Oflag VII-A Murnau was a German Army

German Army

The German Army is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. Following the disbanding of the Wehrmacht after World War II, it was re-established in 1955 as the Bundesheer, part of the newly formed West German Bundeswehr along with the Navy and the Air Force...

 POW

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

 camp for Polish Army officers and generals during World War II. It was located in the Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

n town of Murnau am Staffelsee

Murnau am Staffelsee

Murnau am Staffelsee is a market town in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in the Oberbayern region of Bavaria, Germany.Murnau is situated on the edge of the Bavarian alps, approx. 70 km south of Munich. Directly to its west is the Staffelsee lake.-History:Murnau was first documented in...

.

The camp was created in 1939. It consisted of a square, flat terrain 200 by 200 metres, surrounded with barbed wire

Barbed wire

Barbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...

 and guarding towers. Immediately after the German Invasion of Poland

Invasion of Poland (1939)

The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...

 and beginning of World War II in September 1939 some 1000 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 Johannisbrunn in Czechoslovak Silesia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

. After the failed Warsaw Uprising

Warsaw Uprising

The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...

 and the Operation Tempest

Operation Tempest

Operation Tempest was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II by the Polish Home Army , the dominant force in the Polish resistance....

 new prisoners were brought there from Poland. By early 1945 the number of prisoners of war held in the camp reached over 5,000.

Division Generals (Lt. Gen.)

• Władysław Bortnowski
• Tadeusz Kutrzeba
  Tadeusz Kutrzeba
  Tadeusz Kutrzeba was an army general of the Second Polish Republic.Kutrzeba was born in Kraków, then part of Austria-Hungary...
  
  
• Tadeusz Piskor
  Tadeusz Piskor
  Tadeusz Piskor was a Polish Army general.Before World War I, he was a member of Polish pro-independence organizations. During World War I he served in the Polish Legions, and subsequently fought in the 1919–21 Polish-Soviet War....
  
  
• Juliusz Rómmel
  Juliusz Rómmel
  Juliusz Karol Wilhelm Józef Rómmel was a Polish military commander and a general of the Polish Army. During the Polish-Bolshevik War, he gained great fame for achieving a decisive victory in the Battle of Komarów, the largest cavalry engagement of the 20th century...
  
  

Brigade Generals

• Roman Abraham
  Roman Abraham
  Roman Abraham was a Polish cavalry general, commander of Wielkopolska Cavalry Brigade during German and Soviet Invasion of Poland in September 1939, in Battle of Bzura commander of Polish cavalry ....
  
  
• Franciszek Alter
  Franciszek Alter
  Franciszek Alter was a Polish general.-Career:Franciszek Alter began his career as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army, reaching the rank of captain. He fought in the Polish Army during the Polish-Soviet War. He was promoted to general in March 1939...
  
  
• Władysław Bończa-Uzdowski
• Leopold Cehak
• Jan Chmurowicz
• Walerian Czuma
  Walerian Czuma
  Walerian Czuma was a Polish general and military commander. He is notable for his command over a Polish unit in Siberia during the Russian Civil War and the commander of the defence of Warsaw during the siege of that city in 1939.-Biography:...
  
  
• Franciszek Dindorf-Ankowicz
• Juliusz Drapella
• Janusz Gąsiorowski
• Edmund Knoll-Kownacki
  Edmund Knoll-Kownacki
  Gen.bryg. Edmund Stanisław Knoll-Kownacki was a Polish military officer and a high-ranking commander of the Polish Army.-Youth:...
  
  
• Wincenty Kowalski
  Wincenty Kowalski
  Wincenty Kowalski was a Polish military commander and a general of the Polish Army. A veteran of both the World War I and World War II, he fought in all the inter-war conflicts of Poland...
  
  
• Jan Kruszewski
• Józef Kwaciszewski
• Stanisław Małachowski
• Czesław Młot-Fijałkowski
• Bernard Mond
  Bernard Mond
  Bernard Stanisław Mond , son of Maurycy and Salomea Spanier, was a Jewish general of Polish Army in the interwar period. He fought in First World War, Polish-Ukrainian War, Polish-Soviet War and Second World War.In November 1918 he commanded the "Citadel" section during the defence of Lwów...
  
  
• Zygmunt Piasecki
• Wacław Piekarski
• Zygmunt Podhorski
• Emil Przedrzymirski-Krukowicz
• Zdzisław Przyjałkowski
• Jan Jagmin-Sadowski
  Jan Jagmin-Sadowski
  Jan Jagmin-Sadowski , was a general of the Polish Army, having served in World War One as a member of Józef Piłsudski's legions, as well as commanding Polish forces during the invasion of Poland in 1939....
  
  
• Antoni Szylling
  Antoni Szylling
  Antoni Szylling was a Polish general, considered, along with Generals Wiktor Thommée and Stanisław Maczek, to have been one of the most successful Polish Army commanders during the Polish Defensive War of 1939.-Biography:...
  
  
• Stanisław Taczak
• Wiktor Thommée
  Wiktor Thommée
  Wiktor Thommée was a Polish military commander and a Brigadier General of the Polish Army. A veteran of the Great War and the Russian Civil War, he is best known for his command over Piotrków Operational Group and the battle of the Bzura during the Polish Defensive War of 1939.- Early life :Wiktor...
  
  
• Juliusz Zulauf
  Juliusz Zulauf
  Juliusz Zulauf was a Polish Army major general . A recipient of the Virtuti Militari, he fought with distinction during World War I, the Polish-Ukrainian War, the Polish-Soviet War, and the 1939 invasion of Poland.Juliusz Zulauf was born in Lwów, then the capital of Austro-Hungarian Galicia...
  
  

External links

• photos of Oflag VII-A
• Life in Murnau (Polish)