Hanover-Stöcken Concentration Camp (Continental)

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The Hanover-Stöcken (Continental) concentration camp in Hanover was one of the satellite camps of the Neuengamme concentration camp . It only existed for a short time, from September 7, 1944 to November 30, 1944. For this purpose, existing barracks in the immediate vicinity of the plant west of Stelinger Strasse, which had previously been used for "foreign workers of all nations", were converted. The plans were provided by the construction department of Continental AG, which is based on close coordination with the SS (above all: the addition of a 3 meter high electric fence and privacy screens). September 1944 about 1,000 Polish Jews. They had previously two to three days the Auschwitz leave in a transport and came from the evacuated ghettos of Lodz .

The warehouse was located next to the Continental factory . It was headed by the command leader Otto Harder , a former football player of Hamburger SV . The prisoners had to work eleven hours in the war-essential rubber production for vehicle tires. The camp elder was Heinrich Johann Wexler , a feared brutal criminal who was usually called Hans. The camp only existed for a short time because it was moved to the Hanover-Ahlem satellite camp at Continental's request . When Harder moved into the second camp on November 30, 1944 after 2½ months, 80 concentration camp prisoners had died and another 80 were transferred back to Neuengamme because they were no longer able to work.

In April 1947, the British Military Tribunal indicted Harder in the Curiohaus trials . He received a total of 15 years in prison, including one year for his crimes in that camp. This sentence was reduced to 10 years and he was released from prison in 1951. Hans Wexler was indicted by the Hanover Regional Court in 1975/76 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

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.

There is no memorial or plaque for this subcamp on site.

literature

  • Marc Buggeln: Concentration camp sticks (Continental). 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. 447 ff.
  • 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 .

Web links

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. 574, Hanover-Stöcken, Continental-Werke, September 7, 1944 to November 30, 1944
  2. ^ Rainer Fröbe et al .: Concentration camp in Hanover. Volume 1. 1985, p. 338.
  3. ^ Rainer Fröbe et al .: Concentration camp in Hanover. 1985.

Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 33 ″  N , 9 ° 37 ′ 45 ″  E