Special bearings

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1100 metal steles mark the small mass graves with the approx. 7000 dead of the Buchenwald special camp buried between 1945 and 1950 in a forest that grew after 1950 (photo from 2007)

Special camps were camps that were set up by the Soviet military administration in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ) after the end of World War II in 1945 and existed in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) until 1950 . In official Russian they were abbreviated in the singular "Spezlag", in the plural "Spezlagerja". In German-language announcements, the camp management used the word “detention camp” for the term “special camp”. The special camps were set up on the basis of NKVD order 00315 of April 18, 1945 with the aim of "clearing the hinterland of the fighting troops of the Red Army from hostile elements" . Groups of people classified as dangerous should be recorded in them. The Soviet occupying power arrested a much larger group of people in the special camps than the Western occupying powers in the internment camps there, they let them exist longer and used them primarily to suppress political opponents.

The special camp No. 4 was in the "Gelben Elend" in Bautzen (view from the southeast; left the church, right the east wing, photo from 2007)

There were a total of ten special camps in the Soviet occupation zone at the following locations: Mühlberg , Buchenwald near Weimar , Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, Bautzen, Ketschendorf , Jamlitz (previously in Frankfurt Oder), Sachsenhausen (Oranienburg) , Weesow (Werneuchen), Torgau and Fünfeichen (Neubrandenburg) ). In the eastern regions of the German Reich there were a number of other special camps with which prisoners were exchanged on a large scale. In Bautzen, Sachsenhausen and Torgau, detention centers for those convicted by the Soviet Military Tribunal (SMT) were also set up on the same site; however, the interned special camp inmates made up the far larger number of people. There were also several NKVD prisons, such as No. 5 Strelitz and No. 6 Berlin-Lichtenberg. The special camps in Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and Jamlitz were set up in the former Buchenwald , Sachsenhausen and Lieberose concentration camps , which the Soviet occupying forces continued to use from August 1945.

Soviet structures

All special camps were subordinate to the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD, from 1946 MWD) , which had its own “Special Camp” department for this purpose. On July 4, 1945, Ivan A. Serov was appointed by the head of the NKVD, Lavrenti Beria , as “the NKVD's representative for the group of Soviet occupation forces in Germany”. This was the direct superior of the head of the special camp department of the NKVD Mikhail J. Swiridow. In special camp No. 3 - Berlin-Hohenschönhausen , the central administration of all ten Soviet special camps was located on Genslerstrasse .

With order 00559 of August 9, 1948, the term special camp was officially no longer used on the Soviet side. But since there were 14,000 inmates in three of these camps by 1950, the term is still used for this group of people until 1950. Part of the areas and buildings of the special camps were then used for the penal system or as a pre-trial detention center; they were subordinate to the main camp administration ( gulag ) of the Soviet Interior Ministry. Their inmates are not considered "special camp inmates".

places

Special camp (GDR)
1 mu
1 mu
2 Bu
2 Bu
3 Ho
3 Ho
4 Ba
4 Ba
(4 La)
(4 La)
5 ke
5 ke
6 yes
6 yes
7 We
7 We
7 Sat
7 Sat
8 + 10 tons
8 + 10 tons
9 feet
9 feet
Red pog.svg
Special camp in the Soviet occupation zone 1945–1948
Special camp (GDR)
1 Sat
1 Sat
2 Bu
2 Bu
3 Ba
3 Ba
Waldheim
Waldheim
Special camp in the Soviet zone of occupation and in the GDR 1948–1950

List of special camps of the NKVD in the former Soviet zone:

A number of NKVD special camps also existed in the eastern regions of the German Reich . Some of them took in a particularly large number of prisoners from the Soviet occupation zone:

  • Special camp No. 6 Frankfurt / Oder (May 1945 to August 1945) The camp was on the east side of the Oder. After the special camp was closed, moved to Jamlitz. The NKVD prison No. 7 and a prisoner of war camp initially continued to exist in Frankfurt / Oder.
  • Graudenz special camp (November 1945 to February 1946) This camp took in the survivors of the Tost and Oppeln camps and then sent them on to the Landsberg and Fünfeichen special camps.
  • La - Special Camp No. 4 Landsberg (Warthe) (May 1945 to January 1946); the designation with "No. 4 “is probably based on the numbering that applied to the special camps located in Poland. The survivors were transported to Buchenwald.
  • Special camp Opole (June 1945 to November 1945) The surviving prisoners were taken to the Graudenz special camp.
  • Special camp no. 2 in Poznan (April 1945 to December 1945) Prisoners came from the surrounding area and from special camp no. 5 in Ketschendorf. The survivors were brought to Jamlitz.
  • Special camp Schneidemühl (until August 1945) The survivors of this camp were transported to special camp No. 8 in Torgau.
  • Schwiebus special camp This camp was moved to Mühlberg at the end of September 1945 with the crew and some sick prisoners.
  • Tost special camp (May 1945 to November 1945) This camp accommodated prisoners from Silesia and the Sudetenland as well as several large transports from the Bautzen special camp. The survivors came to Graudenz and from there to Fünfeichen.

