Celler Hasenjagd

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The Celler Hasenjagd (“hare chase of Celle”) was a massacre of concentration camp internees that took place in northern German town of Celle, Lower Saxony, in the last weeks of the Second World War. Those internees of the concentration camp Salzgitter Drütte that escaped from the forced transport were pursued and either severely beaten up or shot by SS guards, Gestapo, Nazi party officials as well as members of the public.

[edit] Events

On April 7th 1945 a forced transport left the concentration camp of Salzgitter-Drütte with some 2,862 Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Dutch, and French nationals on board en route to Bergen-Belsen. Already on the way^[1] many internees died of exhaustion and malnutrition. As the transport reached Celle on April 8th, the crowded wagons were held up in an air raid on the local train infrastructure. In the course of the raid some of the wagons carrying the internees came to rest next to an ammunition train which in turn exploded. In the ensueing inferno, most of the wagons carrying the internees were destroyed and a number of the internees lost their lives.^[2][3]

The surviving internees fled their lives running either into the town or westward towards the Neustadt wood. The SS men opened fire almost immediately at the fleeing internees. As soon as the air raid was over, the SS guards, as well as members of the local Nazi party, Gestapo, fire-brigade and the public gathered to pursue the fleeing internees. During the hunt, it came to distressing scenes with the pursuers either shooting or bludgeoning their victims to death. Local people reported hearing shots and victims' screams as of April 11^[4][5][6].

The internees that were caught and survived were detained on the sports ground off the Neustadt wood. Some 30 persons were executed for being suspected of looting. Most of the surviving internees were forcibly marched to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, while others were detained at the army's Heide barracks. Only 487 survivors eventually reached Bergen-Belsen on the morning of April 10—five days before the camp’s liberation by British and Canadian forces; the remainder either died of exhaustion or was murdered on the way.^[7][8][9]

[edit] Justice

The British army liberated Celle on April 12, and their chronicler characterized the sight they found at the Heidekaserne as a “microcosm of Bergen-Belsen”. Estimates place the number of “hare hunt” victims at 200–300, though—in light of the nearly 4,000 thought to have been on the transport—many more transport prisoners fell victim on their way to or in Celle in that first week of April 1945.^[10]

Shortly after liberating Celle, the British authorities launched an investigation into the events of April 8–11. Though several people who took part in the killings managed to escape prosecution, the British eventually tried 14 military and police personnel and political leaders in the Celle Massacre Trial, which began in December 1947. Seven were acquitted of murder or accessory to murder because of insufficient evidence, whereas four were found guilty as perpetrators and sentenced to between four and 10 years in prison, and three were sentenced to death. One of the death sentences was overturned on appeal, and the other two were reduced to 15–20 years imprisonment as part of a clemency issued by the British military governor; all those found guilty had been released by October 1952 for good behavior.^[11][12]

[edit] Sources and references

1. ^ (German) Höper, Dietrich. “8. April 1945 - Bomben auf Celle” in Celler Zündel, a monthly municipal magazine, pp. p. 15-16, issue of April 1985. Available online at http://www.celle-im-nationalsozialismus.de/Texte/Hoeper_Bomben.html.
2. ^ Bertram
3. ^ (German) Buntes Haus e. V. “Die Celler ‘Hasenjagd’ ” in Flugblatt zum 60. Jahrestag des Massakers an KZ-Häftlingen distributed in Celle on April 8, 2005, the date of the 60th anniversary of the event; available online at http://www.celle-im-nationalsozialismus.de/Texte/buha_2005.html.
4. ^ Bertram
5. ^ Buntes Haus e. V.
6. ^ Höper
7. ^ Bertram
8. ^ Buntes Haus e. V.
9. ^ Höper
10. ^ Bertram
11. ^ Bertram
12. ^ Höper

• Other details available at (German) http://www.celle-im-nationalsozialismus.de/T_Uebersicht.html.