Tormersdorf Jewish camp

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The so-called Jewish camp Tormersdorf (today in Prędocice near Pieńsk ), which was set up by the National Socialists in a former diaconal institution, was an internment and labor camp for Jews deported from Silesia , mostly from Wroclaw and the surrounding area, during the Nazi era . It existed from 1941 to 1943 and was located in Tormersdorf an der Neisse near Rothenburg .

history

Originally the Diakonieanstalt Zoar of the Evangelical Brotherhood from Rothenburg / OL with a nursing home for mentally handicapped men was located on the area of ​​the camp . In 1939 it had to be renamed Martinshof after the founding family because of its Jewish name .

By order of the NSDAP and the regional authorities of Lower Silesia , Tormersdorf was selected as the location of a transit camp for Jews who had previously been expelled from their previous homes in Breslau . In May 1941, a Breslau commission visited the facility to examine its suitability for accepting residents of the Beathe Guttmann nursing home. After the approval of this commission - based on the location - the previous 100 to 120 home residents were on 17./19. Taken June 1941 to the Pirna-Sonnenstein Clinic , where he was murdered in a gas chamber as part of the National Socialist euthanasia program . The Tormersdorfer Heim was confiscated and converted into an internment camp. On July 8, 1941, the first 130 Jews from Breslau arrived here .

There are estimates that up to 700 people were temporarily housed in the Tormersdorf camp. Most came from Breslau and the surrounding area, but also from other Silesian cities such as Görlitz , Glogau and Lauban . These were employed as forced laborers in various companies in the area or for "war-related work", e.g. B. in road or dyke construction, used. Jewish prisoners and others were employed. a. in the Müller & Sons sawmill in Rothenburg and in the Christoph & Unmack company in Niesky.

The administration of the camp was the responsibility of the Gestapo , whose instructions had to be implemented on site by two deacons from the evangelical community and a "Jewish elder" named Saul from Breslau. Although the accommodation was in poor condition and there was neither running water nor adequate sanitary facilities, the Jews housed here had to pay 125 Reichsmarks per month for their stay  . Contact with the local population was forbidden.

Contemporary witnesses report on this camp:

“The Görlitz Jews affected by the deportation were brought to the former nursing home, which had meanwhile been converted into a forced labor camp, in overcrowded furniture vans with only the bare essentials. As a result of the overcrowding, the buildings became so cramped that several families had to live in one room. "

Due to the inadequate supply and the catastrophic living conditions as well as the fact that many residents had already passed the age of 70, 26 Jewish Wroclaw residents died in this camp. Murders and executions are not documented. Initially, the dead were buried in simple wooden coffins before burial in coffins was banned entirely. The cemetery of the Diakonie in Tormersdorf or private property served as a burial place. The Gestapo forbade the erection of tombstones.

On July 27, 1942, the Tormersdorf Jewish camp began to be dissolved. The remaining Jews able to work were taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp or the Theresienstadt concentration camp . The remaining residents were sent to the Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin . After the deportation was completed, the “Tormersdorf Jewish Camp” was dissolved.

Relics

Since the place Tormersdorf and the former Diakonieheim were completely destroyed in the last days of the war, only a few traces from this time can be found. In the vicinity of the memorial for the fallen in World War II , some gravestones and crosses from the village cemetery can still be found. However, there are no references to Jewish grave sites. Only sparse remains of the former buildings have survived.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (ed.): There is a time to die - Bishop Visitation in the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. Berlin 2007.
  2. ↑ Willy Cohn : No right, nowhere: Breslauer Tagebücher 1933–1941. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna, 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20139-5 .
  3. ^ Roland Otto: The persecution of the Jews in Görlitz under the fascist dictatorship 1933-1945. (Series of publications from the City Council Archives, Vol. 14). Görlitz 1990, DNB 910274975 , p. 62.

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 16 ″  N , 14 ° 59 ′ 5 ″  E