monuments have been preserved. Most of them commemorate those who lost their lives during the Great War and are dedicated to the deceased prisoners of Lamsdorf (British, Serbs, Italians, Russians, all prisoners from this war and French prisoners from 1870/1871) (Rezler-Wasielewska 2017).

Close to the museum is the area of the Labour Camp in Łambinowice (1945–1946) and the cemetery of its victims. The remains of the barracks, faintly visible in the bushes, are the only material traces of the camp buildings. This camp was established after the end of the Second World War when the communist authorities of Poland established one of over a hundred temporary labour camps in Upper Silesia for the German population waiting to be resettled deep into Germany. The inmates also included members of the German POW camp staff and people suspected of belonging to Nazi organizations. Difficult living conditions, hunger, diseases and ill-treatment resulted in high mortality (approximately 1,500 victims) and the dead were buried in mass, unmarked graves. For political reasons, commemoration of the camp victims became possible only after the end of the Cold War. The cemetery was opened in 2002 (Nowak 2006a).

A few kilometres away there is an area with the remains of the buildings of Stalag 318/VIII F (344) Lamsdorf. This area is only a fragment of the former POW camp and just one of its many sectors. It existed from July 1941 until it was occupied by Soviet troops in March 1945. The camp was intended for the largest group of POWs subjected to the worst of treatment by the Germans – soldiers of the Red Army (hence the common name was a ‘Soviet camp’ – in German Russenlager). It is estimated that some 40,000 of the 200,000 Red Army soldiers who passed through the camp died. The Stalag also held French, Italian and Greek POWs and, in 1944, Slovak insurgents and approximately 6,000 Warsaw insurgents (men, women and children). Half a kilometre further to the west the Cemetery of Soviet POWs is located on a hill. Established in 1942 due to the high mortality rate among Soviet POWs, this accommodated victims who had previously been buried in layers in mass, unmarked graves on both sides of the Old POW Cemetery. Its identification as a burial place for POWs was made in mid-1945. The cemetery’s current arrangement was given to it in 1964 and it was then that the Monument to the Martyrdom of POWs was erected (Rezler-Wasielewska 2017; Sawczuk and Senft 2006).

The British POWs in Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf

British POWs had previously been held in Lamsdorf during the First World War. In 1918, according to German data, there were 738 soldiers there, including one officer, out of the 59,183 prisoners in Lamsdorf at that time. The precise number of British soldiers imprisoned in Lamsdorf during four years of the Great War is not known, but they were regularly helped by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and 83 of them were buried in the nearby cemetery. By 1919 the monument was founded by compatriots interned at Lamsdorf and it still exists today. The remains of the deceased British POWs were exhumed and moved to other places in 1924–1925 (Ciasnocha and Dzionek 2006, 70–71, 85–85; Doegen 1919, 14–15; Rezler-Wasielewska 1995; Schörnig 1926, 750).

During the Second World War, approximately 168,000 British soldiers were taken captive by the Third Reich. Almost one-third of them (a total of about 48,000) were sent to Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf. It was therefore the largest camp for British POWs and called by the Germans Britenlager (British camp – Figure 3), even though from the beginning of the war it accommodated mainly soldiers of the Polish Army and later also soldiers of other armies. In 1940 the Germans planned a Stalag specifically for British POWs but there was never a camp exclusively for them (Banik and Ciasnocha 2005; Kochavi 2005; Rolf 1998; Sawczuk and Senft 2006, 140; Wickiewicz 2018, 7–8).

Figure 3. British POWs at Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf (source: the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War).

Many factors influenced the decision to isolate so many British in Lamsdorf. In 1940, it was one of the most distant POW camps from the front and Great Britain. It also had a convenient location: away from larger cities, accessible by railway and near an industrial district that needed cheap labour. The site also benefited from the existing artillery training ground and camp infrastructure from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 (Nowak 2006b). It is worth noting that the term ‘British POW’ included not only British nationals but also representatives of the British Commonwealth and the British Empire, i.e. Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, Indians, Muslims and Sikhs. This huge national and ethnic diversity of POWs meant that during the Second World War the Germans pragmatically recognized that a British POW was any soldier who was taken prisoner in a British uniform (Wickiewicz 2018, 11).

