Stalag XVIII D (306) (Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager or Stammlager; abbreviated Stalag) was a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp complex for the detainment of captured Western Allied and Soviet soldiers, officers, and non-commissioned officers by the German Wehrmacht. It was established on 1 June 1941, in what was then Yugoslavia (later the Republic of Slovenia), which was under German occupation at the time. 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, which in German was known as Marburg an der Drau. Stalag XVIII D formally operated until the beginning of October 1942.
Initially, it was established for the captivity of captured Western Allied soldiers, mainly French, British, Greeks, Australians, New Zealanders and Yugoslavs. They were under the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War (1929) and thus registered as prisoners of war by the Red Cross. After Operation Barbarossa, the existing camp complex was enlarged by establishing a completely separated and isolated "Russenlager" (Russian Camp or Russian section of the Stalag XVIII D) with facilities to detain solely captured Red Army soldiers. They were excluded from the Geneva Convention because the Soviet Union was not a signatory state. As a result, they have intentionally received the worst treatment and death through the destructive role of the camp. Russian Camp formally operated until late autumn 1942.Between 1 August and 15 November 1942, a branch camp (Zweiglager) of the main Stalag XVIII B (Špital ob Dravi), called Stalag XVIII B/Z, operated in Maribor as well.
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