Main camp XB
The Stalag XB was a prisoner of war camp in the era of National Socialism near Sandbostel north-east of Bremen. The acronym stands for the main camp "B" of the Military District "X", which means that the second war camp of the Military District X was.
It emerged from a camp of the FAD ( Voluntary Labor Service Germany). In the last year of the war, 1945, it was also used as a reception camp for the Neuengamme concentration camp and as a stopover on death marches at various concentration camps .
Temporal overview
Uses
The area and the buildings of the Stalag XB have been used differently over time:
- After construction in 1932/1933, it was initially a warehouse of the Reich Labor Service .
- Until it was liberated by British troops on April 29, 1945, the Stalag XB Sandbostel was a prisoner of war camp and from mid-April 1945 a reception camp for the Neuengamme concentration camp and its satellite camps.
- The British occupation authorities set up “No. 2 Civil Internment Camp Sandbostel “- one of seven internment camps in the British zone of occupation .
- After the internment camp was closed in 1948, the barracks were taken over by the judiciary and the "Sandbostel prison camp" was set up.
- In 1952 the prison was closed and the barracks were taken over by the “ emergency reception center for male young refugees from the GDR”.
- The emergency reception center was closed in 1960 but was kept open for possible further refugees for another four years.
- The Bundeswehr then took over the site as a depot in 1964 .
- The Rotenburg (Wümme) district set up the "Immenhain" industrial park on the site in 1974 .
- The existence of the industrial park met with increasing protest from 1980 onwards.
- In 1992 the historic buildings were listed , the Sandbostel Camp Foundation was established in 2004 and the redesigned memorial was opened in April 2013 .
Timetable
- February 1926: Planning of a camp for prisoners
- November 1932: Construction of the camp by the Freiwilligen Arbeitsdienst Deutschland (FAD) / Arbeitsdienst Niedersachsen eV
- May 1933: Takeover by the Reich Labor Service Camp Klenkenholzer Moor.
- September 1939: Establishment of the prisoner-of-war team main camp X Sandbostel (from December Stalag XA, from April 1940 Stalag X B) Polish prisoners were initially housed in large tents.
- 1940: Belgian and French prisoners enter the camp.
- October 1941: arrival of Serbian and Soviet prisoners. At this time there are also 660 civilian seamen in the camp who come from the colonies of the war opponents. They are registered as Chinese, Indian, Arab or Malaysian.
- Winter 1941/1942: mass deaths among Soviet prisoners of war.
- 1943 Italian military internees arrive .
- 1944 From October 1, 1944, the SS took control of the camp. Count Bassewitz-Behr was the responsible SS leader .
- 1944 Arrival of Polish women. There were 552 participants in the Warsaw Uprising - 84 of them were officers, but there were also girls as young as thirteen.
- from April 12, 1945: around 9,500 prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp or its satellite camps come to Sandbostel.
- 19./20. April 1945: Concentration camp prisoners' hunger revolt
- April 20, 1945: 300 to 400 concentration camp prisoners march under SS guard from Sandbostel to the train station in Bremervörde; they get to Flensburg with the prisoner transports of Olga Siemers and Rheinfels
- April 29, 1945: British troops liberate the camp. At the beginning of June, the last prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates left the camp.
- June 1945 to 1948: "No. 2 Civil Internment Camp" (internment camp for SS and NS leaders as well as for members of concentration camp guards )
- 1948 to 1952: "Prison Camp Sandbostel" as a branch of the Celle prison .
- 1952 to 1960: transit camp for male DDR - refugees aged 14 to 24.
- 1956: In the area of the "main camp XB", there are mass graves in which a large number of Soviet prisoners of war are buried. “In 1945, on the initiative of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD), a seven-meter high memorial was erected there. A plaque attached to it read in Russian, English and German: “46,000 Russian soldiers and officers rest here. Tortured to death while imprisoned by the Nazis. «In 1956 the state government of Lower Saxony had the monument blown up. The reason: the number of victims is wrong. "
- 1957 construction of a "camp church"
- 1963 to 1970: used by the Bundeswehr, most recently as a depot.
- 1974: Privatization of the camp site. Construction of the Immenhain industrial park .
- 1992: The historical buildings of the former Stalag and the reserve hospital XB are placed under monument protection. Foundation of the association "Documentation and Memorial Sandbostel eV"
- 2004: Foundation of the "Sandbostel Camp Foundation"
- 2005: Acquisition of 2.7 hectares of the former camp site by the foundation.