Most of the POWs imprisoned in the camp considered it one of the worst they had ever been in and many termed it a ‘hell camp’ (Mackenzie 2006, 99) (Figure 4). Poor opinions of the camp were also held by visiting ICRC representatives and even the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom – Winston Churchill. The shortcomings of the infrastructure of the constantly expanded camp, periods of reduced food rations or overcrowding, the latter especially arduous beginning in the autumn of 1943, seem to justify such a bad reputation. On the other hand, its conditions surpassed those created by the Wehrmacht for POWs of other nationalities interned in other camps or even in Lamsdorf itself, in particular those accommodating the Red Army soldiers who were treated the worst. The British were, for various reasons, a privileged group in virtually every aspect of camp life. Still, aware of their POW rights, they made the most claims at the same time (Stanek 2019; Wylie 2010). This situation was not changed despite various instances of very harsh and illegal treatment that took place both in Stalag VIII B Lamsdorf and in other Wehrmacht camps – one of the most drastic in Lamsdorf being the fact that more than 1,500 POWs remained handcuffed for more than a year (Dancocks 1983; Stanek 2014).

Figure 4. Landscape of Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf in the autumn of 1943. The author was P.R. Olgivie, POW number 31,268 (collection of the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War).

The first transport of British soldiers arrived at Stalag VIII B Lamsdorf on 14 June 1940. The last one left the camp on 3 March 1945. During the war, the size of this POW group underwent frequent and significant changes, mainly due to transfers to and from other camps or work units, and even a small number of repatriations (about 2,000 men). Thus, their number oscillated between 8,000 and 9,000 in the summer of 1940, through 18,000 at the end of 1941, and reaching its highest in the autumn of 1943 when over 31,000 were recorded. At the time of the evacuation in January 1945, it reached 22,000. In total, about 48,000 British passed through the camp – they were private soldiers and non-commissioned officers, primarily of the land forces, but also of the air force and navy. Most were captured at Dunkirk, Narvik, in the Balkans, in North Africa, during the evacuation of Crete and after the defeat of the Dieppe Raid in 1942 (Wickiewicz 2018, 7).

Stalag VIII B was expanded into an extensive complex with sectors for soldiers of individual armies, additionally divided by service and rank. The Britenlager consisted of two clearly separate parts: the administrative and storage pre-camp and the main camp itself with sectors between which it was possible to move only during the day. The camp was built-up with brick or wooden barracks consisting of two rooms, each designed for about 130 men, with two- or three-story bunks, some tables and benches. One sector included four barracks and common latrines. Other elements of the camp infrastructure included the kitchen, the dining room, the barrack used as a chapel, school or theatre and pitches which served as roll-call squares and fields for holding numerous sports activities. The camp was surrounded by a barbed wire fence, typical of this type of place, with external posts and guard towers (Sawczuk and Senft 2006). The rhythm of the day was determined by the camp regulations. For prisoners permanently staying in the camp, who did not work in external work units, it began with a wake-up call at 6.00 or 7.00 in the morning, and ended around 10.00 pm with closing of the barracks and curfew. The day was filled with assemblies lasting many hours (sometimes even at night), three meals, hygiene procedures, and fighting against lice, fleas and bed bugs.

The living conditions were bad and became worse with every year. This was due to the increasing overcrowding of the camp, insufficient heating of the barracks in winter and their increasingly poor technical condition (including missing window panes). In addition, moisture, insects and plagues of aggressive rats were among the everyday problems faced by the POWs. Meals, their preparation, and especially efforts to ensure the most equitable distribution of food were an important aspect of the camp life. They were also the cause of numerous disputes and irritations, hence various ideas for minimizing them appeared. As one prisoner commented: ‘No surgeon tackled an operation with more apprehension than the unfortunate chap chosen to divide the loaf’ (Evans 1995, 18). Food parcels from families and the ICRC played an important role in the day-to-day life of POWs behind barbed wire in Lamsdorf. This help was so substantial that it even allowed some prisoners to resign from camp rations – something unthinkable in the case of soldiers of other armies (Lenkiewicz 2000, 113).

