Originally opened in November 1932, as a labour camp for convicts, once the Nazi party came to power in 1933 the camp was co-opted for use by the Reich Labour Service until 1938.



At the start of the Second World War in 1939, the camp was used for Prisoners of War and designated Stalag X-B. Many of the early inmates were Polish POWs though Allied civilians were also held as enemy aliens.



In 1941 the enemy aliens were moved to another camp to make way for Soviet Prisoners of War from the Eastern Front in October 1941. More than 3,000 Soviet POWs died from hunger, exposure or disease at the camp in the Winter of 1941, by 1942 typhus and tuberculosis had become rife and spread to other sections of the camp and among the guards. Following the surrender of Italy in 1943, the camp saw the arrival of 67,000 Italian military internees, many of whom were quickly sent to work camps nearby.



By October 1944, the camp had exceeded capacity. Inmates began to protesting to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the lack of rations, activity rooms and libraries, which had been removed to make way for Prisoners from Warsaw. The ICRC recommended barrack buildings be burnt to stop the infestation of vermin and on a visit in March 1945 rated conditions in the camp as 'bad', and accused the Camp leaders of breaching the Geneva Convention due to the appalling conditions.



On a visit by the British and American Red Cross on 13 April 1945, they reported that 700 American POWs at the camp were suffering from dysentery and sleeping on hard floors. Nearby Neugamme concentration camp had also been evacuated, following the advance of Allied Forces in the Area, and 9,500 concentration camp inmates had been moved into the camp, further worsening conditions.



Stalag X-B was liberated by British Troops on 29 April 1945, who quickly dubbed it a 'miniature Belsen'. Troops were greeted by heaps of skeletal corpses, and widespread disease and hunger, and resorted to burning a number of barrack buildings to stem the spread of disease.