- 2007: Establishment of the "Sandbostel Camp Memorial".
- 2012: Planned date for status as a "National Memorial"
- April 29, 2013: Opening of the permanent exhibition “The Stalag XB Sandbostel - History and Post-History of a POW Camp”.
history
Prehistory 1926 to 1939
Prisoners of war had been used to cultivate the moorland between Bremen and Bremervörde as early as the First World War . Southwest of Sandbostel, the Prussian Building Department planned a barrack camp for 200 prisoners in 1926 to cultivate the Klenkenholzer (today: Klenkendorfer) moor. In 1932 the “Freiwillige Arbeitsdienst Niedersachsen eV” established a labor service camp there, which was taken over by the Reich Labor Service (RAD) in 1933/1935 .
Prisoners of war in Teufelsmoor until 1941
The Verden Water Management Authority faced major challenges in cultivating the Teufelsmoor . Canals and paths had to be built by hand and large areas dug up. German workers could hardly be won for this, so the advantages of using prisoners of war were quickly recognized. Starting in 1940, inns, stables and other buildings were quickly prepared to accommodate the prisoners. The focus was on the fastest possible deployment. The accommodations were not adequately equipped. Even controls by the ICRC and the Wehrmacht changed little.
Time during the war
During the Second World War, at least 313,000 prisoners of war, military and civil internees from more than 55 nations passed through the camp. The occupancy rate of the camp fluctuated over the years between a few thousand and 30,000 prisoners. According to the international law of war, different treatment according to nation, religion or race was not permitted. According to the Nazi ideology, however, the prisoners were treated according to a differentiating system.
“Many prisoners of war and civilian internees had to spend five years or more in captivity. The length of imprisonment, the treatment in the camp and in the work details, as well as the experiences of war shaped the lives of the former prisoners and their families in many cases after 1945. "
Staff in the Stalag XB
98 soldiers and 33 military officials / employees were provided for the administration of Stalag XB with 10,000 prisoners. After the occupancy number had increased to 30,000 prisoners from 1940 onwards, the position plan was only adjusted to 314 people in August 1942.
Admission of the prisoners to the camp
The camp was guarded by state riflemen - they were mostly elderly or wounded soldiers - not fit for front duty. Upon arrival at the camp, the prisoners were medically examined, disinfected and photographed. Their personal information was recorded and they were given a metal badge with their prisoner of war number. They always had to wear them around their necks. Badges of rank were removed from their uniforms and then continued to be worn. A strict system was laid down in the camp regulations, with severe penalties for attempting to escape, refusing to work and refusing to obey. The sentences were carried out in a special prison camp. There were also selections by the Gestapo and transfer to concentration camps.
Different treatment of nationalities
Within the camp, the treatment of prisoners of war differed greatly according to nationality. The Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War of July 27, 1929 stipulated that prisoners of war should be treated humanely and protected against violence. In Sandbostel, the Americans and the British were treated better than the French and Belgians; these better than Serbs and Greeks. At the end of the hierarchy were Poles, Italians and prisoners of war from the Soviet Union. The latter in particular were mostly forced to work without food until they starved to death.
Medical supplies
In terms of medical care, the treatment of prisoners of war differed greatly according to nationality. While British camp inmates described medical care as good, it was non-existent for the bottom of the hierarchy. The Geneva Conventions , which regulate the treatment of prisoners of war internationally, were disregarded in every respect. Prisoners of war reported that, for example, experiments were carried out on living people, that prisoners of war were tortured and murdered for no reason, or starved to death with no need for food.
The essentials were missing in the sickbay - nursing staff, medication and beds. Prisoners, "whose labor should be retained", were given medical care in the infirmary or in the prisoner-of-war hospital Stalag XB (from April 1, 1944: reserve hospital for prisoners of war Sandbostel). At the end of the war it had around 2000 beds.
