On September 9, 1936, the German Army High Command (Oberkommando des Heeres, OKH) issued an order for the former detention facility of the Germersheim fortress, built between 1834 and 1861, to be expanded to serve as a military prison for the Wehrmacht (map 4d). The expansion was to include the neighboring buildings: the commissariat (Proviantamt) and the military hospital barracks (Lazarettkaserne).1 The structure, shortly thereafter renamed Armed Forces Prison (Wehrmachtgefängnis, WG) Germersheim, was the second of three Wehrmacht prisons (after WG Torgau-Fort Zinna) already in existence before World War II. From November 1, 1936, to the end of November 1939, Major (later Oberstleutnant) Alexander Ludwig Ratcliffe was named commandant of WG Germersheim. Three months after the beginning of the war, as of December 1, 1939, Ratcliffe handed off the function of prison commandant to Oberst Bittrolff. Oberstleutnant Hans Merten succeeded Bittrolff in 1941. The first convicts arrived in ...