Salzgitter-Bad concentration camp
The Salzgitter-Bad concentration camp was established in September 1944 by the SS and the Hermann-Göring-Werke as a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp in Salzgitter-Bad .
camp
In a former “civil labor camp” with the number 43 of “Bergbau- und Hüttenbedarf AG”, around 500 women were housed in four barracks in Salzgitter-Bad, who had been transferred from the Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps to Salzgitter. They were used in armaments production in the "AG für Bergbau- und Hüttenbedarf", a subsidiary of the Hermann-Göring-Werke and in the supplier company "Kleineisenwerk Salzgitter". Among the women were numerous Polish women who had been arrested during the Warsaw Uprising .
The women had to march around three kilometers through the town to work in the factory of the AG for Mining and Steelworks, and they were transported by truck to the small iron works. The women had to work in three shifts every day to produce shell casings and armaments. In the cemetery register of the Jammertal cemetery near Salzgitter, four dead from the Salzgitter-Bad concentration camp are noted. As in all other concentration camps, the conditions were inhuman and the number of those buried in Jammertal, which seems small compared to other concentration camps, may be related to the fact that the women who were “unable to work” were transferred to the Ravensbrück concentration camp or to other subcamps and not to that Concentration camp Salzgitter-Bad can be added.
When the Salzgitter-Bad satellite camp was evacuated on April 7, 1945 before the approaching Allied soldiers, the women were first taken to the Salzgitter-Drütte concentration camp before they were transported to Celle . In Celle, the train, which contained around 4,000 prisoners, was attacked by an American bomber on April 8th. Since the prisoners were not allowed to leave the wagons, more than half of the prisoners were killed in this attack. Of the 1,300 or so prisoners who fled from the bombs and in the resulting chaos, 1,100 were captured again and 200 escaped prisoners were killed by the SS and police, the Wehrmacht , the Volkssturm , the local Hitler Youth and during the so-called massacre of Celle killed the citizens of Celle. More than 500 prisoners who were "fit to march" arrived on April 10, 1945 after forced marches in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp .
The approximately 600 prisoners unable to march, many of whom had been injured in the bombing, were housed in the barracks of the Heidekaserne in Celle, where they liberated British troops on April 12, 1945. How many of the women from Salzgitter-Bad experienced the end of the war is not known. Camp commanders were SS-Obersturmführer Peter Wiehage and from the end of 1944 SS-Untersturmführer Longin Bladowski . Bladowski was later sentenced to twelve years in prison. It is not known how long he was in custody.
Memorial stone
A memorial stone, which was erected through private donations and with the support of the city of Salzgitter, is located in the forest called Südholz von Salzgitter-Bad in a parking lot on the former camp site.
literature
- Gerd Wysocki: work for the war. Mechanisms of rule in the armaments industry of the “Third Reich”. Labor, social policy and state police repression in the Reichswerke "Hermann Göring" in the Salzgitter area 1937/38 to 1945. Steinweg-Verlag, Braunschweig 1992, ISBN 3-925151-51-6 .
- Gudrun Pischke: Europe works for the Reichswerke . The National Socialist camp system in Salzgitter. Ed .: Archive of the City of Salzgitter (= Salzgitter Research . Volume 2 ). 1995, ISSN 0941-0864 , B. The people V. Prisoners and inmates, p. 289-290 .
Web links
- Salzgitter-Bad satellite camp at kz-Gedenkstätte-neuegamme.de
- Memorial of the Urban History Working Group V.
Coordinates: 52 ° 2 ′ 18.7 ″ N , 10 ° 23 ′ 37.7 ″ E