Bulgarian Prision Camps

SOFIA: The largest city and capital of the kingdom of Bulgaria, the army maintained three prison camps around the city, holding a total of 20,000 prisoners of war and civilian internees. Sofia was the most important railroad center in the Balkans because it connected Constantinople with Belgrade; it was also near the sources of four rivers which cut through the mountains. One of the prisons served as an internment camp for enemy aliens. The other two camps held Serbian, Romanian, Russian, British, French, and Italian POW's. Sick and wounded prisoners received medical treatment in one of three military hospitals in Sofia. The Bulgarians sent sick Allied prisoners to the Hotel de l'Europe and the Epeloff and Alexandria Hospitals. Prisoners who lost limbs received physical therapy and prosthetics from the Minkoff School. Christian Phildius visited these prison camps in the Fall of 1916 and the YMCA constructed two Association huts and converted a room to establish a WPA program in each of the camps.