Königs Wusterhausen subcamp

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Königs Wusterhausen satellite camp was a satellite camp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in the eastern part of the city of Königs Wusterhausen . The satellite camp was established in spring 1944 and was finally liberated and disbanded on April 26, 1945.

initial situation

After the last Jews from the Litzmannstadt ghetto were deported to Auschwitz , around 1,200 Jews remained in Łódź , who either belonged to the Jewish administration (around 600 people) of the ghetto or were held back for clean-up work (around 500 to 600 people). According to Benz et al. Above all, members of the administration for the camp in Königs Wusterhausen are said to have been selected, who were even reunited by the SS. The number of functionaries among the prisoners was actually very high, including, for example, the graphic artist of the ghetto administration, Pinchas Shaar, and the head of the “Central Office of the Labor Department” in Łódź, Aron Jakubowicz, along with their families. The latter was also the former deputy of the "ghetto elder" Chaim Rumkowski , who was himself killed in Auschwitz.

The production of makeshift homes by Kelterbron & Stenvers had to be postponed due to the liquidation. Since the city had been trying for some time to build makeshift homes to settle new citizens in Königs Wusterhausen, the city was selected as a replacement location for the production.

Construction and operation

Different information can be found about the exact time of the establishment of the camp. While both Schwarz and the 6th DV- BEG state February 9, 1943 as the date of foundation, Benz et al. February 1944 and Morsch et al. November 1944 as the date. In his book Whoever Builds, He Remains: New Jewish Life in Germany, Bertram does not commit himself to the month, but to the year 1944. The testimony of eyewitness David Grünstein could provide an explanation, who states that the conceptual founding took place in 1943 in the Litzmannstadt ghetto. At that time, the production of makeshift dormitories was already started in Łódź, which were only transferred to Königs Wusterhausen when the ghetto was liquidated. The statements of contemporary witnesses from the city, who were asked in an interview to investigate the camp, could also help clarify the situation. These indicate that the camp at Krebssee was purely a prisoner of war or forced labor camp , which already existed before the subcamp.

Various information can also be found about the time of the transport of the prisoners from the dissolved Ghetto Łódź: According to Meyer et al. the prisoners were brought from the ghetto to Königs Wusterhausen in September 1944. The city chronicler Ernst Piel found out that on September 4, 1944, the intention to build a satellite camp was announced. On September 21, the mayor approved the decision to develop three  hectares south and north of Senziger Landstrasse. The eyewitness and concentration camp survivor David Grünstein, who came to the city's camp in the first transport of Jewish prisoners, states that they were brought to Königs Wusterhausen via Sachsenhausen on October 6, 1944. Both Benz et al. as well as Feuchert et al. write that on October 22, 1944, the group of Jewish prisoners from Łódź is said to have been transported to Sachsenhausen.

What is certain is that the proximity to the Königs Wusterhausen freight yard was chosen as the location . The camp was on the east side of the train station between the former Senziger Landstrasse (today Storkower Strasse) and the Priestergraben. According to Morsch, the barracks were on both sides of the Senziger Landstrasse. One warehouse was located at the Krebssee or freight station and the other part warehouse was built further towards the port on today's Fliederweg. Inconsistent information from up to five forced labor camps in the city, e.g. B. for the Reichsbahn or the Reichspost could not be documented. One or two model settlements of makeshift homes were planned, which should be built by the prisoners.

At the beginning, the camp consisted of an SS and a kitchen barracks, while the first prisoners had to sleep in the open air at the end of November / beginning of December. The actual prisoner camp was quite small and within a production area (halls, workshops and material storage). In the camp there was a joinery and a tailor and shoemaker's workshop. There was also a fully equipped laboratory and medicines brought from Łódź. The area was looked after by Dr. Leon Szykier and the surgeon Dr. Szyja Widzer. The camp was divided into a men's and a women's or children's camp. The women's camp was housed in a separate barrack and separated from the men's camp by barbed wire.

Benz. et al. provide an exact listing of the change stocks:

  • November 3, 1944: 153 men are brought to Königs Wusterhausen (Grünstein and Morsch lead the number of 165 prisoners here)
  • December 16, 1944: 50 men are added
  • December 17, 1944: 46 men join the group
  • February 19, 1945: 150 women are transferred to Königs Wusterhausen
  • March 7, 1945: Transfer of 9 women to Auer. According to Morsch et al. these were both Hungarian and Polish Jews.
  • April 17, 1945: 44 women are transferred to Sachsenhausen

On April 9, 238 prisoners were found in the camp. On April 20, the women's camp still consisted of 88 prisoners. The death of 7 women could be proven. According to David Grünstein, up to 650 prisoners were incarcerated in the concentration camp. Piel also stated that the camp should be designed for up to 700 prisoners.

While the women in the camp had to nail together boxes of ammunition for the Krupp company and manufacture “winter construction boxes ” for truck engines from the Siemens company , the men in the camp had to make the makeshift homes. According to Piel, the work for the Krupp company was later no longer verifiable, so that this use can only be assumed as very likely. Since the makeshift home work did not get beyond a few test pieces, the prisoners were also used for digging work on anti- tank trenches on the Notte Canal and for forest work. The houses were intended for members of the Reichsrundfunk , whose houses were destroyed by bombs, and were to be built on Potsdamer Strasse from the cemetery to the barn on Mittelweg. One of the wooden homes with a square floor plan, which was manufactured as a test piece, is said to still be on display in Hafenstrasse. Although most of the prisoners were allowed to keep their civilian clothes on and the sanitary conditions were described as comparatively good, harassment and abuse by the guards as well as exploitation by the production companies (especially by Fritz Stenvers) were the order of the day. As punishment, at least one inmate was sent naked into a pit and had to spend the night there, believing that they would be shot at any moment. Other inmates also had to spend the winter nights in the frost.