The preceding two-letter abbreviations for these camps are used in the adjacent map and in the list of known inmates .

Most of the camps were closed in the late summer of 1948, only those in Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, and Bautzen remained in existence (with the new numbering 1 - 3) until March 1950. From there, the remaining prisoners came to the Waldheim penitentiary and 3,324 were sentenced there (see Waldheim Trials ).

Arrests and interrogations

Plan of the special camp No. 6 in Jamlitz

The practice of arresting the Soviet occupiers was supported from the outset by the new German authorities appointed by the Soviet occupying power and dependent on it. Initially, the information offices in the state administrations were involved, but from 1947 this task was taken over by the 5th Commissariats of the People's Police, which were founded as a result of an SMAD order. Many former members of the KPD's illegal military apparatus worked there with the Soviet secret police NKVD, and from 1950 they moved to the newly founded Ministry for State Security . The later Minister for State Security Erich Mielke was one of them. They increasingly turned over politically unpopular people to the occupying power. The charge of fascist activity was raised less and less; the internments served more and more to suppress any political opposition - or whatever could be taken for it.

After the arrest, interrogations took place regularly for days or weeks at the local NKVD, often under torture . The interrogation protocols that were then to be signed were often only written in Russian and occasionally contained confessions that had not been made by those concerned, or not made as recorded. In the vast majority of cases, the allegations were insufficient for a trial, and then the person concerned was interned in one of the special camps. Otherwise, the person concerned came before a Soviet military tribunal (SMT).

Any suspicion or accusation led to arrest and interrogation: If the accusation was confirmed or any prohibited (prohibited by the Soviets!) Things came to light, the case came before an SMT; if that was not the case, the people were not sent home, but were sent to the special camps: that is exactly what the over one hundred thousand special camp inmates interned until 1948 or 1950 were. In the case of the Soviets, the original charge was always the reason for detention. A special camp inmate, for example, when asked by a Soviet uniformed man "Why are you here", had to answer with "Suspicion of ...". This is exactly how a prison inmate today has to answer with “mentioning his crime”. In the case of the Soviets, the internees bore this (alleged) “accusation”, but not a “criminal offense”.

Proceedings before the Soviet military tribunal

The proceedings before the Soviet military tribunal were not based on the rule of law , but proceeded according to the Soviet, Stalinist understanding of law, according to which it was not a matter of determining individual guilt, but rather that suspects, above all as opponents of the Soviet system, are removed from circulation. In this regard, Soviet law was applied retrospectively, mainly with Section 58 of the USSR Criminal Code of November 22, 1926. This deals with so-called “counterrevolutionary crimes” and covers almost everything that served to “weaken the rule of the councils of workers and peasants” and is directed against the “fundamental economic, political and national achievements of the proletarian revolution”. In the usual fast proceedings of 15 to 20 minutes duration, 25 years of forced labor were a common standard punishment. Neither defense attorneys nor witnesses were admitted and there was no appeal. A guilt did not have to be proven, as grounds for the judgment the “reproach” was sufficient for the tribunal to be deported to the USSR, shot immediately or sent to an SMT penal institution on German soil. They were in Bautzen, Sachsenhausen and Torgau on the same site where three of the special camps were located until 1948 or 1950. From 1947 to January 1950 the death penalty was abolished in the USSR, so that death sentences passed in those years were commuted to life or 25 years imprisonment in the Soviet Zone as well. From 1945 to 1947 a total of 1,797 death sentences were imposed / carried out, from 1950 to 1953 there were 606.

The constitutional baselessness of the SMT rulings is clearly evident in the rehabilitation practice of the Russian Federation on the basis of the law of October 18, 1991. Since then, 9,976 of the 10,509 applications by German citizens for rehabilitation have been decided, of which 9,487 are positive (95.1%) and 489 negative (4.9%). Those convicted of alleged espionage made up the largest group with 5,901 victims. The rehabilitation rate here is 99.3%.

According to the aforementioned law, the special camp inmates could not be rehabilitated because there was no conviction (see Oskar Lecher ).

The majority of the convicted citizens of the USSR who were also incarcerated in these penal institutions were prisoners of war who, according to Stalin's order no.270 of August 16, 1941, were considered traitors to the fatherland because of their capture and for whom the camps were only a stopover Were away in the gulag . The same fate also met with many Eastern workers, who too were often considered traitors to the fatherland. In 1947 there were only 695 Soviet citizens in the camps.

Special camp inmates

Many of the detainees were members or smaller functionaries (such as block and cell leaders) of the NSDAP or other NSDAP organizations. The NSDAP propaganda of the last war period, calling on young people as "werewolves" (see Werwolf (NS-Organization) ) to attack the occupation forces, led to the imprisonment of thousands of young people between 12 and 18 years by the Soviet occupying forces, but none of them Had carried out attacks of any kind but were innocent. Also Benno Prieß , one of the youths sat innocently in the special camps of the NKVD. He has documented the mass arrests of that time in two books. There were many acts of arbitrariness. Countless people were arrested off the street in order to meet the Stalinist “planned target” for arrests. For example, someone was arrested as an alleged "SS Bannführer" because he had stated that his profession was "S-Bahn leader". Children who were born there were also in the camps, most of whom were housed with their mothers in separate areas. Some of the women were arrested while they were already pregnant or they were only pregnant in the camp.

