Internment camp Balingen

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Internment camp Balingen

The Balingen internment camp (French: Camp d'Internement de Wurttemberg ) was a prison camp in Württemberg-Hohenzollern from April 1945 to December 1948 for German civilians , who the French occupation forces assumed to be particularly close to National Socialism . It was the smallest of the seven internment camps in the French zone of occupation .

construction

Immediately after the French army marched into Balingen on April 20, 1945, the camp there for French prisoners of war was converted into a camp for German prisoners of war and civilians . The arbitrary detention of civilians was based on the automatic arrest ; the prisoners were not given any further reasons. It was not until January 1946 that a decree ( Circulaire 753 ) of the French military administration in Baden-Baden regulated the internment measures, after which around 1000 internees were released in autumn 1946.

Following the transfer of the German soldiers in the POW camp Tuttlingen were in Balingen next to former officials of the NSDAP almost all on - local and county level and very few on Gauebene active - also former SS - and SA -members, but also teachers, merchants, Craftsmen and farmers were represented. The camp life was subject to a tight organization with military customs and forced labor . The French camp administration viewed the internees as "incorrigible and incorrigible Nazis" who should best be kept away from public life for life. Major Pieri, head of the Sûreté Régionale , on the other hand, advocated a German proposal to discharge the large number of those with little burden as quickly as possible. Even Colonel Eydoux, head of the Sûreté in Württemberg-Hohenzollern said, "that the majority of internees more or less followers were [...], the First [...] subsequently by the internment with leading party members and by their separation from the rest of the Germans in an opposition to the present state and a later even stronger than earlier emphasized supporters to the Third Reich [were] forced into it. "

management

The French camp commandant (French Commandant du Camp ) was Gilbert Claudel called "Balbo", who was initially under the supervision of the Superintendent of the Sûreté in Balingen, Lieutenant Bret, and from June 1946 under the camp director (French Directeur du Camp ), Captain Manhaudier. At the beginning of September 1947, the camp was handed over to German administration, which, however, was still under the supervision of the French occupying forces .

resolution

In the autumn of 1947 there were about 800 prisoners in the camp. In 1948, as a result of the work of two camp ruling chambers , of the 242 people who were considered to be less burdened, only 6 were classified as “burdened” and 22 as followers . Only the former Prime Minister of Württemberg Christian Mergenthaler was classified as the " main culprit ". The French military government rejected 61 of the 401 decisions in the arbitration chamber proceedings . Almost all prisoners were able to leave the camp immediately after the decision of the ruling chamber; only in those cases in which the verdict provided for a prison term that was not already covered by the camp detention were the internees taken to a prison. On December 30, 1948, the last judgment of the Spruchkammer (against Christian Mergenthaler) was passed and the camp was transferred to a different destination.

literature

  • Klaus-Dietmar Henke: Political cleansing under French occupation: the denazification in Württemberg-Hohenzollern (series of the quarterly books for contemporary history 42), Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-421-01999-1 .
  • Margret Steinhart: Balingen 1918–1948, Kleinstadt im Wandel , Balingen 1991, ISBN 3-927936-11-1 , pp. 255–260.
  • Balingen 1945-1950, post-war period . Brochure for the exhibition in the Zehntscheuer Balingen, December 5, 1998–28. February 1999, p. 11 (with photos from the Sigmaringen State Archives, including the interior of an accommodation barracks).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Inscription on the entrance gate to the camp; Fig. In Steinhart, p. 259.
  2. ↑ Steinhart, p. 255.
  3. ↑ Steinhart, p. 258.
  4. ↑ Steinhart, p. 259.
  5. ↑ 1949–1959 the camp was used as a reception camp for refugees from the east . Steinhart, p. 260.