Hainewalde concentration camp

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The Hainewalde concentration camp was set up on March 27, 1933 by the SA as a “ protective custody camp ” in Hainewalde Castle in Saxony .

history

Originally, SA Storm III ( Dresden ) under SA Storm Leader Ernst Jirka was in charge of the camp, but in May management was transferred to SA Standard 102 (Zittau) under SA Standard Leader Paul Unterstab . The camp was guarded by around 150 men in total. Camp commandant was SA-Sturmbannführer Müller and his adjutant SA-Sturmbannführer Mittag. On April 12, 1933, the camp had 259 prisoners and in the course of time it grew to almost 400. Altogether there were around 1000 prisoners in Hainewalde.

A breakdown for Hainewalde showed that the “protective custody” cost the Saxon state government over 130,000 marks. When the concentration camp was dissolved on August 10, 1933, the remaining prisoners were transferred to larger “protective custody camps” in Hohnstein Castle and Sachsenburg concentration camp.

Mainly left-wing politicians and Jews were imprisoned in Hainewalde . About 150 people were crammed into a barrack, in which the prisoners slept in multi-storey bunks on straw mattresses. The prisoners had to attend Protestant church services as well as nightly Nazi lectures. Because of the latter, young and old prisoners were housed separately, following the theory that young prisoners, if separated from their elders, would be more receptive to Nazi ideologies.

The SA forced the detainees to do detention and tortured them under the pretext of interrogation. All the injured and sick, except for the most serious, were transferred to work in the warehouse in the castle's basement without medical treatment. The SA used a warehouse administration office and a special bunker for interrogations. Detainees were also forced to get firewood or clean toilets. Jews and intellectuals were treated and humiliated particularly brutally.

The outlawed Social Democratic Party of Germany supported the prisoners in Hainewalde. The socialist Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung from Prague shows z. B. a photograph of a Hainewald prisoner. A sympathetic SA guard had smuggled the picture, which reveals the prisoner's horrific conditions, from the camp. The communist underground organization from Zittau also smuggled propaganda into the camp to let the inmates know that they had not been forgotten "We know that, despite harassment and terror, you have remained loyal to the cause of the working class with indomitable courage ... We, as well as the labor movement, know very well what you had to suffer. The fact that we are sending you these greetings, despite the difficulties and illegality in the concentration camp, is understood as an expression of our undivided solidarity with you! "

The camp management ordered strict release conditions. Under the pain of arrest, released prisoners signed a statement which, under an oath, forbade them to publicize the conditions in the camp. According to another document dated August 5, 1933, the released prisoner promised not to get involved with the Marxist parties again. Journalist and writer Axel Eggebrecht recalled a rumor that the prisoners would be released on May 1st, but it turned out to be unsustainable.

Eggebrecht's fellow inmate, a Jewish prisoner named Benno Berg, experienced a rare moment of humor after a re-education lesson. A NSDAP district leader informed the inmates about the Jewish danger by using the standard expression, "The Jews are our misfortune." used. After the address he eyed the prisoners and paused in front of Berg. Answering the district leader's questions, Berg gave his name and place of birth: "Berg, from Reichenberg, Bohemia." - Not understanding that the prisoner was Jewish, the district leader declared: "A Sudeten comrade in arms! Bravo! All of you will belong to us again!" Eggebrecht added: "The hot spur's fat hand pats the 'non-Aryan' on the shoulder appreciatively. 'For me, you are a prime example of a real SA man! Heil Hitler!', He struts off with his hand raised in the Hitler salute."

Eggebrecht was interrogated but not tortured. In this respect his experiences differ from those of other Hainewald prisoners. Eggebrecht describes the questioner's interest in finding out how he came into contact with the communists after a childhood in a "good home" . His father's intercession with an influential Saxon official, Professor Apel, led to his dismissal. Eggebrecht's father wrote to him about Apel's interest in his case. Some time later his father visited him in the camp. Shouting that his son's conditions of detention are "unworthy", the father added that he should be patient because "it won't be long!" A few days later, Eggebrecht was released after signing a declaration that he would not circulate any "horror stories".

In 1948 the Bautzen district court sentenced 39 guards to imprisonment for their role in the mistreatment of prisoners in Hainewalde. The negotiation took place under the auspices of the Soviet occupying power, further details are unknown.

note

This article comes from the English Wikipedia, contains texts from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and was published under GFDL .

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Coordinates: 50 ° 54 ′ 54 ″  N , 14 ° 42 ′ 29 ″  E