British POWs from Lamsdorf worked not only in the camp, but also in over 300 work units scattered throughout Silesia (now south-eastern Poland), and were engaged in almost every area of the German economy, from agriculture, through industry to particularly hard and dangerous work in mines. Those employed in strategic industrial facilities, such as oil refineries or synthetic gasoline factories, were exposed to bombing raids by Allied air forces. Many POWs rebelled against the obligation to work and committed acts of sabotage, but others saw this as an opportunity to contact civilians as well as gain valuable information, additional food, clothing and a possibility to escape.

During the Second World War, at least 338 British died in Lamsdorf. They were buried in the POW cemetery which was part of the campscape. Their bodies were exhumed and moved either to the Rakowicki Cemetery in Kraków or taken back to their homeland after the war (Rezler-Wasielewska 2000). The causes of death included diseases, accidents at work or attempts to escape, but a relatively low level of mortality by comparison to POWs of other nationalities (especially Soviet) reflected various factors: apart from the nutritional situation, these included relatively good treatment by the German camp staff and fairly efficient and extensive medical care, which POWs under German supervision had the opportunity to receive in the camp infirmary or in the hospitals based in Lamsdorf and Cosel (in Polish: Koźle).

The mortality of the British in Lamsdorf is a telling example of the Germans’ approach to POWs. The mortality rate of POWs of the British Empire did not exceed 1% (approximately 400 deaths out of approximately 48,000 prisoners). In the case of Soviet POWs it is more difficult to calculate the mortality level, because both the number of deaths and the number of detained Soviet POWs are estimates and vary in different sources, but it can be conservatively assumed that it is 20–40%. Similarly mortality level of Polish soldiers is difficult to determine due to the lack of accurate statistics (Sawczuk and Senft 2006, 223–224; Wickiewicz 2018, 27,45).

At the end of 1944, in view of the approaching eastern front, the German authorities prepared plans to evacuate the camp to the west and deep into the territory of the Third Reich. At the beginning of January 1945 they repatriated 700 sick British POWs, and on 22 January 1945, they started a general evacuation which continued in the following days. It covered almost 22,000 British POWs from the camp and working units. Leaving Lamsdorf in columns of about 1,000 people each, they set out on an exhausting march which lasted even several weeks, under strict guard, with small food rations and in severe frost. Hence, in the POWs’ accounts, the term ‘death march’ is often used. Some of them had to return to Lamsdorf and were transported again together with the sick on railway medical transports at the turn of February/March 1945. Those who survived regained their freedom at different times, in different places and circumstances. They returned home as part of Operation Exodus, retaining the memory of their traumatic captivity in Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf (Mikulec and Rezler-Wasielewska 2015; Stanek 2018; Wickiewicz 2018, 118–127).

After the end of the Second World War the camp area became again a military training ground as it had been in the 19^th century. The camp buildings were demolished, some of them being progressively destroyed and others razed to the ground in connection with post-war military training of the Polish Army which lasted until 2002. Elements of the camp infrastructure were also used by the local inhabitants since after the war there was a lack of even the most basic materials – thus bricks, tiled stoves or even wood from the barracks were taken and reused. Finally, the area was slowly but systematically being reforested so that today it seems that almost nothing remains of the Britenlager.

Methods and data

Historical aerial photographs, plans, sketches, blueprints etc. used for the inventory and mapping of the preserved material remains related to the camps that functioned in Lamsdorf between 1870 and 1946 were collected for the purpose of the study (Figures 5–6). The photographs were divided into two groups (compare Opitz and Cowley 2013; Rączkowski 2002), the first of which were taken during the functioning of the camps and the originals are kept in Herder Institute in Germany and National Archives and Records Administration, USA. Images belonging to the second group documents the landscape captured by aerial photography in the late 1960s (Military Historical Institute, Central Military Archives, Poland).

Figure 5. Plan of the camp based on memories of POWs of Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf, documenting the infrastructure in 1940 (prepared by A. Lokś; collection of the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War).

Figure 6. Aerial photography from September 1944 documenting the infrastructure of Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf (collection of the National Archives and Records Administration, USA) and the general plan of the camp based on the photography (prepared by K. Karski).

