Laagberg subcamp

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Reconstruction sketch of the Laagberg subcamp showing today's buildings and streets
Site with covered remains of the foundations of a concentration camp barrack and poster of the VVN-BdA

The Laagberg satellite camp was a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp established in 1944 in what is now the Laagberg district of the city of Wolfsburg in Lower Saxony . According to written records of the SS led the camp under the name Fallersleben after approximately 2 km west situated town Fallersleben . From May 31, 1944 , it was occupied by around 800 male concentration camp prisoners on behalf of Volkswagenwerk GmbH , whose main task was to carry out construction work for Volkswagen in the form of forced labor . When the US troops approached, the satellite camp was disbanded on April 7 or 8, 1945.

In 2017, the remains of the foundations of a concentration camp barracks came to light on the former site of the satellite camp during ground work for the construction of a shopping center . After an archaeological investigation, they are to another place in the former concentration camp area translocated where they to main exhibit of a planned memorial and place of learning to be.

prehistory

The forerunner of the Laagberg satellite camp was the Arbeitsdorf concentration camp established on the grounds of the Volkswagen factory in April 1942 . It took about 800 prisoners and existed until October 1942. Later, the VW GmbH again resorted to concentration camp prisoners as workers when, at the end of May 1944, in the then "City of the KdF-Wagons near Fallersleben ", later Wolfsburg, came to the establishment of concentration camp satellite camps. These were the Laagberg subcamp and the men and women detachments in Hall 1 of the Volkswagen factory. In total, an estimated 5,000 concentration camp prisoners were doing forced labor for Volkswagen during the Second World War .

On the Laagberg hill, which is about three kilometers southwest of the Volkswagen factory, there had been plans for the construction of the Laagberg camp as a barracks town since 1940 . It was originally intended to serve as an alternative camp for residents of the city in the event of war-torn apartments. According to later plans, the Laagberglager was intended for 20,000 employees of the VW factory, whom the VW GmbH hoped to get allocated for the series production of the Fi 103 (" retaliation weapon ", " V1 "). The first construction phase was completed with the help of Italian military internees and Eastern workers under the direction of Deutsche Bau AG based in Berlin, which, like VW GmbH, was owned by the German Labor Front (DAF) . The planned capacity of the Laagberg camp was reduced to 6,000 forced laborers with around 40 living barracks and ancillary buildings due to the increasing material shortages during the war .

Laagberg subcamp

Occupancy

In the northeast part of the Laagberg camp, the Laagberg subcamp was established in a separate area from April 1944 onwards. From May 31, 1944, 756 male deportees from the Neuengamme concentration camp were occupied by 800, according to other sources . The prisoners were transported in freight wagons and came from France (around 350), the Netherlands (around 150), the Soviet Union , Poland (around 150), and Spain ( around 100); plus a few " prison functionaries ". The information on the respective nationalities is contradictory as there are no prisoner lists. Most of the French prisoners belonged to the Resistance , the Dutch came from the Herzogenbusch concentration camp and the Spanish were supporters of the Spanish Republic arrested in France .

buildings

Uncovered foundations of block 4 ("medical station") of the Laagberg subcamp, four previous rooms are visible (2017)

The concentration camp subcamp spread out as an elongated rectangle almost in a north-south direction in a strip about 400 meters long and about 80 meters wide west of the city forest. The storage area was one of about two meters high with spotlights and barbed -equipped electric fence surrounded. The fence was secured by five, later six, watchtowers . They were six meters high and equipped with machine guns and searchlights . At the time it was occupied, the subcamp consisted of four unfinished concentration camp barracks measuring around 50 × 10 meters. A special feature of this subcamp was that it did not consist of the usual wooden barracks, but of flat barracks in solid construction made of bricks with a concrete floor . Each residential barrack had eight rooms and could accommodate around 220 people. The rooms had a floor area of ​​4.4 m × 12 m, had 14 double bunk beds and were occupied by 24 to 28 men each. The concentration camp satellite camp included three small outbuildings in the form of a wash barrack, a toilet and a kitchen building. There was also a transformer for the electric fence on the site . There was a roll call area with a gallows opposite the camp entrance .

To the west of the subcamp, outside the fence, there were buildings for the camp administration, the camp kitchen and the SS guard.

Prisoner situation

There is an extraordinarily large amount of evidence on the prisoner situation in the Laagberg satellite camp. There are more than 100 statements by former camp inmates from an investigation initiated in 1946 against the deputy camp manager Anton Callesen. In addition, the French artist Roger Monroy, who had previously been arrested as a member of the Resistance in early May 1944, wrote a camp chronicle in the Laagberg satellite camp. The clergyman Jacques Boca also kept a secret diary here.

In the subcamp of the concentration camp, around 18 German “prison functionaries” had to perform prisoner supervision tasks. This included the German Wenzel Dyba as the highest-ranking prisoner within the subcamp. He was a former prisoner, acted as a "camp elder" and was a former SS member convicted of the murder of his girlfriend. "Function prisoners", " room elders " and "Kapos" were Germans and Poles, and occasionally also French. As a rule, they belonged to the prisoner category “ professional criminal ” or “ political ”. Some of the “prison functionaries” were feared in the subcamp for their beating orgies.

Brutality and urge to work on the part of the guards and "prison functionaries" were common, even if there was no particular urgency during the construction work. The malnutrition common in concentration camps prevailed . The barracks were seldom and poorly heated, if any fuel was available. There was a lack of sufficiently warm clothing and the shoes of the concentration camp forced laborers were often ailing. Due to these conditions there were around 50 deaths and some repatriations to the Neugamme concentration camp by the end of March 1945.

