Unterlüß subcamp

Way to the subcamp over the Sothrieth near Altensothrieth

The Unterlüß subcamp , which was also called Unterlüß-Altensothrieth or Tannenberg camp , was the third subcamp of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp alongside Benefeld and Hambühren . It was located about 4 km northwest of the village of Unterlüß , today the municipality of Südheide in the Lower Saxony district of Celle , immediately south of the former farmstead Altensothrieth.

Warehouse history

In Unterlüß there were already several camps in which foreign workers , prisoners of war and other forced laborers of various nationalities were housed who had to work in ammunition production at Rheinmetall-Borsig AG . Italian prisoners of war were housed in the camp in Altensothrieth until mid-1944. At the end of August 1944, after a transport of 400–800 Jewish women and girls from Auschwitz had arrived in Unterlüß, the satellite camp for the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, about 30 km away, was set up here. The female persons were mainly Polish, but there were also women of Hungarian, Yugoslav, Czech and Romanian citizenship among them. In October / November 1944 the number of prisoners in the camp was increased to 900. Historical aerial photographs from 1945 show that the camp consisted of at least five large barracks and several smaller buildings. The first camp commandant was SS- Hauptsturmführer Friedrich Diercks. On April 13, 1945, the camp guards fled from the advancing British troops. This did not lead to the release of the forced laborers, because members of the Volkssturm took the prisoners to the Bergen-Belsen main camp.

• Remnants of the former camp site
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  Trenches run through the whole area

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  Remains of the foundation

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  Remains of the foundation

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  Remnants of the barracks foundations

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  Remnants of the foundations of a barrack

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  The former site is demarcated with warning posts

Situation of the prisoners

The forced laborers were used in road construction, removed rubble or laid rails. Felling trees was also part of her job. Sometimes the women had to do work in the ammunition factory Rheinmetall-Borsig AG. In doing so, they were forced to inhale toxic chemicals due to the lack of protective measures. Many female forced laborers poisoned themselves and suffered severe damage from burns.

The prisoners lived in isolated camps and were not allowed to have any contact with the civilian population. The catering was inadequate, as the local large-scale industry strictly observed compliance with dietary regulations.

literature

• Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps . 9 volumes (published until 2008: 8 volumes). CH Beck, Munich 2005–. ISBN 978-3-406-52960-3 (i. Dr .; table of contents ) Vol. 7: Wewelsburg, Majdanek, Arbeitsdorf, Herzogenbusch (Vught), Bergen-Belsen, Mittelbau-Dora. ISBN 978-3-406-52967-2 ; P. 220
• Peter Nowak : Remembering the horror. In the Lüneburg Heath, a Nazi forced labor camp is increasingly being forgotten. jungle world , 40, October 2, 2019, p. 9

Web links

• The former Tannenberg satellite camp

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The history of the Bergen-Belsen camp
2. ^ Bernd Horstmann: Unterlüß external command pdf
3. ↑ ^{a b} Forced laborers in the district of Celle

Coordinates: 52 ° 51 '53.3 "  N , 10 ° 14' 38.1"  E