“The medical equipment was modern and the German and foreign doctors working there were highly qualified, but there was a lack of food, water, medicine and heating material. ... Just like the prisoners' barracks, the hospital was contaminated by vermin. "
Culture and religious practice
Most of the prisoners were allowed to do artistic and sporting activities. There were theatrical and musical performances as well as educational programs, sporting events, and church services. A religious image can be seen on a gable near the later Catholic church from the post-war period. The wall painting, which was originally on the gable wall inside a building, probably dates from around 1940/1941. The side pictures show an angel playing the harp and an angel praying. Both are turned towards the central figure of Christ. Under the white overpainting, the pictures may have been preserved in their original condition. The artist is believed to be among French prisoners. The photo shown on an information board is probably a propaganda photo to play down the conditions in the POW camp. Prisoners report that the prayer rooms gave them the strength to survive. The clergy were sent by the churches.
Among the prisoners were the philosopher Louis Althusser , the writers Gaston Aufrere , Léo Malet and Giovanni Guareschi . The later Olympic champion Viktor Tschukarin is also one of the survivors of the Sandbostel prison camp.
Work assignments
“The Stalag XB managed up to 670 work commands at the same time. Prisoners of war were part of everyday life in towns and villages. "
The Stalag XB included hundreds of external commands, that is, groups of 10 to 40 prisoners of war who were housed in guarded barns, warehouses or halls outside the camp. The Stalag XB employed, among other things, prisoners of war in the construction of submarines in Bremen (see submarine bunker Valentin ). Most of the camp inmates were employed in agriculture, handicrafts and industrial operations. There were various workshops on the camp grounds, for example a shoemaker's shop.
Inside the camp there was a special camp for a maximum of 80 prisoners with even harsher repression; these were used to cultivate the moor or to cut peat and had to endure the utmost.
Prisoners of war in Teufelsmoor from 1941
Extensive plans to expand the use of prisoners of war were drawn up by the Verden Water Management Authority as soon as the news of the arrival of Soviet prisoners of war was heard. A commission made up of local craft businesses toured the area and made suggestions for the accommodation of 2,000 prisoners. As it was known that Soviet prisoners could be used under difficult conditions, they were assigned heavy construction work. As a result of the weakened condition of the prisoners, illnesses and deaths increased, for which the water management office, the armed forces and the construction companies involved blamed each other.
Work for the German economy during the war
During the war there was a shortage of workers, including in agriculture due to the men drafted into the Wehrmacht. Attempts were made to compensate for this shortage with prisoners of war. Contrary to the Geneva Conventions, the prisoners were also used in the arms industry. A hierarchy arose for ideological reasons. At the lower end were the Soviet prisoners of war. They got the lowest food rations for the lowest pay and were punished the most severely. The Soviet prisoners of war who died while working in Hamburg were buried in the Soviet war cemetery in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf .
“Since there were work details in almost every location, practically the entire German population was aware of the working conditions, and many were even directly involved in the operation. The unequal treatment of the prisoners was largely accepted. "
The reserve hospital
Outside the Stalag there was the XB reserve hospital with over 1750 beds. There, the sick prisoners of war were cared for by doctors who were prisoners of war. A German chief physician was in charge of the reserve hospital and the infirmary. The reserve hospital was responsible for all bedridden unfit prisoners of war of military district X.
Concentration camp prisoners from Neuengamme
In April 1945 at least 8,000 political prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp reached the Stalag XB camp in Sandbostel. They were locked up in a part of the camp that was only fenced off with barbed wire and insufficiently fed. The concentration camp prisoners were to be "evacuated" from Neuengamme on the initiative of the Hamburg Nazi Gauleiter , Reichsstatthalters and SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Kaufmann and orders from the Reichsführer SS, Heinrich Himmler . In plain language, this was the order for the death marches so that the concentration camp prisoners would not fall into the hands of the Allies alive as witnesses to the crime .
On the night of April 19-20, a hunger riot broke out in the Soviet part of the camp during an air alarm, which the SS brutally ended with several hundred dead. A large part of the SS guards fled in the confusion of the night. Quite a few had swapped their SS uniforms for Wehrmacht uniforms or civilian clothes. At that time there were 7,400 (according to another source on April 29, 6,800) concentration camp prisoners from Neuengamme in Sandbostel. On the morning of April 20, the prisoner-of-war representative (Colonel Marcel Albert) and Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich Westphal, who had been appointed as his successor by the Lühe camp commandant, had a conversation. In it, Westphal asked the prisoners of war for help in caring for the concentration camp prisoners, and Westphal handed over the entire camp command to the prisoners of war.
