Oranienburg concentration camp
The Oranienburg concentration camp (short Oranienburg concentration camp ) was an early German concentration camp in the Nazi era . It was set up in March 1933 by the Sturmabteilung (SA) on a former brewery site in the city of Oranienburg and was the first concentration camp in Prussia . By the time it was closed in July 1934, a total of around 3,000 people had been imprisoned in the Oranienburg concentration camp. Eight prisoners who died in the concentration camp or as a result of the consequences of imprisonment are known by name. Among them is the writer Erich Mühsam , who was murdered by the guards. There are also indications of eight other murders of inmates.
history
prehistory
The " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933 went hand in hand with state crimes, to which millions of people would later fall victim to the loss of humanity, civilization and culture. The early concentration camps were a central element of the Nazi terror system . In the spontaneous wave of founders, a comprehensive network of camps was set up, with existing prisons, camps, monasteries and factories being converted.
The Oranienburg concentration camp is one of the institutions in this first phase of the crime. The “ protective custody ” was ordered exclusively by the executive organs and was beyond any judicial control. She was also not subject to any legal remedies or remedies.
Since 1925, the site has belonged to the “Aktiengesellschaft für Ost- und Überseehandel” (AGO), which had acquired it from the Munich brewery. The production of radio sets and parts, which was located here, was discontinued due to low demand. Since no buyer or tenant could be found for this site, the property with the vacant factory building of SA Standard 208 was made available in February 1933 as accommodation for unemployed and homeless SA men. The site was located 35 km from Prinz-Albrecht-Straße (from 1933 the seat of the Secret State Police Office) and could be reached cheaply by S-Bahn. It was bounded on one side by a factory wall, on the other sides it was visible through the fences and barbed wire of the neighboring properties with single-family houses.
Establishment of the camp
On March 21, 1933, the Oranienburger SA-Standarte 208 captured forty communists in the city and in the surrounding communities. They were the first prisoners to be taken to the abandoned rooms of a former brewery on Berliner Strasse. The grounds of the old brewery were in the immediate vicinity of the city center; Berliner Straße was a busy arterial road to Berlin at the time.
The prisoners were subject to so-called “protective custody”, usually without a specific charge and without the involvement of the judicial authorities. Most of the prisoners were released from the concentration camps after a few weeks, others were detained for over a year and for some Oranienburg was only the first stop on a long journey through other concentration camps. In the following months, the Oranienburg concentration camp assumed a key position in the persecution of the opposition in the Reich capital.
The first prisoners had to gradually clean and prepare the property and the buildings. First, sleeping areas made of straw were piled up in the cooling cellars, guard rooms and administration rooms. The straw began to rot after a few days in the high humidity, which is why beds were soon erected. A kitchen was also set up, which also included a water pump, water and electrical lines were laid, toilets and washing facilities were set up. At the end of 1933 a disused locomotive was used for heating. A machine gun was posted on the roof of a warehouse.
On May 16, 1933, the concentration camp was recognized as a government camp. This means that all the necessary funds have been made available by the state.
Prisoners
Oranienburg was primarily a warehouse for Berlin and the state of Brandenburg. The first forty abused political prisoners were brought into a truck on March 21, 1933 by SA men from Sturmbannes III of Standard 208. On June 27, 1933, the Rathenow local police transferred the 52 arrested by the so-called auxiliary police (SA, SS and "Stahlhelm"), including most of the local SPD functionaries and elected officials, three Communists who had been arrested again, one Central Party functionary and four Jewish citizens , with truck to Oranienburg concentration camp. On July 3, 1933, the same police authority sent 17 KPD members, most of them arrested for the second time, to the Oranienburg concentration camp. On July 11, 1933, 79 prisoners from the Börnicke concentration camp and 26 prisoners from the Alt-Daber concentration camp arrived in Oranienburg. On November 29, 1933, 168 prisoners from the Moringen concentration camp arrived .
Belonging to the Jewish religious community was not a reason for imprisonment at that time. A group of 40 young people between the ages of 13 and 20 came from the Wolzig Jewish Education Center. The young men were accused of communist agitation.
