Vechelde subcamp
The Vechelde concentration camp satellite camp , also known as the external command in the jargon at the time , existed from September 1944 to February 1945 as a branch of the Neuengamme concentration camp in Vechelde . The concentration camp prisoners were mainly 400 Polish Jews that the Lodz ghetto survived. The camp leader was Heinrich Sebrantke and his superior, the camp commandant Max Kirstein of the Schillstrasse subcamp in Braunschweig .
concentration camp
The prisoners were housed in three transports from September to November 1944 in a former jute spinning mill located on the Bach Aue between Spiegelbergallee and Spinnerstraße in Vechelde . The spinning mill was founded in 1861 by the industrialist Julius Spiegelberg (1833–1897) as the first jute spinning mill on mainland Europe and closed in 1926.
In the immediate vicinity of the jute spinning mill, the prisoners were probably housed in two halls. In this spinning mill, the concentration camp prisoners had to manufacture rear axles for trucks of the Büssing NAG in Braunschweig. Most of them had to do simple work on machine parts or carry out transport and order work. In Vechelde the prisoners worked in piecework . The piece times were attached to the machines on metal signs and were shorter than those of the German civilian workers . The production director personally checked the inmates' performance. For the general director of the Büssing NAP Rudolf Egger-Büssing (1893–1962), according to the brigade leader Willi Bartels, only the driving of the prisoners was decisive .
In Vechelde, the 200 inmates were supposed to have 30 minutes of food in the twelve hours they worked a day, and bowls of soup were knocked out of the hands of those who exceeded the meal time. The malnutrition was due to the fact that the SS guards demonstrably stole the prisoners' food and passed it on to their families. The accommodation and care of the concentration camp prisoners was catastrophic and only when the malnutrition was reflected in significantly lower production rates for the concentration camp prisoners did the SS improve.
Dissolution of the camp
Since the beginning of January 1945, sick prisoners from Vechelde were transferred to the Salzgitter-Watenstedt subcamp . They did not come to the hospital there, but had to work. In February 1945, the prisoners from both the Vechelde subcamp and the Schillstrasse satellite camp in Braunschweig were evacuated in order to then bring all prisoners to the Salzgitter-Watenstedt camp at the Braunschweig steelworks. Many of the Büssing factories' production facilities were destroyed in a bomb attack.
They were then transported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp on April 7 and 8, 1945, before the approaching British soldiers . During the transport, many prisoners died in the open freight cars of weakness and malnutrition. On April 8 alone, 66 dead prisoners were removed from the train while staying at Uchtspringe , not far from Stendal , and buried in a mass grave. After being transported to the Wöbbelin satellite camp near Ludwigslust , they were liberated by US troops on May 2, 1945.
Commemoration
An archway made of brickwork and natural stone has been preserved from the former jute spinning mill on Spinnerstraße . The municipality of Vechelde installed a memorial plaque there in October 1989. In November 1998 there was an exhibition in the Vechelder town hall to commemorate the local camp.
See also
literature
- Karl Liedke: Destruction through work: Jews from Lodz at the Büssing-NAG in Braunschweig 1944–1945. In: Gudrun Fiedler, Hans-Ulrich Ludewig (eds.): Forced labor and war economy in the state of Braunschweig 1939–1945 (= sources and research on the history of Braunschweig. Vol. 39). Published by the Braunschweig History Association. Appelhans, Braunschweig 2003, ISBN 3-930292-78-5 , pp. 217-236.
- Axel Richter: The Vechelde sub-command of the Neuengamme concentration camp. For the use of concentration camp prisoners in arms production . Ed .: Vechelde municipality . Vechelde 1985.
Web links
- Vechelde subcamp at www.kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection : Directory of the concentration camps and their external commandos in accordance with Section 42 (2) BEG No. 1509 Vechelde
- ↑ Our time. German review of the present. Vol. 2, half 1, 1866, ZDB -ID 531169-x , p. 633 .
- ↑ Liedke: Destruction through work. 2003, p. 226.
- ↑ Liedke: Destruction through work. 2003, p. 227.
- ↑ Liedke: Destruction through work. 2003, p. 229.
Coordinates: 52 ° 15 '36.4 " N , 10 ° 22' 34.7" E