Schwerte concentration camp
The Schwerte-Ost concentration camp was a subsidiary of the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar from April 6, 1944 to January 29, 1945 . It was located on the site of the former Reichsbahn repair shop in Schwerte .
The labor camp was outside the factory walls of the former Reichsbahn repair shop, in the immediate vicinity of today's tennis facility. The seven barracks were secured by an electrically charged barbed wire and were guarded by SS guards. The first 100 prisoners arrived in Schwerte on April 7th. They were used under the guidance of German foremen for repair and retrofitting work on locomotives. The number of prisoners fluctuated greatly. A strength report issued on September 29, 1944 reported 701 prisoners. According to records from the Buchenwald memorial, the concentration camp outpost in the Reichsbahn repair shop in Schwerte-Ost was closed with the repatriation of 201 prisoners on January 15, 1945.
A memorial today commemorates the camp. In the center of the memorial is a sculpture by the Dortmund artist Horst Wegener , which depicts an approximately five-meter-long railway track with five stone sleepers . The thresholds are modeled on the bodies of abused male people. Next to the sculpture there is a lying stone memorial and warning plaque for the town of Schwerte.
The remains of the complex are entered in the list of monuments of the city of Schwerte .
Web links
- Prisoners of war, forced laborers, volunteers and concentration camp inmates with the Reichsbahn. 6,000 "foreign workers" in Schwerte: first deployment at the end of 1939
- The existence of the concentration camp was kept secret for a long time, Ruhrnachrichten.de
Coordinates: 51 ° 27 ′ 11 " N , 7 ° 35 ′ 33.8" E