World Prisons
All prisons

Germany

Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp

Low
Verified
Aging · 5mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

For families

How to send mail, money, and visit Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp

Step-by-step guidance using the Germany system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

Open toolkit
Photograph of Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp
Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • 'Jug' - James Whale - 1918.jpg

    Photo by James Whale via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Camp d'internement d'Holzminden, Basse Saxe.jpg

    Photo by auteur inconnu via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Holzminden camp plan.jpg

    Photo by H. G. Durnford (Life time: Unknown: active 1920) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Holzminden mess 1918.jpg

    Photo by Unknown photographer, c1918 via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Holzminden PoW camp Kaserne B.jpg

    Photo by Unknown photographer (Life time: Unknown: active 1918) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Home John cast list.jpg

    Photo by Unknown (Life time: active 1918) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • James Whale Holzminden play cartoon.jpg

    Photo by James Whale (Life time: 1889-1957) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Karl Niemeyer caricature.jpg

    Photo by Unknown: possibly C.E.B. Bernard (Life time: Unknown: active c1919) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Background

Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp was a World War I prisoner-of-war camp for British and British Empire officers (Offizier Gefangenenlager) located in Holzminden, Lower Saxony, Germany. It opened in September 1917, and closed with the final repatriation of prisoners in December 1918. It is remembered as the location of the largest PoW escape of the war, in July 1918, when twenty-nine officers escaped through a tunnel, ten of whom evaded recapture and managed to make their way back to Britain. The prisoner-of-war camp is not to be confused with Holzminden internment camp, a much larger pair of camps (one for men, and one for women and children) located on the outskirts of the town, in which civilian internees were held. The internees mainly comprised Polish, Russian, Belgian and French nationals, as well as a small number of Britons.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

—

Current population

—

Occupancy

—

Year opened

—

Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 29 May 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Operator

—

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

—

Region

—

Security level

—

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Notable inmates

  • James Whale
    James Whale
    1889–1957 · film director

    James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who spent the greater part of his career in Hollywood.

  • Hugh George Edmund Durnford
    1886–1965 · military officer

Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.

Contact & address

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

—
Insufficient data
We don't have enough public data on this facility to score it. Have something to add? Send us a correction.

Related facilities

All in Germany →

Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.

Data completeness

16%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp. Retrieved October 25, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/holzminden-prisoner-of-war-camp
Chicago
"Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp." World Prisons. Accessed October 25, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/holzminden-prisoner-of-war-camp.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-holzminden-prisoner-of-war-,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/holzminden-prisoner-of-war-camp},
  urldate = {2026-10-25}
}