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Stalag X1C also called Stalag 311, was was situated in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen. The camp opened in September 1939 as a Häftlingslager, or "prison camp" housing around 500 prisoners who worked on the construction of Stalag X1B prisoner of war camp at near by Fallingbostel. In June 1940 camp at Bergen became a prisoner of war camp for around 600 French and Belgian soldiers, under the authority of the Wehrmacht, and in May 1941 it was extended and designated Stalag XI-C, housing Allied and Soviet POWs. Conditions in the camp were very basic, with inadequate food and little shelter. Soviet prisoners of war were treated very badly and of around 20,000 sent to the camp between July 1941 and the spring of 1942 about 18,000 died of hunger, cold and disease.
In 1942, Bergen-Belsen became a concentration camp, and part of it was placed under SS command in April 1943, see Bergen-Belsen to house Jewish civilians who were intended for exchange with German civilians who had been interned abroad.
The POW camp closed in 1943 and the whole site was taken over as the concentration camp.
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