However, a new element in the study of POW campscapes in recent years (and one that might be argued to have been revolutionary) has been data obtained as a result of airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) (e.g. Kobiałka 2017; Kostyrko and Kobiałka 2020), and this has been critical to our research on the landscapes of Lamsdorf. The method of analysing and interpretation of LiDAR products was based on an existing dataset. This data was gathered for the purpose of implementing project IT Country Protection System (in Polish: Informatyczny System Osłony Kraju przed nadzwyczajnymi zagroszeniami; ISOK) (see more at https://isok.gov.pl/o-projekcie.html). Today this database is available via the national geoportal (see more at https://geoportal.gov.pl/). The dataset is provided in the form of a point cloud with a spatial scope of ¼ of a map sheet at 1:10 000 in the 1992 coordinate system, hence 1 × 1 km. For the Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice there is one dataset in the standard of the 1st IT Country Protection System project with a spatial density of minimum 6 points per m² – nonetheless, the measured spatial density of points classified as land in the research area after reclassification is on average 7.32 points per m², prepared based on a flight from 11 March 2011. All data for the project were assigned the Kronsztad 86 elevation system and 1992 coordinate system, which was maintained for future processing of spatial data (Kurczyński, Stojek, and Cisło-Lesicka 2015, 30–36).

Publicly available data is provided in the form of a classified point cloud, which means that specific algorithms assigned classes to the points that represent specific land cover. However, this classification was not carried out for the purpose of identifying archaeological structures and remains (Banaszek 2015). Therefore, it is possible to digitally remove scanning points that might represent archaeological remains or they may be incorrectly classified e.g. as a low vegetation. The next, equally important stage in data processing is to create new digital terrain models (DTM) based on previously prepared classification. In other words, the preparation of DTM is fully dependent on preparing the point cloud as the DTM is to represent the ground surface instead of the first encountered surface reflecting the laser beam. Reclassifications of the point cloud was performed based on the Open LiDAR Toolbox (Štular, Eichert, and Lozić 2021). DTM was also prepared by the use of the mentioned toolkit with the use of the interpolation TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network) with the output model resolution at the level of a raster cell corresponding to a 0,5 m/pix.

In the context of the use of LiDAR technology in archaeology, the identification of archaeological remains, often manifesting as slight terrain height differences, is possible thanks to the preparation of DTM (Figure 7). There are many methods of DTM visualization, of which six were selected during the project, namely hillshading, sky-view factor, simplified local relief model, local dominance, slope, and visualization for archaeological topography (e.g. Kokalj, Zakšek, and Oštir 2013; Mlekuž 2013a, 2013b; Štular et al. 2012).

Figure 7. Digital terrain model of Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf (prepared by A. Lokś, source: Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography, Poland).

The hillshading method, called also shaded relief, presents terrain as a shaded and illuminated surface from a defined illumination source. Three different angles of illumination were used to bring out the full range of features of the terrain, and thereby avoiding concealing features which would not be highlighted by the use of light from only one direction e.g. a structure located along the direction of incidence of light. These three sources of light were located at the same height and the model was displayed in a greyscale colour ramp.

The limits connected with hillshading are minimized by the use of sky-view factor analysis (SVF). The SVF registers the fraction of visible sky at a specific point as a raster. Here the source of illumination is scattered rather than pointed from one or multiple azimuths and the variable of this model is the specified radius of the visible horizon for each of the DTM height values. The model value is expressed on a scale of 0–1, where 0 corresponds to a completely covered sky (e.g. part of a steep depression), while 1 corresponds to a fully open hemisphere of the sky (e.g. the top of a barrow). A variation of SVF is anisotropic imaging, a technique which varies the brightness of the hemisphere from certain directions and which may significantly affect the interpretation of structures on the surface. It is the anisotropic version that was selected and prepared in the study because it emphasizes relatively small differences in terrain considered low-relief, i.e. in the post-camp areas in Łambinowice. The prepared model is characterized by a low level of anisotropy, a gain of 1.3, a radius of the visible sky of 25 m, and noise removal.

