Neugraben subcamp

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Memorial stone

The Neugraben subcamp (also called the Neugraben subcamp ) in Hamburg-Neugraben-Fischbek was one of the 86 subcamps of the Neuengamme concentration camp for female prisoners from September 1944 to February 1945 . De jure , however, it was in the area of ​​the Hausbruch district , as this begins at the point east of the Falkenbergsweg.

history

The Neugraben subcamp on Falkenbergsweg was one of the 86 subcamps of the Neuengamme concentration camp from September 13, 1944 to February 8, 1945. There were two labor camps on the sub-camp site ; a camp on a hill, in which Italian military internees were housed in 1943 , and a labor camp at the foot of the hill for male forced laborers , often in their early twenties, not married and mainly from France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The small camp in the upper part was built at the end of 1943 for Italian military internees who were used to build the panel houses. The August Prien company , which acted as general contractor for the makeshift home construction, occupied the camp with 500 Italian military internees. In the summer of 1944 the camp complex was cleared; Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the Italian military internees afterwards.

In the period from September 13, 1944 to February 8, 1945, the empty camp in the upper area was converted into a women's camp , in which 500 young Jewish women, some of them still girls, had to do heavy labor. From then on, this camp complex was the Neugraben women's subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp. The 500 Czech women had previously been classified as fit for work after the so-called "selection" by SS doctors and were therefore deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz-Birkenau . The women who were then transported from there to Hamburg were initially taken to the Dessauer Ufer camp, a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp in the Hamburg district of Veddel . After five months in the Neugraben subcamp, they were taken to the Tiefstack labor camp , another subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp. When the women were assigned to the Tiefstack satellite camp, the camp was closed again on February 8, 1945. From there, in the course of the evacuation of the Neuengamme concentration camp and its satellite camps in April 1945, the imprisoned women were transferred to Bergen-Belsen , where they were liberated by British troops a week later. Nevertheless, many prisoners, including some who were imprisoned in Neugraben in the winter of 1944/45, died as a result of constant malnutrition .

While they were detained in the subcamp, the women did forced labor for various companies, such as Prien, Wesseloh and Malo brickworks. At the Prien and Wesseloh companies, the women were employed in building makeshift dormitories and in building water pipes and roads. They manufactured prefabricated components for the Malo brickworks. In the final months of the war, the women also had to clean up and help dig out an anti-tank ditch. The women had to work until they fell over; The Nazis called this solution to the Jewish question annihilation through work .

Location of the Neugraben subcamp

The location of the Neugraben subcamp was on the eastern side of the Falkenbergsweg and thus actually on the Hausbrucher area, about 500 meters south of the Cuxhavener Straße. Between the Neugrabener Bahnhofsstraße and the Falkenbergsweg was the area of ​​the Plattenhaussiedlung, which the women imprisoned in the Neugraben subcamp were also used to build. Until the end of the 1960s, the panel houses in which Hamburg families lived who had become homeless as a result of the bombing during the war stood in this place. Even today, many of the houses there are made up of panels from the core.

In contrast to the actual concentration camps, the satellite camps were located in residential areas and therefore within sight of the population. Twice a day, in the morning on the way to work and in the evening on the way back to the camp, the row of emaciated women in ragged concentration camp inmate clothing passed the houses of the residents. Nobody should actually have said they knew nothing about anything and never saw anything, because the residents saw the women working in new graves or marching to work every day.

Contact of the prisoners to the Neugraben population

Contact between civilians and the concentration camp prisoners was strictly forbidden, so it was the vigilance and attitude of the guards that mattered. Direct contact was seldom established, and the majority of the population was either afraid or not interested. Although it was forbidden, some women were sometimes invited into the kitchen and given a hot meal, and sometimes residents hid food at the workplaces behind the trees or in the trash cans. However, anyone caught eating or during a search with food faced severe flogging in the camp. In general, the Czech women described the Neugraben population as friendly.

Conditions of detention and guarding of detainees

In addition to the very strenuous work the women had to do, the conditions of detention were cruel and life threatening. The camp was in an unsanitary condition; it previously served as a camp for Italian prisoners of war. The toilets were often clogged and sometimes there was no water to wash.

Every day, early in the morning, the women had to line up for roll counting at the camp site, after which they set off to various workplaces under the supervision of guards. The working time was 12 hours a day without a break. On their return, the concentration camp guards examined the women for food, and punishments were part of the normal course of life in the concentration camp.

