Oflag VII-A Murnau was a German Army prisoner-of-war camp for Polish Army officers during World War II. It was located north of the Bavarian town of Murnau am Staffelsee.
Camp history
The camp was created in September 1939. It consisted of an enclosure square, surrounded with barbed wire and guard towers. Immediately after the German invasion of Poland, at the beginning of World War II, some 1,000 Polish officers were imprisoned there. On April 27, 1942, additional Polish POWs were transferred there from the so-called "Generals' Camp" Oflag VIII-E in Janské Koupele in German-occupied Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic). In October 1944, 592 Polish insurgents of the suppressed Warsaw Uprising were brought from Stalag 344, and further Polish officers were brought later from Stalag VII-A. By early 1945 the number of POWs held in the camp reached over 5,000.
The camps was liberated by troops of the U.S. 12th Armored Division on 29 April 1945.
List of notable prisoners Among those imprisoned in Murnau were:
Rear Admiral (Kontradmirał) Józef Unrug
Divisional Generals (Generał dywizji) Władysław Bortnowski Tadeusz Kutrzeba Tadeusz Piskor Juliusz Rómmel
Brigade Generals (Generał brygady)
Roman Abraham Franciszek Alter Władysław Bończa-Uzdowski
Walerian Czuma
Juliusz Drapella Janusz Gąsiorowski Edmund Knoll-Kownacki Wincenty Kowalski
Józef Kwaciszewski Stanisław Małachowski Czesław Młot-Fijałkowski Bernard Mond
Wacław Piekarski Zygmunt Podhorski
Jan Jagmin-Sadowski Antoni Szylling Stanisław Taczak Wiktor Thommée Juliusz Zulauf
Officers Witold Pilecki, former prisoner no 4859 of Auschwitz under assumed name of Tomasz Serafiński; Murnau prisoner no 101892Piotr Stanek. Witold Pilecki. Jeniec wojenny nr 101892. Centralne Muzeum Jeńców Wojennych, Opole 2022. 80pp.
Majors Seweryn Kulesza
Captains
See also List of prisoner-of-war camps in Germany
References
External links
Life in Murnau The forgotten photos