The surroundings of Łambinowice are mostly characterized by small differences in terrain, but they may constitute larger features in the landscape. A more complete analysis of distinguishing terrain forms from archaeological remains includes the visualization of the simplified local relief model. Here, larger structures (e.g. river valleys) are generalized by filtering and then subtracted from the input DTM, and an image is created that highlights relatively small forms in the field. The only value to be taken into account when generating the model is the radius of the low-pass filter, which was 50 m when preparing the visualization. A visualization similar to the one outlined above in terms of results is local dominance. It differs in terms of its operating principle (algorithm calculations) because it is based on calculating the extent to which a point of a given height (‘observer’) would be visible to the surroundings. This environment is one of the input parameters for preparing the model as the radius is expressed in length units, as well as the height of the observer point. An additional parameter is the minimum radius to avoid noise. We assumed the appropriate values for the studied area to be a radius of 5–25 m with a point/observer 1.7 m high. Another method used was slope gradient analysis. As the name suggests, it involves representing slope by calculating the rate of change in height between raster cells in gradual values. The study assumes a gain of 1.25.

The last of the DTM visualization methods used is VAT (from the acronym visualization for archaeological topography). One of the newer approaches to visualizing the results of airborne laser scanning (Kokajl and Somrak 2019), this type of visualization is unique in that it was prepared to highlight archaeological remains in the landscape. The visualization is a combination of the sky-view factors presented above, slope analysis, hillshading and also positive openness visualization. The final product is characterized by ease of interpretation of the results, a high degree of visibility of small spatial structures and good surface reproduction in any type of landscape.

A Geographic Information System (GIS) was the basis for activities related to the analysis and interpretation of spatial data, so any new data recorded during the project was gathered with spatial information whenever possible. In the context of the interpretation of airborne laser scanning derivatives, the resulting data were saved in the form of digital files containing spatial layers based on the Polish Geographic Coordinate System 1992 (PUWG92) containing identified remains in the form of polygons and lines – including positive and negative traces of buildings and infrastructure of the studied area. During the implementation of the task in 2022 the focus was on the area previously occupied by the so-called Britenlager that functioned during the Second World War in Lamsdorf. The interpretation of airborne laser scanning derivatives and its integration with other sources (aerial photographs, maps, sketches, blueprints, etc.) allowed for the documentation of 1,187 features in the local landscape, 144 of which can be directly attributed to the remains of POW camps located in the studied area with the remainder representing earlier or later human activity in the study area.

Discussion

Oblique aerial photographs dating to 1934 document the state of the infrastructure of Lager II (the numbering dating from the times of the Great War) which was later reused to build Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf during the Second World War (Figure 8). The photographs give an insight into both the camp’s infrastructure and its immediate context – the latter not presented on the camps plans due to the limitations of this type of spatial data recording (compare Figure 5). The observation includes space for gardens interspersed with vegetable patches. Their irregular form (Figure 8a; blue arrows) seems to suggest that these were informal, individual initiatives. The space of the camp hospital (the north-eastern part of the photography) is also informative from the archaeological point of view – its south-eastern part is clearly empty, which most likely reflects the removal of some of the facilities after the end of the activities related to the Great War (and the detention of a large group of POWs in the training ground).

Figure 8. Oblique photographies from 1934 of the area of the future Stalag VIII B (344) (prepared by M. Kostyrko; source Herder Institute, Germany).

On the north-eastern side of the site a plot of land bears traces of recent tree felling – perhaps for the purpose of obtaining wood as such, or more likely perhaps for creating the space for moving the hospital which is documented in the plan from 1940. In the analysed photographs there are also visible traces of many buildings that did not survive until 1934, but which are present on earlier plans (Figure 8b; red arrows). These traces are visible in the form of the so-called negative vegetation marks showing where the buildings were previously located in this place and aspects of their planforms. In some cases only indistinct traces are visible, in others there is an outline of the foundation, while in places there are bright patches not covered with grass that likely indicate foundations made of brick or concrete. Based on the paths crossing the described structures it can be concluded that a sufficient amount of time has passed since their removal by 1934 to allow for the development of behaviours related to a much-changed site landscape.

A completely different kind of vegetation mark is a row of trees (Figure 8b; yellow arrows) disappearing towards the north. This avenue seems to consist of trees lower and probably younger than those visible in the eastern counterpart of the discussed site, so it can be inferred to have been created in a later period. There is a distinctly overgrown space between the trees, suggesting that the avenue never really became such until 1934. The paths that often cross the area of the former Lager dating from the Great War give the impression of duplicating spontaneously created patterns of movement around the area in question suggesting the possibility of free movement around the described space. The fence structure mentioned above (Figure 8a; purple arrows) seems to be a construct that is partly intended to counteract this.

