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Cottbus
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===World War I and the interwar period=== During [[World War I]], Germany operated two [[German prisoner-of-war camps in World War I|prisoner-of-war camps]] and a detention center for [[Allies of World War I|Allied]] privates in the city.<ref>Stanek, p. 74</ref> The first captives, some 7,500 Russians, were mostly kept outdoors, which, combined with poor sanitary and medical conditions, resulted in an [[epidemic typhus]] outbreak, with 70% of the prisoners falling ill, and some 400 dying.<ref>Stanek, pp. 74β75</ref> Soon, also POWs of other nationalities, including French, British, Belgian, Serbian, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese and Australian were held in the POW camps in Cottbus.<ref>Stanek, p. 77</ref> Conditions in the camps were poor due to overcrowding, filth, inadequate heating in winter, and insufficient medical supplies in the camps' lazarettes.<ref>Stanek, pp. 78β79</ref> Western Allied POWs were eventually released until mid-January 1919, whereas Russian POWs remained in the camps and were employed at local [[lignite]] mines.<ref name=ps83>Stanek, p. 83</ref> Many Russian POWs preferred to stay in the camp rather than leave for [[Soviet Russia]] and be forced into the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] and army, and many were released to Russia only between September 1920 and January 1921, however some 600 to 1,000 Russians remained in the camp as of June 1921.<ref>Stanek, pp. 83β84, 90</ref> The former prisoner-of-war camp was used as a concentration camp for some 1,200 to 1,500 Polish activists, civilians and insurgents of the [[Silesian Uprisings]] of 1919β1921, who were often subjected to harassment, beatings and tortures, with their deportation from [[Upper Silesia]] to Cottbus being a breach of the [[Treaty of Versailles]].<ref>Stanek, pp. 84β85, 91</ref> Among the prisoners were dozens of women with children, and elderly men, and camp conditions remained poor.<ref>Stanek, pp. 92β94</ref> It was also the site of a concentration camp for unwanted [[Jews|Jewish]] refugees from [[Eastern Europe]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stone |first1=Dan|author-link=Dan Stone (historian) |title=Concentration Camps: A Very Short Introduction |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-103502-9 |language=en|page=31}}</ref> Since late 1922, also Polish laborers and their families were detained in the camp before their deportation to Poland.<ref>Stanek, p. 99</ref> The camp was eventually closed in December 1923.<ref>Stanek, p. 100</ref>
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