Early in the morning on April 20, 1945, the SS and parts of the guards left the camp together with a few hundred concentration camp prisoners who were able to march via Bremervörde, Stade , Stader Sand, here on the ship Olga Siemers through the Kiel Canal and via Kiel in the direction of Flensburg .
Between April 20 and 29, 1945, prisoners of war in the adjoining part of the camp took care of the prisoners. On April 29, the Sandbostel camp was liberated by British troops. At least 3,000 prisoners died of hunger and typhus between April 12 and 29, 1945 and the weeks that followed.
40 years later, people from the area between Bremen-Farge and Sandbostel commemorated the death march to the evacuation of the prisoners who had to work in a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp at the Valentin bunker, to Sandbostel. Between July 10 and 13, 1985, they set out on the Farge – Sandbostel memorial march .
End of the war in the Sandbostel camp
On April 29, 1945, the British Army liberated around 14,000 prisoners of war and 7,000 concentration camp inmates. The conditions were unimaginable. Thousands of inmates were malnourished and sick. Corpses lay everywhere. Inmates, emaciated to skeletons, ran around in search of something to eat. There was dirt and stench that could be heard from far away. 3,000 prisoners died in the first fourteen days after the liberation. The soldiers spoke of a "minor Belsen" - a smaller Belsen.
History after 1945
After the liberation and care of the freed prisoners of war in the surrounding military hospitals and hospitals, the British army set up an internment camp on the camp grounds. In 1948, the state of Lower Saxony took over the building complex as a prison, from 1952 to 1960 it was an emergency reception center for young male refugees from the GDR. In 1963 the German Armed Forces took over the former camp site and in 1974 the Immenhain industrial area of the municipality of Sandbostel was established here.
Emergency reception center for young male GDR refugees
In Sandbostel and Westertimke , young people usually stayed in the emergency reception centers for up to two weeks. In Sandbostel there were up to 800 male 15- to 24-year-olds, in Westertimke up to 300 female people. Every day around 100 young people arrived in Sandbostel and replaced the people who left the camp. It is estimated that 250,000 people passed through the Sandbostel camp and 80,000 through the Westertimke camp.
Use by the Bundeswehr
After the emergency reception center for young GDR refugees was closed, the Bundeswehr took over the former prisoner of war camp in 1963.
“Initially, supply units were stationed here during maneuvers in order to practice supplying military units with fuel, ammunition and food under" war-like conditions ". A material depot for the Bundeswehr medical service was later set up in the barracks. "
On March 31, 1973, the Bundeswehr vacated the Sandbostel site due to a lack of military needs.
"Immenhain" industrial park
The municipality of Sandbostel designated the newly acquired site as an industrial park in order to create new jobs. The first of the more than 20 buildings was sold to a timber shop. A poultry farm, a manufacturer of insulation material, the municipal building yard, a riding stable and several wholesalers followed. A militaria dealer used several barracks. The former camp site was also used for outdoor filming. Until 2003 there was no evidence of the former prisoner of war camp on the site.
Foundation and memorial
In December 2004, former prisoners and residents founded the "Sandbostel Camp Foundation". The Foundation acquired previously by a 3.2-hectare portion of the former camp site with barracks, to protect them from decay. The Sandbostel camp is the only Nazi prisoner-of-war and concentration camp reception camp in Germany in which many historical buildings are still in their original state. The 25 buildings include residential barracks made of wood and stone as well as kitchen, laundry and latrine buildings. The waterworks and a detention bunker are still there. With funds from the German Foundation for Monument Protection , serious weather-related damage will be removed from the barracks both outside and inside, which was regulated in a contract dated October 17, 2008. The "Sandbostel Camp Foundation" lets a barrack "fall apart" in a controlled manner. The other barracks are being “visibly restored” so that it can be seen that they are no longer in their original state.
In July 2009, the director of the foundation, Karl-Heinz Buck, pointed out that the funds of 10,000 euros per year were insufficient to stop the facility from decaying. The camp should therefore receive the status of a “national memorial” by 2012, in order to receive further funds for the preservation.
Permanent exhibition
The Sandbostel Camp Foundation maintains the "Sandbostel Camp Documentation and Memorial", a permanent exhibition on the former camp site. Among other things, finds from the archaeological excavations from 2003 and 2004, during which thousands of objects and artifacts were recovered, are shown. They provide an insight into the everyday life and living conditions of prisoners of war, military internees and concentration camp inmates. The foundation also offers guided tours of the site.
restoration
In April 2013, two permanent exhibitions on the history of the camp were opened. You are in the "yellow barrack" (time until 1945) and in the "YMCA barrack" (time after 1945). The costs incurred are raised by the federal government, the state of Lower Saxony, the Rotenburg district and two foundations. The total sum of the expenses is 1.4 million euros. In 2009, 900,000 euros were raised for comparable purposes.
