Neuengamme
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Neuengamme is a quarter of the district Bergedorf within the City of Hamburg, Germany.
Before and during World War II a Nazi concentration camp[1] was established by the SS. Since this concentration camp was located in the district Neuengamme, the name of the concentration camp became KZ Neuengamme.[1] The site is one of the few concentration camps in Germany where most of the buildings have been conserved and serves as a memorial today. It is situated 15 km southeast of the centre of Hamburg at Jean-Dolidier-Weg in the Vierlande area.
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[edit] History
[edit] Nazi concentration camp
The camp existed from December 13, 1938 through May 4, 1945 and had a total of 106,000 inmates during this time. These were spread over the main camp (213,000 m²) and 96 outposts across the north German area. Inmates were from 28 nationalities (Soviets (34,350), Poles (16,900), Frenchmen (11,500), Germans (9,200), Dutchmen (6,950), Belgians (4,800), Danes (4,800), ...) and also from the local Jewish community, but also included communists, homosexuals, prostitutes, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, prisoners of war and many other groups. 55,000 succumbed to the subhuman conditions in the camp consisting of hard manual work with insufficient nutrition, very unhygienic conditions and violence from the guards.
Work at the mother camp was centered on the production of bricks. This included the construction of a canal to transport the bricks to and from the site. Inmates had to excavate the heavy, peaty soil with inadequate tools and regardless of weather conditions or their health state. Several original buildings of the camp continued to serve as a prison (for example Building Number 9). There is a good museum located at the south end of the site.
In late 1943, most likely November, Neuengamme recorded its first female prisoners according to camp records. In the summer of 1944, Neuengamme received many women prisoners from Auschwitz, as well other camps in the East. All of the women were eventually shipped out to one of its twenty-four female subcamps. Female guards were trained at Neuengamme and assigned to one of its female subcamps also. There were no SS women stationed at Neuengamme permanently. Many of these women are known by name, including Kaethe Becker, Erna Dickmann, Johanna Freund, Angelika Grass, Kommandoführerin Loni Gutzeit (who also served at Hamburg-Wandsbek and was nicknamed "The Dragon of Wandsbek" by the prisoners), Gertrud Heise, Frieda Ignatowitz, Gertrud Moeller, who also served at Boizenburg subcamp, Lotte Johanna Radtke, chief wardress Annemie von der Huelst, Inge Marga Marggot Weber. Many of the women were later dispersed to female subcamps throughout northern Germany. Today it is known that female guards staffed the subcamps of Neuengamme at Boizenburg, Braunschweig SS-Reitschule, Hamburg-Sasel, Hamburg-Wandsbek, Helmstedt-Beendorf, Langenhorn, Neugraben, Obernheide, Salzwedel, and Unterluss (Vuterluss). Only a few have been tried for war crimes, such as Anneliese Kohlmann, who served as one of only six woman guards at Neugraben.
On April 26, 1945, the SS Cap Arcona was loaded with about 10,000 prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp, together with Thielbek and Athen, was brought into the Bay of Lübeck. On May 3, 1945, the Cap Arcona, the Thielbek, and the passenger liner Deutschland were sunk in four separate attacks by RAF planes.
[edit] Inmates census
| Country | Men | Women | Overall |
| Soviet Union | 28 450 | 5 900 | 34 350 |
| Poland | 13 000 | 3 900 | 16 900 |
| France | 11 000 | 500 | 11 500 |
| Germany | 8 800 | 400 | 9 200 |
| Netherlands | 6 650 | 300 | 6 950 |
| Belgium | 4 500 | 300 | 4 800 |
| Denmark | 4 800 | - | 4 800 |
| Hungary | 1400 | 1 200 | 2 600 |
| Norway | 2 200 | - | 2 200 |
| Yugoslavia | 1 400 | 100 | 1 500 |
| Czechoslovakia | 800 | 580 | 1 380 |
| Greece | 1 250 | - | 1 250 |
| Italy | 850 | - | 850 |
| Spain | 750 | - | 750 |
| Austria | 300 | 20 | 320 |
| Luxembourg | 50 | - | 50 |
| Other countries | 1 300 | 300 | 1 600 |
| Overall | 87 500 | 13 500 | 101 000 |
| not officially on the lists | - | - | 5 000 |
| Global overall | - | - | 106 000 |
| Dead in deportation | - | - | 55 000 |
There was about 52% of dead people in all kommandos depending on Neuengamme between December 13rd 1938 and May 4th 1945.
[edit] Well known inmates
- Rein Boomsma
- Claude Bourdet
- Michel Hollard
- Anton de Kom
- Henry Wilhelm Kristiansen
- Fritz Pfeffer
- David Rousset
- Johann Trollman
- Louis de Visser
[edit] Memorial
The KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme (Neuengamme memorial site) is located at Jean-Dolidier-Weg 75 in Hamburg-Bergedorf. A first memorial was erected in 1953 on the site of the former camp garden. It was expanded in 1965, and a "document house" was added in 1981. In 1989 the Hamburg Senate decided that the prisons erected in 1950 and 1970 on the camp site should be relocated. The older one was closed in 2003, the newer in 2006. In 2005 a new memorial site and museum were opened. Since 1985 there are also memorials at the subcamps Fuhlsbüttel and Sasel, and in the school Bullenhuser Damm, where a number of children were murdered after being subjected to medical experiments.[2]
Three of the camp's outposts also serve as public memorials. These are located at Bullenhuser Damm, Kritenbarg 8 and Suhrenkamp 98.
The first of these is a memorial to the murder of 20 children from Auschwitz concentration camp that had been taken to Hamburg and abused for medical experiments. On April 20, 1945, only weeks before the war was over, they were killed to cover up that crime. The second is an outpost of Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg-Sasel where Jewish women from the Łódź Ghetto in Poland were forced to do construction work. The third one is located inside the gatehouse of the Fuhlsbüttel penitentiary. Parts of this complex served as concentration camp for communists, opponents of the regime and many other groups. About 450 inmates were murdered here during the Nazi reign.
20.400 victims can be listed by name through the camp memorial Neuengamme, died in the camp and the subcamps. But there are estimated 26.800 victims. During the last days of the camp and "evacuation" about 17.000 people died.[3]
[edit] See also
- List of subcamps of Neuengamme
- List of Nazi-German concentration camps
- SS Cap Arcona
- Celler Hasenjagd (Massacre in Celle after an air raid)
[edit] Notes
- ^ The camp is listed as No. 1034 Neuengamme in the official German list.
- ^ website concentration camp memorial (German)
- ^ Schwarberg, Günther: Angriffsziel „Cap Arcona“. Überarb. Neuauflage, Göttingen 1998.“ (German)
[edit] References
- Official German list of concentration camps (Verzeichnis der Konzentrationslager und ihrer Außenkommandos) (German)
[edit] External links
- Official website of the memorial Neuengamme (German)
- jewishgen.org Neuengamme page
- ushmm.org Neuengamme page
- Stichting Vriendenkring Neuengamme (Dutch)
- Axis History Factbook: SS personnel serving at Neuengamme.
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