From March 27, 1933, prisoner numbers beginning with "1" were assigned. As a result of the arrival, the prisoner files were numbered further; on June 30, 1934, the last number to be assigned was “2874”. Numbers of departed inmates were not reassigned to other inmates.
Around 3,000 people (mostly communists and social democrats ), including three women, were imprisoned in the Oranienburg concentration camp until its dissolution in July 1934 . There were no more than 1200 prisoners in the camp at the same time. The composition of the prisoners corresponded to the enemy images of the Nazi movement in the so-called " fighting time ". At least eight prisoners, including the anarchist writer Erich Mühsam , were murdered by the camp's guards or died as a result of their imprisonment.
In this early phase of the concentration camps, discharges were also possible; this affected larger groups on May 1st and at Christmas. The released had to undertake in writing not to comment on the detention and not to make any claims for recourse.
Only two cases of escape from the satellite camps are known from the time when the Oranienburg concentration camp was in existence, Arthur Plötzke on September 11, 1933 and Gerhart Seger on December 4, 1933 .
Seger managed to escape to Prague, where he wrote an experience report entitled “Oranienburg”. Accompanied by a foreword by Heinrich Mann , this authentic report published in 1934, one of the first from a concentration camp, attracted international attention and made Oranienburg a synonym for the National Socialist terror regime.
Camp management
The camp commandant was SA-Sturmbannführer Werner Schäfer , from March 1934 SA-Sturmbannführer Hörnig, and adjutant to SA-Obersturmführer Hans-Hugo Daniels. SA-Sturmbannführer Krüger, later SA-Sturmführer Hans Stahlkopf and Horst Wassermann worked in the interrogation department. Willy Braune was responsible for the administration, the prisoner department was under SA-Sturmführer Werner Eve, the guard department SA-Obertruppführer Kurt Tausch and the medical department SA-Standardarzt Carl Lazar.
Everyday warehouse life
Inmate's day started with waking at 5:30 am. After tidying up the sleeping quarters and the roll call, breakfast was served from 6:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.: replacement coffee, two slices of bread with jam or plum jam. For lunch at 12:30 p.m. there was boiled potatoes, beets, cabbage or the like, without meat. Detainees in external detachments were also given two slices of bread with lard. The work crews returned from work at 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. After dinner, which consisted of a double cut with lard, the prisoners had to be in the accommodation at 7:30 pm. The night's sleep began at 9:00 p.m.
For a long time, the inmates had to wear the private clothes they were admitted to the camp in. Old police uniforms were later issued.
The graphic artist Willy "Horsa" Lippert from Rathenow, who was imprisoned in the camp, had to design banknotes for the camp that were produced in the Reichsdruckerei. The inmates were forced to exchange cash and bank transfers from relatives for camp money. The camp management withheld 30%, so the prisoner was paid only 70 pfennigs camp money instead of one mark. With this money the prisoners could buy additional food or cigarettes.
Several times a month it was allowed to write a letter and receive parcels. As a punishment, however, a mail ban was also issued, so that for a certain period of time neither letters nor parcels could be received. In the beginning, visits from family members were allowed three times a week for one hour each, later only every Sunday.
Work began on building the camp, setting up the warehouse buildings and the grounds. A nursery, a laundry and workshops were created. In the tailoring, cobbler's shop, locksmith's shop, blacksmith's shop, and in the so-called armory of the concentration camp, the prisoners carried out repairs for customers from Oranienburg, Berlin and the Reichswehr. In addition, the city administration and even private individuals hired concentration camp prisoners on a daily basis for forced labor . Prisoners of the concentration camp renovated houses, repaired roads, laid out a cycle path and a lido in Oranienburg, designed the island pasture and the people's park, dug drainage ditches and worked in the surrounding forests.
From July 15, 1933, there were external commands in Börnicke during the construction of the SA group leader school, in the brickworks for heavy work and in Gut Elisenau near Blumberg.