Camp commandant Johannes Pump and his deputy Anton Callesen aimed with their harassed prisoner treatment at the psychological breaking of any resistance and individual identity. Callesen's pedantic cleanliness and order rituals, which he used as a pretext for abuse, became notorious . He was called "Saukerl" (Peau de vache) by the concentration camp inmates . In order not to be surprised by him, they developed something like a warning system among themselves.

A former prisoner on a situation in the subcamp:

“I came in May 1944 with a transport of around 700 prisoners from the Neuengamme camp to the Fallersleben field detachment near Braunschweig. It was here in June that I met the then Rottenführer and later Unterscharführer Anton Callesen in his capacity as Rapportführer . Callesen was [...] a person with sadistic tendencies [...]. I was an eyewitness to the following incident: Around February 1945, it was a cold, snowy day and I was working with several comrades laying pipes for sewerage (drainage), at 3 o'clock in the afternoon when we heard terrible screams from a building about ten meters from away from my place of work. Both I and my workmates knew that the report leader Callesen was inspecting this building. After Callesen had left the building, I went into the building to find out from my friends what was going on here. Comrade Walter Hübscher […] informed me that a French comrade Callesen had noticed because he had left the Neuengamme camp in summer clothes (striped drills) without sweaters, coats or stockings to protect against the cold no winter clothing to date) wrapped an empty cement bag around his upper body because he had a bad cold and wanted to protect himself from further illness. Because of this, Callesen hit him with a cane [...] to such an extent on the buttocks and back and upper body parts that he lost consciousness and could not get up. [...] The prisoners were generally aware that the stockings that were made available for the prisoners had been moved by the camp leadership, that is, by SS-Hauptscharführer Johannes Pump and Rapportführer SS-Unterscharführer Anton Callesen. […] As soon as he [Callesen] appeared in the camp or on the construction site, it was his specialty to look for victims who tried to protect themselves against illness as shown. "
Statement by Rudolf Gahde on July 28, 1947 for the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime (VVN). (BA (Berlin))

The prisoners had to carry out physically difficult excavation and construction work , unless they were forced to clear rubble and load on the VW factory premises . Constant drive to work did not change the fact that they were only able to advance the construction work to a very limited extent because of their devastating health, the negligent organization and the material shortages. Productive performance remained the exception. The prisoners' work was carried out under the supervision of the SS , "Kapos" and foremen in connection with beatings and shouts. Weak and inept concentration camp prisoners were harassed particularly brutally. Construction progress was often a minor matter.

The situation of the forced laborers in the city of the Kdf-Wagen corresponded in general to the Nazi racial ideology : the "inferior" the prisoners were viewed, the worse they were treated. The human life of prisoners under SS guard, as in the Laagberg satellite camp, was usually the least important. Her death as " destruction through work " was factored in. The bodies of deceased concentration camp prisoners were buried in the most primitive form right next to the municipal rubbish dump, similar to a mass grave. Weak or sick prisoners were often brought back to the main camp and exchanged for “fresh human material”. The gallows on the roll call square were not used, and prisoners who were to be punished with execution were also transported back to the Neuengamme main camp. Right from the start, however, there were sometimes spectacular manslaughters of internees on the Laagberg. Concentration camp prisoners were often tortured with sentences on the roll call square .

Towards the end of the war, concentration camp personnel and prisoners were informed directly or indirectly about the war situation and expected the camp to be disbanded as a result of the war. On March 19, 1945, beating was abolished and the concentration camp inmates were allowed to choose Red Cross officials who corresponded to their nationalities . However, it was still severely punished: from cigarette withdrawal to two days in a cell with withdrawal of food.

living conditions

When the deportees arrived, all personal belongings were taken from them and their hair was cut short. They were equipped with a thin blue and white striped cotton or viscose suit . A red triangle (for “ political ”) with a letter combination of the respective nationality was attached to it. Initially, the inmates' clothing was washed every one to two weeks, but not later. In October 1944 this was supplemented with winter clothing. These clothes, from the Winter Relief Organization, were inadequate; the internees suffered in damp and cold weather. Many wore the same set until the camp was closed.

To use the beds, thin straw sacks and blankets made from spare canvas were provided . It was only straw smuggling from the construction sites that ensured that every deportee had a straw sack in early 1945.

Until July 1944 there was no running water, so the internees suffered from thirst and from poor sanitary conditions. After they had connected the subcamp to the water and sewage network themselves, there was initially only one tap for communal use. From September 1944 toilet buildings and showers were available, although the showers were also used for torture purposes. After the catastrophic early days, the sanitary conditions were comparatively good.

Within the subcamp there was a "first aid station" in "Barrack 4"; Called "Block 4" in the language of the concentration camp . It initially had 24, later around 50 beds. In the winter of 1944/1945 at least 200 beds would have been necessary to care for all sick and injured prisoners. As early as the summer of 1944, many had dysentery infections and colic as a result of the sanitary conditions and spoiled food . Forced labor during the winter under adverse conditions, such as dirt and cold, as well as with unsuitable footwear and poor food supply, led to the first deaths from starvation and generally emaciation from November 1944 onwards . The living conditions often caused furunculosis and edema , so that many could no longer walk. When Karl Werringloer became camp commandant at the beginning of 1945, because of the high level of sickness he declared the entire block 4 to be a “sick bay”, which saved the lives of many at risk of death or at least delayed their death. Despite the measure, the death rate rose continuously in 1945. The concentration camp inmates spoke of a "camp of creeping death".

working conditions

The first task of the deportees was the completion of their own four accommodation barracks in the subcamp. They later built other small outbuildings there. The main task was the further construction of the adjacent Laagberg camp with around 40 planned stone barracks.

