Hanover-Ahlem subcamp

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prisoners of the Hanover-Ahlem subcamp in front of one of the accommodation barracks after they were liberated by the US Army

The Hanover-Ahlem satellite camp in Hanover was one of the satellite camps of the Neuengamme concentration camp , which had been set up by the SS at the end of November 1944 . The planning began in 1943, when the Allied air raids on Hanover during World War II became more massive, because Continental AG , which produced the aircraft tires and gas mask parts that were essential for the war effort, was to find underground protection.

camp

In May 1944, Dr. Weber from Continental AG commissioned by the general agent for special questions in chemical production to take protective measures against bombing. Continental AG considered an existing tunnel system, in which asphalt was previously extracted in Ahlem, to be suitable, but the permit it had applied for was not granted. Therefore, there was a lack of manpower and building materials to expand the tunnels. The SS took over this task from November 1944 and initially relocated 100 prisoners of the 1000 prisoners from the nearby Hanover-Stöcken (Continental) satellite camp, followed by others from the same camp up to a camp strength of 840. The new camp was fenced in with barbed wire. It consisted of five buildings, two for accommodation, one for both accommodation and kitchen, one for laundry and infirmary, and another for toilet and washrooms. The camp was located directly in front of the tunnel entrance about 100 meters north of Harenberger Straße.

Camp inmates and staff

Sick Polish prisoner receives medicine from German Red Cross members in the Hanover-Ahlem satellite camp after liberation by the US Army

The inmates had to work in the tunnels with picks and shovels in two 12-hour shifts in order to widen the existing corridors for the machines. In the tunnel, the prisoners had to work at a temperature of around 10 ° C and 85 percent high humidity. These were extremely unfavorable conditions for physical work, as it was cold and wet and the prisoners also suffered from the abuse of the SS camp personnel. The command leader was Otto Harder , who was also employed in the Hanover-Stöcken (Continental) satellite camp . In terms of discipline, the camp personnel were under the command of the base, SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt Klebeck . The leader of the 60 man strong guard was SS-Oberscharführer Hans Harden . Furthermore, the SS Rottenführer Wilhelm Damann was feared, who was considered extremely brutal and was involved in several prisoner murders. The camp elder Heinrich Johann Wexler was just as brutal .

This satellite camp had the highest mortality rate of the seven concentration camps in Hanover. The camp commandant of the Neuengamme concentration camp, Max Pauly , had 250 to 350 camp inmates brought back to the main camp in order to replenish the stock with Danish, Polish and Russian inmates. As a result, mortality fell for a short time, since it had been 22 deaths per week since the end of December, only to rise to 44 in the first week of January. Within a month and a half, half of the Jewish camp inmates were either dead or unable to work.

On March 25, 1945, another 340 prisoners came from the Hildesheim subcamp , which had already been abandoned, in addition to the existing 750. The evacuation of the camp began on April 6, 1945 with 850 prisoners. The SS put 600 prisoners on the march and left 250 unfit to march. They were liberated on April 10 by American soldiers of the 84th US Infantry Division, including the future Secretary of State Henry Kissinger . Several prisoners were shot on the march to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Those who were fit to march reached Bergen-Belsen on April 8, which was also liberated by British units just a few days later.

Legal proceedings

In April 1947 the trial in Hamburg of the SS personnel of the Hanover-Ahlem concentration camp began before a British military court as part of the Curiohaus trial. SS Rottenführer Damann and SS security guard Streit were sentenced to death by hanging. Otto Harder was sentenced to 15 years in prison. That sentence was reduced to 10 years and Harder was released from prison in 1951. Hans Harden was sentenced to one year in prison. Two kapos from the camp received life sentences. In 1975/76 the trial of camp elder Hans Wexler was scheduled. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and left prison in 1982 on health grounds.

memorial

Ahlem asphalt shaft memorial
The site at the memorial
In the asphalt shaft

The history of this camp, the fate of the prisoners and the reappraisal in the post-war period - in particular the criminal prosecution - were comprehensively documented in the mid-1980s.

In 1994 a memorial at the location of the subcamp was opened to the public. In a memorial of the former Israelite Horticultural School in Ahlem and the later Gestapo prison in Ahlem there is a publicly accessible documentation about the camp.