A total of 30,000 working days were done for the city and 50,000 working days outside the town. The payment was RM 0.50 for one prisoner. The camp management received this minimal wage.
Jewish prisoners were exposed to a special harassment in the camp. They were grouped together in the so-called Jewish company and had to wear armbands for identification. They were subjected to severe physical abuse more frequently than other inmates. They were preferred for degrading work such as cleaning the toilets with bare hands.
Public and propaganda
The Oranienburg concentration camp played an important role in National Socialist propaganda . Werner Schäfer, the first commandant of the Oranienburg concentration camp, wrote a propagandistic “anti-brown book” about the camp in 1934 in response to the previously published Brown Book and Gerhart Seger's experience report, which denied or played down the abuse of prisoners. Schäfer had used standing bunkers as punitive measures , for example . The final part of the book was a tabular overview showing which inmates allegedly gained how many kilograms in body weight in the Oranienburg concentration camp.
National and foreign journalists toured the camp. Photographs were taken in April, and later a film was made for the newsreel . On September 30, 1933, the radio , which has meanwhile been synchronized, reported in detail about the Oranienburg camp in a sound recording, which was presumably only broadcast on shortwave for foreign countries and Germans abroad. It is the only surviving Nazi radio coverage of a concentration camp.
The pretended camp policy of the "glass concentration camp" had the aim of contrasting the "Jewish-Bolshevik hate campaign" with an image of correctness and discipline, to show the concentration camp as an educational measure in which the "hounded" and "misled" were re- educated through hard work, and to demonstrate the victor's right to vengeance.
Dissolution of the camp
Under the pretext that there had been a " Röhm putsch " or a planned intrigue by Ernst Röhm , Hitler had the " state emergency services " carried out. On the night of July 2, 1934, a unit of the state police group occupied the Oranienburg camp and disarmed the SA troops. Theodor Eicke arrived on July 4, 1934 with about 150 SS men. These took the prisoners to the Lichtenburg concentration camp (Prettin / Saxony-Anhalt) on July 13th . On July 14, 1934, the concentration camp in the old brewery Oranienburg was closed. It was now kept as a reserve camp for Berlin for any need that came about with six SS men and an SS leader. After the SA was disempowered, the SS became independent on July 20. The systematically organized system of concentration camps, controlled solely by the SS, came into being. Most of the early, improvised camps in the Reich were closed. Only one SS unit guarding the Columbia-Haus concentration camp in Berlin remained stationed at Oranienburg Palace .
In 1936 inmates of this concentration camp were also forced to draw the plans according to which the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was built on the outskirts of Oranienburg that same year .
Detainees
Fatalities
The eight fatalities of the Oranienburg concentration camp known by name include:
- Hermann Hagendorf , died on June 20, 1933 after being mistreated
- Max Sens, died on June 28, 1933 after being mistreated
- Erich Mühsam , murdered on the night of July 9-10, 1934
Survivors
- Paul Alsberg , physician and anthropologist
- Alfred Braun , broadcaster and director
- Hans Coppi , communist resistance fighter
- Friedrich Ebert junior , social democrat
- Alexander Falzmann , Protestant pastor
- Max Fechner , SPD politician
- Heinrich Giesecke , director of the Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft
- Ernst Heilmann , leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the Prussian state parliament
- Kurt Hiller , pacifist
- Ernst Hörnicke , KPD member of the Reichstag
- Erich Knauf , writer
- Wilhelm Leo , social democrat, lawyer, in exile co-founder of the National Committee Free Germany for the West (also CALPO)
- Willy Otto "Horsa" Lippert , sculptor, graphic artist, painter, numismatist and heraldist
- Kurt Magnus , director of the Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft 1930–1933
- Eugen Mossakowsky , national revolutionary and editor
- Richard Schapke , national revolutionary and publicist
- Gerhart Seger , social democrat
- Julius Springer the Elder J. , publisher
- Stefan Szende , political scientist, journalist and resistance fighter
- Um withered , writer
Commemoration
In 1950 a memorial plaque was placed on the southern wall of the former concentration camp. The Oranienburg People's Police District Office was built on the former camp site in the 1960s . In 1974 a memorial stone for Erich Mühsam was erected in front of the building. The place on the southern wall with the memorial plaque was redesigned in 1994 and the memorial stone for Erich Mühsam was moved there.
