captured Mercedes car and drove back to Gresse. Two days later the POW column marched back across the British lines. Meanwhile, the camps at Fallingbostel had been liberated on 16 April 1945 by British troops from B Squadron 11th Hussars and the Reconnaissance Troop of the 8th Hussars. They were met at the main gate of Stalag 357 by a guard of Airborne troops, impeccably attired and led by RSM Lord. Post-war Post-war Stalag XI-B was used by the British as an Internment Camp for members of the Nazi Party. It then served as an accommodation centre for German refugees and displaced persons. Eventually the camp was demolished, and a housing estate now occupies most of the area, with the only surviving structure being the delousing hut. Fallingbostel is currently a base of the British 7th Armoured Brigade of British Forces Germany. Arbeitskommando Stalag IX-B was the administrative centre for POW work details in the region. At its peak there were about 80,000 POW working in 1,500 Arbeitskommando in agriculture and industry. Although prohibited under the Third Geneva Convention, POW from Stalag IX-B also worked in munitions factories. Deaths In total around 30,000 Soviet POWs died in Stalag XI-B and XI-D. Another 734 POW from the United States, Belgium, Britain, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, South Africa, Canada, Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia died in XI-B and 357. The Soviet POW and the remains of 273 others are buried at the "Cemetery of the Nameless" in Oerbke. Memorials On 16 April 2005, the 60th Anniversary of the camp's liberation, the Stalag XI-B (357) POW Memorial Gates were unveiled, dedicated to the POW of 13 nations who were imprisoned in Stalag XI-B, XI-D and 357 from 1939 to 1945. See also List of prisoner-of-war camps in Germany References Notes Bibliography "The Last Escape", THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALLIED PRISONERS OF WAR IN GERMANY 1944?1945 by Tony Rennell External links World War II prisoner of war camps in Germany 1939 establishments in Germany