The majority of the internees were men between the ages of 40 and 60, around five percent of the inmates were women. Most of them were arrested on charges of being National Socialists ; among them were middle and small functionaries of the NSDAP and its branches. A large group was made up of young people between the ages of 12 and 21, mostly accused of having belonged to the " werewolf ". But also social democrats, liberals and conservatives, nobles, entrepreneurs, farmers and large farmers who owned more than 100 hectares of land and resisted their expropriation without compensation, newspaper and other editors, authors of anti-Soviet literature and many more were imprisoned. The reason "other suspicious elements" also allowed an almost unlimited expansion of the group of people. All were held in the camps on the basis of accusation or suspicion without any legal review of their guilt. Major General of Justice Boris M. Schawer stated in a letter dated June 24, 1947: “The arrest of persons who are transferred to the special camps under NKVD order No. 00315 ... is carried out in a special procedure against them no charges are brought and there are no investigative documents as provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure. ”A later check for guilt was only carried out in the camps in a few cases.

In 1946 the special camps reached their maximum occupancy with over 80,000 inmates. Around 40,000 of them were so-called Nazi activists. Even according to the Soviet understanding, 35,000 of them were considered to be so minor that they could actually be dismissed, as Marshal Sokolowski and Colonel General Serow said in a letter to Stalin and Beria dated December 4, 1946. In the western zones, this group would not have been imprisoned even for a short time. “During the time of their stay in the camps, our organs could not obtain any additional incriminating information regarding these arrested persons. The military tribunals could not carry out any criminal proceedings with regard to these arrested persons to the effect that there is no material about them that would also prove anything about their hostile work against the Soviet Union because they were not on the territory of the Soviet Union during the war, but were members of the fascist party. We assume that there is no need to keep this category of detainee in the camp and feed them for no purpose. Their release does not seem dangerous to us. ”The camps were therefore not camps for war criminals, more than 80% of the inmates were arrested only with reference to the Nazi system or war events or consequences of war.

With the restructuring in 1946, there were hardly any incarcerations on the basis of Order No. 00315 and in Bautzen, Sachsenhausen and Torgau almost exclusively those convicted of SMT were assigned to the buildings for those convicted of SMT. Although they were on the same premises as the “interned” special camp inmates, both groups were strictly isolated from each other. The Torgau (No. 8), Hohenschönhausen, Jamlitz and Ketschendorf camps were closed from autumn 1946 to April 1947. During this time, the mass extinction in the camps reached its peak. Due to the reduction of the already low food rations in autumn 1946, 14,450 prisoners died of hunger, illness or cold between November 1946 and June 1947 according to the documents handed over to the federal government by the Russian authorities after 1990.

In addition to the camp inmates who were considered interned, usually referred to internally as a special contingent, there were a few thousand prisoners of war who came to the camps by chance and shared the lives of the internees. Most of them were transferred to the Soviet Union for work in 1946/47.

Soviet interim report from July 1947

From the letter of the head of the special camps to the Deputy Minister of the Interior Serov dated July 10, 1947:

On July 1, 1947, there were 60,774 imprisoned Germans and persons of other nationalities in the special camps of the SMA in Germany, who had been arrested in 1945/1946/1947 in accordance with order No. 00315. Of these, the following were convicted by military tribunals: Germans - 8,980, USSR citizens - 1,746, people of other nationalities - 120.

The physical condition of the special contingent can be characterized by the following information:
Older than 45 years - 35,206 people or 58%
Sick of dystrophy III. Degree - 5,579 people
Sick of degree II dystrophy - 5,377 people
Suffering from degree I dystrophy - 7,792 people
Sick of open tuberculosis - 1,702 people
Sick of other diseases - 5,858 people
There were a total of 26,308 patients, or 43% of the total.

In the first half of 1945 - 6,383 people died, in 1946 - 12,137 people, in the first half of 1947 - 12,884 people. A total of 31,404 people died.

According to these Soviet figures, the number of those arrested up to mid-1947 is: 60,774 camp inmates plus 31,404 deceased = 92,178 in total. Over a third of them had died; more in the first half of 1947 than in all of 1946.

Final score

According to the special camp department in Berlin, there were 122,671 Germans - according to estimates by Western historians 160,000 to around 180,000 as well as 34,076 citizens of the USSR and 460 citizens of other countries. In the early 1990s, the competent Russian authorities issued rehabilitation certificates for special camp inmates upon request. This practice was discontinued in 1995 and the rehabilitation applications are rejected today on the grounds that there was no conviction and therefore the Russian Rehabilitation Act does not apply to this group of people.

Known special camp inmates

In the two following lists only those former special camp inmates are listed who were "interned" without a judgment (but possibly later convicted) and about whom an article exists in Wikipedia. An analogous list for the convicts can be found in the article SMT convicts .