The command leader was SS-Unterscharfuhrer Willi Meifert. Investigations against him were discontinued because the man who lived in Bielefeld after the war was no longer questioned because of mental illness and no murders could be proven.

Dissolution and Liberation

A few days before the liberation, some of the male prisoners were brought back to Sachsenhausen, where they were sent on the death march to Mecklenburg . Among other things, Mendel Grossman was one of the prisoners who, exhausted from the exertion, was shot on the march. Between April 18 and April 20, 1945, a second group, this time consisting of women and children, was sent out and had to walk. Some were liberated on the way to Sachsenhausen. The guards and Stenvers left the camp on April 22, 1945 in civilian clothes. The camp was finally liberated on April 26, 1945 by the Red Army .

According to the architect W. Dahlke, who directed the liquidation, the inventory of the camp was said to have been very extensive. Although large parts of the inventory were stolen, looted or taken away as compensation, materials worth 39,921.10 Reichsmarks could still be sold to private individuals.

Post-war development and commemoration

Memorial plaque at the former Königs Wusterhausen subcamp

Soon after the liberation, the entire camp was demolished. On the site of the prisoner of war camp east of the Chaussee, the land was given to new farmers who had to dig, smash and remove the up to 50 cm thick concrete works. Only then could arable farming be more or less successful. Today allotment gardens and single-family houses are mainly to be found on the site. To the west of Storkower Strasse, there are also single-family houses and a few commercial businesses. Since an official investigation was not desired during the GDR era , no investigations were carried out on the reappraisal and an appropriate consideration of the circumstances could only take place 50 years later.

From 1980 at the latest, a memorial stone for those “persecuted by the Nazi regime” in Puschkinstrasse opposite the official garden bore the inscription “VdN memorial stone for the fallen anti-fascists in the city and prisoners of the subcamp”.

With the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the camp on April 28, 1995, a more intensive investigation into the satellite camp was initiated, which was significantly supported by the visit of the concentration camp survivor David Grünstein with eyewitness reports.

When compensation for Nazi forced laborers was settled in 2000 , the city of Königs Wusterhausen was one of initially only six cities in Germany that voluntarily collected money for the compensation payments from the public sector, which were to be borne exclusively by the federal government. A total of 200 cities and municipalities should collect money in the end. In Königs Wusterhausen, all city representatives and 48 other citizens donated a total of almost DM 15,000  . The money raised was used for youth work in the context of education and meetings with contemporary witnesses.

On the initiative of the association “Kulturlandschaft Dahme-Spreewald e. V. ”a memorial plaque was placed on April 18, 2005 on the former camp site in Fliederweg .

Known prisoners

literature

  • Andreas Weigelt: Königs Wusterhausen. In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 3: Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52963-1 , pp. 214-218.
  • Frank Stier: War order 160th Makeshift home construction in the Litzmannstadt ghetto (Łódź) and in the Königs Wusterhausen subcamp by the German Housing Fund. Arenhövel, Berlin a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-922912-47-8 ( individual publication by the Brandenburg Historical Commission 1).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ W. Benz, B. Distel, A. Königseder: The place of terror: History of the National Socialist concentration camps . P. 214.
  2. ^ A b G. Schwarz: The National Socialist Camps . P. 191.
  3. ↑ Sixth Ordinance for the Implementation of the Federal Compensation Act
  4. ↑ a b G. Morsch, S. Zur Nieden: Jewish Prisoners in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp 1936 to 1945 . P. 268.
  5. ↑ a b J. Bertram: Who builds, stays: new Jewish life in Germany . P. 17.
  6. ↑ a b c d The past taken from anonymity . In: Berliner Zeitung , April 28, 1995; to visit David Grünstein in Königs Wusterhausen.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g h Almost 600 Jewish prisoners worked in the concentration camp . In: Berliner Zeitung , March 31, 1995; with detailed information on the research carried out in 1995.
  8. ^ W. Meyer, K. Neitmann: Forced Labor during the Nazi Era in Berlin and Brandenburg: Forms, Function and Reception, Volume 7 . P. 170.
  9. ^ W. Benz, B. Distel, A. Königseder: The place of terror: History of the National Socialist concentration camps . P. 215.
  10. ^ S. Feuchert, E. Leibfried, J. Riecke, J. Baranowski: Die Chronik des Gettos Lodz / Litzmannstadt, Volume 1 . P. 10.
  11. ↑ Murderers are not among them . In: Berliner Zeitung , May 31, 1995.
  12. ^ G. Morsch, S. Zur Nieden: Jewish Prisoners in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp 1936 to 1945 . P. 250.
  13. ↑ A. Löw: Jews in the Litzmannstadt ghetto: living conditions, self-perception, behavior . P. 426.
  14. ^ W. Benz, B. Distel, A. Königseder: The place of terror: History of the National Socialist concentration camps . P. 217.
  15. ↑ National Socialist Forced Laborers: Two cities are now asking citizens for donations . In: Berliner Zeitung , September 22, 2000.
  16. ^ Forced laborers in Brandenburg . In: Die Welt , March 23, 2000.
  17. ↑ Cities collect for forced laborers - but hardly anyone wants to pay . In: Berliner Zeitung , February 20, 2001.
  18. ↑ Former inmates of the satellite camp as guests in the city . In: Märkische Allgemeine .

Coordinates: 52 ° 17 ′ 35 "  N , 13 ° 38 ′ 4.7"  E