The concentration camp inmates were divided into nine or ten columns for work outside the camp. Eight columns of inmates mainly had to carry out construction work. Only two thirds of the concrete barracks to be built on the Laagberg according to plan with the associated ancillary buildings were started in the entire almost one-year construction period, which was due, among other things, to the lack of building materials and specialists. Only the SS camp guard barrack , transformer station and wash barrack were completely completed . The ninth or tenth column of Soviet prisoners was used for blacksmithing at VW.

During the summer the prisoners worked 11 to 12 hours a day, in winter - even on frozen and snow-covered ground with their inadequate clothing and ramshackle shoes - 9 to 10 hours; On Sundays, the warehouse was usually cleaned. The hardships and torments of winter brought only insignificant construction progress, for the war production in the VW plant these were anyway unimportant. VW was responsible for assigning concentration camp prisoners to specific tasks and appointed German foremen to supervise and guide them, who were deployed separately from other groups of forced laborers by VW. Reports about the behavior of the German masters, craftsmen and workers are rare, but it was testified by the prisoners about humane treatment and small favors up to open hatred and beatings.

Irrational zoning plans

In the course of the war there were serious changes to the plans for the Laagberg development. Initially the construction plan consisted of the creation of an alternative camp for the city dwellers, but later forced labor accommodations for the “ miracle weapons ” production of the “V1 rocket” were to be found. However, this planning basis was omitted before the Laagberg satellite camp was occupied, as production of the "V1" had already been relocated underground to Lorraine in March 1944 . Although it made little sense to set up additional forced labor shelters near the plant, the use of the concentration camp prisoners continued. Overall, it shows irrational traits of prisoner exploitation . It is possible that the factory management of VW-GmbH continued the construction of the Laagberg warehouse because of the feared housing shortage and the assumed expansion of production for the time after the war.

mortality rate

According to the records of deaths kept in Neuengamme, five prisoners died on the Laagberg between June and December 1944. There were 23 deaths in the first quarter of 1945. The last winter of the war in 1944/45 was unusually cold with temperatures in northern Germany of minus 20 degrees Celsius and increased the mortality rate. According to the information provided by SS-Hauptsturmführer and site doctor of the Neuengamme concentration camp, Alfred Trzebinski , 656 men were still living in the Laagberg satellite camp on March 25, 1945; the remaining 140 or so prisoners had died or were brought back to Neuengamme.

The group of French in the subcamp had the largest number of deaths. One factor in the high mortality rate among this group of inmates was that many of them came from the middle and upper classes. They did not know the physical strain caused by exhausting work and hunger. Most of the Polish and Soviet prisoners were farmers and industrial workers with previous experience.

Warehouse staff

The camp leader was SS-Hauptscharführer Johannes Pump , his deputy, who was also responsible for the labor deployment, was the ethnic German and SS-Unterscharführer Anton Callesen , who came from the German minority in Denmark . From the summer of 1944, Pump was the command leader; previously this was an SS-Untersturmführer Janssen about whose activity little is available. Pump was replaced in January 1945 by the Wehrmacht officer Karl Werringloer, whereupon conditions for the concentration camp inmates improved for a short time. His behavior is described as correct towards the inmates. Among other things, the diet improved, but he continued to tolerate Callesen's brutal crackdown on the prisoners.

Almost all violent attacks on prisoners in the Laagberg satellite camp were committed by Johannes Pump and the sadistic Anton Callesen. Compared to other satellite camps of Neuengamme concentration camp, the SS gave the "prison functionaries" little power. Although there was comparatively little direct violence by the "prison functionaries", these prisoners with special status supported the violent actions of the SS.

The SS officers commanded a small number of experienced SS men from the Neuengamme main camp. The SS were partially withdrawn in the summer of 1944 and replaced by older Wehrmacht soldiers ; they described the inmates as less hostile towards them.

After the war, Johannes Pump was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison in 1948 for belonging to the SS. He died in 1955 before criminal proceedings for his crimes in the Hanover-Stöcken concentration camp were concluded. After returning to Denmark, Anton Callesen was sentenced to four years in prison for membership in the SS . According to testimony from concentration camp prisoners from the Netherlands, France and Germany, there was another trial in which he was sentenced to death in the third instance in 1950 for murder and crimes against humanity . He was later pardoned to life imprisonment and died in custody. According to other sources, he was released in 1951 and lived in Denmark until 1979.

Warehouse liquidation

At the beginning of April 1945, the Laagberg satellite camp was "cleared" when US troops approached from the west. They reached Fallersleben on April 12th. One possible reason for the evacuation, as with the liquidation of other concentration camps at the end of the war, was that the SS did not want to let the concentration camp prisoners fall alive into the hands of advancing Allied troops as witnesses to witnesses . In addition, at the beginning of February 1945 the Reichsgruppe Industrie decided to “return” concentration camp prisoners to the places from which they came due to demands from German industrialists .

