Refugees and Displaced Persons

The years after 1945 were dominated by occupation policy and refugee flows.
Initially, the Americans interned German prisoners in the former POW camp.
Later, the barracks were used to house displaced persons, including former forced labourers and concentration camp prisoners, refugees and displaced persons from Eastern Europe.
The last stone barracks in Langwasser were only demolished in 1965. 

At times there were over 4000 people from many different countries living in the barracks of the transit camp

In 1946, the Jewish militant group Nakam planned to poison thousands of German SS PoWs held by the US Army in their former rally camp.
After their primary plan to poison water supplies was thwarted, they targeted bread loaves at Stalag XIII-D with arsenic.
Nakam members successfully infiltrated the bakery supplying the camp and coated thousands of loaves of bread with arsenic on the 13th April 1946.

The Konsum-Genossenschaftsbäckerei (Consumer Cooperative Bakery) in Nuremberg where the bread was produced

The plot caused over 2000 SS prisoners to become ill but no known deaths resulted from the poisoning.
It is thought that the amount of poison was so great that it induced vomitting thus preventing the poison from taking full effect.

For more information on this plot click this link (opens in a new window)