Despite their great documentary value described above, neither of these 1934 photographs were included in the spatial information system created for the needs of the conducted project due to their oblique angle. The situation is different with an aerial photograph taken in 1944 during an Allied reconnaissance raid (Figure 6; see also Kobiałka et al. 2023). This vertical photography was taken with the intention of creating an orthophoto map and today, thanks to georeferencing, it is a good comparative source for photographs taken later, as well as those plans and maps gathered during desk-based research.The administrative part of the campscape (Figure 9; purple arrows) consisted of trees in full leaf, but the photography still documents the small buildings located in the vicinity of the former camp hospital from the Great War period. According to archival materials, this area was used by the Abwehr in the years 1939–1945 (Figure 9; yellow rectangle). The interpretation of the aerial photography from 1944 also allowed identification of buildings that were not reflected in the known plans from that period. In the case of some buildings it can be assumed that they were built after 1943 (Figure 9; navy blue rectangles).

Figure 9. Interpretation of the infrastructure of Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf (prepared by M. Kostyrko).

A comparative analysis of the available data (plans and photographs from 1944) allows us to draw attention to some differences in documenting the existing space (Figure 10). This applies to the presence and location of smaller elements of camp infrastructure (Figure 10a). Additionally, there may have been omissions of features that were difficult to interpret or considered of minor importance. Structures of this type include guard towers (Figure 10b) which may be identified from the shadow they cast (Figure 10b; yellow arrow). Similarly, the POWs’ gardens and tents were not documented on the plans from the period or those created on the basis of post-war memories of soldiers imprisoned in Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf (Figures 10c-d).

Figure 10. Interpretation of remote sensing data regarding Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf: a) the difference between the digitized buildings based on the plan from 1943 and the interpretation of the aerial photo from 1944, b) the watchtower visible on the aerial photography, c) POWs’ gardens, d) sites with POW tents and clothes drying between the prisoner barracks (prepared by M. Kostyrko; collection of the national archives and records administration, USA).

Aerial photography obtained from the resources of the Polish Military Historical Institute, Central Military Archives, documenting the area in 1967 shows a landscape no longer in use after the end of the Second World War (Figure 11). The vegetation in the northern part of the former camp is relatively sparse, suggesting that the condition visible in the photography (no traces of buildings above the ground) occurred a relatively short time before it was taken. A change in the road network is also noticeable, but some of these were clearly still in use at the time of taking the photography. The fire pools still retained their function – they were filled with water when the photography was taken (Figure 11b; blue arrows). It is interesting that in the northern part of the site, traces of the former camp infrastructure are manifested in the form of negative vegetation marks while in other places the situation is the opposite. For example, in the area of the former camp hospital the vegetation growth exactly coincides with the former building footprints and the area between them remains as meadows, suggesting that that the former barracks of the lazarette were not fully demolished (see also Kobiałka et al. 2023).

Figure 11. The area of the former Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf in 1967 (a) and its interpretation(b) (prepared by M. Kostyrko; source: Military Historical Institute, Central Military Archives, Poland).

The above analyses were very helpful in processing and interpreting derivative products of airborne laser scanning and in combination they allowed registering a total of 1,187 structures and remains in Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf (Figure 12). All of these features are related to human activity which has left a material trace in the local landscape − 144 of them are directly related to the camp operating here in the years 1939–1945.

Figure 12. Interpretation of the Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf area based on airborne laser scanning derivatives (prepared by M. Kostyrko, A. Lokś, S. Tomczak; source: Head office of geodesy and cartography, Poland).

The methodology of processing LiDAR data was based on the morphology of the analysed features. Two types of structures were distinguished. The first category comprises negative traces, i.e. depressions related to the intervention in the ground; the second category, in turn, consisted of positive features including extant building remains.