There were attempts to make another group of inmates aware of murders on the Laagberg during the evacuation days. This was aimed at Dutch students who were housed outside the Laagberg satellite camp in Barrack 8 . Concentration camp inmates slipped a slip of paper with short notes on a Dutchman assigned to the construction management:

“Saturday, April 7th, we leave the concentration camp; Sunday April 8th Found one dead; Monday April 9th ​​Two refugees shot dead; Grädicke, Adolf, witness; Behrens, Transport ( Vorsfelde ). "
Liberation of concentration camp prisoners from the Laagberg satellite camp in Wöbbelin concentration camp , early May 1945

Before the evacuation, the number of people on the Laagberg due to transports, including those from the Porta Westfalica satellite camp , had almost doubled and the already poor supply of prisoners had collapsed. During the evacuation, seriously ill people were put in trucks and the others were driven by the SS to Fallersleben station , where they were crammed into cattle wagons in groups of more than a hundred. From there they were abducted over several stops with waiting breaks for days with almost no water and food, and many of them perished. After the arrival of the death transport on April 12, 1945 in the completely overcrowded Wöbbelin concentration camp , many prisoners in the Laagberg subcamp died until the liberation by US troops on May 2, 1945, including 27 Dutch.

Most of the kapos, two Russian SS members and 45 concentration camp prisoners had used the opportunity to get civilian clothes and leave when the train stopped in Salzwedel . There was a crowd and chaos due to the influx of refugees and the retreating armed forces.

After 1945

After the Second World War , the Laagberglager , in which the former satellite camp was located, was called “A-Lager”. Throughout the camp complex were initially displaced persons and from 1946 expellees housed. A kindergarten was located in what was once Block 1 of the satellite camp until 1962. VW completed the barracks of the Laagberg camp, which were not completed during the war, to resolve the housing shortage in 1946/1947. In Wolfsburg, there were no moral reservations about continuing to use the city-wide barracks, which had recently housed concentration camp prisoners and slave laborers and which, as a “speaking symbol”, were reminiscent of slave labor in the Volkswagen factory. In the collective perception of urban society, the barrack camps were mainly associated with the misery of the post-war period and the expulsion of the German population from the eastern regions .

In the developing industrial city of Wolfsburg, the Laagberg district gradually emerged from the former barracks camp. A development plan was drawn up for him in the early 1960s . This led to a new building in the areas of the former Laagberg camp and also the former subcamp with multi-storey residential buildings. The camp barracks had previously been torn down between 1962 and 1966. Starting in 1964, the city-owned Neuland housing company built a residential area with single-storey terraced houses in the southern section of the former subcamp; Often referred to as the “carpet settlement” because of its frayed buildings. There were 40 " bungalows for old citizens" that were demolished in 2007, creating a fallow area .

Burial place

Memorial for the victims of the National Socialist tyranny in Wolfsburg in the Tiergartenbreite district

Deceased prisoners from the Laagberg satellite camp were buried next to the municipal rubbish dump, similar to a mass grave. The place is in the area of ​​today's Werderstrasse in Wolfsburg's north town. The deceased of other groups of forced laborers and Soviet prisoners of war were also buried there. After the end of the war, the Soviet military administration arranged for the site to be redesigned into an honorary cemetery for Soviet prisoners of war with grave borders and gravestones. In 1947 she erected a memorial dedicated exclusively to Soviet prisoners of war. The cemetery got its current shape with almost 500 grave sites in 1970 and 1971 as a memorial for the victims of the National Socialist tyranny with new stones and a memorial plaque. In its text passages, the memorial plaque refers to the tyranny of the Nazi regime and the victims, including concentration camp prisoners from various nations. The cemetery was previously largely ignored by the city's public and bore the discriminatory designation “Russian cemetery”, which goes back to the Nazi era .

Memorial stele on Breslauer Strasse in the Wolfsburg district of Laagberg

Memorial on the Laagberg

For decades there was no memory of the concentration camp prisoners at the scene of the incident. In 1987, the city of Wolfsburg, built as a memorial to the "satellite camp of Neuengamme concentration camp Laagberg" a commemorative stele . This happened on the initiative of former French concentration camp prisoners from the prisoner association Amicale Internationale KZ Neuengamme . The lead was the French resistance fighter Maurice Gleize , who was a prisoner in the Laagberg satellite camp. The stele is on Breslauer Straße within the former storage area. Since then, wreaths have been laid as part of a commemorative event on May 8th as the “ Liberation Day ”.

Discovery and securing of remains of soil

Excavation area with the foundations of four rooms of Block 4 in the southern storage area, 2017

In 2014 the city of Wolfsburg announced plans to build a shopping center with additional infrastructure in the southern part of the former Laagberg satellite camp. A fallow area of ​​around 10,000 m² was intended for this purpose, on which the Laagberg subcamp used to stand. With the involvement of the Lower Monument Protection Authority and the Lower Saxony State Office for the Preservation of Monuments , the first soil samples were taken on the planned building site in 2014, which gave no indication of building remains. In January 2016, further archaeological preliminary investigations were carried out through probe cuts . The course of the walls and foundations were initially of unknown origin and were not exposed. At the beginning of 2017, construction workers unexpectedly came across the 40 centimeter thick foundations of the concentration camp barracks Block 4 while laying a footpath in the south of the former camp site . The remains of the foundation and the building's sub-floor level had been well preserved. The city of Wolfsburg classified the site as a ground monument within the meaning of the Lower Saxony Monument Protection Act .

In the course of a rescue excavation prior to the construction of the planned shopping center, from the end of March 2017 the remains of the building were archaeologically uncovered by an excavation company , documented and provisionally secured against the effects of the weather. The excavations on the site can be attributed to modern archeology , the objects of which were also sites from the time of National Socialism . In the area of ​​the future memorial site, which is located within the former camp, further excavation work was carried out at the beginning of 2019, as ground monuments from the 1930s and 1940s are suspected there. After a short time, structural relics were uncovered in three places, which could be building foundations and remains of a transformer building for the electric fence.

