Labor education camp Oderblick

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Bilingual plaque for the camp

The “Oderblick” labor education camp was a labor education camp at Schwetig . It existed from October 1940 to January 1945.

history

The camp's buildings were built in 1938 as accommodation for motorway construction workers. In October 1940 they were converted into a labor education camp. This was subordinate to the Gestapo in Frankfurt (Oder) and from 1943 also served as an extended police prison. The camp was one of at least 30 along the planned motorway route between Frankfurt (Oder) and Posen . Most of the others were Jewish slave laborers. Above all, foreign forced laborers were detained in Schwetig. The prisoners came from 14 different nations. The majority were Poles, Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians. The camp, which was designed for only 400 inmates, was constantly overcrowded with around 800 inmates. The selection of prisoners was made by the Gestapo. Reasons for a briefing were, for example, escape attempts, but also complaints from employers and informers about “breach of work duties”, “loitering” or “insubordination”. The aim was to “re-educate” the workers. Those who survived the hard work, hunger and harassment of the camp staff were emaciated and broken and sent back to their original forced labor. There they should serve as a deterrent example for the other forced laborers. In addition to building the autobahn, the workers were also active on the airfield in Kunersdorf , in the Frankfurt gas works , the nearby Finkenheerd power plant , a gravel pit and on various estates.

In November 1941, typhoid and bloody diarrhea broke out in the camp due to the difficult living conditions and poor hygienic conditions . The camp was then placed under quarantine , which meant that no new prisoners were admitted, but none were released either. In May 1942 the camp was reopened.

After the construction of the motorway was ended in 1942 due to the war, most of the other camps on the route were abandoned. However, the camp in Schwetig was retained. From that year, Germans were also imprisoned in the camp.

In the autumn of 1944 there was a mass execution of Soviet prisoners in the camp. In mid-January 1945, in addition to the existing 800 prisoners, another 800 prisoners from another camp were quartered in Schwetig. As the Soviet army drew closer, the camp was closed on January 30th. The prisoners who were able to walk were sent on a death march that led via Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald to Dachau . Over 70 prisoners who were no longer able to walk died in the barracks when they were set on fire. The Red Army occupied Schwetig on February 3rd.

Casualty numbers

A total of around 10,000 prisoners were held in the camp over the more than four years of its existence. There are different figures about the number of fatalities, ranging between 1,000 and 4,000. More than 2,500 prisoners from the camp are said to have been cremated in the Frankfurt (Oder) crematorium .

Aftermath

The commanders and guards were not held accountable. At least one prisoner in the camp was later refused compensation by the Polish government, as the conditions in the camp could not have been compared with the severe prison conditions in other camps.

Commemoration

The memorial for the labor education camp was built in 1977 in 2006. A year later, another plaque with the names of 60 victims was put up.

In the post-war years, neither the GDR nor the People's Republic of Poland thought of the camp. In 1963 there were broken plates and cups as well as bones of the burned inmates in the remains of the camp. Poland did not erect a memorial until 1977. It consists of a small tower with a plaque and a wall. This contains a window, the grating has been broken open inwards. This is supposed to symbolize liberation from outside. After 2000, another plaque was added to commemorate the camp in Polish and German. In 2007 another plaque with the names of 60 victims was placed on the wall with the window, which was financed by the City of Słubice .

Known inmates

literature

  • Carola Kleinert, Brigitte Fehlau: The history of the former Gestapo camp "Oderblick" in Schwetig / Swiecko . In: World Socialist Web Site , March 1, 2000 ( online , accessed November 12, 2017).
  • Thomas Gutke: The horror of Schwetig . In: Märkische Oderzeitung , October 6, 2016 ( online , accessed November 12, 2017).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Carola Kleinert, Brigitte Fehlau: The history of the former Gestapo camp "Oderblick" in Schwetig / Swiecko. In: World Socialist Web Site . March 1, 2000, accessed November 12, 2017 .
  2. ^ Nancy Waldmann: Forced Laborers and Reichsautobahn. In: ScottyScout. Retrieved November 12, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b c Thomas Gutke: The horror of Schwetig. In: Märkische Oderzeitung . October 6, 2016, accessed November 12, 2017 .
  4. ^ A b Carola Kleinert, Brigitte Fehlau: Report of the former forced laborer Nikolai Liwkowski. In: World Socialist Web Site . March 1, 2000, accessed November 19, 2017 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g “Oderblick” labor education camp in Schwetig. In: Słubice website . Retrieved November 19, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Ralf Dahrendorf. In: Munzinger archive . Retrieved November 12, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Hermann Hammerschmidt. In: Lausitzer Rundschau . August 21, 2007. Retrieved October 23, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Annemarie Schulz. In: Lausitzer Rundschau. March 26, 2007, accessed June 20, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Ernst-Otto Roeber, Erna Roeber, Walter Hanig, Otto Last: Willy Jannasch and Comrades - The anti-fascist resistance struggle of the KPD in Cottbus from 1934 to 1936 . Committee of the Antifascist Resistance Fighters of the German Democratic Republic, District Committee Cottbus-City and -Land, Cottbus 1985, p. 33.
  10. ↑ Andreas Herbst :  Wegener, Oskar . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 18 ′ 48.4 "  N , 14 ° 35 ′ 18.2"  E