Most of the roads, both the main ones shown on the plans and the narrower ones between buildings which are not included in the plans (compare Figure 5), have been discernible on airborne laser scanning derivatives (Figure 13). Some good examples are presented in Figure 13b (blue arrows) where elongated structures (7 m wide) with raised profiles are flanked by adjacent ditches (1,5 m wide and 0,4 m deep). Structures of this type are typical of the main roads inside the camp. Relics of the barracks have also been preserved throughout the camp in the form of rectangular structures approximately 67 m long and 12 m wide (Figure 14). They protrude above the ground surface by approximately 0.5 m. Between them there are structures interpreted as paths.

Figure 13. Airborne laser scanning derivatives with marked roads (the red lines) (a) and examples of roads indicated by the blue arrows (prepared by A. Lokś, source: Head office of geodesy and cartography office, Poland).

Figure 14. A fragment of the plan of the camp from 1943 with barracks (the blue arrow) (a) the state of their documentation on airborne laser scanning derivatives (b) (prepared by A. Lokś; source: Head office of geodesy and cartography, Poland).

Particularly noteworthy are the central parts of the buildings, which have been preserved in slightly different ways due perhaps to the various types of materials used in construction. For example, buildings could have been reinforced with additional beams or walls in the middle.

Most of the barracks were one-story buildings. Latrines were also one-story buildings but without heating. One of these could have been located in buildings marked as warehouses (Figure 15a; blue arrow) on the plan from 1934, but in general it is difficult to confidently identify such structures.

Figure 15. Airborne laser scanning derivatives : a) marked places (the red circles) where storage buildings were located. The blue arrow indicates potential traces of a latrine, b) the arrows mark the bathing and delousing buildings and the kitchen, which may have served as an officers’ bath (prepared by M. Kostyrko; source: Head office of geodesy and cartography, Poland).

Three buildings in the western part of the site and south of the barracks were identified as delousing and bathing facilities. In the analysed data, one of these shows little definition on the DTM (Figure 15b – the green arrow); another is clearly outlined in the field in the form of an upstanding structure to a height of 1.5 m (Figure 15b; red arrow), while the third one is a depression about 7 × 5 m in size and about 1.5 m deep. The last structure is interpreted as a swimming pool (?) inside the building (Figure 15b; blue arrow). A similar negative structure is documented in one of the officers’ buildings (Figure 15b; yellow arrow), referred to as a kitchen on the plans of the Stalag. It could have served earlier as an officers’ bathhouse as well.

The analysed data also clearly distinguish further negative remains that can be identified as a swimming pool (dimensions of 37.5 m × 14 m and a depth of 2 m, Figure 15b; yellow arrow) and fire protection pools (dimensions of 12.5 m x 12.5 m and a depth of 2 m, Figure 15b; blue arrow). To the south-east of the camp infrastructure, rectangular positive remains of various lengths, but with a constant width of 2 m, are evident and are spaced at 0.5 m intervals. These remains correspond to rows of graves in the POW cemetery that are also marked on the plans obtained for the purposes of the project (Figure 5).

Various types of warehouses were located in two places in the western and the south-west parts of the cemetery. In the former, clothes, coal or bread could be stored. They have survived to a lesser extent than the residential barracks and no structures stand out in their central part, possibly due to the fact that they were not heated and there were no stoves. Their remains are visible on airborne laser scanning derivatives at a height of up to 0.5 m. The second group of warehouses is much more difficult to observe in the analysed data which may be due to a modern building built in the middle of the largest of them.

Trenches of various lengths, about 1.5 m wide and from about 0.3 m to about 1 m deep, were identified throughout the campscape. Some of them were likely contemporary with the functioning of the camp and can be confirmed by their presence on the aerial photography from 1944 (Figure 6). They served as a shelter in the event of air raids, which is confirmed in the historical records.

Conclusion

For thousands of British soldiers captured by the German and Italian armed forces, being taken prisoner was a humiliating experience that marked the beginning of several years of daily struggle to maintain dignity. The end of the war, on the other hand, became for them an opportunity to make up for the lost time, to arrange their lives anew as quickly as possible and to forget about the war. This is known mainly from POWs’ diaries and thanks to accounts and memoirs written down after regaining freedom. Additionally, after the war, some of the former POWs created thriving veterans’ organizations in the countries of the British Commonwealth, which joined the process of preserving the memory of the POWs’ fates. They dealt with organizing anniversary celebrations and community meetings and were also responsible for documenting the fates of POWs and sharing the knowledge about war experiences in Lamsdorf. At the same time, some of the former POWs chose to exercise restraint that lasted for decades, which was especially painful for their loved ones. In these cases the decision to share the experiences of internment are determined by the family only at the end of his life or after his death.