  • The foundations of the excavated block 4 , 2017, secured piece by piece as block recovery

  • Foundations temporarily protected from the weather with wooden roofs, 2017

  • View from the north of the site with the remains of the foundation after construction work on a shopping center began, 2017

  • Excavation area with ground foundations in the northern area of ​​the camp, 2019

Discussion on the remains of the soil

Exposed foundation stones with a carnation in memory of the victims, 2017

For the city of Wolfsburg, the foundations uncovered in 2017 represent "due to their unexpected completeness an outstanding testimony to the early city history of Wolfsburg" as well as for the "reign of terror of National Socialism and for the problematic city history" (camp for displaced persons , residential use of the barracks). The international camp community of Neuengamme concentration camp ( Amicale Internationale KZ Neuengamme ) considers the foundations to be "an important testimony to the National Socialist tyranny in Wolfsburg".

A discussion between the city of Wolfsburg and victims' and interest groups as well as historians led to two alternatives for commemorating and processing the archaeological findings . The interest groups wanted to leave the remains of the foundations in situ as a ground monument at the site and present them there in full. In order to achieve its planned shopping center, the city of Wolfsburg suggested that the foundations of a large empty plot vacancy in the northern part of the satellite camp translocate and build a memorial and learning center there. In this area were the block 1 of the concentration camp satellite camp, a watchtower and the transformer for the electric fence. Accordingly, further archaeological findings were expected at this point, which were also found during excavations in 2019.

Planned memorial and learning site on Laagberg

Site of the planned memorial and learning site between the parking lot of a discount shop and a gas station with the covered foundations of the exposed concentration camp barracks
Course of the foundations of the previously uncovered block 4 , made visible by red paving

On August 21, 2017, the council decided by a large majority in a special meeting to relocate the barracks foundations, after the experts Detlef Garbe as head of the Neuengamme concentration camp memorial , Michael Geschwinde as head of the Braunschweig base of the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation and Christoph Heubner had been heard as Executive Vice-President of the International Auschwitz Committee . According to the resolution, a large part of the uncovered foundations is to be salvaged, relocated, conserved and shown at a memorial site that has yet to be built. There were also conservation reasons for relocating. A smaller part of the foundation remains is left in the ground at the site. This should be made visible, which was done in October 2017 with a red paving of the foundation courses. With the council decision, the creation of a memorial and learning site in the former area of ​​the concentration camp satellite camp was also decided, in whose design the citizens of the city were involved. The concept of the memorial and learning site will be developed together with the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, the Lower Saxony Memorial Foundation and the Lower Saxony State Center for Political Education . The relocated foundations are to become the central exhibition object. They are then no longer a ground monument at the authentic site, but a contemporary historical exhibit that requires explanation.

Detlef Garbe from the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial supported the approach adopted by the Wolfsburg City Council as a justifiable compromise. By relocating the foundations, they lost part of their historical source value, but they are still evidence of the concentration camp sub-camp. Archaeologist Michael Geschwinde from the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation said: "I am impressed by the archaeological findings and fully support the project."

The former VW general works council chairman and Lower Saxony Minister of Social Affairs a. Against the background of the city council's decision of August 21, 2017, D. Walter Hiller said that a memorial site on the Laagberg could only be part of an overall concept: “A well-founded and systematic overview of the Nazi era, its impact and significance for the city and Volkswagen Still missing, 72 years after the end of National Socialism is overdue. "

At the end of 2017, the relocation of foundation parts began after previous block salvage to their future location. The memorial site is to be created in the area of ​​the lawn within the former concentration camp site between the parking lot of a discount shop and a gas station. The cost of the relocation was estimated at 30,000 euros.

At the beginning of 2018, members of the Wolfsburg city council and representatives of the city administration visited the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial in order to receive suggestions for the design of the planned memorial and learning site for the Laagberg satellite camp.

Criticism of the development planning and the handling of the remains of the soil

The chairman of the Amicale Internationale KZ Neuengamme prisoners' association, Jean-Michel Gaussot, criticized the fact that the development planning had taken place without prior consultation with the institutions concerned. His father, Jean Gaussot, was a prisoner in the Laagberg subcamp and died of exhaustion in the Wöbbelin concentration camp eight days before it was liberated by US troops. Jean-Michel Gaussot also criticized the overbuilding of the remains of the Laagberg satellite camp. This planning procedure as well as the relocation met with criticism and opposition from other victims and interest groups. In the opinion of these associations, the commercial interests in building the shopping center ultimately outweighed the interest in preserving the remains of the foundations in their original location.

Among other things, the association of those persecuted by the Nazi regime - Bund der Antifaschisteninnen and Antifaschisten (VVN-BdA) and the Wolfsburg association Remembrance and Future advocate that the foundations remain at the site. According to the politician Pia Zimmermann ( Die Linke ), the remnants of the Laagberg subcamp as "... the scene of the crime should not be relocated, but rather inconvenient and visible where it is."

Mechthild Hartung from the Wolfsburg district association of the VVN-BdA also noted that the developer for the controversial shopping center project was the city-owned Neuland housing company . The company was founded in 1938 and was part of the National Socialist German Labor Front (DAF). Hartung called this a scandal. The former VW chief historian Manfred Grieger said on the subject that the city of Wolfsburg should have expected such findings from the time of National Socialism and: "The resettlement of parts of a concentration camp is unique in modern history and not appropriate." it is also the location of the planned memorial and learning site between a discount store and a gas station, which Manfred Grieger also shares.

