trier germany concentration camp

Media related to Hinzert concentration camp at Wikimedia Commons, SS officers at a construction site in the Hinzert concentration camp, Fondation pour la Mmoire de la Dportation, German occupation of Luxembourg in World War II, "Night and Fog Prisoners or Lost in the Night and Fog or the Unknown Prisoners", "Hinzert: rapatriement des morts luxembourgeois en 1946", "European Killing & Atrocity Centers:Hinzert", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hinzert_concentration_camp&oldid=1154852268. [99], The liberation of the camps documented by the Western Allies in 1945 has played a prominent part in perception of the camp system as a whole. an infirmary run by an SS physician assisted by one or two SS sanitation officers and/or medical orderlies. The war did not change the original function of the concentration camps as detention sites for the incarceration of political enemies. Despite the need for forced labor, the SS authorities continued to deliberately undernourish and mistreat prisoners incarcerated in the concentration camps. and as asocials in German society increased, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, Concentration Camps, 193339 - Photograph, Raoul Wallenberg and the Rescue of Jews in Budapest, The Kielce Pogrom: A Blood Libel Massacre of Holocaust Survivors, The July 20, 1944, Plot to Assassinate Adolf Hitler. [57] SS leaders typically lived with their wives and children near the camps where they worked, often engaging prisoners for domestic labor. [8] In postwar Germany, "unwanted foreigners" mainly Eastern European Jews were warehoused at Cottbus-Sielow and Stargard. Despite its being "only" a transit camp, 321 prisoners were killed at Hinzert. extermination camp, German Vernichtungslager, Nazi German concentration camp that specialized in the mass annihilation ( Vernichtung) of unwanted persons in the Third Reich and conquered territories. Hinzert Concentration Camp did not get official recognition as a memorial until 1986. [50], A minority of prisoners obtained substantially better treatment than the rest because they were prisoner functionaries (mostly Germans) or skilled laborers. The term arose early during World War II and refers to the idea of two "imperialist camps" competing to dominate the world: one led by the United Kingdom and France and supported by . 01 of 03 From Political Prisons to Concentration Camps Nazi concentration and death camps in Eastern Europe. Camp capo Eugen Wipf was arrested in Switzerland in 1947 and sentenced to life in prison, but died in prison in 1948. 39,585 Concentration Camp Stock Photos & High-Res Pictures [51] Despite changes in the structure, the IKL remained directly responsible to Himmler. Home - Tourist-Information Trier At the same time, 100,000 people were imprisoned in German jails, a quarter of those for political offenses. [13][12] The early camps in 19331934 were heterogeneous and fundamentally differed from the post-1935 camps in organization, conditions, and the groups imprisoned. [14] Many prisoners were released in late 1933, and after a Christmas amnesty, there were only a few dozen camps left. Deaths from disease and malnutrition increased, outpacing other causes of death. Moving southward into Bavaria, the 10th took the town of Oberammergau and had reached Innsbruck, Austria, when the war ended. After Nazi Germany unleashed World War II in September 1939, vast new territorial conquests and larger groups of potential prisoners led to the rapid expansion of the concentration camp system to the east. By the time the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939, unleashing World War II, there were six concentration camps in the so-called Greater German Reich: Dachau (founded 1933), Sachsenhausen (1936), Buchenwald (1937), Flossenbrg in northeastern Bavaria near the 1937 Czech border (1938), Mauthausen, near Linz, Austria (1938), and Ravensbrck, the women's camp, established in Brandenburg Province, southeast of Berlin (1939), after the dissolution of Lichtenburg. [93], The camps were concentrated in prewar Germany and to a lesser extent territory annexed to Germany. Using a "dual strategy of publicity and secrecy", the regime directed terror both at the direct victim as well as the entire society in order to eliminate its opponents and deter resistance. The camps' victims were mostly Jews but also included Roma (Gypsies), Slavs, homosexuals, alleged mental defectives, and others. Initially, most prisoners were members of the Communist Party of Germany, but as time went on different groups were arrested, including "habitual criminals", "asocials", and Jews. He was replaced by the third and last commander of Hinzert, SS Hauptsturmfhrer Paul Sporrenberg.[8]. Those not repatriated were buried on site in a memorial cemetery. The first forced labour assignment for Gould and Hassall was in the Steinkommando, breaking up large boulders into smaller pieces with sledgehammers and chisels, then piling the pieces onto a sledge and carrying them by hand. However, the food provided was usually sufficient to sustain life. This last category was held exclusively at Hinzert after the occupation of France, and the purpose was strict reeducation including punishment by severe labor or in the case they were qualified for military service to be recruited for the Afrika Korps. (Browning et.al, 2009, p.826). However, it burnt down on August 16, 1939, and was rebuilt in October 1939 as a police detention and re-education camp, or Polizeihaft- und Erziehungslager des Reichsarbeitsdienstes (RAD), for prisoners condemned to light sentences (under 14 days) and for those workers that had demonstrated