“[The project coordinator for the design of the permanent exhibition, Andreas Ehresmann,] opposed a memorial concept that puts the idea of reconstruction in the foreground. ... With reconstruction one would only correspond to the pictures brought with them in the mind of the visitors and take away the credibility of the historical substance. ... Finally, with the presentation of the dilapidated barracks, the decades of neglect and non-observance of the site are documented again and again, [Ehresmann described] the positive side effect and an intended disturbing effect on the visitor. ... It's always about exploring the limits and possibilities in such a historically significant place of hundreds of thousands of suffering and thousands of dying. "
Some of the barracks can no longer be saved, but they are being preserved but not restored
Washroom that was set up in the 1950s for unaccompanied male young refugees from the GDR in the Sandbostel emergency room.
In a barrack made for exhibition purposes, vocational school students indicated that there would be cot sizes for at least two people.
graveyard
A few kilometers from the camp, in the village of Sandbostel , is the camp cemetery with the attached memorial. The Soviet forces erected there after the war a monument with the inscription:
- "46,000 Russian soldiers and officers rest here, tortured to death in Nazi captivity".
In 1956 the memorial was completely blown up without further ado because the German authorities in the Bremervörde district office and the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior considered the death toll of 46,000 too high.
- A former prisoner commented: “Anyone who ascribes a moral force to numbers, insofar as the lower they are, the more relieves the perpetrator of the burden and reduces the gravity of the crime, murders some of the victims a second time by simply questioning their existence as if it never existed ”.
Instead of the destroyed Soviet memorial, three stone steles were erected. Their inscription reads: "Your Sacrifice - Our Obligation - Peace".
Most of the remains of the non-Soviet prisoners of war were transferred to their home countries, those of the Italian soldiers to the Italian war cemetery in Hamburg-Öjendorf , the Italian cemetery of honor for victims of Nazi tyranny at the Öjendorf cemetery . Today there are still around 150 individual graves of Polish, Yugoslav and unknown prisoners of war in the cemetery. In 1949 the entire cemetery area was dug up and leveled. After that, the 53 rows of mass graves of Soviet soldiers above ground were optically combined on a much smaller area to (today 14) "collective graves". So they are not identical to the position of the dead.
In 1956, almost 3,000 concentration camp inmates were transferred from mass graves in the region to the cemetery.
Photo of the former Soviet memorial, where the monument with the stelae is today
Steles on the war cemetery Sandbostel camp cemetery
Hochkreuz at the "Sandbostel Camp Cemetery"
Memorial stone next to the Sandbostel camp church on the edge of the memorial site
Gravestone of the Jew Erich Kleeberg in the Sandbostel camp cemetery
Commemorative plaque for 41 prisoners who perished on the evacuation march from Farge to Sandbostel
Area on which the graves of concentration camp inmates were arranged before the redesign
Another war cemetery with graves from the Sandbostel camp is located near the village of Parnewinkel .
Project "Name Brick"
"In the course of a systematic review of the historical documents it is now possible to symbolically reproduce their names and thus their identity and dignity [thousands of deaths in the Stalag XB Sandbostel who died of hunger, disease and exhaustion and were buried in 70 mass graves]."
Since 2011, young people have been making name bricks for well-known Soviet prisoners during a stay at the Sandbostel Memorial. They are then attached to steles in the former camp cemetery, which were made from concrete by students from the vocational school in Zeven. After completion of the entire project, a circle will have arisen around the explanatory board. All in all, the names of 4690 Soviet prisoners of war are known who are buried at the Sandbostel war cemetery. It can be assumed, however, that significantly more dead people rest in the mass graves in the former camp cemetery.
Others
In 1940/1941 the French detective writer and poet Léo Malet was a prisoner in the main camp X B. After his release, he processed his imprisonment in the detective novel “Hundertzwanzig, rue de la Gare” (French: “Cent vingt , rue de la Gare “). The novel begins in the camp, where his imprisoned as a POW protagonist Nestor Burma with the death of an unknown, under amnesia is confronted suffering fellow prisoners associated with the subsequent criminal case. In the comic version by the draftsman Jacques Tardi , the detailed illustration of camp life takes up more than ten pages.