Historical evaluation

The Neuengamme concentration camp system included around 90 subcamps, most of which were set up in the middle of the Second World War in the industrial centers of northern Germany . These were closely involved in the war economy through the SS Economic Administration Main Office. Wolfsburg in particular is an example of this, as the working concentration camp at Volkswagen was established here as early as 1942 . The use of concentration camp prisoners in the VW plant was already considered unsustainable by the VW management and the SS in the same year (1942), but the Laagberg satellite camp was set up one and a half years later (1944).

The Nazi historian Marcel Glaser from the University of Kassel classified the origins and everyday history of the Laagberg satellite camp in the history of the “city of the KdF wagon” and emphasized the symbolic power of the concentration camp. It is an exemplary expression of society in the “ Third Reich ”, a society of oppression characterized by “ exclusion , repression and hierarchization ”. The building history of the barracks is evidence of this, as are the recruiting of concentration camp inmates and their working and living conditions. The archaeologist Michael Geschwinde , who was appointed by the Wolfsburg city council as an expert, stated “that this place encompasses a dimension that goes far beyond such a monument (archaeological cultural monument) . After all, it's about the moral and ethical responsibility associated with this place. ”The historian Detlef Garbe spoke of the great importance that history assigns to this place. He referred to the decades of basic research into the prehistory of Wolfsburg, as well as the unusually large number of reports from surviving victims of the Laagberg satellite camp.

Hans Mommsen and Manfred Grieger write about the joint responsibility of VW at the Laagberg subcamp in the company history of the Volkswagen factory : "That the management of the Volkswagen factory and its contractors were jointly responsible [...] can be attributed to the crimes of the SS Do not resign. ”This statement by the historians financed by VW is viewed critically:“ What exactly this co-responsibility consisted of and who was personally jointly responsible remains open. ”The historian Dietrich Eichholtz notes that the historians in the assessment of the responsibility of VW have “put on a mental and linguistic corset”.