The use of non-invasive methods and tools commonly used by archaeologists allows careful documentation of the diversity of camp landscapes – their materiality that has been preserved until the present in various conditions. In the case of the Lamsdorf campscape, after the war the infrastructure was dismantled, destroyed, fell into oblivion and was recovered by nature (Figure 16). The history of Stalag VIII B (344) is a perfect example of this and remains of particular importance to the descendants of those who spent long days, weeks and years behind the barbed wire in Lamsdorf.

Figure 16. The materiality of former Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf in the present (author D. Frymark; source: the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War, Poland).

The Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War carries the responsibility for caring about this history, heritage, and memory. The work carried out as part of the Science for society, society for science at the Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice project is also an example of this.

Acknowledgments

The project was co-financed from the state budget under the programme of the Minister of Education and Science, Poland called “Science for Society”, number: NdS/545193/2022/2022, amount of funding: PLN 560,740,00, total value: PLN 560,740,00.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Ministerstwo Edukacji i Nauki [NdS / 545193/2022/2022].

Notes on contributors

Dawid Kobiałka

Dawid Kobiałka is an archaeologist and cultural anthropologist. He is interested in contemporary archaeology, forensic archaeology and heritage studies. He has published his articles in “Antiquity”, “Journal of Contemporary Archaeology”, “Journal of Historical Archaeology”, “Journal of Conflict Archaeology” and “Current Swedish Archaeology”.

Mikołaj Kostyrko

Mikołaj Kostyrko is an archaeologist specializing in the use of remote sensing methods to study traces of past human activity in the cultural landscape. His main area of interest is the period of the First and Second World Wars, and he devotes special attention to the study of post-camp spaces.

Adam Lokś

Adam Lokś is an archaeologist specializing in the use of non-invasive methods in research into the recent past. He graduated from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland) focusing his research interests around the use of historical and contemporary aerial photographs, as well as the use of aerial laser scanning data for the identification of past landscapes. Currently, he is an independent researcher and provides geomatic services as part of his own business.

Kamil Karski

Kamil Karski is an archaeologist and museologist. He is interested in contemporary archaeology, especially the First and Second World Wars, and in the activities of museums in popularizing archaeology and using its potential in exhibitions and educational activities. He has been an employee of the Krakow Museum since 2017 and of KL Plaszow Museum since 2021.

Violetta Rezler-Wasielewska

Violetta Rezler-Wasielewska is Director of the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War; historian, initiator of research, editorial and educational projects, author and co-author, scientific editor of works dealing mainly with the problem area of Prisoners-of-War in the World War 2, education in sites of national remembrance and microhistory; her professional interests also include management of cultural resources.

Piotr Stanek

Piotr Stanek is the head of the Scientific Department of the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War and secretary of the editorial office of “Łambinowicki Rocznik Muzealny” [Łambinowice Museum Yearbook]. He is a historian with interests in the subject of prisoners of war, both the history of the Lamsdorf camp complex (1870–1946) and the German POW system from the Second World War.

Anna Wickiewicz

Anna Wickiewicz heads the Department of Education and Exhibitions of the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War. She is the author and co-author of many educational and exhibition activities at the Museum. Her research interests focus on British prisoners-of-war in German captivity during the Second World War, especially in Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf.

Elżbieta Góra

Elżbieta Góra is the head of the Collections and Conservation Department of the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War, one of the custodians of the collection of POW museum exhibits at the Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice.

Sonia Tomczak

Sonia Tomczak is a PhD candidate in archaeology at the Doctoral School of Humanities, Theology and Art, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. She is an archaeologist and linguist interested in the use of non-invasive methods in archaeological research and possibilities to document heritage, especially focusing on the changes in documentation that development of modern technology provides.

Michał Pawleta

Michał Pawleta is an associate professor at the Faculty of Archaeology of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. His research interests include the social function of archaeology, uses and misuses of the past in the present, archaeological methods and theory, the protection and management of the archaeological heritage and heritage studies.