Those who died during their imprisonment, either in one of the special camps or after deportation from there to the SU:

Surname camp activities Details of the reason for detention, suspicion or alleged allegation
Joachim Ernst of Anhalt Bu as an opponent of the Nazi regime in 1944 in the Dachau concentration camp
Otto Baer To friends with Friedrich Olbricht , involved in the July 20 attack anti-Soviet propaganda
Rudolf Bingel Ke CEO of Siemens-Schuckertwerke SS contacts
Willi Bloedorn For NSDAP functionary and Reichstag deputy
Paul Blumberger Mü Reich judge (Senate President), NSDAP block leader 39 Reich judges were arrested
Oskar von Boenigk Ke Major General in the Air Force
Leo Brandenburg Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Ernst Brandis Mü Imperial Court Councilor (Senate President) 39 Reich judges were arrested
Erwin Brauer Bu Oberlandeskirchenrat, member of the NSDAP NSDAP membership
Heinrich Max Elias Burmeister Mü Imperial Court Councilor (Senate President) 39 Reich judges were arrested
Justus Delbrück Yes Lawyer and resistance fighter against National Socialism Employees of the defense organs
Richard Dietrich For Airplane designer and entrepreneur
Fritz Dörffler Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Hermann Döring Sat Lawyer, board member of an aviation insurance company
Horst von Einsiedel Sat Resistance fighters against National Socialism "American spy"
Carl Engel For Gaudozentenführer Pommern, Rector of the University of Greifswald
Rudolf Fehrmann For Lawyer, climbing guide author; NSDAP member, military magistrate
Walther Förster Ba Lord Mayor of Bautzen
Richard Francke Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Wilhelm Frerichs Bu SS-Obersturmführer in Buchenwald concentration camp
Hans Fridrich Ba NSDAP member; 1934–1943 mayor of Wroclaw
Heinrich Frings Mü before 1933 Center Party , Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Theodor Fritsch Mü Publisher affiliated with the NSDAP
Walther Froelich Mü Reich judge and president of the administrative court of the League of Nations 39 Reich judges were arrested
Heinrich George Ho, Sa actor denounced
Hermann Günther Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
August Guth Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Amandus Haase Yes Saxon prehistory researcher, police chief NSDAP membership
Wilhelm Haehnelt Sat General of the Aviators
Siegfried Haenicke Mü General of the Infantry
Werner Hartenstein Yes NSDAP, Lord Mayor of Freiberg , surrendered the city without a fight
Karl Heinrich Ho Resistance fighter against National Socialism, June 1945 Berlin police chief; rejected the communist leadership role illegal possession of weapons, mistreatment and denunciation of fellow prisoners during the Nazi prison regime, counterrevolutionary crimes
Hans Stieler from Heydekampf Ho Police commander, lieutenant general
Hermann Hoffmann Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Alfred Horstmann Sat Diplomat, retired in 1933 Accusation: editor of a newspaper propagating National Socialism
Hans Iber Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Werner Ihmels Ba ecclesiastical opponent of National Socialism and FDJ Conflict with the FDJ leadership
Friedrich Jaksch Bu Sudeten German writer
Wilhelm Jelinek Ba Author, works council chairman, representative of anarcho-syndicalism Opponents of the SED regime
Wilhelm Jost Mü SA-Sturmbannführer, Rector of the TH Dresden deported to an internment camp near Saratov in the SU
Arthur cheers Bu Opponent of National Socialism; 1945 Lord Mayor of Zeitz
Fred Kaltenbach Bu American; pro-National Socialist broadcaster
Erich Karlewski Mü Retired Airman General
Willy Klitzing For Government Director at the Reich Governor of Mecklenburg-Lübeck; honorary member of the People's Court
Otto Koch Bu Nazi functionary and Lord Mayor of Weimar
Artur Köllensperger Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Willi Ms. Koenitzer Sat Nazi journalist and writer on Judaism
Felix Kopprasch Ke NSDAP district leader and member of the Reichstag in Lower Saxony
Werner Kropp Bu NSDAP functionary and member of the Reichstag as well as SA leader
Walther Kunze Bu Civil engineer and NSDAP functionary
Oskar Lecher Yes, Mü Chemist werewolf
Elard von Löwenstern Ho Major General in the Air Force
Hugo Luschin Mü Austrian Councilor at the Supreme Court and German Reich Judicial Councilor 39 Reich judges were arrested
Karl Martin Ba NSDAP member of the Reichstag and district leader of Bautzen
Walter Meyer Bu Olympic champion in 1932, director of a sugar factory NSDAP membership
Richard Moeller For Opponent of National Socialism; 1945 Ministerial Director
Karl August Nerger Sat Naval admiral in World War I; Director at Siemens-Schuckert Employees of the defense organs?
Otto Mink Sa, Ho Reich coach of the DFB, member of the NSDAP
Hans Neumerkel Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Werner von Nitzsch Ba Agricultural scientist and soil scientist
Alfred Olscher La, Bu Lawyer, ministerial official in the Reich Ministry of Finance
Kurt Otto Bu Governor of the Province of Saxony
Karl Pawelka Mü, Bu Judge at the highest Czechoslovak court and German judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Friedrich Pfeffer Bu Lawyer, administrative officer and politician (DVP)
Gustav Rathje Mü Film production manager
Wilhelm Reetz Sa, La, Bu Painter and journalist; Editor of Nazi magazines
Siegfried Remertz For Deputy Mayor of Greifswald
Heinrich XLV. from Reuss Bu? NSDAP member unknown (probably mainly "as a nobleman")
Otto Rietzsch Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Ernst Rittweger Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Joseph Sablatnig Bu Aviation pioneer; Assault boat engine developer
Rudolf Schaper To Lawyer and politician, steel helmet; NSDAP member of the Reichstag active member of the fascist party
Fritz Schettler Mü Publisher of the Dresdner Nachrichten
Richard Schmidt For Mayor of Greifswald
Walter Schmidt Bu President of the Dresden Railway Directorate
Erich Schultze Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Werner Schulze Mü Emeritus Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Bruno Schuster Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Ulrich von Sell Yes officer
Eduard Stadtler Sat Reichstag member of the DNVP , co-commissioner of the murders of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht
Willy Stegemann Mü Classical philologist
Friedrich Syrup Sat Lawyer and politician, 1932 Minister after 1933 responsible for labor
Curt von Ulrich To NSDAP member of the Reichstag, Upper President of the Province of Saxony
Hans Wilhelm Viereck For German plant collector in Mexico
Erich Walther Mü, Bu Major General in the Air Force Participation in the war against the Soviet Union
Karl Wernecke Sat 1931–1945 Lord Mayor of Stendal, NSDAP and SA member
Gerhard Wischer Mü Psychiatrist, SA and NSDAP member involved in euthanasia crimes
Walter Witting Mü Lieutenant General of the Air Force
Julius Graf von Zech-Burkersroda Ba Estate owner and diplomat
Hans H. Zerlett Yes, Mü, Bu NSDAP member; Screenwriter and director
Erhard Ziegler Mü Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested

