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14th April 1942
Stalag IV-C

Stalag IV-C
Stalag IV-C
Stalag IV-C

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Stalag IV-C

 

Document possibly relating to Stalag IV-C. The text reads, 'The Italian military internee Rinaldo Scaglia from the detachment Labour Kdo. Mil. Int. Kratzau Spreewerk is today on the basis of the OKW. Ref. 2 f 24. 18y Chief POW Allg (VI)/ Org (IIIB)/ Allg (IV) Tgb. No. 05777/44 of 12.8.44 transferred to civilian employment according to the working conditions of the Labour Office known to him.' Ref: 19.08.1944 - 17/25. Notes: Schönlinde = Krásná Lípa, Kratzau = Chrastava. 'Kratzau Spreewerk' = During the Second World War, grenades were manufactured in the Spreewerk Kratzau ammunition factory. Prisoners and women from a sub-camp of the Gross Rosen concentration camp in neighbouring Weißkirchen worked in this factory. At this time Stalag IV-C contained overs 40,00 POWs from various countries. Most of these were assigned to Arbeits-Kommandos.
 

Spreewerk GmbH

 

Metallwarenfabrik Spreewerk GmbH was a German weapons manufacturing company. Spreewerk produced a number of important weapons and components before and during World War II including 280,880 of the Walther P.38 pistol which was the standard service pistol of the German Heer, and the famous 8.8 cm Flak anti-aircraft gun.


The Berlin-Karlsruher Industrie Werke (BERKA) was founded in 1920 as a successor to the Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken AG, one of Germany's largest munitions firms of the prewar era. Under the regime of the Versailles treaty the firm was forced to give up the manufacture of armaments, which had been its core business. Most of the facilities that had grown up to meet the needs of war were reduced and BERKA carried on with factories in Berlin and Karlsruhe, manufacturing a variety of light metal goods.


In 1928 the firm passed under the control of Günther Quandt who moved the company into the production of business machines, acquiring typewriter manufacturer Olympia Schreibmaschinen in 1929, and opening a new factory in 1933 at Erfurt to manufacture cash registers and other business machines. Under Herr Quandt's leadership further acquisitions followed.


In 1938 the firm re-entered the field of munitions production, establishing Metallwarenfabrik Spreewerk to undertake the fabrication of munitions components at the former Berlin-Spandau factory of the defunct Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken. This was followed in 1939 by the establishment of a modern ammunition loading facility on a forty hectare site near the city of Lübeck by the newly established Maschinen für Massenverpackung GmbH. Early in 1940 the firm strengthened its role in the manufacture of industrial machinery through the acquisition of the Berlin-Anhaltische Maschinenbau of Dessau.


Spreewerk was formed in September 1935 in Spandau Germany as a subsidiary of Deutschen Industrie-Werke A.G. (DIWAG). Spreewerk was involved in weapons production from its formation until April 1945 at the Spandau complex; and from June 1942 to April 1945 at the Grottau, Czechoslovakia factory named Werk Grottau.


Source: Wikipedia

 

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Stalag IV-C

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