As soon as the Luftwaffe took over the Oberursel installation in Dec. 1939, it became obvious that a high percentage of POWS would be in need of medical attention. To meet this, the camp authorities requisitioned part of Hohemark Hospital, 1 mile west of the interrogation center. This hospital had been used since World War I as a health resort and clinic for all types of brain injuries and contained a large number of German soldiers wounded in this war.

The wards for POWs were on the second floor and comprised one single room, two double rooms, and several rooms with four beds, totaling 65. Discipline was very mild. The doors of the wards were not always locked at night, and the only guards were the German medical orderlies. German medical treatment was excellent, as was the food, which came from Red Cross special invalid parcels and from the hospital kitchen. Walking cases were frequently allowed to meet and take meals together. Other ambulatory cases, as soon as their condition permitted, were allowed parole walks through the surrounding grounds and countryside.

Wounded men were sometimes interrogated directly during their stay at the hospital. At other times, they were not interrogated until after their convalescence when they were sent to Oberursel. The comparatively luxurious single and double rooms were set aside as places where high-ranking Allied POWS could be interrogated in circumstances which the Germans considered appropriate to their rank. These POWS did not have to be wounded to gain admission to Hohemark.

Several British and American orderlies formed part of the hospital complement. They were headed by an Edward Stafford, an American who was captured while flying in the RAF Ferry Command and called himself "Captain." His assistant was Captain Kenneth Smith, who was receiving treatment for facial bums during his stay. Inmates of Hohemark received the normal allotment of outgoing letters, but only the permanent staff received incoming letters. POW-only religious activity was listening to the Bible readings of a Hauptmann Offerman. Hohemark was liberated simultaneously with Oberursel.

Prepared by MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SERVICE, WAR DEPARTMENT

15 July 1944

LUCKENWALDE

All American Ground Force officers are questioned in the interrogation center that is adjunct of Stalag 3A, Luckenwalde, 50 kilometers southwest of Berlin. Pinpoint is 52^o05' North latitude, 13^o10' East longitude.

Despite a German announcement, relayed by the Swiss, that the interrogation center for AGF officers at Stalag 3A, Luckenwalde, had been closed 1 March, MIS-X knows it to be operating under the command of Captain Williams (Wilhelms), formerly of New Jersey.

Treatment is as harsh here as at Oberursel, with the same starvation rations and prolonged periods of solitary confinement, admitted by the Germans to range up to 25 days. During this time, POW is permitted no exercise, no tobacco, no reading or writing material, no toilet articles whatsoever, and he is not allowed to whistle. The pretext for confinement here, as at Dulag Luft, is that "suspected persons," i.e., potential spies, must identify themselves as members of an army by giving technical, detailed information possessed only by soldiers in their branch.