what the Nazi regime would call antisocial behavior. [37][73] After the failure to take Moscow in late 1941, the demand for armaments increased. In January 1945, the Third Reich stood on the verge of military defeat. He was eventually released from prison, and died in 1974. Hinzert camp commandant and SS-Hauptsturmfhrer Paul Sporrenberg went into hiding after the war. [45][46] Along with the new main camps, many satellite camps were set up to more effectively leverage prisoner labor for the war effort. [91], There were 27 main camps and, according to historian Nikolaus Wachsmann's estimate, more than 1,100 satellite camps. [77], Arrests of Germans in 1933 were often accompanied by public humiliation or beatings. Home / Prisons / Hinzert Concentration Camp. Following the 1934 purge of the SA, the concentration camps were run exclusively by the SS via the Concentration Camps Inspectorate and later the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Channel Islander and Hinzert prisoner Peter Hassall personally witnessed German passersby stopping to watch the maltreatment of prisoners by the SS, all staring and seemingly pleased with the show going on inside. [1] The climate in the region was known to be especially raw and wet in winter and forcing the prisoners to stand unclothed in the cold was typical of the SS brutality in the camp. September 30, 2021 at 10:26 a.m. EDT. [105] Many survivors testified about their experiences or wrote memoirs after the war. All along the way, citizens lined the roads, some wearing the striped uniform of camp prisoners, to pay tribute. Prisoners were deported from throughout Nazi-occupied Europe for this purpose. [8] Shortly afterwards, the camp was used to host forced laborers from occupied countries. About 4,200 were sent to concentration camps, where they were identified by a purple triangular badge attached to their camp . [17] He also created a system of prisoner functionaries, which later developed into the camp elders, block elders, and kapo of later camps. Their first meal was a thin, unheated soup consisting of small bits of turnips, potatoes, and no meat. It was later used as a model for an expanded and centralized concentration camp system managed by the SS. The first was the camp staff, which covered: The second group constituted the guard detachment (SS-Wachbataillon), which prior to 1939 was at battalion strength. CNN . [24] The mass arrests were partly motivated by economic factors. The Nazi concentration camps are more usually, and more accurately described as Death Camps. and. Zill, who had previously served in the Dachau, Buchenwald and Ravensbrck concentration camps, was transferred to the Natzweiler concentration camp in Alsace in April 1942 as the camp's Deputy Commandant. [2][3] Most of the fatalities occurred during the second half of World War II, including at least a third of the 700,000 prisoners who were registered as of January 1945. 824-828. Most Hinzert prisoners had been transported there by train and force marched two miles to the camp from the train station in Reinsfeld. Himmler won Hitler's backing and was appointed Chief of German Police on 17 June 1936. which lies in the Moselle wine region along the banks of the Moselle River, is the oldest city in Germany. Hinzert remained mainly autonomous until November 21, 1944, when it was administratively linked to the Buchenwald concentration camp. The SS barracks were separate from the camp. Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections. Rage University. In just over four-and-a-half years, Nazi Germany systematically murdered at least 1.1 million people at Auschwitz. Peter Hassall was 16 years old and Maurice Gould had turned 18 two weeks earlier. Do. 11, 1/96, pp. After a major fire, the barracks were built anew in August 1939. The daily routine at Dachau, the methods of punishment, and the duties of the SS staff and guards became the norm, with some variation, at all German concentration camps. Hitler then authorized SS leader Heinrich Himmler to centralize the administration of the concentration camps and formalize them into a system. In August 1943, 74,000 of the 224,000 registered prisoners in all SS concentration camps were in Auschwitz. [61] During the height of the Holocaust from 1941 to 1943, the Jewish population of the concentration camps was low. Trier Tourism: Tripadvisor has 46,796 reviews of Trier Hotels, Attractions, and Restaurants making it your best Trier resource. 1997. https://web.archive.org/web/20170717110244/http://rageuniversity.org/PRISONESCAPE/TRUE%20PRISON%20ESCAPES/CHANNEL%20ISLAND%20POW.pdf, Wiesel, Elie, Doris L. Bergen, Christopher R. Browning, David Engel, Willard A. Fletcher, Peter Hayes, Michael R. Marrus, and Nechama Tec. [64] Historian Adam Tooze counts the number of survivors at no more than 475,000, calculating that at least 1.1 million of the registered prisoners must have died. [62][63] The existing IKL camps Auschwitz and Majdanek gained additional function as extermination camps. An increasing number of German civilians interacted with the camps: entrepreneurs and landowners provided land or services, doctors decided which prisoners were healthy enough to continue working, foremen oversaw labor deployments, and administrators helped with logistics. Extermination camp | History & Facts | Britannica We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. The camp was partially destroyed by an air raid on February 22, 1945, but remained in operation until March 3 of the same year when many of the surviving prisoners were sent on a death march to upper Hessen,[6] others having been transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp. The