Neuengamme concentration camp, then and now

[António Fragoeiro]

Hi, this a period photo, showing ss guards near the garage at Neuengamme concentration camp.

[António Fragoeiro]

The garage in 2011 when i visited the camp.

[António Fragoeiro]

The camp entrance.

[António Fragoeiro]

This is the building on the right.

[Woolgar]

Good T&N pics, quite eerie ! How many inmates did it have?



Nick

[António Fragoeiro]

Good T&N pics, quite eerie ! How many inmates did it have?



Nick

By 1944, the main camp area had about 12000 inmates.
However the camp had 70 satellite camps with twice that number of inmates.
By 1945 the total death toll was about 55000.

[António Fragoeiro]

The fence area.

[António Fragoeiro]

The brick watch tower is the second one on the photo shown above.

[CARL]

Some fine then and now images Nuno, thank you for sharing these with us.

A few interesting facts regarding KL Neuengamme...

Due to the destruction of the camp and documents by the SS, the site has undergone many years of historical research, as many facts are not confirmed. Several years ago, the camp museum organisation, KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme, stated that Brirish forces arrived to find an empty camp on 2nd May 1945, with the last inmates being liberated some eight days later in Flensburg. Yet the USHMM (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), states that KL-Neuengamme was liberated on the 4th May. Further confusion also surrounds the opening of the camp, with German authorities stating that the camp opened during the autumn of 1938, months before the USHMM believe. Initially, the camp was a sub-camp of Sachsenhausen.

As with many other KZs, Neuengamme was constructed with a view toward supplying the manpower for work related to the DEST (German Earth and Stoneworks Company), and the production of building materials.

Conditions were patently poor, with low rations, ill treatment and an absence of even basic medical care. A typhus epidemic claimed the lives of over 1,000 prisoners starting December 1941.

Crude bunkers, located in the prison area, were used at KL-Neuengamme as provisional gas chambers. In September 1942, nearly 200 Soviet POWs from a camp near KL-Bergen-Belsen were murdered in the bunker. The mass murder was not hidden by the camp staff, as the prisoners were ordered to undress during evening roll call due to the dangers of an epidemic in the camp. The whole action took place before the prisoners standing in the roll call area were allowed to leave. Two months later, a second gassing took place. This time, disabled prisoners, also from near Bergen-Belsen, were the victims. Those with prosthetic limbs were ordered to remove them, and were actually carried to their deaths by fellow prisoners. Wilhelm Bahr, a medical orderly at KL-Neuengamme, later, whilst on trial, described in great detail how the mass murders took place.

KZ-Neuengamme had no permanent female staff, yet it was frequently used as a training base for SS-Aufseherinen. Albert Pierrepoint's noose claimed the lives of several former Neuengamme staff after the war, including SS doctors Bruno Kitt and Alfred Trzebinski, who was executed for crimes during his service at one of the many subcamps. In order, those holding the position of Lagerfuhrer were Walter Eisfeld, then Martin Gottfried Weiss held the title for over two years and was later executed in May 1946. Finally, Max Pauly, previously of Stutthof, took over as Kommandant, holding the position until liberation. Pauly too was later executed. Under Pauly, the SS doctors experimented on many prisoners, including a group of children transfered from KL-Auschwitz and used for testing tuberculosis treatments. A nearby Hamburg school, used as a subcamp of Neuengamme was the location were the SS murdered the children, who were killed by being hanged from hooks on the wall just a few weeks before the end of the war.

Around one third of all victims died during the last few days of the camp's existence or during the evacuations of KL-Neuengamme. Thirty percent of all inmates were from the Soviet Union, with Poles, French, Dutch and Germans making up another 45,000 of the contingent. During the final stages of the war, there were three times as many prisoners held in the sub camps compared to those still interned at the main camp. In early May, the SS loaded approximately ten thousand prisoners aboard three ships anchored in the Baltic Sea, thousands of whom had been held at Neuengamme and its sub camps. Many thousands died during a raid in which two of the ships sank, leaving only several hundred survivors.

Approximately 80 sub-camps came under the administration of KL-Neuengamme, holding between a few individuals to a few thousand prisoners. The Alderney concentration camps, namely Borkum, Norderney, Helgoland and Sylt, held around 6,000 prisoners and were also among the Neuengamme sub camps. Organisation Todt exploited the prisoners, who were forced to build various bunkers and fortifications around the islands. SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Max List later took control of Lager Sylt, which held Jews and Norderney, which was utilised as a camp for Polish and Soviet POWs. During his reign, many hundreds of prisoners were killed at these two camps.

At war's end, displaced Russians and German POWs were held at the site, before the British utilised it as a holding camp for former SS staff and Nazi officials.

Regards,

Carl

[Gunny Hartmann]

Thank you for sharing, great photos and info!...