Stalag XVIII-D

Stalag XVIII D took up buildings that had previously been used for army barracks and customs warehouses for grain, in Melje, a quarter of the city of Maribor,[1] which in German was known as Marburg an der Drau.

[2] Initially, it was established for the captivity of captured Western Allied soldiers, mainly French, British, Greeks, Australians, New Zealanders and Yugoslavs.

The Yugoslav captives were quickly transferred to other prisoner-of-war camps, most often to Stalag XVIII C (317) in Markt Pongau, due to the intense partisan activity and the initial ban on the use of labour in the 18th Military District.

By April 1942, many Soviet captives had died in the Russian Camp, mainly due to the typhus epidemic, intentional malnutrition, and psychophysical exhaustion.

[15] The highest death rate was delivered among the captured Red Army soldiers between autumn 1941 and spring 1942, with few thousand killed Soviet POWs.

They could organise sports games (rugby, football, and indoor tennis) and cultural and artistic activities (theatre performances, the publication of a French newspaper, and book reading).

Unprotected by the humanitarian organisations, the Red Army prisoners were forced to live in a barricaded, guarded, and wired camp complex whose purpose was the destruction of its inmates.

They were beaten, shamed, mocked, tortured, shot, and deliberately subjected to psychophysical exhaustion (intentional starvation, malnutrition, diseases and labour work) in the camp.

[1][4] During its operation between June 1941 and October 1942, Stalag XVIII D was led by three commanders: Major Hugo Karl Paul von der Marwitz, Colonel Manfred Maximilian Ulbrich and Captain Pabst.

[2] Due to the changed conditions on the world's battlefields, which resulted in a severe shortage of labour and military manpower and, consequently, in an improved and more humane attitude towards Soviet prisoners of war as well, the Stalag XVIII D was disbanded between October and November 1942.

[26] IRC Maribor was established in December 2017 on the site of an abandoned old warehouse as a non-profit private institution following a memorandum that the Republic of Slovenia and the Russian Federation signed in February 2018 with the primary purpose and mission of exercising scientific research, academic, publishing, educational and memorial activities in the premises of the former Soviet prisoner-of-war camp and preserving historical memory, truth and lessons regarding the Nazifascist horrors and suffering caused by it.

The main entrance into the building of an old customs grain warehouse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , where the Russian complex ("Russenlager") operated during the war as part of a Nazi destructive prisoner-of-war camp Stalag XVIII D. Nowadays, the International Research Centre for Second World War (IRC Maribor) and Museum of Stalag XVIII D operates in the same building. [ 9 ] [ 10 ]
British prisoners of war played tennis near a customs warehouse where Soviet prisoners lived in deplorable conditions. [ 17 ]
British captives while playing rugby near customs storage (in the background). [ 18 ]
The command headquarters was located in the National Hall in the city centre of Maribor . [ 19 ]
Manfred Ulbrich's grave is in a small cemetery in the municipality of Haar (eastern district of Munich), where his wife Alma, their son Egbert and grandson Manfred are buried.
International Research Centre also regularly prepares original historical exhibitions and provides expertly guided pedagogical tours through exhibition content. The picture is an example of an author's guided tour through the exhibition "To Tear Out From the Oblivion" by author Daniel Siter . [ 23 ]
International Research Centre is active in organising scientific conferences with international participation. Among the leading group of listeners are younger generations. [ 24 ]
In September 2011, the President of the Republic of Slovenia , Dr Danilo Türk , visited the former camp and unveiled a memorial plaque in front of the camp building, symbolically marking the first foundation stone of the IRC Maribor. [ 25 ]