Blankenburg-Regenstein subcamp

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Aerial photo of the “Tourmaline” underground facility near Blankenburg from October 29, 1944
Aerial photo of the “Tourmaline” underground facility near Blankenburg from October 29, 1944

The subcamp Blankenburg-Regenstein near Blankenburg was assigned to the Mittelbau concentration camp as a subcamp . From February 1, 1945 to April 6, 1945 the camp was used for 400 male concentration camp prisoners. This subcamp of the Mittelbau camp complex was run by the camp SS under the name "Tourmaline".

location

In Blankenburg, the prisoners were housed on today's Lessingplatz in concentration camp barracks that had previously been built for prisoners of war and forced laborers. When it was built, the camp was still in a remote location on the southern edge of the Regenstein Forest (field name Alte Halberstädter Straße ), about two kilometers north-northeast of the city center. Today the city's hospital is nearby.

history

The predominantly Jewish prisoners were evacuated from the central warehouse Fürstengrube of Auschwitz been spent on the Mittelbau to Blankenburg.

From the beginning of August 1944, concentration camp inmates of the Blankenburg-Regenstein subcamp had to do forced labor on behalf of the Todt organization for the unfinished tourmaline construction project to expand the tunnel . For a planned underground armaments production of the Magdeburg company Schäffer und Budenberg, the sandstone massif of the Regenstein had to be excavated. The production of V2 measuring devices for Mittelwerk GmbH began shortly before the warehouse was closed.

The camp was headed by SS Oberscharführer Max Schmidt . The number of prisoners who died while the camp was in existence is unknown. In the course of the liquidation of the camp, the prisoners and prisoners from the Blankenburg-Oesig satellite camp had to begin a death march to the Elbe on April 6, 1945 , from where they were transported by ship to Schleswig-Holstein . The prisoners were eventually taken to the Cap Arcona , where most died after a British bomber attack when the ship went down.

In memory of the camp, a memorial stone was erected on the edge of the forest (northwest corner of the camp site) in the GDR era.

literature

  • Jens-Christian Wagner (ed.): Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp 1943-1945 Accompanying volume for the permanent exhibition in the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial. Wallstein, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0118-4 .
  • Jens Christian Wagner: Blankenburg subcamp. In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 7: Niederhagen / Wewelsburg, Lublin-Majdanek, Arbeitsdorf, Herzogenbusch (Vught), Bergen-Belsen, Mittelbau-Dora. CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-52967-2 .

Web links

Commons : Blankenburg-Regenstein satellite camp  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jens-Christian Wagner (ed.): Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp 1943-1945 . Göttingen 2007, p. 184f.
  2. ↑ a b page no longer available , search in web archives: TK25 sheet 1003-42 - Blankenburg / Harz, 1982 edition (digitized version )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / greif.uni-egoswald.de
  3. ^ A b Jens Christian Wagner: Blankenburg-Regenstein satellite camp. In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The Place of Terror - History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps , Volume 7. Munich 2008, pp. 295f.

Coordinates: 51 ° 48 ′ 38.9 "  N , 10 ° 58 ′ 29.8"  E