Camp Mühlberg initiative group

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Memorial on the camp grounds

The initiative group Lager Mühlberg e. V. ( ILM ) is an association with the aim of coming to terms with the history of the German prisoner-of-war main camp IV B and the Soviet special camp No. 1 near the city of Mühlberg / Elbe . The association pays particular attention to the representation of the interests of former prisoners of war and inmates of the special camp as well as their relatives.

Historic place

The main camp IV B (Stalag IV B, also spelled Stalag IV-B) was a main camp for prisoners of war built by the Wehrmacht in 1939 northeast of Mühlberg / Elbe. In total, around 300,000 prisoners of war passed through the camp during the Second World War , of which around 3,000 were killed in the camp. From August 1945 the Soviet secret police NKVD operated special camp No. 1 Mühlberg on the same site with a total of around 21,800 inmates, of whom at least 6,700 people died in the camp.

After the camp was closed, the barracks were transported to Johanngeorgenstadt . The abandoned camp site was reforested. The special camps remained a taboo subject in the GDR until the end of 1989 ; in this way it was not allowed to talk about the victims of Mühlberg, not even about the existence of the camp. Commemoration events for the dead of Stalag IV-B took place in the Neuburxdorf cemetery . In the memorial guide of the Institute for the Preservation of Monuments in the GDR , the name “Mühlberg” was not mentioned for “Neuburxdorf” ; in "Mühlberg" there was no reference to the Stalag IV-B.

Club history, number of members and goals

The ILM was founded on January 11, 1991 by former inmates of Special Camp No. 1 in Mühlberg. In the summer of 1991 the association merged with the internment camps of the round table of the city of Mühlberg / Elbe. The first chairman was Gottfried Becker. The ILM has been headed by Pastor Matthias Taatz since 2001 .

Between 1995 and 2008 the number of members of the ILM was constant at around 450 people.

According to the statutes, the main goals of the ILM include:

  • Gathering and publication of information on the people imprisoned in the camp and the establishment and maintenance of an archive for scientific work
  • Providing information to survivors and bereaved families, organizing memorial services for the victims and helping them to find reparations
  • Establishment and maintenance of memorial sites on the camp grounds, in the Mühlberg city museum and other suitable locations

Activity of the association

The initiative group Lager Mühlberg e. It is thanks to V. that the history of the special camp No. 1 Mühlberg has not been forgotten. In contrast to other camps with a double past , where at least in the first years after 1989 the relationship between the survivors of the Nazi-era camp and those of the special camp was difficult and conflictual, the Camp Mühlberg initiative group endeavored from the start to to document the history of both camps and to remember both groups of inmates. Matthias Taatz and Achim Kilian, among others, took the view that only the complete truth and only the perception of other groups of victims of the time can lead to lasting reconciliation.

Bronze plaque with the names of the victims of the Soviet special camp

The association members first made the camp road visible again and exposed the foundations of a barrack. With the support of the State of Brandenburg and many voluntary helpers, a worthy memorial was built in which a large memorial cross and many individual crosses and memorial stones by relatives remind of the injustice committed. In 2008 bronze plaques were inaugurated with the names of 6,766 victims of the Soviet special camp. The Mühlberg camp initiative group contributed significantly to the establishment of an information path on the camp site until 2012. Originally 17 (now 18) glass steles, visitors to the memorial can find out about the history of both camps. In addition to setting up and maintaining the memorial in Mühlberg, the Mühlberg Camp Initiative group also supported the installation of memorial plaques or other forms of memorial work in other places, such as Rochlitz , Olbernhau and Thallwitz . Other activities of the Mühlberg camp initiative group include guided tours through the camp grounds, interviews with contemporary witnesses and traveling exhibitions. In 2014, an exhibition on the topic of self-made ceramics was designed in the special warehouse together with the Buchenwald Memorial .

Once a year on the first Saturday in September, the ILM commemorates the opening of the special camp in 1945 by the Soviet secret police NKVD at a reminder and memorial meeting . In this context, there is always a special commemoration for the victims of the German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag IV-B at the Neuburxdorf war cemetery . In the past, the keynote speakers at the meeting included Joachim Gauck (2004), Jörg Schönbohm (2008), Johanna Wanka (2009) and Ulrike Poppe (2013). Annually, commemorative events take place on the camp grounds on Memorial Day . A major success of the work of the initiative group in 2017 was the preservation of the memorial site, which threatened to fall victim to gravel mining.

The ILM belongs to the umbrella organization Union of Victims' Associations of Communist Tyranny (UOKG) . The ILM archive is a cooperation partner of the German Digital Library .

There are regular reports on the work of the ILM in local and national media.