Camp priest
- Johannes Schulze (1943–1948)
Known prisoners
- Giovannino Guareschi
- Anton de Kom
- Léo Malet
- Hartmann Lauterbacher , NSDAP and SS functionary. Imprisoned after the end of the war in the internment camp of the British Army in Sandbostel
literature
- Werner Borgsen, Klaus Volland: Stalag XB Sandbostel. On the history of a prisoner of war and concentration camp reception camp in Northern Germany 1939–1945. Verlag Edition Temmen, Bremen 1991, ISBN 3-926958-65-0 (4th edition with an appendix. Ibid 2010, ISBN 978-3-926958-65-5 ).
- The Sandbostel prisoner of war camp. A traveling exhibition of the supporting association Documentation and Memorial Sandbostel , 2004 (2nd edition)
- Andreas Ehresmann (Hrsgb.): The Stalag XB Sandbostel, history and post-history of a prisoner of war camp . Catalog of the permanent exhibition, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86218-074-5 .
- Dörthe Engels (Foundation Camp Sandbostel): "Life situations of different groups of prisoners in the prisoner-of-war and concentration camp reception camp Sandbostel - problems in dealing with historical sources" , manuscript for the conference "... and what do we do with the camp now", documentation and memorial Sandbostel e. V. January 13-15, 2012 in Bremervörde ( online version (PDF; 264 kB))
- Andrea Genest (Sandbostel Camp Foundation): “Remember what? - The complex post-war history of the Sandbostel camp " , manuscript of the conference" ... and what do we do with the camp now? ", Documentation and Memorial Sandbostel e. V. January 13-15, 2012 in Bremervörde ( online version (PDF; 303 kB))
- Jens Binner (Stiftung Lager Sandbostel): “Work commands as a topic of local history research”, manuscript of the conference “... and what do we do with the camp now?” , Documentation and Memorial Sandbostel e. V. January 13-15, 2012 in Bremervörde ( online version (PDF; 388 kB))
- “Learning from each other” (PDF; 611 kB), article in the Bremervörder Zeitung of January 21, 2012 about the conference to mark the 20th anniversary of the Sandbostel Documentation and Memorial Association.
- Kurt Ringen: POW and concentration camp reception camp STALAG XB Sandbostel. In: Heimat-Rundblick . History, culture, nature. No. 102, 3/2012 ( autumn 2012 ). Druckerpresse-Verlag , ISSN 2191-4257 , pp. 34-35.
- Kurt Ringen: The end of the war in the Sandbostel camp. In: Heimat-Rundblick. History, culture, nature. No. 103, 4/2012 ( winter 2012 ). Druckerpresse-Verlag, ISSN 2191-4257 , pp. 30-31.
Web links
- Documentation and memorial site website
- Sandbostel concentration camp reception camp at www.kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de
- Working group in search of traces within the Sandbostel Memorial
- The Sandbostel camp, relics, excavations, research
- History of the Sandbostel camp at "Relektiven.com"
- Jochen Bölsche: Cannibals in the Stalag XB one- day article on Spiegel.de from January 15, 2010
- Sarah Mayr: Interviews with survivors of the prisoner-of-war and death camp Stalag XB in Sandbostel
Individual evidence
- ↑ "The Oste - River with a Past", themed excursion October 8, 2006, with many photos from the Sandbostel camp, etc. a. with a picture of the Soviet memorial in the Sandbostel cemetery, which was built in 1945 and blown up in 1956.
- ↑ Andrea Genest, Remember what? - The complex post-war history of the Sandbostel camp, manuscript of the conference “... and what do we do with the camp now?”, Sandbostel January 13-15, 2012.
- ^ What happened after the war, newspaper article in the Zevener Zeitung, January 21, 2012, p. 13.
- ↑ "Chicken farm on concentration camp grounds", in: the daily newspaper May 2, 1980.
- ↑ The memorial does not come to rest - Stiftung Lager Sandbostel presents plans for a historical site and faces some harsh criticism, in Weser-Kurier of January 23, 2012, p. 11.
