Germany - Prisoner of War Camp: Dryotz

Dryotz was a First World War Prisoner of War Camp in Brandenburg, Germany, 7 miles from Döberitz, near Berlin.  This was where Private J Phipson of the 3^rd Worcestershire Regiment was a prisoner.  In November 1916 he sent a postcard to Ethel Sladden, thanking her for the food parcel which had been sent.

Starting in 1915, the German authorities put in place a system of prisoner of war camps, nearly 300 in all.  These camps were run by the 25 Army Corps Districts into which Germany was divided.  Dryotz was a Mannschaftslager, ie an ordinary soldier's camp for private soldiers and NCOs.  These were basic camps, made up of wooden barracks holding around 250 prisoners. On the inside, a central corridor provided access on each side to straw or sawdust beds stacked two high. Furniture was kept to a minimum: a table, chairs or benches and a stove.  Camps also featured barracks for guards, a Kantine (cafeteria) where prisoners could sometimes buy little objects and additional food, a barrack for packages, a guardhouse and kitchens.  Each camp had its own particular structures, notably sanitary facilities or cultural places like a library, a theatre hall or a worship space.  All around the camp, there was barbed wire three metres high.

A pamphlet entitled “Map of the Main Prison Camps in Germany and Austria” by Mrs Pope-Hennessy was privately published in 1917 and gives brief details of the camps.  For Dryotz it says:  “Dryotz (BIII) – Seven miles from Döberitz, near Berlin.  Prisoners are housed in newly-erected well-ventilated barracks.  There is a recreation hut built by the men themselves out of British funds.  Guard Corps.”

Una Constance Pope-Hennessy (1876-1949) was a British writer, historian and biographer.  During the First World War, she was a member of the Central Prisoners of War Committee of the British Red Cross Society.  For this work, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours.  She was the mother of Sir John Pope-Hennessy (1913-1994), an art historian, and James Pope-Hennessy (1916-1974), a writer.