The following list contains approx 600 names of men captured during May and June 1940, and admitted to Bau und Arbeits Battalion 21. After capture,  the men were marched and entrained into captivity being admitted for registration at       camps in Poland.  Stalag XX1B.   XX1D.  XX1C.  XX1C/H.  Interestingly,  apart from a few exceptions the majority of the prisoners admitted to BAB21 all had low POW numbers.  The higher numbers could have been admitted at a later date.

BAB21 sited to the north of of the I.G. Farben factory complex and BAB20 sited to the south, were both subjected to heavy bombing during 1944 as the Allies tried to halt production at the plant.   The photographs below show bombing runs over the factory which was an important contributor to the German war effort.  The whole area was heavily defended by anti aircraft guns. All photographs courtesy USAAF  and   USAF The following set of photographs illustrate the dangers of a bomb run and what the aircrews had to endure.     The photograph are of other targets and not Blechhammer.

When prisoners reached the first prison camps for induction after capture they were in a sorry state.  Boots and uniforms were worn and dirty after a long,  sometimes up to a 300 mile march,  to the trains that would then take them into the camps.   Soon after induction they would be photographed and allowed to send the photo back home,   The photograph would show they were still alive after capture and they were being treated correctly according to the Geneva Convention on prisoners. For the photograph, the men were given clean uniforms from a motley collection, some Polish, some French and other nations.  The uniforms were taken back after the photograph and given to the next group waiting.  The men would sit on a bench with a second row standing behind,   up to eighteen men could be photographed in each group.  The bench was permanent,  placed in front of a small tree which in turn was in front of a hut.  many hundreds of men were photographed on that bench. The photographs belo