Labor education camp Langer Morgen

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Northern Eversween, near the site of the former Langer Morgen labor education camp, memorial plaque

The Langer Morgen labor education camp existed between April 1943 and March 1945 on the Blumensand on the Hohen Schaar in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg . Like other labor education camps (AEL), it served to discipline workers, especially the forced laborers who had been increasingly employed since 1941 , and to act as a public deterrent. The supposed legal basis goes back to several decrees of the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler , in particular to the so-called Himmler decree of May 28, 1941. In contrast to the concentration camps, it was subject to the regional Gestapo control center ( Hamburg State Police Headquarters ).

Location and facility

The penal camp was set up in the northern part of the Elbe island Hohe Schaar, south of the Kalikais (handling of potash salts) on the Rethe , between the flower sand harbor and the harbor station on the Eversween. It took its name from the Langer Morgen road there, which was built over after the war. The industrial development of the area began in the 1930s, with the construction of the port railway and the Rethe lift bridge (1934) it was connected to the port infrastructure. After Wilhelmsburg was taken over by the Greater Hamburg Act in 1937 , the Rhenania-Ossag (Deutsche Shell) and other mineral oil plants as well as the Rethes store for grain handling and storage were to be expanded as production facilities that were important to the war effort.

In November 1941 Howaldtswerke AG, Schiffswerft und Maschinenfabrik am Blumensand, had already set up the forced labor camp Langer Morgen I for 960 foreign workers, and another camp in the immediate vicinity, called Langer Morgen II , with 550 Soviet men, women and children, was established by MAN -Motorenwerke operated by Howaldtswerke. There was also a POW camp with at least 240 inmates who were used for forced labor by various port companies.

The AEL Langer Morgen was set up with four barracks and a specified capacity for 1,050 prisoners, and from the summer of 1944 a separate women's section was separated. Prisoners were used to set up the camp. The guard was carried out by members of the SS .

The first camp commandant was Johannes Rode , the former head of the Fuhlsbüttel police prison . He was succeeded on May 9, 1944 by Erich Oehmke, who was replaced by Josef Sommerfeld in October 1944.

Labor education custody

A so-called work education detention was not imposed by a court ruling, but could be ordered at short notice by police instructions from the Gestapo in the event of “non-compliance with the work norm, indecency at work, continued delays or company strolling”. Above all foreign forced laborers who were reported by foremen or company management, but also “locals” who were considered to be resistant, were affected by the imprisonment. A briefing could be ordered as an arbitrary measure both in the case of suspected sabotage and derogatory statements about the Nazi regime or the war . The "educational measure" was limited to a maximum of eight weeks, the purpose of the detention was to be achieved through "the most difficult physical work", followed by selection: the prisoner was either referred back to his previous job or, if the "educational purpose" was not considered to have been achieved, transferred to the Neuengamme concentration camp . There are also some known cases of prisoners in custody who were detained at the AEL Langer Morgen for long periods of time.

The conditions of detention were considered to be catastrophic, the diet was inadequate and ill-treatment was common. In terms of work assignments, there was hardly any distinction between male and female work; women and men were used equally for unloading ships , pushing lorries and, in particular, cleaning up after bomb attacks. The surrounding companies were able to request the cheap labor. They were used in particular by the following port operators:

Sacrifice and Remembrance

Plaque

Neither the total number of those who sat between 1943 and 1945 nor the number of victims are known, as a large part of the records were destroyed. For December 1944 / January 1945 653 prisoners, 278 of them women, can be proven, as dysentery (dysentery) and typhus diseases were put on record for this time .

A mass execution at the beginning of August 1943 after the heavy bombing raids on Hamburg by Operation Gomorrah is known . With the accusation of "building a sabotage organization" and "looting taking advantage of the war conditions" 150 prisoners from the AEL Langer Morgen were executed together with 20 forced laborers from the Lederstraße camp in Eidelstedt on the Winsberg near the Altonaer Volkspark .

On the night of March 22nd to 23rd, 1945, the camp was completely destroyed in an air raid, killing at least 90 inmates. There were no bunkers for the prisoners. The survivors were taken to the Fuhlsbüttel and Holstenglacis prisons .