About 25 women slept in a room measuring 6 × 4 meters. They spent the nights on wooden beds and only had a blanket. The daily meals were insufficient for nutrition. The prisoners received a cup of watery coffee for breakfast, nothing at noon and a very thin soup, approx. 200 g, for dinner. Bread, 2 g margarine and a thin slice of sausage. The prisoners' clothing was also insufficient for the temperatures in the winter of 1944/45. The camp clothing consisted of “a dress, a coat, a pair of wooden slippers, underpants and a shirt. Since the wooden slippers were not robust, they quickly broke, which is why many women had no shoes on their feet, not even in winter. There weren't any socks and there was a thin blanket to sleep in at night. "

Abuse of inmates

The prisoners were guarded during work assignments outside the camp by about 20 older male guards, and inside the camp by six SS women as guards. The guards weren't SS men, they were former customs officers over fifty years old who no longer had anything to investigate in the destroyed Hamburg harbor and who sometimes turned a blind eye when the women were slipped something on the fence. The SS guards, however, were particularly strict: “They slapped the face and hit the women when they did the smallest 'offenses' at work (...). During the roll call in the evening and in his room, the camp commandant punished with at least 25 blows with a leather strap or a rubber hose. "

The first camp leader or command leader was SS-Untersturmführer Otto Schulz , he was followed on October 18, 1944 by Friedrich-Wilhelm Kliem until the end of the camp. Kliem held a reign of terror in the camp: he deliberately let women starve and freeze, and liked to use “his whip with metal balls at the end of the leather straps” to punish and discipline the women.

Sentencing of the camp commandant in Neugraben

On March 18, 1946, the first of a series of British military trials began in the Curio House in Hamburg . Several National Socialist crimes were tried there. In addition to the guards from the Neuengamme and Ravensbrück concentration camps , guards of the Nordmark labor education camp in Kiel, the Gestapo prison in Fuhlsbüttel and members of the guards and SS guards of the Neugraben subcamp on Falkenbergsweg were also charged.

The latter was charged with mistreating concentration camp inmates. All of the defendants pleaded not guilty. There were ten convictions and five acquittals of the defendants in the Neugraben camp. Most of the convicts served their sentences in the Fuhlsbüttel prison. Camp commandant Kliem received a 15-year prison sentence for mistreating prisoners and remained in Werl prison until 1955.

The site of the former Neugraben satellite camp after 1945 and today

After the end of the war, the northern and western European forced laborers returned to their homeland. Other people who had lived in the Neugraben subcamp during the war and were now classified as displaced persons continued to live in the barracks of the former subcamp. Ukrainians and Belarusians who had worked for the German war economy moved into the barracks that had become vacant because they did not want to return to their countries, which had meanwhile been ruled by Stalin . Since living space was scarce in the destroyed city, u. a. also Butenhamburg , Hamburg families who were evacuated during the war and have now returned to their homeland, to the barracks of the former satellite camp. The sub-camp was now officially referred to as "Wohnunterkunft Falkenbergsweg", in which an average of 750 people lived in the 1960s. The former SS barrack in the upper camp was converted into a day care center. In 1976 the camp was demolished.

Today there is a memorial stone at the place where the subcamp for the 500 Jewish inmates was . This stone was damaged several times and the plaque attached to it was removed several times. Therefore, a memorial plaque was placed at the Neugraben local office in 1992. The remains of the barracks are still on the site, but the barracks themselves are no longer there.

Jewish women formerly imprisoned in the Neugraben subcamp

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Geo-Online with display of district boundaries. In: Geo-Portal Online of the City of Hamburg with district boundaries. December 20, 2019, accessed December 20, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Peter de Knegt: Olinka - A friendship that began in the war. 3rd edition, 2014, pp. 90–92.
  3. ↑ Schultz, Karl Heinz: “The barracks camp on Falkenbergsweg 1936–1976. Origin - Use - End ”, in: Peter de Knegt, Olinka. A friendship that began during the war, Hamburg 2014, p. 125.
  4. ↑ Death shortly before the end of the war - draft. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Herrmann, Margit; Schultz, Karl-Heinz: Hamburger Intermezzo, in: Harburger Jahrbuch, Hamburg-Harburg, Vol. 18, 1993, pp. 183-184
  6. ↑ "We hoped to survive after all" Six former women concentration camp inmates visited Neugraben, Süderelbe Wochenblatt , cover story from June 16, 1999
  7. ↑ "We hoped to survive after all" Six former women concentration camp inmates visited Neugraben, Süderelbe Wochenblatt , cover story from June 16, 1999
  8. ↑ Helmut Rüth: Edith (Dita) Kraus, survivor of the Neugraben subcamp, visiting Hamburg from January 16 to 22, 2019. In: Homepage of the Initiative Gedenken in Harburg des Ev.-Luth. Church district Hamburg-Ost. Accessed February 16, 2020 .
  9. ↑ "We hoped to survive after all" Six former women concentration camp inmates visited Neugraben, Süderelbe Wochenblatt , cover story from June 16, 1999
  10. ↑ It's not about the pianist of the same name, who died in Jerusalem in 2013: Edith Kraus - Portrait of a Pianist. In: Lübecker Nachrichten Online. December 2, 2014, accessed March 14, 2020 .
  11. ↑ "We hoped to survive after all" Six former women concentration camp inmates visited Neugraben, Süderelbe Wochenblatt , cover story from June 16, 1999
  12. ↑ "We hoped to survive after all" Six former women concentration camp inmates visited Neugraben, Süderelbe Wochenblatt , cover story from June 16, 1999



Coordinates: 53 ° 27 '39.5 "  N , 9 ° 52' 5.3"  E