Essen camp
The Essen camp is a settlement consisting of several barracks in the Breitscheid district of Ratingen . It is located north of the street Am Sondert, formerly Essener Straße 5. It was established at the end of 1943 as a command camp of the Todt Organization . It originally consisted of seven barracks and a porter's house.
Former Italian and Polish prisoners of war were housed here from May to September 1945.
From October 1945 families who had become homeless due to the war used the facility. A school was established and regular school lessons began in January 1947. At the end of 1949 there were 171 students in the forest school, and in 1950 200. It was operated until August 31, 1968. Some of the children came from the nearby Krupplager, the Schloemannhallen and parts of Breitscheid . A kindergarten was also set up. In 1950 Colonel Wilson visited the scout group .
The families left the settlement in the mid-1960s. The vacant living space was given to non-residents and people with social problems. In 1975 the wooden barracks, school barracks and functional barracks (church, school, kindergarten) were demolished.
Asylum seekers are now housed in the camp, which still consists of three barracks that have since been modernized.