Salzwedel concentration camp

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The Salzwedel concentration camp was a women's camp. It was located in Salzwedel in the Altmark . It existed from July 1944 to April 1945 and was the only satellite camp of Neuengamme that was not evacuated at the end of the Second World War . 3,000 women were liberated by the 9th US Army on April 14, 1945 .

Camp and prisoner transport

The barracks camp had already been built in 1942 in the village on Gardelegener Strasse for forced labor in the local fertilizer factory. The camp consisted of twelve wooden barracks, an infirmary, a kitchen and a barrack for washing. Some barracks were used by the SS guards.

At the end of July 1944, 500 Hungarian Jewish women came from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp . These were followed in October by 800 Jewish women of different nationalities and, presumably , another 200 women of different nationalities came from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . There were around 1,500 women in the camp. From March 1945, female prisoners came from the Ravensbrück concentration camp , in April from the Porta Westfalica-Hausberge camp and from the Laagberg camp . At the end of the war there were 3,000 women in this camp.

Inmate labor

The women had to work hard in two 12-hour shifts in the wire and metal factory in Salzwedel . The branch of the Magdeburg Polte-Werke produced ammunition for infantry and anti- aircraft guns. Towards the end of the war, the supply of materials decreased and the plant was no longer busy. The shifts for ammunition production were shortened or the night shifts were suspended and clearing and auxiliary work was ordered for this.

Commemoration

A memorial plaque is placed on a boulder on the site of the former camp, and in 1966 former concentration camp prisoners placed another plaque.

literature

  • Hans Elger: Salzwedel. 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. 514 ff.
  • Dietrich Banse: The Salzwedel satellite camp - Neuengamme concentration camp. In: Strangers. Refugees in the Lüchow-Dannenberg district 1945–1950. Museum Wustrow, Wustrow 1991, ISBN 3-925861-08-4 , pp. 246-254.

Web links

  • Salzwedel Concentration Camp at www.kz-Gedenkstätte-neuegamme.de

Coordinates: 52 ° 50 ′ 25.1 ″  N , 11 ° 9 ′ 57.8 ″  E