Have survived the storage period:

Surname camp activities Details of the reason for detention, suspicion or alleged allegation
Rudolf Ahlers Bu Author, NSDAP member, head of the Reich Chamber of Literature for Magdeburg-Anhalt and Mecklenburg
Margret Bechler Ba, yes, mu, bu Wife of NKFD co-founder Bernhard Bechler Part of the responsibility for the death of the anti-fascist Anton Jakob
Bernhard Benning Yes, Mü, Bu Director of the economic department and deputy head of Reichs-Kredit-Gesellschaft AG
Georg Bilkenroth Mü Power Plant Director
Helmut Bischoff Mü, Bu SS-Obersturmbannführer and Gestapo member
Stephan Dietrich Ba, Mü Homeland poet of the Erzgebirge, propaganda leader of the community
Horst Dreßler-Andreß Bu NSDAP member; President of the Reich Broadcasting Chamber
Reinhold Eggers Sat officer
Max Emendörfer Sat KPD resistance fighter against National Socialism Gestapo undercover agent? (later convicted of SMT)
Volker Engelhardt Ba, tost painter
Ewald Ernst Ho, Ba 1946 CDU member of the state parliament in Saxony-Anhalt Espionage for the USA
Heinrich Eufinger Mü Doctor and SS-Obersturmbannführer; Forced sterilizations
Marianne Fischer Mü Opera singer
Werner women's service To, Bu NSDAP member, historian, archivist
Ernst Fresdorf Bu before 1933 member of the SPD, in 1945 appointed Lord Mayor of Eisenach by the US troops Foreign exchange offense?
Ulrich von Fresenius To, Mü, Bu NSDAP member, mayor of Wernigerode
Karl-Heinz Gerstner Ho NSDAP member, spy, anti-fascist, later SED member, Stasi-IM and journalist senior Nazi official
Wilhelm Goldmann Mü, Bu publisher
Friedrich Griese For Writer honored by the Nazi regime, NSDAP member
Paul Grimm Bu Prehistoric, NSDAP local group leader Suspected involvement in the art theft in Kiev
Gustaf Gründgens Yes Actor and general director of the Prussian State Theater "General" in the title
Karl Ritter von Halt Bu Nazi sports official, head of personnel at Deutsche Bank senior figure in business
Jan Herchenröder Mü, Bu Journalist, war correspondent
Walther Hofstaetter Ba Headmaster, Germanist Battalion Leader Volkssturm
Alfred Jank Ke, Fü Member of the Hitler Youth or Volkssturm Werewolf charge
Achim Kilian Ba, Mü Young train leader with the German Young People Urban leader of the fascist youth organization HJ
Manfred Klein Ho, Ba Christian co-founder and member of the central council of the FDJ espionage
Ewald Kluge Mü Motorcycle racer, NSKK
Horst Köbbert For later an entertainer and singer
Siegfried Köhler (composer) Ba, Mü later President of the Association of Composers and Musicologists of the GDR musically active in a group of the Hitler Youth
Friedrich Emil Krauss Ba, yes, bu Industrialist and inventor, NSDAP functionary Accusation of "war and Nazi criminals"
Georg Krausz Ke, Yes, Mü, Bu, To communist activist in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany; Concentration camp inmate in Buchenwald; later deputy editor-in-chief of Neues Deutschland Espionage for the USA
Otto von Kursell Mü, Bu NSDAP functionary and Reichstag member; Painter and graphic artist
Hans Lachmund Fü, Bu Lawyer, politician and resistance fighter against National Socialism Freemasons
Gertrud Lehmann-Waldschütz Yes, Mü, Bu Author; NSDAP member, district commissioner of the Nazi women's association
Giwi Margwelashvili Sat Son of the Soviet emigrant Titus von Margwelashvili arrested with father who was accused of treason
Werner Maser Sat Infantry officer
Eberhard Matthes Sat Monument conservator, local researcher and educator
Hellmut Mehnert Mü at the age of 17 to the Volkssturm; later a doctor, president of the German Society for Internal Medicine allegedly werewolf
Wolfgang von Nathusius Mü NSDAP member since 1931, functionary in the NS student union
Charles A. Noble Mü, Bu German-American entrepreneur
John H. Noble Mü, Bu German-American entrepreneur
Max Poepel Mü, Bu Acting Lord Mayor of Aue , NSDAP member
Eberhard Puntsch Mü Non-fiction author, LDP member in Saxony
Paul Reckzeh Yes, Mü, Bu Doctor and Gestapo employee for denunciation
Max Reschke Ke, Mü, Bu Warehouse manager Sentenced to 25 years in Waldheim, but pardoned
Dieter Rieke Ho, Ba social democratic politician and journalist Contacts to the east office of the SPD
Oswald Rösler Bu CEO of Deutsche Bank
Hans-Ulrich Rottka Ba, Mü, Bu Reich Court Judge i. R.
Hans Wolfgang Sachse Mü composer
Kurt Säuberlich Bu Member of NSDAP and SS; Metallurg
August Schäfer Mü, Bu Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Heinrich Severit Ba Member of NSDAP and SA; Local group leader and Lord Mayor
Marianne Simson Ke, yes, Mü Actress, denouncer Accusation "Gestapo employee"
Siegfried von Sivers Schwiebus, Mü NSDAP and SA; Baltic German activist, writer, doctor
Heinrich Alexander Stoll For Writer, LDPD member critical remarks about the Soviet occupying power
Georg Tessin For Historian and archivist
Werner Tübke ? painter Accusation of having shot a Russian major (averted)
Paul Vogt Mü, Bu Emeritus Reich judge 39 Reich judges were arrested
Günther Wagenlehner Ba, Mü Lieutenant; later in the management staff of the German Federal Ministry of Defense
Erich Weber ? Publisher, author
Friedrike Wieking We, Ja, Mü, Bu Head of Division in the Reich Security Main Office , NSDAP member as "employee in the police headquarters"
Walfried Winkler Mü Motorcycle racer, 1934 European Champion, NSKK

