Stalag VIII-A was created in August 1939 at Görlitz, today the border town of Görlitz-Zgorzelec. Initially, this camp held around 15,000 Polish prisoners and was designed as a Dulag (transit camp) where prisoners were housed for short periods. The camp then became a Stalag and, from 1940, saw the arrival of Belgian and French prisoners. In 1941, a separate compound was designed to hold Soviet and Italian prisoners, who were not protected by the Geneva Convention. For these prisoners, the conditions of detention were terrible and the mortality rate very high. In 1943, British, Yugoslav and American soldiers also arrived. In all, it is estimated that more than 120,000 prisoners passed through this camp, including 35,000 French.
During his time in the camp, the French composer Olivier Messiaen composed his Quartet for the End of Time, a piece counted among the greatest musical works of the twentieth century. The first performance took place on 15 January 1941 in the "theatre barrack", by Messiaen (piano) and his fellow prisoners: Jean le Boulaire (violin), Henri Akoka (clarinet) and Etienne Pasquier (cello).
A Soviet military cemetery adjoins the camp. A memorial was built there in memory of the Soviet prisoners. In 1976, a memorial was erected on the site by French and Polish veterans, former prisoners of the Görlitz Stalag. Engraved on it, in Polish, is: "Stalag VIII A: a place sanctified by the blood and martyrdom of the prisoners of war of the anti-Hitler coalition during the Second World War – 22 July 1976." A plaque was added in 1994, on the initiative of French veterans. It reads, in French and Polish: "Stalag VIII A 1939-1945. Tens of thousands of prisoners of war passed through this camp, lived and suffered here." A European Centre for Education and Culture, called "Meeting Point Music Messiaen", was also created. Each year, in January, the centre organises the International Messiaen Days on the site of the former Stalag. A "path of remembrance" has also been installed in the southern half of the former camp, with various information panels about the Stalag, drawing on archives and testimonies. One panel is devoted to the French prisoners of war.