in detail
The Ziegenhain main prisoner camp (Stalag) IX A, which existed from 1939 to 1945, was one of a total of 83 prisoner-of-war camps that operated in the former territory of the Reich. It is the only one whose physical structure in large parts is still recognizable today. In 1985 the entire grounds were placed under historical protection. Established on an area of 7 hectare, it was the largest prisoner-of-war camp in the region of what is today Hessen.
Two separately maintained cemeteries belonged to the Stalag – one for the deceased Polish and West European prisoners-of-war, the other, farther away, for the Soviet and Serb prisoners-of-war who, declared by the Nazis as “subhuman,” lost their lives, as well as Italian military internees. In September 1992, the cemetery with its new design as the Waldfriedhof Trutzhain memorial site, was dedicated. It is cared for each year by the graduating class of the Carl-Bantzer School. The other cemetery is a community cemetery of Trutzhain today.
In 1939, mostly Polish and French prisoners-of-war were interned in Stalag IX A. By the summer of 1940, however, the French made up the largest group in the camp. It is documented for 1941 that of 35,000 prisoners-of-war were registered there, more than 32,000 came from France. Among them was the man who would later become France’s president, Francois Mitterand. Dutch, Belgians, Serbs, and Italian military internees, and even American soldiers, were also brought to the camp. Many thousands of Soviet prisoners-of-war who had been brought to the camp in November 1941 were forced to vegetate under inhuman conditions in a separate area of the camp. In 1944 there were over 50,000 prisoners in the Stalag IX A, only some of them, however, were actually housed in the camp. Most of them had to do forced labor in one of 2000 commandos of military district IX. Many worked in the Kassel armaments industry, in the munitions factories of Stadtallendorf and in agriculture and forestry industries. On March 3, 1945, the prisoner-of-war camp was liberated by American troops. After that, the grounds served as housing for members of the Wehrmacht and SS who had been taken captive and for the internment of NSDAP members. Later it was used as a Displaced Persons camp (DP camp 95-443), for East Europeans Jews waiting to emigrate. By 1948, the former camp barracks provided housing for people who had been expelled from their homes or had fled from the East. This population established a new community called Trutzhain.
Since 1983 a small museum in the upper rooms of a town community building, run by a private initiative, recalls the history of the prisoner-of-war camp. It is managed by the Trutzhain Kyffhäuser brotherhood, which worked together with “Les anciens du Stalag IX A”, the workgroup of former French prisoners-of-war. At the same time, the DGB workgroup “Spurensicherung (preserving traces) actively researched the history of the camp.
In accordance with the unanimous decision of the assembly ordained by the town of Schwalmstadt in April 1995, parts of the existing museum were moved to the larger space in the former guard barracks and redesigned using scholarly information and museum educational methods. The preparations for this, which included the development of a new concept and collection inventory, was completed by 2003. The Trutzhain Memorial and Museum opened on June 27, 2003. The museum is an educational center, a memorial site and meeting place and also functions as a mediator between the past, present and future thus contributing to political education and peace education.
1939-45
The Ziegenhain prisoner-of-war camp Stalag IX A is in operation. In 1944 the camp contains 50,000 prisoners. They are forced to work as slave laborers in the 2,000 work commandos.
