Title: War Surgery and Medicine

Author: Stout, T. Duncan M.

Publication details: Historical Publications Branch, 1954, Wellington

Part of: The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945

This text is the subject of: ‘Something of Them Is Here Recorded’: Official History in New Zealand

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Prisoner-of-War Hospitals in Germany

There were four types of hospital in which prisoners of war received medical treatment, namely, general hospitals exclusively for British prisoners, special hospitals exclusively for British prisoners, mixed general hospitals for prisoners of any nationality, and wards in local German hospitals. The hospitals for British prisoners were staffed by British personnel, including New Zealanders, under a German commanding officer. The mixed hospitals were staffed by men of all nationalities, including some New Zealanders. The patients treated in the German hospitals were those in districts where there were no special prisoner-of-war hospitals, or those requiring specialist treatment such as deep X-ray therapy, neurosurgery, or orthopaedic surgery. There were a number of specialists among the British medical officers, and these were employed in the hospitals in their own specialties.

Hospital supplies were generally adequate, and these were supplemented by supplies from the British Red Cross organisation, and also by surgical instruments saved by British medical officers captured in Greece. Improvisation enabled some equipment such as blood transfusion sets to be provided.

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Lazarett Lamsdorf is illustrative of a special prisoner-of-war hospital, and it had many New Zealanders on its staff and among its patients.