Walther works

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Overview map 1945

The metal works Neuengamme , a company of the Carl Walther weapons factory, built in the German Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg-Neuengamme during the Second World War are called Walther-Werke . The Carl Walther weapons factory from Zella-Mehlis had pistols and rifles manufactured here. The slave laborers employed here were prisoners of the concentration camp.

German equipment factories

Locksmith of the Walther factory

The workshops of the German Equipment Works , an SS company that exploited the prisoners in the concentration camps, were located on the same site .

The DAW workshops in Neuengamme were set up in 1943. Nothing is left of the barracks. Around 350 prisoners worked in the joinery , locksmith's and blacksmith's shop. They manufactured equipment for SS troops and delivered it to other armaments factories. The plant had its own rail connection.

Braiding command

Around 1,000 “ Muselmänner ”, the old, the weak and the sick, were grouped together in the weaving command. a. braided from waste materials. They were driven with blows to produce as much as possible.

Processing of shoes

A commando had the task of disposing of the shoes of those murdered in the extermination camps, which had been brought in by car.

When the British reached the camp in 1945, they initially believed that Neuengamme had been an extermination camp.

The hammer mill

In 1944/1945 the SS and Metallwerke Neuengamme built the hammer mill on the grounds of the Walther-Werke. The hammer mill with forge and hardening shop was never put into operation.

After 1945

After the war, parts of the Walther works were converted into workshops for the local companies. Except for the old thermal power station, the remaining unused buildings were demolished and the facilities disposed of.

Hammer mill in April 2006

The hammer mill was acquired by a Hamburg theater and used to store the props. When the city handed over the site to the memorial, it was agreed that further use would be possible subject to maintenance.

The "Walther-Werke" in the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial

In 1995 a permanent exhibition on the history of the Neuengamme concentration camp was set up in the premises of the Walther-Werke.

After the exhibition moved to the former main camp building in 2006, the Walther premises were empty.

In the summer of 2006, work began on new exhibitions at the plant. The former museum currently houses an old rebuilt barrack that was found a few years ago. An exhibition on forced labor is being created in a branch of the plant .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.zella-mehlis-geschichte.de/?Willkommen/Geschichte-der-oertlichen-Waffenproduktion/Carl-Walther-Waffenfabrik
  2. ↑ http://neuengamme-ausstellungen.info/media/ngmedia/browse/5/18
  3. ↑ Labor and Destruction. The Neuengamme concentration camp 1938–1945. Catalog for the permanent exhibition in the document house of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial. Ed .: Ulrich Bauche , Heinz Brüdigam , Ludwig Eiber and Wolfgang Wiedey, 2nd revised edition, Hamburg 1991
  4. ^ Kaienburg, Hermann : Destruction through work . The Neuengamme case. The economic endeavors of the SS and their effects on the living conditions of concentration camp prisoners, Bonn 1990.
  5. ↑ https://books.google.de/books?id=zqzWBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA479&lpg=PA479&dq=Hammerwerk+KZ+Neuengamme&source=bl&ots=pcEoDt2kMn&sig=ACfU3U0K0AwD1ZobZ3_hR9e6YoB1yjO5Zg&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjjqcSfoIjmAhVs5aYKHcAdD6Q4ChDoATACegQICBAB#v=onepage&q=Hammerwerk%20KZ%20Neuengamme&f=false
  6. ↑ https://www.kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de/geschichte/gedenkstaette/

Coordinates: 53 ° 25 ′ 33.3 "  N , 10 ° 13 ′ 51.2"  E