Due to the remote location in the port and the scarce sources, the history of this place is neglected, except for regular information from the Neuengamme concentration camp memorial. In 2000, as part of the Hamburg plaque program, a memorial plaque was installed at the Hohe Schaar port station. With the biography research on the stumbling blocks , some individual fates related to the AEL Langer Morgen have been published.

Individual fates

Commemorative plaque for the Chinese campaign in Schmuckstrasse, St. Pauli (2011)
  • On May 13, 1944, 130 Chinese residents were arrested in St. Pauli as part of a so-called Chinese action, 60 to 80 of them were taken to the AEL Langer Morgen, 17 died while in custody, including Liang Wong (1904–1945). He was buried on the grave field of victims of various nations in the Ohlsdorf cemetery .
  • Wilhelm Buchholz (1888–1945), master cabinet maker from Neuenfelde , Altes Land , was slain by Gestapo officers on February 12, 1945 in the AEL Langer Morgen. He was Provides because he refused to war production and not at parades swastika flag hoisted. On June 24, 2009, a stumbling block was laid for him in Neuenfelde.
  • Frieda Fischer (1899–1945), worker from Hamburg; she refused to work in a munitions factory. She died on March 20, 1945 at the AEL Langer Morgen.
  • Willi Häußler (1907-1945), member of the SPD , active in the resistance of the Reichsbanner , arrested in June 1936 and to six years in prison convicted. After the end of his term, he was taken into protective custody and in April 1943 transferred to a work detachment to set up the Langer Morgen labor camp. He remained imprisoned in this camp for a long time and died in the bombing of the camp in March 1945.
  • Emma Quest (1881–1957), member of the KPD and the resistance group Section Leadership North (ALN), arrested in 1941 by the Gestapo. After being released from the labor education camp, she was seriously ill and died of the consequences in 1957. A stumbling block was laid in her memory on October 26, 2003.

Web links

literature

  • Herbert Diercks : The Port of Hamburg under National Socialism. Economy, forced labor and resistance ; published by the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg 2008 (The booklet is based on the exhibition The Port of Hamburg under National Socialism in the Hamburg City Hall from January 25 to February 17, 2008 and other dates.)
  • State Center for Political Education, Friends of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial eV and Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial: Forced Labor in the Hamburg War Economy 1939–1945 , Hamburg 2007; also as PDF: Booklet (PDF; 57 kB).
  • Gabriele Lofti: Gestapo concentration camp. Labor education camp in the Third Reich , Stuttgart (Deutsche Verlagsanstalt), 2000 ISBN.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Detlef Garbe: Institutions of Terror and the Resistance of the Few ; in: Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg (Ed.): Hamburg in the Third Reich , Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-903-1 , page 531 f.
  2. ↑ Bildarchiv Hamburg Hohe Schaar 1929 This aerial photo provides a view of the still almost undeveloped area from the north, across the Rethe and Kalikai to the Hohe Schaar. The Reiherstieg can be seen at the top left of the picture.
  3. ^ Herbert Diercks: Documentation town house. The Hamburg police under National Socialism. Texts, photos, documents , Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial , Hamburg 2012, p. 41.
  4. ^ State Center for Political Education, Friends of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial and Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial: Forced Labor in the Hamburg War Economy 1939-1945 , Hamburg 2007
  5. ↑ Anke Schulz: Inauguration of the memorial plaque on September 23, 2009 (PDF; 95 kB) accessed on January 11, 2010.
  6. ↑ Must Die 1945 - Hamburg Individual Fates , accessed on January 12, 2010.
  7. ↑ Tageblatt online: First stumbling block in the Altes Land ( Memento of the original from June 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 11, 2010.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tageblatt.de
  8. ^ Hanna Elling: Women in the German Resistance. 1933–1945 , Frankfurt / Main 1978, ISBN 3-87682-024-3 , page 179
  9. ↑ Ursel Hochmuth , Gertrud Meyer : Streiflichter from the Hamburg resistance. 1933 - 1945, Frankfurt 1980, ISBN 3-87682-036-7 , page 128 ff.

Coordinates: 53 ° 30 ′ 8 "  N , 9 ° 57 ′ 43"  E