The following were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps as well as in Soviet special camps: Joachim Ernst von Anhalt , Max Emendörfer , Karl Heinrich , Georg Krausz , Alfred Schmidt .

redundancies

After the dissolution of the special camps in 1950, the Waldheim trials against 3424 inmates took place in the Waldheim prison (photo from 2011)
In the prison Hoheneck in Stollberg 1950 over one thousand women (Photo from 2007) came

With the formal end of denazification announced by Marshal Sokolovsky on February 27, 1948, the Moscow Politburo followed the recommendation of a review commission on June 30, 1948 and ordered the release of 27,749 prisoners without judgment. Those released had to keep silent about their camp experiences in public. With the exception of Bautzen, Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald, all camps were closed. After that, there were still 13,539 "interned" camp inmates and 16,093 SMT convicts.

The last three camps were dissolved in 1950, also due to protests by the West against the treatment of those detained, which violated human rights and was contrary to international law. In the western zones and other western countries, a broader public was meanwhile informed about the conditions in the camps, and pressure was exerted on the Soviet occupying power and the leadership of the GDR. The newly founded GDR wanted to improve its reputation. There the dissolution was presented as a magnanimous act by the Soviet Union and conditions in the camps were embellished with propaganda. In 1993, Bodo Ritscher describes the defamation of the vast majority of those imprisoned in the special camps by GDR press organs - and in some cases still through some current publications - as alleged Nazi criminals and war criminals and states that a very large number of people were interned after 1945 who could not be charged with crimes.

However, many of the prisoners were not released on the occasion of the liquidation of the camps, but instead deported to the Soviet Union or transferred to GDR prisons. Several thousand prisoners were brought to Waldheim on February 9 and 13, 1950, where 3,424 were sentenced to death or long prison terms in 32 cases in the Waldheim trials . Among them was, for example, a 14-year-old boy who was arrested in 1945 and who after five years in special camps was given 20 years in prison on unfounded allegations.

The closure of the special camps was announced in Neues Deutschland and other GDR newspapers, later the issue was officially kept silent there, relatives of the dead were not notified. The mass graves on the edge and in the vicinity of the camps were only partially opened, examined, marked and then designed as resting places after the end of the GDR in 1989.

