Natzweiler-Struthof
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Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp, located in the Vosges Mountains close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller (German Natzweiler) in France, about 50 km south west from the city of Strasbourg.
Natzweiler-Struthof was the only concentration camp established by the Nazis on French territory, though there were French-run temporary camps such as the one at Drancy. (At the time, the Alsace-Lorraine area in which it was established had been annexed by Germany as an integral part of the German Reich, unlike other parts of France.)
The writer Boris Pahor was interned in Natzweiler-Struthof and wrote his novel Necropolis based on this experience.
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[edit] Operations
Natzweiler-Struthof was operational between May 21, 1941 until the beginning of September 1944 when the SS evacuated the camp. The camp was liberated on November 23, 1944. Its system of subcamps is listed in List of subcamps of Natzweiler-Struthof.
The total number of prisoners reached an estimated 40,000 over the three years originating from various countries including Poland, the Soviet Union, Netherlands, France, Germany and Norway. The camp was specially set up for Nacht und Nebel prisoners, in most cases people of the resistance movements. They were to be destroyed by labor and disappear without their relatives knowing their fate. The camp holds also a crematorium and a gas chamber, which was not used for mass extermination; some Jews and Gypsies were murdered in it to provide 'anatomical specimens' for the medical school of Strasbourg University, located in Strasbourg, France.
Strenuous work,medical experiments, poor nutrition and mistreatment by the SS guards resulted in an estimated 25,000 deaths. Among those who died here were four female SOE agents executed together on July 6, 1944: Diana Rowden, Vera Leigh, Andrée Borrel and Sonya Olschanezky. Since the female prisoner population in the camp was small, only seven SS women served in Natzweiler Struthof camp (compared to more than 600 SS men), and 15 in the Natzweiler complex of subcamps. The main duty of the female supervisors in Natzweiler was to guard the few women who came to the camp for medical experiments or to be executed. The camp also trained several female guards who went to the Geisenheim and Geislingen subcamps in western Germany.
Inmate accounts include:
- Boris Pahor, Necropolis, 1967
- Willem Lodewijk Harthoorn, Verboden te sterven, Van Gruting, 2007, ISBN 9789075879377
- Hinke Piersma, Doodstraf op termijn 2006, Walburg Pers, ISBN 9057304422
- Floris Bakels, Nacht und Nebel; mijn verhaal uit Duitse gevangenissen en concentratiekampen, Elsevier, 1977, ISBN 9043503665
[edit] Post-war criminal trials
Fritz Hartjenstein died in prison before his sentence could be carried out. The remaining two death sentences were carried out by hanging, on October 11, 1946. Those tried were:
- Franz Berg: death sentence (executed)
- Kurt Geigling: 10 years imprisonment
- Fritz Hartjenstein (commandant): death sentence (died before sentence was carried out)
- Josef Muth: 15 years imprisonment
- Peter Straub: death sentence (executed)
- Magnus Wochner: 10 years imprisonment
[edit] Of Interest
During the night of 12-13 May, 1976, neo-Nazis burned the camp museum which was subsequently rebuilt, but with the loss of important artifacts.
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