Subcamp Königshöher Weg
The Königshöher Weg satellite camp was a satellite camp in Wuppertal that existed from August 24, 1943 to May 7, 1944.
location
The Königshöher Weg satellite camp was located on the grounds of the Catholic elementary school in the Elberfeld district ( Arrenberg district , Königshöher Weg 7), which was severely damaged in the Royal Air Force air raid on Wuppertal-Elberfeld on June 25, 1943.
history
An advance command of 50 men of various nationalities was deported from the Buchenwald concentration camp to Wuppertal , which set up the subcamp of the city of Wuppertal for SS construction brigade IV on August 24, 1943 . The commando repaired the school building, set up accommodations there and fenced the camp with barbed wire.
By the end of November 1943, another 592 prisoners had arrived to reinforce the construction brigade, who were in the nearby cattle yard and slaughterhouse in Elberfeld , which had been severely destroyed , during clearing, excavation and repair work on the city's supply networks and the removal of bomb damage and general clean-up work were used.
The SS construction brigade was initially commanded by SS-Obersturmführer Arthur Knaust, then from October 1943 by SS-Obersturmführer Dietrich, who was not identified in detail, and from December 1943 finally by SS-Obersturmführer Otto Diembt. The use of the concentration camp prisoners was coordinated by the municipal building administration under the leadership of SS-Standartenführer Kurt Benn. The guards consisted of SS members and policemen from the Arrenberg police district, who were housed in a barrack in the schoolyard.
The subcamp in Wuppertal was closed on May 7, 1944 and the prisoners were transferred to the subcamp Ellrich-Bürgergarten .
Working and living conditions
According to reports from former prisoners, the working and living conditions in the Wuppertal satellite camp were “relatively good” and “less appalling” than in the main camp in Buchenwald. The camp managers and the guards were described as "predominantly humane", there had been no mistreatment or killings, and the death of a person had become on record in just over eight months of the camp's existence. However, 58 sick and unable to work prisoners were transferred back to Buchenwald, seven of whom died shortly after their arrival there.
Prisoners unanimously reported of a largely solidarity camp community and of helpful locals who provided food to the prisoners working in striped concentration camp clothing. During their repair work in the Elberfeld slaughterhouse, the members of the 250-strong work detachment were able to purchase meat products with the help of German workers, which they also brought to the camp. There is also a tradition of a “singing procession” by the concentration camp inmates through the city center under the watchful eye of an SS guard. During clean-up work in bombed private houses, diverse contacts developed, which favored a total of six documented successful escape attempts by prisoners shortly before they left Wuppertal. Some prisoners had contact with resistance organizations of " Eastern workers " in Wuppertal. Three of the inmates drafted pamphlets and slogans that were circulated among slave laborers and German workers.
Commemoration
Today there is neither a plaque nor any other evidence of their past on this site. For the 100th anniversary of the primary school, there was no active reminder in 2013.
literature
- Karola Fings : War, Society and Concentration Camps. Himmler's SS construction brigades . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, Munich, Vienna 2005.
- Stefan Kraus: Places of National Socialist dictatorship . Publications of the Gesellschaft für Rheinische Geschichtskunde, Geschichtlicher Atlas der Rheinlande, Habelt, 2007, ISBN 3-77493-521-1 , p. 80.