Concentration Camp Prisoner's Uniforms

[Dom]

I believe that some KL inmates wore the clothes they arrived in and had a patch of the striped uniform stitched over the back rather than wearing a complete inmate uniform?

Yes very common in Mauthausen

A very interesting thread

[StefanM]

Does anyone actually have one of these striped inmate uniforms in their collection?

[CARL]

Thank you for your kind words gents, it is appreciated.

Today marks the 68th anniversary of the liberation of KL-Gross-Rosen by Soviet forces.

Regards,

Carl

[cart]

Thanks Carl, very instructive. Interesting thread about the most painful part of the war.

[StefanM]

After a bit of digging through my photo archive and I have found 3 images of a group of German prisoners wearing dark uniforms and hats and are also wearing armbands. I am assuming they are German criminals in standard issue prison uniform?

A very ominous and imposing building that's for sure!



Below: Any ideas on what the "BD" shield badge (in the close-up section) might represent?

[Wagriff]

Tough Question! Buchenwald Dora? Or one of the other 9 Buchenwald "D" named sub-camps,maybe? Buchenwald had 174 sub-camps and external kommandos, from what the one source says.

[StefanM]

I just found online a similar building style Konzentrationslager Fuhlsbüttel, Hamburg. So the photos could also be the same KL.

"Beginning July 1933, the Hamburg Staatspolizei (»state police«, the political police of Hamburg) incarcerated about 2,000 opponents of the National Socialist regime in the derelict buildings of the Fuhlsbüttel prison. On September 4, 1933, the prison was officially opened as the »Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp«, making it one of the first concentration camps in the German Reich. Most of the prisoners at Fuhlsbüttel were political opponents of the regime, members of the communist or the socialist party or trade unionists. From the autumn of 1933 on, the Staatspolizei also imprisoned people deemed »asocial« or »volksschädlich (harmful to the nation)«, such as petty criminals, pimps, homosexuals or transvestites. Jews and Jehovah's Witnesses were also incarcerated here by the state police. In 1934, a women's ward was set up. The prisoners at Fuhlsbüttel were regularly abused by the guards and many died as a result. Some of the prisoners were deployed as forced labourers in the construction work of the Fuhlsbüttel airport. From 1936 on, the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp was renamed »Polizeigefängnis (Police prison)«, however, the conditions for the prisoners didn't change. It continued to be administered by the Gestapo and remained in existence until 1945. On October 25, 1944, the SS additionally set up a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp in a part of the Fuhlsbüttel prison building."

From the two attached photos Fuhlsbüttel prison was a very large complex.

[StefanM]

Update

Prison identified:





The prison known in the vernacular as "Roter Ochse" (»Red Ox«) was opened in 1842. After the National Socialists' rise to power, it was first and foremost used to incarcerate people who were persecuted on political, racial and religious grounds. In the first few months of 1933, the SA and the police arrested people and held them in »protective custody« for long time periods, without pressing charges, with no documentary evidence or legal counsel. Extraordinary law enactment and emergency decrees led to mass arrests of political opponents. The prison facilities were extended between 1933 and 1938, from a capacity of 500 to 790 prisoners. From 1942 on, the National Socialist judiciary also carried out death sentences at the »Roter Ochse« prison. In April 1945, the prison inmates were liberated as the US Army took Halle.

In July 1945, Thuringia became part of the Soviet occupation zone, and the Soviet secret police NKVD took over the »Roter Ochse«. The prison then served as a detention centre in which Soviet military tribunals were held. From August 1945 on, the Soviets incarcerated war criminals and former NSDAP functionaries at the prison, but also increasingly opponents of the new Soviet-led regime. The Soviet military justice, whose legal proceedings were not in accordance with the rule of law, pronounced at least 1,600 sentences, including over 100 death sentences.

In 1950, the year following the East German state's foundation, the GDR Ministry for State Security (Stasi) took over parts of the detention centre. Until 1989, the ministry held a total of about 9,600 suspects at the »Roter Ochse« – opponents and supposed opponents of the East German regime. In December 1989, the detention centre was shut down following the peaceful revolution in the GDR.

[Wagriff]

Red Ox? Interesting. So, what was it's official name and how did the "B-D" on the wall tie in with it then?

[StefanM]

Another view of the prison today:



Below: Aerial view of the prison JVA Halle II and III, also known as the Roter Ochse prison (Red Ox).

Not sure what the "BD" emblem might represent but will contact the museum and ask if they know and to offer them the photos now I know where the prison is

Memorial RED OX Halle/Saale, Prison, PART 1 - Gedenkstätte ROTER OCHSE, Gefängnis, TEIL1 - YouTube