British officers in front of a barrack block at Holzminden Camp, Germany, 1918

Photograph by Otto Liebert, World War One POWs (1914-1918), 1918.

Holzminden Camp in Lower Saxony housed between 500 and 600 British and Commonwealth officers. Opened in September 1917, it was described by the 'Daily Sketch' in January 1919 as 'the worst camp in Germany' due to the harsh regime of Hauptmann Karl Niemeyer.

Holzminden was the scene of one of the largest prisoner of war escapes of the First World War. On the night of 23-24 July 1918 29 men escaped through a tunnel that the prisoners had spent the previous nine months excavating. Ten of the 29 escapees managed to reach the neutral Netherlands and eventually get back to Britain.

One of seven photographs relating to Holzminden prisoner of war camp for officers in 1918, taken by Otto Liebert of Holzminden, possibly the Camp photographer, 1918.