Ghost Ship (Bremerhaven)

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The former minesweeper Peilboot III , which was acquired by the Navy SA in May 1933 , is known as the ghost ship . Between May and October 1933, political opponents of the National Socialists were beaten and tortured during special interrogations on the ship, which was unnamed at the time, in Bremerhaven . The ship was scrapped shortly after the war.

history

Construction of the ship began on December 14, 1918 at the Seebeck shipyard in Geestemünde . On April 1, 1919, it was put into service as the flat-going minesweeper FM 21. Between 1920 and 1922 the ship was to Peilboot rebuilt and on 1 April 1922 as Peilboot III of the German Navy adopted. On October 1, 1928, it was retired due to numerous defects and sold to the Mützelfeldt company in Cuxhaven on August 7, 1930 . In May 1933, the Marine SA in Bremerhaven acquired the discarded minesweeper and transferred it to Bremerhaven. Without being named and without being put back into active service, the ship was first in the New Harbor , and then in July 1933 in the Old Harbor . From the end of 1933 the ship lay abandoned in the port and was laid up in 1939 . During a British air raid on October 24, 1944, the ship sank in shallow harbor water. Depending on the source, the ship was either lifted shortly after the war and demolished on site, or made buoyant again and given as spoils of war to France, where it served as the Hulk before being scrapped .

Events on the ghost ship

“Political prisoners were particularly badly mistreated on the ghost ship. In the first few months of fascism, communists in particular were beaten “ready for questioning” and “ready to give evidence”. The resistance of the KPD should be nipped in the bud. "

- Ghost ship

On the “ghost ship”, prisoners who did not make the statements requested by the police in normal prisons were interrogated. The confessions required in the Göring decree could be better obtained on the somewhat remote ship. With the help of the most brutal torture, the prisoners were forced to confess about alleged crimes. The ship was beaten with rubber truncheons, steel rods, fists and wooden battens with nails. The screams of the tortured caused protests in the population and gave the ship the name ghost ship in the population . To suppress further screams, the prisoners were given pillows placed over their faces before they were beaten.

From October 1933, the ghost ship was no longer used by the SA for interrogations. From then on, the political enemies were sent to concentration camps such as Neuengamme , Sachsenhausen or Dachau .

The number of people who were abducted on the ghost ship is not exactly known, but it is estimated at "hundreds". The ship then remained in the Old Harbor and was laid up there in 1939. It sank there on October 24, 1944 during an air raid. lost.

Processing in court

From August 29, 1948, the Nordsee-Zeitung reported on the "ghost ship trial". The headings of the articles were "We were not entitled to the right" (October 8, 1948), "I screamed like a wild animal" (etc.), "Witness was beaten with a riding whip" (October 20, 1948), " Naked and tied up with chains ”(October 27, 1948),“ Bestialisch zugerierter ”(the like),“ 37 Years of Prison Requested ”(November 5, 1948),“ Monday Judgments of the Jury Court ”(November 10, 1948) and“ Das Judgment in the Ghost Ship Trial ”(November 16, 1948). The eleven accused SA men were to terms of imprisonment of one year's imprisonment up to ten years prison sentenced.

Plaque

Warning board “Ghost Ship” on the bascule bridge between the old and new port in Bremerhaven

In May 1991, a memorial plaque was attached to the engine house of the bascule bridge between the Old and New Harbor, which refers to what happened at this point in 1933.

literature

  • Harry Gabcke : Bremerhaven in two centuries, Vol. 2. 1919–1947 . Bremerhaven 1991, ISBN 3-927857-22-X .
  • The ghost ship . Teacher Training Institute (publisher), Bremerhaven 2009, online at the State Center for Political Education
  • Herbert Schwarzwälder : The seizure of power by the NSDAP in Bremen in 1933 . Schünemann, Bremen 1966.
  • Lothar Wieland: The concentration camps Langlütjen II and Ochtumsand . Bremerhaven 1992.
  • Wolfgang Wippermann : Rise and seizure of power of the NSDAP in Bremerhaven-Wesermünde . In: Jahrbuch der Männer vom Morgenstern vol. 57 . Bremerhaven 1978, pp. 165-199.
  • Wolfgang Wippermann: Concentration Camp . Elefanten Press Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-88520-728-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ghost Ship Memorial , accessed on November 7, 2010.
  2. ↑ The infamous Ghost Ship ship history on shipnostalgia.com. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  3. ↑ FM21 list of level minesweepers on german-navy.de. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  4. ↑ a b Ghost Ship ( Memento from June 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ "Göring Decree" of February 17, 1933 to promote the national movement
  6. ↑ Number of those tortured on the ghost ship and further whereabouts of the ship
  7. ↑ Erich Gröner: The German warships 1815 - 1945. Vol. 2 torpedo boats, destroyers, speedboats, minesweeper, mine clearance boat. 2nd edition Bonn 1999 p. 203.
  8. ↑ The "Ghost Ship Process", Nordsee-Zeitung, October 29, 1948, as a facsimile from p. 49 in: Das Gespensterschiff . Teacher Training Institute (publisher), Bremerhaven 2009, online

Web links