“You drive the wheel: you work the time;
The fire flames: now! and here!
The fire warns you: get ready!
Realize your power! Be here!
Erich Mühsam
murdered by the SS on July 10, 1934 "
The Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum on the site of the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp has been responsible for exhibitions and research on the history of the camp since 1993 . One focus of the institution is the history of the Oranienburg concentration camp. The memorial sees itself as a place of remembrance and learning as well as a modern contemporary history museum . It follows a decentralized overall concept in order to make the history tangible for the visitor in the authentic places. In various exhibitions, u. a. Concerning the Oranienburg concentration camp, the specific history of the respective historical location is linked as a central idea with a further thematic representation.
literature
Memories and contemporary writings:
- Zenzl Mühsam: The ordeal of Erich Mühsam. With a foreword by Werner Hirsch . Mopr-Verlag, Zurich 1935
- Werner Schäfer: Oranienburg concentration camp. The anti-brown book about the first German concentration camp . Berlin 1934 ("Enlightenment and Defense Letter" about the camp from the Nazi perspective)
- Gerhart Seger: Oranienburg. First authentic report by a refugee from the concentration camp. With a foreword by Heinrich Mann . Carlsbad 1934.
Scientific representations:
- Hans Biereigel: With the S-Bahn to hell. Truths and lies about the first Nazi concentration camp . Berlin 1994.
- Hans Biereigel: Silence is golden - speeches Oranienburg. On the history of the first Nazi concentration camp in Prussia . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 9, 2000, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 36–47 ( luise-berlin.de ).
- Memorial sites for the victims of National Socialism . A documentation. Federal Agency for Civic Education , Berlin 1999.
- Irene A. Diekmann, Klaus Wettig (eds.): Oranienburg concentration camp. Eyewitness reports from 1933. Gerhart Seger and Max Abraham . Publishing house for Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 2004.
- Horst Klein: Memories of Gerhard H. Seger (1896–1967) of his life after his escape from the Oranienburg concentration camp . In: Year Book for Research on the History of the Labor Movement , Volume III / 2014.
- Siegfried Mielke (Ed.): Trade unionists in the concentration camps Oranienburg and Sachsenhausen. Biographisches Handbuch , Volumes 1–4, Berlin 2002–2013 (Volumes 2 and 3 edited in conjunction with Günter Morsch , Volume 4 edited with Stefan Heinz ).
- Günter Morsch : Oranienburg concentration camp . Berlin 1994.
Web links
- Internet exhibition on the history and political prisoners of the Oranienburg concentration camp
- Oranienburg concentration camp on LeMO
- Only radio coverage from a concentration camp (January 30, 1933) in the audio archive - Internet Archive
Footnotes
- ↑ a b c Federal Agency for Civic Education (ed.): Memorials for the victims of National Socialism. A documentation . Volume II: Federal states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia. Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-89331-391-5 , entry Oranienburg , p. 326–327 ( bpb.de [PDF; 23.9 MB ]).
- ↑ Hans Biereigel: Silence is gold - Reden Oranienburg. On the history of the first Nazi concentration camp in Prussia . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 9, 2000, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 36–47 ( luise-berlin.de ).
- ↑ Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv (BLHA) Potsdam, holdings of the Province of Brandenburg 1808 / 16-1945, administrative district of Potsdam, Oranienburg concentration camp, consignment lists.
- ↑ Just recently a supplementary report by Seger on his life after his escape was published, cf. Horst Klein: Memories of Gerhard H. Seger (1896–1967) of his life after his escape from the Oranienburg concentration camp , in: Year Book for Research on the History of the Labor Movement , Volume III / 2014
- ↑ dra.de ( Memento of the original from July 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ stiftung-bg.de
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 52 ° 44 ′ 57.4 " N , 13 ° 14 ′ 13.1" E