Stalag VIII - B Stalag VIII - B Lamsdorf was a notorious German Army prisoner of war camp , later renumbered Stalag - 344 , located near the small town of Lamsdorf ( now called Łambinowice ) in Silesia . The camp initially occupied barracks built to house British and French prisoners in World War I . At this same location there had been a prisoner camp during the Franco - Prussian War of 1870 - 71 . Timeline . It was opened in 1939 to house Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive . Later approximately 100 , 000 prisoners from Australia , Belgium , British India , British Palestine , Canada , France , Greece , Italy , the Netherlands , New Zealand , Poland , South Africa , the Soviet Union , the United Kingdom , the Isle of Man , the United States and Yugoslavia passed through this camp . In 1941 a separate camp , Stalag VIII - F was set up close by to house the Soviet prisoners . In 1943 , the Lamsdorf camp was split up , and many of the prisoners ( and " Arbeitskommando " ) were transferred to two new base camps Stalag VIII - C Sagan ( modern Żagań and Stalag VIII - D Teschen ( modern Český Těšín ) . The base camp at Lamsdorf was renumbered Stalag 344 . The Soviet Army reached the camp on 17 March 1945 . Later the Lamsdorf camp was used by the Soviets to house Germans , both prisoners of war and civilians . Polish army personnel being repatriated from POW camps were also processed through Lamsdorf and sometimes held there as prisoners for several months . Some were later released , others sent to Gulags in Siberia . Stalag Luft VIII - B . By 1943 , the famous camp for Allied flight personnel in Sagan - Stalag Luft III - had become so overcrowded that about 1 , 000 , mostly non - commissioned flight personnel , were transferred to Lamsdorf . A part of Stalag VIII - B was separated by building new barbed - wire fences , designated Stalag Luft VIII - B . Thus a camp within a camp was created . However all food was provided from kitchens operated by army personnel in the camp proper . Medical facilities . The hospital facilities at Stalag VIII - B were among the best in all Stalags . The so - called " Lazarett " was set up on separate site with eleven concrete buildings . Six of them were self - contained wards , each with space for about 100 patients . The others served as treatment blocks with operating theaters , X - ray and laboratory facilities , as well as kitchens , a morgue , and accommodations for the medical staff . The lazarett was headed by a German officer with the title " Oberst Arzt " ( " Colonel Doctor " ) , but the staff was made up entirely of prisoners . They included general physicians and surgeons , even a neuro - surgeon , psychiatrist , anesthesiologist , radiologist . Evacuation and repatriation . In January 1945 , as the Soviet armies resumed their offensive and advanced into Germany , many of the prisoners were marched westward in groups of 200 to 300 in the so - called Death March . Many of them died from the bitter cold and exhaustion . The lucky ones got far enough to the west to be liberated by the American army . The unlucky ones got " liberated " by the Soviets , who instead of turning them over quickly to the western allies , held them as virtual hostages for several more months . Many of them were finally repatriated towards the end of 1945 through the port of Odessa on the Black Sea . Arbeitskommandos . There were more than 700 subsidiary " Arbeitskommandos " ( working parties outside the main camp ) . In the second issue of " The Clarion " ( the camp magazine ) in February 1943 , the RC Chaplain Father John Berry says that " . . . there are about 600 Working Parties and . . . you will be able to guess why so many of you will have not yet had a visit " . Arbeitskommandos were set up to house lower ranks that were working in the coal mines , quarries , factories and on railways . Among them were :