Handover of Russian documents in 2007

On January 16, 2007, the President of the DRK, Rudolf Seiters, handed over lists from Russian authorities with the names of 43,035 people who had died in special camps to the “ Haus am Checkpoint Charlie ” museum in Berlin. So around a third of those arrested died, primarily from starvation and various typical camp diseases such as dystrophy , dysentery, tuberculosis, typhus. 45,261 were released, the rest were either deported to the Soviet Union ( Gulag )  (12,770), converted to prisoners of war (6,680) or handed over to the communist authorities in the Soviet Zone or the GDR (14,202), which had meanwhile been installed. Only a small number managed to escape. A death sentence was carried out on 756 inmates. According to von Flocken and Finn, these Soviet numbers are understatements. Around 65,000 people are said to have died. In addition to constant hunger, cold and secondary illnesses, the prohibition of almost any activity and isolation wore down the prisoners.

Comments on the special bearings

Eugene Kogon

In his standard work, Der SS-Staat , devoted to Nazi crimes, Eugen Kogon also commented on the special camps of the Soviet occupying power:

“... NKVD personnel guard the prisoners, manage the system. Against former National Socialists? Against anyone who is suspected of being an 'enemy of the state'. Or as an 'agent of a foreign power'. Or as a 'class enemy', as a 'kulak', as something else…. Until the end of 1946, the press licensed in the three other occupation zones was not allowed to write about it; it would have been 'criticism of an allied power'. Since 1947, when the contrasts with the Russians became apparent, it was more and more desirable. But the population had already thought about it beforehand. Also about the new silence. The silence that was enforced again - as far as the Germans are concerned…. The resemblance (with the silence about the Nazi camps) became frightening for anyone who was of good will ... In late 1947 and early 1948, I asked communists, with whom I had been in Buchenwald for years, and leading members of the Unity Party ruling in the Eastern Zone, also political prisoners of yore, what they actually thought of 'such a development'. Some believed that dangerous political opponents should just be locked up and rendered harmless; they openly admitted that their method on this point was no different from that of National Socialism. If you have said the same to others, I would like to know why the National Socialists should suddenly be appalled by the concentration camps from 1933 to 1945. The difference, I was told, was that the prisoners should not be treated badly. But are they treated well in the MWD (NKVD) camps? In many ways the system does not seem to be as appalling as the National Socialist one; for example, it is not gassed, not strangled, hanged and shot in rows. But it's bad enough in every way…. That's all exaggerated, they said ... (As back then). The masses are only incorrigible enemies of the state. (As in the past). Of course there are injustices, but what can be done about the orders of the NKVD? (As in the past - against the almighty Gestapo). The politically, religiously and racially persecuted of the Nazi regime as the appointed fighters against lawlessness and barbarism must raise their voices, must take action against the new blatant injustices, everywhere, in the world and in Germany, but especially against the Soviet Russians and in the German Eastern Zone ! It would not be without an impression or without consequences. "

- Eugen Kogon: The SS state. The system of the German concentration camps . (“The concentration camps in the east zone”, p. 407), Frankfurt, Gutenberg Book Guild 1946/1959.

Bernd Bonwetsch

Bernd Bonwetsch describes the establishment of special camps by the NKVD and its methods in the Soviet Zone as having been shaped “by the experiences of the Soviet Gulag”. Allied agreements would have "modified" this somewhat, but de facto this had hardly any significant influence on Soviet interrogation and detention practices.

Wolfgang Schuller

Even Wolfgang Schuller highlights the illegal nature of the camp is the image and "outposts of the Gulag Archipelago." The main purpose of the special camps was not to punish any perpetrators, but - as in the Soviet Union - to eliminate alleged opponents of the Soviet system. This can be linked to the fact that the camps are kept secret and the number of victims is covered up.

Franz Neumann

The Berlin SPD politician Franz Neumann , himself a former concentration camp prisoner, said of the special camps at a rally in 1948: "The concentration camps are the same, but today, in 1948, the hammer and sickle have replaced the swastika ".