breakfast the next day was three wafer-thin slices of black bread with a white, synthetic margarine the only daily ration of bread and thin ersatz coffee made from acorns. Gould was assigned number 4372 and Hassall number 4374 and they were initially assigned quarters in Room 5 of the quarantine section of the camp. After the beginning of World War II, people from German-occupied Europe were imprisoned in the concentration camps. [46], At their peak in 1945, concentration camp prisoners made up 3 per cent of workers in Germany. Another particularly heavy forced labour task was the Kohlenkommando or coal commando, in which the prisoners, wearing their ill-fitted wooden clogs, had to make four 5-mile return trips pulling a heavy wooden farm cart by hand, filling the cart with hundreds of kilogrammes of coal, and unloading it at the camp. [50] After the expansion of Nazi Germany, people from countries occupied by the Wehrmacht were targeted and detained in concentration camps. [74] In September 1942, Himmler and Speer agreed to use prisoners in armaments production and to repair damage from Allied bombing. The SS established larger camps in Oranienburg, north of Berlin; Esterwegen, near Hamburg; Dachau, northwest of Munich; and Lichtenburg, in Saxony. Just west of the village lies the former concentration camp Hinzert References [ edit] ^ Direktwahlen 2019, Landkreis Trier-Saarburg, Landeswahlleiter Rheinland-Pfalz, accessed 2 August 2021. "Concentration camp" is a term that predates both Hitler and Communism. This area was decorated with floral and garden arrangements. [9], On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany after striking a backroom deal with the previous chancellor, Franz von Papen. [50] Significant numbers of Jews were imprisoned beginning in November 1938 because of Kristallnacht, after which they were always overrepresented as prisoners. What distinguishes a concentration camp from a prison (in the modern sense) is that it functions outside of a judicial system. TTY: 202.488.0406. It is perhaps one of the most detailed eyewitness accounts of Hinzert Concentration Camp ever written, and certainly the only one to have been written in English. The SS gained its independence from the SA in July 1934, in the wake of the Rhm purge. The Reichstag Fire Decree eliminated the right to personal freedom enshrined in the Weimar Constitution and provided a legal basis for detention without trial. Situated near Munich, Dachau became a . The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Trier, Germany 2023: Best Places to Visit - Tripadvisor Our hosts in Trier and the region. Visiting / Auschwitz-Birkenau "Romika" and "Black" Kommandos worked in the camp workshops and produced rubber items and armament equipment from 1942 onwards. Three prisoners were shot by the SS when they were too weak to continue. [18] In May 1934, Lichtenburg was taken over by the SS from the Prussian bureaucracy, marking the beginning of a transition set in motion by Heinrich Himmler, then chief of the Gestapo (secret police). They soon learned that daily gauntlet run beatings, random thrashings and constant sadistic harassment on the part of the SS guards and collaborator prisoner capos were a standard feature of Hinzert. [34][35] The first satellite camps were also established, administratively subordinated to one of the main camps. The state court in Mannheim sentenced Georg Schaaf to 10 years prison and he later committed suicide. Nacht und Nebel or Night and Fog (NN) prisoners were part of a secret hostage program devised by the Nazis as a means of controlling potential resistance in occupied territory. [65] Despite many deaths, as many as 200,000 Jews survived the war inside the camp system. They also wore the Death's-Head symbol on their lapel. Holocaust Map of Concentration and Death Camps - ThoughtCo Hinzert was founded in 1938, but in 1939 it burned down and was rebuilt. C. H. Beck, 2007, pp. 4,783 Nazi Concentration Camps Stock Photos & High-Res Pictures [101][102] Nazi concentration camps Nazi concentration camps Prisoners hauling earth for the construction of the "Russian camp" at Mauthausen Main camps Arbeitsdorf Auschwitz Bergen-Belsen Buchenwald Dachau Flossenbrg Gross-Rosen Herzogenbusch Hinzert Kaiserwald Kauen Krakw-Paszw Majdanek Mauthausen - Gusen Mittelbau-Dora Natzweiler-Struthof Neuengamme [26], To house the new prisoners, three new camps were established: Flossenbrg (May 1938) near the Czechoslovak border, Mauthausen (August 1938) in territory annexed from Austria, and Ravensbrck (May 1939) the first purpose-built camp for female prisoners. Beginning in 1941, large groups of prisoners were sent to Hinzert, mainly political prisoners from Luxembourg and France. Hinzert Concentration Camp incarcerated at least 13,600 total prisoners between September 1939 and March 1945, with an average at 800 prisoners at any given time. Flossenbrg | Nazi, Holocaust, Prisoners | Britannica They were buried in the neighboring forest. Located near the town of Oswiecim in southern Poland, Auschwitz was actually three camps in one: a prison camp, an extermination camp, and a slave-labor camp. Europe. The first concentration camps in Germany were established soon after Hitler's appointment as chancellor in January 1933. Channel Islanders Maurice Gould and Peter Hassall, both NN prisoners, arrived in Hinzert from Fresnes Prison (near Paris) on 13 June 1942. German authorities established camps all over Germany on an ad hoc basis to handle the masses of people arrested as alleged subversives. Map of Nazi Camps in Occupied Europe - Jewish Virtual Library
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