Stalag XXI - D Stalag XXI - D was a German World War II PoW Camp based in Poznań ( Posnan ) , Poland . Description . Following the invasion of Poland in 1939 and the establishment of the Reichsgau Wartheland , Poznań became the administrative centre of ' Wehrkreis XXI ' ( Military District XXI ) . Some of Poznań ' s eighteenth century forts were used as prison camps . Most notorious of these was the concentration camp , Fort VII , which was predominately used to house Polish prisoners . Some other forts , along with labour camp locations in the surrounding countryside , were used to hold PoWs . These collectively formed Stalag XXI - D and accommodated just over 3000 prisoners in total . Camps . In Poznań itself , three forts were used to house PoWs ; Rauch , IIIA and VIII . On the eastern , right , bank of the River Warta , near to the present day St . Roch bridge , stood Fort Rauch , the most southern of the right bank fortifications . Although partially demolished during the 1920s , it was used to accommodate about 750 men . An ICRC report of August 1941 described the fort as being “ a circular building , made of red brick with three floors each with its windows facing an interior court which acts as the hub of the fort . There is no overcrowding and the rooms are not so large that they become noisy when filled with prisoners . ” Prisoners lived in many of the 50 basement rooms of the brick built redoubt , with 30 - 46 beds per room . Other rooms were used as a common room and theatre . After the war Fort Rauch was completely demolished and a college now stands on the site . Of the west , left bank forts , Fort VIII ( Fort Grolman ) was also used to house British and French prisoners . ; The fort still stands , located to the south of Stadion Miejski , home to Lech Poznań football club . Work camps were established in a wide area in and around Poznań . These included ; Working Camp 4 , Ostrowo < ref name = " WO311 / 948 " > < / ref > Krotoszyn d14 ; Kuhndorf ( possibly located at or near Sołacki Park renamed ' Kuhndorfpark ' during the occupation in the Niestachów , Jeżyce area of north west Poznań . ) ; XXI - D / Z Schildberg June – December 1943 ( about 130 km south - west of Poznań ) , XXI - D / Z Montwy September – December 1943 ( near Hohensalza about 107 km north - east of Poznań ) , and even as far away as Litzmannstadt / Łódź ( Lodz ) about 200 km to the east and closer to Warsaw than Poznań . Despite the distance , administration of the work camp at Łódź fell under Stalag XXI - D for part of the war . One group of PoWs were billeted in a disused textile dye works and worked in engineering workshops under the control of the German Ordnance Corps , supplying repair services for the Russian Front . This Ordnance Corps was known as H . K . P 20 ( translated as Rearguard Vehicle Repair Park ) . The German Army training area at Warthelager a few miles north of Poznan , was the location of a PoW working camp between July 1940 and June 1942 . Initially a sub - camp of Stalag XXI - B , by September 1941 became camp 11 of Stalag XXI - D . Prisoners moved between three locations within a few kilometres during that period , including a disused Polish Cavalry stables . Prisoners worked , for example , filling bomb craters .