Rebstock subcamp

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
East entrance of the Silberberg tunnel (near Ahrweiler)
Location of the former railway tunnel between Neuenahr and Rech in the Ahr valley

The Rebstock satellite camp was a satellite camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp . It was near Marienthal between Dernau and Ahrweiler an der Ahr in what is now northern Rhineland-Palatinate .

It was established on August 21, 1944 and dissolved on December 13, 1944. The remaining prisoners were brought to the Rebstock camp near Artern .

Function of the camp and prisoners

Economic purpose of the camp

1944 passed aliases Rebstock for the Silberberg tunnel and Kuxbergtunnel and Sparrow for Trotzenberg tunnel , Special Tunnel and Mr. Tunnel .

These tunnels were part of a strategic railway line from the Ahr Valley Railway to the strategic embankment in Neuss. This was started in 1904 but not completed.

Stephan camp

Spatz was intended for the production of the retribution weapon 1 as part of the Stephan von Volkswagen project . It was dissolved again in September 1944. Production apparently did not start. The three barracks of the camp were located south of Dernau on the embankment between the Sonderberg and Herrenberg tunnels.

Stock Rebstock

Finally, the production of floor systems for the V2 ( Rebstock ) was implemented. These were carried out by Gollnow & Sohn . For this purpose, the prisoners were used as slave labor . This camp existed from the beginning of September 1944 to December 13, 1944. The camp was located near Marienthal, north of the embankment between the Kuxberg tunnel and the Trotzenberg tunnel. It consisted of eleven massive accommodation barracks as well as barracks for economic, community and office purposes. During the course of the camp's existence, the prisoners' quarters were moved entirely to the tunnel. This meant that they were in the vicinity of the residents of Marienthal, who used the tunnel as an air raid shelter.

Number of prisoners

The following numbers of prisoners are documented in the district archive of the Ahrweiler district :

date number
August 26, 1944 180
September 19, 1944 197
December 5, 1944 100
December 13, 1944 99

A report by prisoner Arie van Houwelingen from Delft speaks of almost 300 prisoners.

For the forced labor accounted for by the Gollnow & Sohn company (concentration camp prisoners from Buchenwald), average monthly figures (from September 1944 to November 1944) of up to 184.43 prisoners are given.

The following information can also be found in the literature:

“A distinction must be made between two camps: Rebstock (Gollnow) near Marienthal with a maximum number of prisoners of 207 and Rebstock (Stephan) in Dernau with the maximum number of 301 prisoners. Rebstock (Stephan) only existed in September 1944. "

From the individual national figures given below, a total of approx. 700–1400 prisoners can be estimated, including approx. 500 concentration camp prisoners who - for the most part - were or were employed in building barracks, tunnels, track construction and dismantling of the facilities (since September 1944) how the Hungarian concentration camp prisoners waited for work (Dernau as a transit camp for two or three weeks) - were more or less long in one of the camps.

Origin of the inmates

The prisoners were exclusively male and the majority came from the Netherlands and Italy , but also from Belgium , France , Poland , Russia and Germany .

Most of the Dutch prisoners (not concentration camp prisoners) were transferred from the Amersfoort transit camp in the Netherlands. 168 prisoners arrived from here on August 4, 1944, and around 130 more prisoners on August 18, 1944. The others were transferred to the SS special camp in Hinzert in the Hunsrück.

A production facility for the V1 was planned in Tiercelet , which was built by prisoners from the Thil satellite camp . From here on September 2, 1944, around 300 Jewish prisoners from Hungary arrived. They were not used for production and were transported on to the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp . The Stephan camp probably existed in this context . During their three weeks in Dernau, these prisoners were subordinate to the Volkswagen factory and had no connection with the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Approx. 500 Italian military internees (not concentration camp prisoners) were imprisoned at the nearby air force training area Ahrbrück from autumn 1943 . These were transported to the production facilities every day. Most of the Italian military internees left the Rebstock project in mid-February 1944 after the barracks camp near Marienthal was built. Some of the military internees moved with the responsible construction company Fix to the next tunnel project with the code name A7 (tunnel Bruttig-Treis near Cochem. See here: www.ahr-eifel-rhein.de)

Around 200 prisoners were transferred from Buchenwald concentration camp at the end of August and beginning of September 1944. Above all, it was selected prisoners who stated that they had professional experience as electricians, radio and radio technicians, or mechanics. Most of them came from France, Poland and Germany and were mainly used to dismantle the V2 systems in the Kuxberg tunnel and to transport them to Artern.

Guarding and camp management

The guards were subordinate to SS-Untersturmführer Jan Andreas Jansen († 1968 in Emden). The watch command in Marienthal consisted of 6 SS- Unterführer and 31 SS-men . The outer securing of the bearing was responsible for a Landesschutzen - company of the armed forces .

Two names are recorded in the literature as commanding officers of the camp:

His function is recorded for November 27, 1944 and can therefore be assigned to the Rebstock camp .
His office address was: SS-Kommando Feldpostnummer 12778, Postfach Koblenz 367, Tel. Koblenz Fernplatz 1. He was considered missing after the war and was declared dead in 1962.

Legal consequences

As early as after the Second World War, French investigators investigated the Rastatt trials. The charges were not brought due to lack of evidence. In the sixties the "Central Office Ludwigsburg" investigated again intensively over a number of years. These proceedings were also dropped for lack of evidence. From 1986 to 1992, the Koblenz public prosecutor's office investigated murder, but without success (see: file number Koblenz public prosecutor's office: 1UJs268 / 86; Koblenz main archive S2 / RO 3393/94/03).

