Forced labor camp at the Zeche Lorraine
The forced labor camps of the coal mine Lorraine was in the early 1940s in the Bochum district Gerthe as a warehouse to house forced laborers built. The barracks of the camp were built near Shaft III, the address is Handwerkenstrasse 10 c and 12.
It is one of more than 100 forced labor camps in Bochum city area alone . The ensemble, which is still largely preserved today, is one of the few remaining camps in Germany.
investment
The camp was located in the northeastern part of Gerthe, not far from the city limits of Castrop-Rauxel and Dortmund . It is on the edge of the Dieselstraße industrial area.
Of the former eleven barracks, nine buildings are still preserved today. They are grouped around the brick buildings in front of the warehouse, which were previously used as an electrical center and laundry room. All barracks are single-story and have a gable roof .
Today, the buildings are used as apartments by residents of the “Preserve through life” association. In the former electrical center there is now a small museum about the history of the camp.
The structure of the camp has largely been preserved and, despite various modifications, is still easily recognizable. This makes it one of the few known surviving camps in Germany, along with the Bergener Straße forced labor camp in Bochum, the relics of the camp in Waltrop , the Neuaubing forced labor camp in Munich and the Nazi forced labor documentation center in Berlin-Niederschöneweide.
history
In order to counteract the shortage of miners in the workforce thinned by the war, advertising campaigns were first held in the occupied countries. Since 1942 there has been massive use of Soviet prisoners of war, most of whom had to work in the mines under inhumane conditions. In some cases, the forced laborers made up 40% of the workforce. Barrack camps were the standard for housing the slave laborers.
During the Second World War, more than a hundred camps for prisoners of war and forced laborers who were forced to work in the coal and steel industry were built in the Bochum city area . People were often abducted for mining purposes from Ukraine's coalfield, the Donets Basin .
Four camps were built at the Lorraine colliery , the camp of shaft III was built between 1940 and 1941. In the summer of 1943, 100 "Eastern workers" and 300 Soviet prisoners of war were housed in the camp. Like many camps, this also served as emergency shelter for bombed-out and recruited miners after the war. When the colliery was closed in 1966, the barracks, which had been converted into apartments, served as accommodation for guest workers from Turkey, Italy and Greece.
A student housing project began in 1983 to use and convert the facility without knowing the history of the camp. The complex finally escaped the threat of demolition in August 2005 by being entered in the list of monuments.
Trivia
The 1957 episode " Stahlnetz 05 - das Zwölfte Messer" takes place in a fictional Bochum suburb of "Lohsheim", including a "Barracks Camp Kalmückenstrasse" of the "Zeche Roland III". This similarity, together with various information mentioned in the film (agriculture in the immediate vicinity, proximity to Dortmund) suggest Gerthe as a role model.
literature
- Foreign impulses - architectural monuments in the Ruhr area Markus Harzenetter, Walter Hauser, Udo Mainzer, Dirk Zache (eds.), 288 pp., 1st edition, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-8157-1271-9
Web links
- Homepage of the association Preservation through revitalization e. V. (under construction)
- Youtube channel of the association
- Preservation through revitalization ( Memento from January 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- Entry in the list of monuments of the city of Bochum
Individual evidence
- ↑ Foreign impulses - architectural monuments in the Ruhr area , page 173
Coordinates: 51 ° 31 '26 " N , 7 ° 17' 48.9" E