- ↑ Files of the Reich Chancellery concerning the voluntary labor service
- ^ Svenja von Jan: Civilian prisoners of South Asia in Germany during World War II in German archives . In: MIDA Archival Reflexicon . 2019, p. 1–2 ( projekt-mida.de ).
- ↑ Frank Schumann : No shield, no arrow. Looking for Soviet war graves in Germany. ; In: Neues Deutschland 9./10. May 2020, The Week p. 16
- ↑ Camp Church Sandbostel as a branch of the St. Lamberti parish Selsingen ( Memento from September 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Information according to the information board "Prisoners of War in the Teufelsmoor until 1941" in the Sandbostel Memorial ("Yellow Barrack") 2013.
- ↑ a b Andreas Ehresmann (ed.): The Stalag XB Sandbostel history and post-history of a prisoner of war camp . Dölling and Galitz Verlag, Munich / Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-86218-074-5 , pp. 52 .
- ↑ Information board "Life in the camp" in the memorial ("Yellow Barrack") 2013.
- ↑ Andreas Ehresmann (ed.): The Stalag XB Sandbostel history and post-history of a prisoner of war camp . Dölling and Galitz Verlag, Munich / Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-86218-074-5 , pp. 51 .
- ↑ Andreas Ehresmann: The Stalag XB Sandbostel history and post-history of a prisoner of war camp . Dölling and Galitz Verlag, Munich / Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-86218-074-5 , pp. 62-67 .
- ^ Agreement on the Treatment of Prisoners of War of July 27, 1929.
- ↑ The Soviet prisoners were treated "as subhumans" and were excluded from the help of the Red Cross and other organizations. The Wehrmacht High Command justified this with the fact that the Soviet Union had not ratified the Geneva Conventions on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. (Dörthe Engels, Camp Sandbostel Foundation, in the lecture “Life situations of different groups of prisoners in the prisoner-of-war and concentration camp reception camp Sandbostel”, “... and what are we going to do with the camp” - Foundation meeting from January 13-15, 2012 in Bremervörde, manuscript p. 2)
- ↑ Information board "Medical Care" in the memorial ("Yellow Barrack") 2013.
- ↑ In 2016, this part of the former prisoner of war camp was acquired by the Sandbostel Camp Foundation and added to the site of the memorial. The work to preserve the mural of the former French camp chapel is still ongoing.
- ↑ Information about the deployment in the Teufelsmoor according to the information board "Prisoners of war in the Teufelsmoor after 1941" in the Sandbostel Memorial ("Yellow Barrack") 2013.
- ↑ On the hunger revolt, see Andreas Ehresmann: Das Stalag XB Sandbostel , 2015, ISBN 978-3-86218-074-5 , p. 190
- ↑ Information on the liberation according to the information boards "Liberation and Life after the War" and "Liberation of the Sandbostel Camp" in the Sandbostel Memorial ("Yellow Barrack") 2013.
- ↑ support the Foundation Sandbostel include Land Niedersachsen , Rotenburg (Wümme) , joint community Selsingen , community Sandbostel , St. Lamberti church Selsingen, documentation and memorial Sandbostel eV, Pro Europa eV, history buffs Sandbostel eV and German War Graves Commission eV
- ↑ Aerial photo of the area on which the STALAG XB formerly stood.
- ^ Osterholzer Kreisblatt of October 18, 2008.
- ↑ Online version of the information flyer from the Sandbostel Documentation and Memorial Site ( Memento from June 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 138 kB)
- ^ Prison camp is being restored - in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of December 29, 2009.
- ↑ Andreas Ehresman (ed.): The Stalag XB Sandbostel history and post-history of a prisoner of war camp . Dölling and Galitz Verlag, Munich / Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-86218-074-5 , pp. 318-337; 387 .
- ^ Photo of the Soviet memorial on the website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge
- ↑ Nina Schulz, Guide to the Past (In 2008, the freelance journalist dealt with the commemoration of the STALAG XB in the region around the town of Sandbostel.)
- ↑ Aranka Szabo, Giving the Nameless a Name, Bremervörder Anzeiger of July 13, 2011 ( Memento of the original of January 10, 2012 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.
- ↑ "We write your names", project of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge in connection with the AG Bergen-Belsen.
- ↑ Name brick project. In: www.stiftung-lager-sandbostel.de. Sandbostel Camp Foundation, accessed on August 13, 2020 .
Coordinates: 53 ° 23 '58.7 " N , 9 ° 6' 35.3" E