Neusustrum concentration camp

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Coordinates: 52 ° 54 ′ 6.7 ″  N , 7 ° 10 ′ 9.6 ″  E

Map: Germany
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Neusustrum concentration camp
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Germany
General plan of the structure of the Neusustrum camp in 1945 and the state of 2010

The Neusustrum concentration camp , also known as Camp V, in today's Sustrum municipality, Sustrum-Moor district, was a National Socialist concentration camp that was established in 1933. It belongs to the so-called early concentration camps and was set up for political “ protective prisoners ”. It was the third of a total of 15 Emsland camps and was designed for 1,000 prisoners. From 1934 it was used as a prison camp for the Reich Ministry of Justice . Most homosexuals in Germany were imprisoned in the Neusustrum concentration camp .

history

1933/34

On June 20, 1933, the Prussian Minister of the Interior, Hermann Göring, decided to set up three camps for around 5,000 prisoners in Börgermoor , Esterwegen and Neusustrum . Therefore, on June 28, the “Administrative Directorate of the State Concentration Camps” was set up in Papenburg . In July, the supervision of the camps was transferred to the SS and SS-Standartenführer Brinkmann was appointed as the upper camp commandant .

On September 1, 1933, the Neusustrum concentration camp was completed as the third camp after the Börgermoor concentration camp and the Esterwegen concentration camp . The camp was designed for 1,000 prisoners. A camp road separated the fenced prisoner barracks from the headquarters of the camp administration. This road is still preserved today. The management of the concentration camp was transferred to SS-Obersturmführer Emil Faust on September 27th . A few weeks earlier, he was in charge of the Esterwegen concentration camp with SS Sturmführer Katzmann and had attracted attention there because of the great cruelty. Under his leadership, prisoners were mistreated and arbitrarily shot.

After these conditions became known to the Ministry of the Interior, Göring deposed the camp management on November 15, 1933. The Osnabrück security police temporarily took over the camp management. The SS guards were replaced on December 18 by state employees, 80% of whom belonged to the SA and 20% to the SS. The management was transferred to the headquarters of state concentration camps. Its leadership was held by the Prussian State Councilor Viktor Lutze , who was also the SA group leader.

On January 4, 1934, the editor and SPD member Ludwig Pappenheim and the KPD deputy August Henning were shot.

With the reorganization of the National Socialist concentration camp system in 1934, the Neusustrum site was closed as a concentration camp and on April 1st it was converted into a prisoner camp, which was subordinate to the Prussian judicial administration. The management on site was given to SA Pioneer Standard 10, which, however, continued the terror against the prisoners.

1935/45

In 1935 the camp was blocked from access because its capacity was exhausted. Therefore, the camp was enlarged in 1937/38 and now had space for 1,500 prisoners. They were guarded by 300 SA men and judicial officers. Probably around 80% of the inmates were criminals in today's sense and were accused of criminal offenses such as theft, embezzlement or fraud. However, exact figures such as those from the Esterwegen or Börgermoor concentration camps are not known. From 1937 onwards, political prisoners were mainly housed in the Emsland camp Aschendorfermoor . Many homosexuals who were considered unfit for military service and effeminate by the National Socialists were also sent to the Neusustrum camp . They made up up to 10% of the prisoners.

The prisoners had to work in the moor under the worst conditions. This included draining the moor, digging peat and laying roads. On July 29, 1940, the German prisoners were transferred to other camps. The course was for 626 penitentiary - prison and prisoners from Poland needed. They received particularly bad treatment because the National Socialists considered them "inferior". From January 1941, Polish war perpetrators were also arrested. These were soldiers and conscripts who were unfit for military service or who had been sentenced to prison.

On February 25, 1941, the cultivation of the moor was stopped on the orders of Adolf Hitler . In March 1941, 1,651 Polish prisoners were held in the camp. In addition, 60 Jews were held prisoner. In 1942, the prisoners began to be transferred to other prison camps and concentration camps. The camp in Neusustrum was used for German military prisoners until the end of the war. On April 4, 1945, the remaining 281 prisoners were transferred to Aschendorfermoor.

After 1945

Memorial stones on the former camp site in Neusustrum

After the end of the Second World War , the camp site was used by the Lingen (Ems) prison until 1950 to accommodate prisoners. The 248 people who died in the camp were buried in the cemeteries in Esterwegen and Bockhorst . In the trial of the former camp leader Emil Faust in 1950, the verdict of the Osnabrück Regional Court stated that the prisoners were treated “worse than cattle”.

Today, little reminds of the former concentration camp: where the prisoners' barracks used to be, there is now a primary school, community administration, volunteer fire brigade, sports hall and sports field along Teichstrasse. An "amusement park" built by the prisoners with a pond for the SS guards has been preserved. A round arch column erected by the SA has also been preserved. The swastika was removed from her and replaced by a Sachsenross . A writing tablet on the column was also replaced after the war. In addition, three memorial stones were erected. The north-south road built by prisoners in Sustrum still exists today.

Known inmates

literature

  • Walter Czeranka; District Emsland (Ed.): The destruction of justice and humanity in the concentration and prison camps of the Emsland 1933-1945 , action committee for a documentation and information center Emslandlager - DIZ Emslandlager, Papenburg 1986, ISBN 3-926277-01-7 .
  • Bernd Faulenbach , Andrea Kaltofen (ed.): Hell in the moor. The Emsland camps 1933–1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-8353-3137-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g h i Neusustrum - forgotten camp of homosexuals , accessed on February 23, 2012
  2. a b c d e f g h i j k l Lager 5 Neusustrum ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , DIZ Emslandlager, accessed on December 9, 2011  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.diz-emslandlager.de
  3. a b c d e f g h Esterwegen Memorial , accessed on December 9, 2011

Web links

Commons : KZ Neusustrum  - Collection of images, videos and audio files