Sheffield Prisoner of War Camp
Fritz Knoechlein was discovered in Sheffield's Prisoner of War camp after the war. The camp has an interesting history.
Today it is just a ruin, covered by forest. An old stone wall is virtually all that is left, along with a few remains.
It was once known as Redmires or Lodge Moor. The camp was set-up at the end of the Second World War to house POWs who included Fritz Knoechlein and Admiral Karl Doenitz, head of the German navy and the man who took over the Third Reich after Hitler committed suicide.
In the 1940s, after being captured, enemy German soldiers were transported by boat to England and then herded into trains to camps like Sheffield. Once they arrived they were interrogated and classified by allegiance to the Nazi cause. The true believers were classified as black and non-believers as white, but the majority were gray. We have no indication to date as to which category Knoechlein fell into.
Thousands of men were imprisoned in Sheffield long-term until their classifications were determined.
The POWs were fed and educated, though sleeping conditions were dire. Overcrowding forced prisoners to sleep outdoors in tents, and by September 1944, the rain turned the ground upon which many of the prisoners slept into mud. A number of prisoners attempted to escape and the remains of a number of escape tunnels can still be seen today.
Today it is just a ruin, covered by forest. An old stone wall is virtually all that is left, along with a few remains.
It was once known as Redmires or Lodge Moor. The camp was set-up at the end of the Second World War to house POWs who included Fritz Knoechlein and Admiral Karl Doenitz, head of the German navy and the man who took over the Third Reich after Hitler committed suicide.
In the 1940s, after being captured, enemy German soldiers were transported by boat to England and then herded into trains to camps like Sheffield. Once they arrived they were interrogated and classified by allegiance to the Nazi cause. The true believers were classified as black and non-believers as white, but the majority were gray. We have no indication to date as to which category Knoechlein fell into.
Thousands of men were imprisoned in Sheffield long-term until their classifications were determined.
The POWs were fed and educated, though sleeping conditions were dire. Overcrowding forced prisoners to sleep outdoors in tents, and by September 1944, the rain turned the ground upon which many of the prisoners slept into mud. A number of prisoners attempted to escape and the remains of a number of escape tunnels can still be seen today.