literature

  • Manfred Grieger: The working and living conditions of the concentration camp prisoners on the Laagberg in: Hans Mommsen, Manfred Grieger: The Volkswagen factory and its workers in the Third Reich. , Düsseldorf, 1996, pp. 766-800
  • Christian Jansen : Forced labor for the Volkswagen factory: Everyday life in prisoners on the Laagberg near Wolfsburg in: Exploitation, extermination, the public: New studies on National Socialist camp policy. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2000, pp. 81-107
  • Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel , Angelika Königseder: Wolfsburg- "Laagberg." In: The Place of Terror, Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck, 2005, pp. 551-554.
  • Maik Ullmann: Receiving - recovering - exhibiting. The remains of the foundations of prisoner barrack 4 of the Laagberg satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp. Report on the information event on August 14, 2017 in the Goetheschule and on Laagberg by Maik Ullmann. , 2017 ( Online , PDF, 480 kB)
  • Maik Ullmann: The construction of an educational and memorial site on the grounds of the Laagberg satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp: “Open the view - What solutions have other memorials found?” , 2017 ( Online , PDF, 760 kB)
  • Alexander Kraus, Aleksander Nedelkovski, Anita Placenta-Grau (eds.): A place of remembrance and learning is being created: The Laagberg subcamp memorial in Wolfsburg. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2018, ISBN 9783593509723 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel, Angelika Königseder: The place of terror: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck, 2005, pp. 551-554.
  2. ↑ Volkswagen Chronicle (pdf, 7 MB)
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Eva Hieber: A relic of horror that divides spirits. (limited online version) full text page 1 and full text page 2 in Wolfsburger Nachrichten of July 13th (15th) 2017.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Memorial site of the forced labor on the grounds of the Volkswagen factory , (PDF)
  5. ^ Adolf Koehler: Wolfsburg. A chronicle. 1938-1948. Wolfsburg 1974, p. 64.
  6. ^ A b c d e f g Walter de Gruyter, Institute for Contemporary History: Exploitation, Destruction, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2000, p. 75.
  7. ^ A b c Manfred Grieger: Company and concentration camp work: The example of Volkswagenwerk GmbH in concentration camps and the German economy 1939–1945 , Ed .: Hermann Kaienburg, Opladen, 1996, p. 92
  8. ^ Alfred Hartung: The suppressed past is back in Ossietzky , edition 11/2017
  9. ↑ a b c d Neuengamme subcamp list at kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de, accessed on July 16, 2017.
  10. ^ Photo of a watchtower, transformer building and barracks in the camp (pdf) in Wolfsburger Nachrichten of July 13, 2017.
  11. ↑ Eva Hieber: This is what the relocation could look like. In: Wolfsburger Nachrichten of July 14, 2017.
  12. ↑ a b Development plan “Laagberg Nord, 2nd amendment.” 5.8.1 Archaeological site “Laagberglager” , p. 41 (pdf)
  13. ↑ a b c Henk 't Hoen. Two years at the Volkswagen factory. As a Dutch student in the "work assignment" at the Volkswagen factory from May 1943 to May 1945. , Wolfsburg, 2002 (pdf)
  14. ^ Christian Jansen: Forced labor for the Volkswagen factory: Everyday life in prisoners on the Laagberg near Wolfsburg in: Exploitation, Destruction, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2000, p. 77
  15. ↑ Fallersleben-Laagberg (men) on the subcamp list of the Neuengamme concentration camp memorial
  16. ↑ a b Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel, Angelika Königseder: The place of terror: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck, 2005, p. 553.
  17. ↑ Materials at media.offenes-archiv.de (PDF).
  18. ^ Walter de Gruyter: Exploitation, Destruction, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. Institute for Contemporary History, p. 82
  19. ↑ Birgit Schneider-Bönninger in: Frank Ehrhardt: Topography of Memory. Memorial sites for the victims of National Socialism in the Braunschweig landscape. Published on behalf of the Braunschweigische Landschaft e. V., Working Group on Historical Societies. Braunschweig 2004, chapter: History of the memorials in the city of Wolfsburg. , P. 167
  20. ^ A b Reinhard Jacobs MA: Terror under the swastika - places of remembrance in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Study on behalf of the Otto Brenner Foundation, Berlin, 2001 (pdf)
  21. ^ Walter de Gruyter, Institute for Contemporary History: Exploitation, Annihilation, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2000, p. 96.
  22. ^ Walter de Gruyter, Institute for Contemporary History: Exploitation, Annihilation, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2000, p. 95.
  23. ^ Walter de Gruyter, Institute for Contemporary History: Exploitation, Annihilation, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2000, p. 102.
  24. ^ Walter de Gruyter, Institute for Contemporary History: Exploitation, Annihilation, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2000, p. 81.
  25. ^ A b Walter de Gruyter, Institute for Contemporary History: Exploitation, Destruction, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2000, p. 87.
  26. ↑ Maik Ullmann: "Preserving - recovering - exhibiting. The remains of the foundations of prisoner barracks 4 of the Laagberg subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp ” Report on the information event on August 14, 2017 in the Goetheschule and on Laagberg
  27. ^ Walter de Gruyter, Institute for Contemporary History: Exploitation, Annihilation, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2000, p. 93.
  28. ^ Institute for Contemporary History, Walter de Gruyter. Exploitation, Extermination, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy, KG Saur, Munich 2007, p. 78.
  29. ^ Walter de Gruyter, Institute for Contemporary History: Exploitation, Annihilation, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2000, p. 85.
  30. ↑ a b c d e f Marc Buggeln: Building to Death: Prisoner Forced Labor in the German War Economy - The Neuengamme Subcamps, 1942–1945 (pdf) (English)
  31. ↑ Underground relocation and decentralization of the Volkswagen factory in: Memorial site of the forced labor on the premises of the Volkswagen factory , p. 113 (PDF)
  32. ^ Walter de Gruyter, Institute for Contemporary History: Exploitation, Annihilation, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2000, p. 75.
  33. ↑ Lutz Budraß, Wolfgang Grieger: The moral of efficiency. Employment of concentration camp prisoners using the example of the Volkswagen factory and the Henschel aircraft factory in: Yearbook for Economic History , 1993, p. 107 (pdf)
  34. ↑ Description at offenes-archiv.de (pdf)
  35. ↑ a b Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel , Angelika Königseder: The place of terror: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck, 2005, p. 554.
  36. ^ The end in: Wolfsburg 1938-1988 , exhibition catalog for the 50th anniversary of the city, p. 51
  37. ↑ a b Dietrich Eichholtz: Fatal history of a global corporation
  38. ^ Walter de Gruyter, Institute for Contemporary History: Exploitation, Annihilation, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2000.
  39. ^ Walter de Gruyter, Institute for Contemporary History: Exploitation, Annihilation, Public: New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2000, p. 103.
  40. ^ The barracks city: Wolfsburg and its camps after 1945 at the Federal Agency for Civic Education