Awards

Publications (Editing)

  • Since 1991, the newsletter of Initiativgruppe Lager Mühlberg e. V. ZDB ID 2645900-0
  • 1998: On behalf of the Camp Mühlberg Initiative Group: We were already half Russian. Documentary by Dirk Jungnickel , producer: Wolfgang Schwaneberg
  • 2000: Information booklet for visitors to the memorial of the former prisoner-of-war camp of the German Wehrmacht Stalag IV B from 1939 to 1945 and the subsequent special camp No. 1 of the NKVD / MWD of the Soviet occupation forces from 1945 to 1948 Mühlberg / Elbe OCLC 915002709
  • 2001: Achim Kilian : Thoughts on Mühlberg. OCLC 76186191
  • 2004: On behalf of the Mühlberg camp initiative group: Elisabeth Schuster (ed.): Reite step, Schnitter death! : Life and death in special camp No. 1 of the NKVD Mühlberg, Elbe. ISBN 978-3-936592-02-3 (since then several editions)
  • 2008: Book of the Dead: Special Camp No. 1 of the Soviet NKVD, Mühlberg / Elbe ISBN 978-3-00-026999-8
  • 2010: POW camp Stalag IV B: 1939 to 1945; Special camp No. 1 of the Soviet NKVD, 1945 to 1948. OCLC 767937308
  • 2010: Andreas Weigelt: Chronicle of the Initiativgruppe Lager Mühlberg e. V. OCLC 756367270
  • 2016: Uwe Steinhoff, Heike Leonhardt: 25 years of Initiativgruppe Lager Mühlberg e. V.: Side lights. ISBN 978-3-00-053813-1
  • 2017: Eberhard Hoffmann: seduced persecuted suppressed: balance sheet of a German life. ISBN 978-3-00-058667-5

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefanie Endlich: Memorials for the Victims of National Socialism: A Documentation. Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia . Federal Agency for Political Education, 1999, p. 314. ISBN 3-89331-391-5
  2. ^ Andreas Weigelt: Chronicle of the Initiativgruppe Lager Mühlberg e. V .: with an introductory consideration of the perception of the special camps in the period between the end of World War II in 1945 and the founding of the initiative group in 1991, Initiativgruppe Lager Mühlberg e. V., Mühlberg / Elbe, 2010, p. 61, OCLC 756367270
  3. ↑ Simone Wendler : Hastily planted birch trees should erase all traces. In: Tagesspiegel of March 4, 1995
  4. ^ Andreas Weigelt: Chronicle of the Initiativgruppe Lager Mühlberg e. V. p. 186
  5. ^ Andreas Weigelt: Chronicle of the Initiativgruppe Lager Mühlberg e. V. p. 62
  6. ↑ Report of the Federal Government on the status of the coming to terms with the SED dictatorship. The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Bonn, 2012, p. 111, accessed on January 5, 2014
  7. ↑ Stefanie Endlich: Memorials for the Victims of National Socialism: A Documentation. Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia . Federal Agency for Political Education, 1999, p. 315. ISBN 3-89331-391-5
  8. ^ Anne Kaminsky (ed.): Places of remembrance. Memorial signs, memorials and museums on the dictatorship in the Soviet occupation zone and GDR . Ch. Links Verlag, 2007, p. 189. ISBN 3861534436
  9. ↑ Reminder and memorial meeting in Mühlberg in: Lausitzer Rundschau of September 5, 2008
  10. ↑ Glass steles commemorate the victims of two dictatorships . in: Lausitzer Rundschau from April 24, 2012
  11. ^ Anne Kaminsky (ed.): Places of remembrance. Memorial signs, memorials and museums on the dictatorship in the Soviet occupation zone and GDR . Ch.links Verlag, 2007, pp. 360, 365 and 372 . ISBN 3861534436
  12. ↑ Camp of two dictatorships ( memento from January 6, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ), in: Sächsischer Bote from October 23, 2013
  13. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : The riddle of the broken pieces in the Buchenwald camp . In: The world . dated January 19, 2014, accessed December 16, 2019
  14. ^ First activity report of the representatives of the state of Brandenburg to come to terms with the consequences of the communist dictatorship. Reporting period: January 1, 2010 - December 31, 2011 Representative of the state of Brandenburg to deal with the consequences of the communist dictatorship (LAkD), Potsdam, 2012, p. 50
  15. ↑ Gravel mining prevents: what is in the "Agreement" . In: Lausitzer Rundschau of February 14, 2017, accessed on December 16, 2019
  16. ^ Commemoration in Mühlberg. in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of April 3, 1995
  17. ↑ Contemporary witnesses keep memories alive . in: Lausitzer Rundschau from September 3, 2011
  18. ↑ Ceramic finds tell of life in Soviet special camps . in: Focus from December 3, 2013, accessed on January 5, 2014
  19. ↑ Much praise for a quick-witted and dark chapter from two dictatorships . In: Lausitzer Rundschau from February 22nd and February 20th, 2016
  20. ^ Frank Claus: Camp Mühlberg Initiative Group receives Fricke Prize. In: Lausitzer Rundschau on May 28, 2020