Perception of the local population

The camps were both close by and the goings-on of the guards were not hidden from the population. In addition to working in the tunnels, the prisoners were also deployed outside. The inmate Miescyslav Dabrowski reports:

"We read wine under the supervision of guards and in the presence of the owners of these plantations."

From October 8, 1944, the Marienthal population used the Trotzenberg tunnel as air raid shelter . During this period there were barracks in the front part of the tunnel.

Later use

Based on the same tunnels, the government bunker of the Federal Republic of Germany was later built .

Victims and dead

The exact number of prisoners and detainees who were forced to work for several weeks or months is unknown. The figures quoted vary between 700 and 1500. There are no documented or credible statements about killings in the camps. There is no cemetery for the dead in the camp. Reports were erroneously published declaring the small Jewish cemetery in Dernau a cemetery for murdered prisoners.

Commemoration

  • The memory of the camp in the Ahr valley was by no means as secret as the government bunker . Many contemporary witnesses on site reported about it. A first plaque was erected in April 1988 after controversial discussions and considerable media pressure. Unfortunately, this plaque portrays false facts.
  • There is a memorial above Marienthal, which was officially opened on November 9, 2017.
  • The prehistory is mentioned in the documentation center for the government bunker, among other things. Unfortunately, the facts and figures presented there do not correspond to historical reality.
  • The district councils of the districts of Ahrweiler and Artern signed a partnership agreement on October 3, 1990. The commemoration of the common satellite camp was not mentioned here.

Further forced labor in the Ahrweiler district

In addition, prisoners from concentration camps were employed for forced labor at the Apollinaris fountain in Bad Neuenahr and the associated glass factory in Niederbreisig .

Alternative names - Koblenz concentration camp

In addition to the obvious name after the place Dernau, there is also the classification as Koblenz concentration camp. This is due to the fact that Gollnow & Sohn had a PO box address in Koblenz at that time. This corresponds to the field post address given above for SS Oberscharführer Karl Schmidt.

literature

  • Matthias Bertram : underground relocation, Rebstock secret command, people and facts, culture of remembrance in Germany . Shaker-Media Verlag, Herzogenrath, 2018, ISBN 978-3-95631-656-2 .
  • Uli Jungbluth : Miracle weapons in the Rebstock concentration camp. Forced labor in the Rebstock camps in Dernau / Rhineland-Palatinate and Artern / Thuringia in the service of V-weapons . Rhein-Mosel-Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-929745-65-8 .
  • Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 3: Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52963-1 .
  • State Center for Political Education in Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.) The camp Rebstock 1943/44 - armaments factory and the concentration camp in the Ahr valley (=  leaves to the country . Band 70 ). ( political-bildung-rlp.de [PDF; accessed on October 25, 2016]).
  • Moshe Shen: Surviving in fear: four Jews describe their time at the Volkswagen factory from 1943 to 1945 . Volkswagen AG Corporate History Dept, Wolfsburg 2005, ISBN 3-935112-22-X ( volkswagenag.com [PDF; accessed on October 25, 2016] In this book, Moshe Shen describes his experiences at the Tiercelet concentration Camp and Rebstock Camp ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CAMPS AND GHETTOS, 1933–1945. (PDF) Retrieved October 25, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Matthias Bertram (ed.): Underground relocation, Rebstock secret command, people and facts, culture of remembrance in Germany Ahrweiler 2006, ISBN 978-3-95631-656-2
  3. ↑ a b c d e Ahrweiler district (ed.): Ahrweiler district under the swastika. The political and economic situation before 1933. The National Socialist dictatorship 1933 to 1945. The political consequences after the collapse in 1945 (=  studies on the past and present . Volume 2 ). Warlich Druck und Verlag, Meckenheim 1989, ISBN 3-9802429-2-7 , p. 289 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q State Center for Civic Education Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): The Rebstock camp 1943/44 - armaments factory and concentration camp in the Ahr valley (=  Blätter zum Land . Volume 70 ). ( political-bildung-rlp.de [PDF; accessed on October 25, 2016]). Rebstock camp 1943/44 - armaments factory and concentration camp in the Ahr valley. This booklet was withdrawn from the market by the State Center for Civic Education, Mainz due to various errors and falsifications. With the help of a historian, a new document is drawn up. ( Memento from January 5, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ a b c d Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel, Angelika Königseder (ed.): The place of terror. Volume 3: Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald. Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52963-1 , p. 409.
  6. ↑ The "government bunker" in the Ahr valley. In: 2000 homeland yearbook of the Ahrweiler district.
  7. ^ The Rebstock concentration camp - Von Braun, V2 and the concentration camp . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . April 15, 2016 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed October 27, 2016]).
  8. ↑ Memorial plaque commemorates concentration camp satellite camps. In: 1989 homeland yearbook of the Ahrweiler district.
  9. ↑ https://www.aw-wiki.de/index.php/Erinnerungsst%C3%A4tte_Lager_%E2%80%9ERebstock%E2%80%9C_%28Marienthal%29
  10. ↑ Our partner group Artern. on : kreis-ahrweiler.de
  11. ^ The List of the Camps. www.jewishgen.org, accessed November 5, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Local history guide Koblenz. www.vvn-bda-kl.de, accessed on November 5, 2016 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 32 '24.1 "  N , 7 ° 3' 38.3"  E