  41. ^ Günter Riederer: The barrack town. Wolfsburg and its camps after 1945. in: Germany Archive 2013 , Ed. Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn, 2013, p. 111 (pdf)
  42. ^ KZ barracks - Association wants memorial in Wolfsburger Nachrichten of April 11, 2017.
  43. ↑ Living and shopping: New Quarter on Laagberg in Wolfsburger Nachrichten of December 9, 2015.
  44. ^ Eberhard Rohde: Laagberg: Apartments for the elderly disappeared overnight in Wolfsburg News from November 10, 2017.
  45. ↑ Wolfsburg, memorial for the victims of the tyranny at the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge
  46. ↑ Memorial sites to the Nazi victims in the cityscape of Wolfsburg
  47. ↑ A monument in deep sleep in focus.de from January 4, 2018
  48. ↑ Memorial and educational site to be built on Laagberg in focus.de on May 9, 2017
  49. ↑ Respect and courage: award commemorates concentration camp inmate in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung from August 30, 2013
  50. ↑ Manfred Grieger in: Frank Ehrhardt: Topography of Memory. Memorial sites for the victims of National Socialism in the Braunschweig landscape. Braunschweig 2004, chapter: History of the memorials in the city of Wolfsburg. , P. 179
  51. ^ Groundbreaking ceremony for "Housing and Commerce on Schlesierweg" in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung on October 19, 2017.
  52. ↑ Laagberg: Do workers find the remains of an old barrack camp? in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung from January 12, 2016.
  53. ↑ Housing project on Schlesierweg starts in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung on March 27, 2017.
  54. ↑ a b c Bettina Maria Brosowsky: Supermarket on former concentration camp premises in Die Tageszeitung from August 22, 2017
  55. ^ Sandra Zecchino: Excavation of a barrack in Schlesierweg at regionalWolfsburg.de from March 29, 2017.
  56. ↑ Eva Sorembik: KZ on Laagberg: wooden structure to better protect foundations at regionalWolfsburg.de of 6 July 2017th
  57. ↑ Laagberg: Further excavations on former concentration camp grounds at ndr.de from February 17, 2019
  58. ↑ Archaeological investigations on Laagberg began in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung on February 14, 2019
  59. ^ Another excavation on Laagberg at VVN-BdA Kreisvereinigung Wolfsburg on February 17, 2019
  60. ↑ a b Resolution proposal "Memorial and educational site on the grounds of the Laagberg satellite camp of Neuengamme concentration camp" by Mayor Klaus Mohrs from June 21, 2017 (pdf)
  61. ↑ Resolution proposal "Memorial and educational site on the grounds of the Laagberg satellite camp of Neuengamme concentration camp" by Mayor Klaus Mohrs from May 19, 2017 (pdf)
  62. ↑ Sylvia Telge: Relatives of the concentration camp victims criticize the city's actions in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung from April 11, 2017.
  63. ^ Minutes of the Wolfsburg City Council for the special meeting on August 21, 2017
  64. ↑ a b Archive Council meeting. Video from the special session on August 21, 2017
  65. ↑ Andrea Müller-Kudelka: Council votes for relocation of the remains of the Laagberg concentration camp in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of August 21, 2017.
  66. ↑ Wolfsburg decides to move the remains of a concentration camp barrack. on focus.de from August 21, 2017.
  67. ↑ Andrea Müller-Kudelka: Tarpaulins protect the remains of the concentration camp in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung from June 26, 2017.
  68. ↑ Eva Hieber: More space for a presentation in Wolfsburger Nachrichten of July 14, 2017 (pdf)
  69. ↑ Eva Hieber: This is what the relocation could look like in Wolfsburger Nachrichten of July 14, 2017 (pdf)
  70. ↑ Red paving marks the course of the concentration camp foundation at VVN-BdA from October 31, 2017
  71. ↑ Sandra Zecchino: Subcamp concentration camp: Creating places of remembrance at regionalWolfsburg.de of August 21, 2017.
  72. ↑ Julia Popp: Memorial at Laagberg: Citizens have specific plans. In: Wolfsburger Nachrichten of October 20, 2017.
  73. ↑ Three pillars for the maintenance of the subcamp in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of August 14, 2017.
  74. ↑ Eva Hieber: Praise and scolding for the action of the city in Wolfsburger Nachrichten of July 14, 2017 (pdf) ( online )
  75. ↑ Memorial and educational site to be built on Laagberg , press release from the city of Wolfsburg from May 9, 2017
  76. ^ Walter Hiller: City and VW need memorial for the Nazi era in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung from August 18, 2017
  77. ^ Ulrich Franke: Concentration camp barracks will be recovered in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung from September 11, 2017.
  78. ↑ Sandra Zecchino: KZ Außenlage Laagberg: Council sets special session at regionalWolfsburg.de on August 11, 2017.
  79. ↑ Memorial for satellite concentration camps - politicians get suggestions from Wolfsburger Nachrichten on January 16, 2018
  80. ↑ Politicians visit Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial at regional Wolfsburg.de on January 16, 2018
  81. ^ Reimar Paul: Shopping center creates resistance. In: The daily newspaper of July 7, 2017
  82. ↑ Book presentation and conversation with Jean-Michel Gaussot on January 12, 2017 in Hamburg (pdf)
  83. ^ A b Sylvia Telge: Concentration camp satellite camp at Laagberg, relatives of the concentration camp victims criticize the city's actions in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of April 11, 2017
  84. ↑ Statement on the barracks foundations of the Laagberg concentration camp by the Wolfsburg Association, Remembrance and Future eV
  85. ↑ Concentration camp traces on Laagberg - Association speaks out against relocation in Wolfsburger Nachrichten on May 19, 2017.
  86. ↑ Eva Hieber: "Get relic on the spot" in Wolfsburger Nachrichten of July 14, 2017 (pdf) ( online )
  87. ↑ After-work meeting: Laagberglager - should a crime scene be moved? with Pia Zimmermann , Member of the Bundestag.
  88. ^ A b Tino Nowitzki: Dispute over shopping center on concentration camp grounds. at ndr.de on May 12, 2017.
  89. ^ Concentration camp remains: criticism of the city's actions in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of May 12, 2017
  90. ↑ Claudia Jeske: Concentration Camp: Can remains be recovered soon? in Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung on June 9, 2017
  91. ^ Dietrich Mohaupt: Dispute over barracks ruins on former concentration camp grounds at Deutschlandfunk from May 22, 2017
  92. ↑ Expert Dr. Detlef Garbe in the minutes of the Council of the City of Wolfsburg for the special meeting on August 21, 2017
  93. ↑ Received - Bergen - Exhibiting in focus.de from August 14, 2017
  94. ^ Marcel Glaser MA, FB05 Social Sciences, University of Kassel
  95. ↑ Maik Ullmann: Receiving - Bergen - Exhibiting. The remains of the foundations of prisoner barrack 4 of the Laagberg satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp , 2017 - see literature
  96. ↑ Speech by the expert Dr. Michael Geschwinde in the minutes of the Wolfsburg City Council for the special meeting on August 21, 2017
  97. ↑ Hans Mommsen, Manfred Grieger: The Volkswagen factory and its workers in the Third Reich. Econ-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1996, p. 799
  98. ↑ Kathrin Chod: "The vehicle for every national comrade" in Lexicon on Berlin history and the present
  99. ↑ Laagberg Memorial: This book gives an insight into the initial plans in Wolfsburger Allgemeine from November 5, 2018

Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 49.5 ″  N , 10 ° 45 ′ 3.4 ″  E