See also

literature

  • Herbert Obenaus : “Be quiet, otherwise you will come to Ahlem!” On the function of the Gestapo office in the former horticultural school in Ahlem (1943–1945) . In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter , New Series 41 (1987), pp. 301–322.
  • Herbert Obenaus: The Ahlem registry office and the mass murder of the Gestapo in the police prison there . In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter , New Series 42 (1988), pp. 205-214.
  • Janet von Stillfried , Irmtraud Heike: “We wanted to make feelings visible.” Citizens design a memorial for the Ahlem concentration camp. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2004, ISBN 3-86108-397-3 .
  • Marc Buggeln: Hannover-Ahlem ("Döbel", "A12"). In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-52965-8 , p. 427 ff.
  • Series of publications by the Ahlem Memorial. Region Hanover , Hanover (from volume 8 also series of the Ahlem Memorial , Hanover: Team Culture of the Region Hanover):
    • Volume 1: Gabriele Lehmberg (Red.): "... and actually we don't know ourselves why we live ...". From the diary of Lore Oppenheimer, née Pels , 2002.
    • Volume 2: Matthias Horndasch : You can suppress, but not forget! The memories of contemporary witness and Holocaust survivor Gerd Landsberg. 2005, ISBN 3-00-015808-1 .
    • Volume 3: Nachum Rotenberg, Matthias Horndasch (arrangement): I have the pictures in front of my eyes every night. The testimony of the Nachum Rotenberg , 2005, ISBN 3-00-017910-0 .
    • Volume 4: Henny Simon, Martina Mußmann (Red.): "My heart freezes when I hear German ..." From the notes of Henny Markiewicz-Simon, née Rosenbaum , 2006, ISBN 3-00-018735-9 .
    • Volume 5: Ruth Gröne, Matthias Horndasch (arrangement): Traces of my father. The testimony of Ruth Gröne, née Kleeberg , 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-020565-1 and ISBN 3-00-020565-9 ; Table of contents .
    • Helmut Fürst , Matthias Horndasch: I was German like everyone else! Matthias Horndasch in conversation with contemporary witness and Holocaust survivor Helmut Fürst , 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-024079-9 .
    • Volume 7: Marga Griesbach: "... I can still feel the misery ...". A Jewish child in Germany from 1927 to 1945. A memory of the contemporary witness Marga Griesbach, Witzenhausen - Kassel - Riga - Stutthof. Translated from the American by Adelheid Mall and Brigitte Diefenbacher. Published by the Hanover region in cooperation with the Böblingen-Herrenberg-Tübingen section of the Verein Gegen Vergessen - Für Demokratie eV, 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-024374-5 .
    • Volume 8: Werner Fahrenholz, Shaun Hermel: “Discrimination never stops.” Memories from Werner Fahrenholz. Shaun Hermel in conversation with "Carlo" , [o. D., 2011?], ISBN 978-3-9814212-0-0 .
    • Volume 9: Stefanie Burmeister (ed.), Raimond Reiter, Andreas Sprengler, Cornelia Oesterreich: The fate of Irmgard Bartels. Victims of Nazi psychiatry in the Hanover region. Ms. D.'s memories of her mother , 2011, ISBN 978-3-9814212-1-7 , table of contents .

Web links

Commons : Ahlem concentration camp branch (Hanover)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Federal Ministry of Justice : Directory of the concentration camps and their external commands in accordance with Section 42 (2) BEG No. 568, Hanover-Ahlem, November 30, 1944 to April 11, 1945
  2. ↑ Marc Buggeln: Hanover-Ahlem. 2007, p. 428.
  3. ↑ Marc Buggeln: Hanover-Ahlem. 2007, p. 428.
  4. ↑ Marc Buggeln: Hanover-Ahlem. 2007, p. 430.
  5. ↑ http://www.erinnerungundzukunft.de/?id=91
  6. ^ Rainer Fröbe, Claus Füllberg-Stolberg, Christoph Gutmann, Rolf Keller, Herbert Obenaus, Hans Hermann Schröder: Concentration camp in Hanover. Concentration camp work and the armaments industry in the late phase of the Second World War (= publications by the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen. Vol. 35 = Sources and studies on the general history of Lower Saxony in modern times. Vol. 8). 2 volumes. Lax, Hildesheim 1985, ISBN 3-7848-2422-6 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 40.6 ″  N , 9 ° 39 ′ 19.4 ″  E