See also

literature

Volume 1: Studies and Reports . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-05-002531-X .
Volume 2: Soviet documents on camp policy . Introduced and edited by Ralf Possekel, Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-05-003244-8 .
  • GA RF, f. 9409, op. 1, d. 140, l. June 27, 24, 1947
  • Joel Kotek , Pierre Rigoulot: The Century of Camps . Propylaea 2001, ISBN 3-549-07143-4 .
  • Gerhard Finn: The political prisoners in the Soviet zone . Berlin 1958.
  • Karl Wilhelm Fricke : Politics and Justice in the GDR . Cologne 1979.
  • The system of communist terror in the Soviet zone . SPD Information Service, Memorandum 28, Hanover 1950.
  • Jan von Flocken , Michael Klonovsky : Stalin's camp in Germany 1945–1950 Documentation / witness reports. Ullstein, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-550-07488-3 .
  • Bodo Ritscher : The Soviet special camps in Germany 1945-1950: a bibliography: with an appendix, literature on the historical-social environment of the special camps . Wallstein 1996, ISBN 9783892442424 .
  • Peter Reif-Spirek, Bodo Ritscher (ed.): Special camp in the SBZ. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-86153-193-3 .
  • The first years of the Soviet Zone / GDR . In: Report of the Enquète Commission “Coming to terms with the history and consequences of the SED dictatorship in Germany” . P. 89. German Bundestag, printed matter 12/7820, Bonn 1994 ( online )
  • Alex Latotzky: Childhood behind barbed wire. Mothers with children in special Soviet camps . Forum Verlag, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-931801-26-8 .
  • Dmitri Volkogonov: Triumph and Tragedy. Political portrait of JW Stalin. Volume 2/1, Berlin 1990, p. 179.
  • Eva Ochs: "Today I can say yes". Camp experiences of inmates of Soviet special camps in the Soviet Zone / GDR . Cologne 2006. ISBN 978-3-412-01006-5
  • Bettina Greiner : Repressed Terror. History and Perception of Soviet Special Camps in Germany. Hamburger Edition , Hamburg 2010. ISBN 978-3-86854-217-2
  • Bernd Bonwetsch: The GULag - the model for the special camps in the Soviet Zone. In: Peter Reif-Spirek / Bodo Ritscher (ed.): Special camp in the SBZ. Memorials with a double past. Berlin 1999, p. 63.
  • Petra Haustein, Annette Kaminsky, Volkhard Knigge and Bodo Ritscher: History of the special camp No. 2, instrumentalization, repression, coming to terms with the Soviet special camps in social perception from 1945 to today ; Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation and the Foundation to Process the SED Dictatorship, Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-8353-0051-4
  • Volkhard Knigge and Bodo Ritscher: Book of the Dead Buchenwald Special Camp 1945–1950 , Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, Weimar 2003, ISBN 978-3-935598-08-8

Web links

Commons : Special warehouse  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NKVD order 00315 from L. Beria dated April 18, 1945 , documentation center of the Saxon Memorials Foundation in memory of the victims of political tyranny, external link accessed on April 13, 2014
  2. ↑ "The SMT convicts did not belong to the special camp inmates and were also housed completely isolated" according to: Sergej Mironenko, Lutz Niethammer, Alexander v. Plato (editor), Soviet Special Camps in Germany 1945 to 1950 , Volume 1 Studies and Reports , Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-05-002531-X
  3. ↑ a b Source: Saxon Memorials Foundation, Documentation Center for the History of Resistance and Repression
  4. ↑ "Anyone who has got caught in the encirclement has to fight to the death and to the last to try to get through to ours. Those who prefer captivity, on the other hand, must be destroyed by all means. The relatives of Red Army soldiers who have given themselves up are to be deprived of state grants and support. ”Quoted in Dmitri Wolkogonow: Triumph and tragedy. Political portrait of JW Stalin. Volume 2/1, Berlin 1990, p. 179.
  5. ↑ Alex Latotzky: Childhood behind barbed wire, mothers with children in Soviet special camps. Forum Verlag, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-931801-26-8 .
  6. ↑ a b GA RF, f. 9409, op. 1, d. 140, l. June 27, 24, 1947 in Sergej Mironenko, Lutz Niethammer, Alexander v. Plato (Ed.): Soviet Special Camps in Germany 1945 to 1950 . Volume 1: Studies and Reports . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-05-002531-X .
  7. ↑ From: Sergei Mironenko, Lutz Niethammer, Alexander von Plato: Soviet special camp in Germany from 1945 to 1950; Volume 2: Soviet documents on camp policy; Page 290ff. Reading sample
  8. ^ Günther Wagenlehner: The Russian Efforts to Rehabilitate the German Citizens Persecuted 1941-1956: Documentation and Guide . Bonn, 1999. ISBN 3-86077-855-2 . Web link
  9. ↑ Bodo Ritscher: Special Camp No. 2 Buchenwald . Buchenwald Memorial 1993.
  10. ^ Kurt Noack: Post-War Memories As a fifteen-year-old in Stalin's camps . Niederlausitzer Verlag, Guben 2009, 1st edition, ISBN 978-3-935881-70-8 , p. 309
  11. ↑ 43,035 deaths: The terrible balance of the special camps after 1945. Die Welt, January 16, 2007, accessed on May 18, 2018 .
  12. ↑ B. Bonwetsch: The Gulag - the model for the special camps in the Soviet Zone. In: Peter Reif-Spirek and Bodo Ritscher (eds.): Special camp in the SBZ . In: Cooperation with the Buchenwald Memorial and the State Center for Political Education Thuringia. Links, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-86153-193-3 .
  13. ↑ Wolfgang Schuller: The Soviet military justice and its camps as an instrument of communist rule in the Soviet zone of occupation of Germany. In: June 17, 1953. The beginning of the end of the Soviet empire. Documentation . P. 69, 4th Bautzen Forum of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung from 17. – 18. June 1993. ( PDF )
  14. ^ Outpost of Freedom: A German-American Network's Campaign to bring Cold War Democracy to West Berlin, 1933-66 , Scott Krause , University of Chapel Hill, 2016, p. 58
  15. ^ The time May 13, 1994 / Klaus Hartung: Controversy about history