Holzen prison camp

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The Holzen prison camp was a labor camp consisting of six stone barracks and several functional buildings from August 1944 to April 1945 . It was located in a meadow on the Greitberg near Holzen in what is now Lower Saxony . The camp was occupied by around 500 prison inmates who had to do forced labor for the underground armaments complex that was being built in Hils . When the US troops approached, the prisoners were transported away by train. The buildings of the camp continued to be used as a children's home after the Second World War and were demolished around the 1970s.

Function of the camp and prisoners

The camp was located on a meadow on the Greitberg about two kilometers northeast of Holzen. On August 1, 1944, it was occupied with around 500 German, French, Belgian, Dutch and Austrian prisoners who had been imprisoned in the Hameln and Celle prisons for criminal or political acts. The prison camp consisted of six stone barracks, an administration building, the kitchen and the living barracks used by the Hameln prison officials as guards. The camp was secured with an electric fence. Initially, the Holzen subcamp was within sight as a tent camp with 250 prisoners and a hut camp for Italian military internees who could move around freely. The exact tasks of the prison camp are no longer known, but they are likely to have been similar to those of the subcamp with the construction of roads and railways in the forest.

Eviction of the camp

When American troops approached, the camp was evacuated on April 3, 1945. 426 prisoners were taken away by train to be imprisoned in a penitentiary . The journey first led to Halle , whose prison was overcrowded. After waiting for two days, the train continued its journey to Coswig , where the prisoners spent three days in a building. On April 9, the prisoners marched to Wittenberg on the Elbe and, after an overnight stay, 50 km further to a train station, from which they drove in cattle wagons to Bad Liebenwerda . There the transport spent two days in police headquarters. Then the train continued to Bützow and after a march the prisoners arrived on April 13th in the overcrowded Dreibergen prison . On May 3, 1945, 228 prisoners from the transport were liberated by Soviet troops. The number of victims on the transport is not known, as some prisoners fled or remained ill. The number of deceased is estimated at over 100 people.

A few days after the evacuation of the camp on April 3, 1945, there was a relocation by prisoners from the Hameln prison. They came on a death march after the evacuation of the Hameln prison due to the bombardment of the city. On April 7, American troops liberated the prisoners.

post war period

After the war, the buildings of the former camp and other barracks in the area were inhabited by displaced Baltic Germans from Latvia until 1947 . In 1949 there were almost 30 buildings in the complex. In 1952 the Inner Mission from Hildesheim took over the facility and used it initially to accommodate young refugees from the GDR, as a women's shelter and from 1955 as a children's home . In 1972 it was abandoned. The buildings were later demolished. The foundations are still partially preserved and overgrown by forest.

literature

  • Detlef Creydt, August Meyer: Hameln / Celle prison, Holzen branch in: Forced labor for the wonder weapons in southern Lower Saxony 1943–1945. Steinweg Verlag, Braunschweig 1993, ISBN 3-925 151-57-5 Volume 1, pp. 148-151.
  • Detlef Creydt (Hrsg.): Zuchthaus Holzen in: Forced labor for industry and armament in Hils 1943-1945. Verlag Jörg Mitzkat , Holzminden 2001, ISBN 3-931656-37-3 Volume 4, pp. 146–156.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bernhard Gelderblom: Murder Order and Death March. The Hamelin prison in 1944 and 1945

Coordinates: 51 ° 56 ′ 15 ″  N , 9 ° 41 ′ 20 ″  E