Jägala concentration camp was a

labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...

of the Estonian Security Police and SD during the

German occupation of Estonia during World War II During World War II, in the course of Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany invaded Estonia in July–December 1941, and occupied the country until 1944. Estonia had gained independence in 1918 from the then warring German and Russian Empires. How ...

. The camp was established in August 1942 on a former artillery range of the

Estonian Army The Estonian Land Forces ( et, Maavägi), unofficially referred to as the Estonian Army, is the name of the unified ground forces among the Estonian Defense Forces where it has an offensive military formation role. It is currently the largest ...

near the village of Jägala, Estonia. It existed from August 1942 to August 1943.

Aleksander Laak Aleksander (Alexander) Laak (24 August 1907 – 6 September 1960) was a lieutenant and the commander of the Jägala concentration camp during the German occupation of Estonia. The estimates for the number of killed at Jägala concentration camp ...

, an Estonian was appointed by ''SS-Sturmbannführer'' Ain-Ervin Mere of Group B of the Estonian Security Police to command the camp with Ralf Gerrets as assistant. Officially Jägala was a "labour education camp" or "Arbeitserziehungslager" for forced forestry and field workers.Weiss-Wendt, p237 The camp housed

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

deported to Estonia from other countries, including

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, Germany and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. About 3,000 Jews who were not selected for work at their arrival at

Raasiku Raasiku is a borough ( et, alevik) in Raasiku Parish, Harju County, Estonia, with a population of 1,372 (2020). Although situated in a parish with the same name, Raasiku is not the official administrative centre of the municipality (which is Aru ...

railway station were taken directly from the station and shot at the nearby

Kalevi-Liiva Kalevi-Liiva are sand dunes in Jõelähtme Parish in Harju County, Estonia. The site is located near the Baltic coast, north of the Jägala, Estonia, Jägala village and the former Jägala concentration camp. It is best known as the execution sit ...

extermination site. The camp never held more than 200 prisoners and had a short life span of several months. In November 1942 it was reported that the camp held 53 men and 150 women. Most of the prisoners were eventually transferred to starting with about half of the prisoners moved in December 1942 and the rest in June and July. By August 1943 the camp was closed and most of the remaining inmates were shot. Several sick prisoners were shot at the Jägala camp while about 15 hospitalised prisoners were sent to Kalevi-Liiva to be executed, Laak also killed three women, one of them his sex slave; the camp was then dismantled by September 1943. The estimates for the number of killed at Jägala concentration camp vary. Soviet investigators concluded that 2,000-3,000 were killed in Jägala and

taken together, but the number 5,000 (as determined by the

Extraordinary State Commission The Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of the Atrocities of the German Fascist Invaders and Their Accomplices and the Damage They Caused to Citizens, Collective Farms, Public Organizations, State Enterprises and ...

in 1944) was written into the verdict. In modern sources, the number 10,000 occurs. However,

Estonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity The Estonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity (; also known as the History Commission or Max Jakobson Commission) was the commission established by President of Estonia Lennart Meri in October 1998 to investiga ...

and estimates of scholars place the number of total Jewish victims in Estonia during 1941-1944 around 8,500.e.g.

Wolfgang Benz Wolfgang Benz (born 9 June 1941) is a German historian from Ellwangen. He was the director of the Center for Research on Antisemitism of the Technische Universität Berlin between 1990 and 2011. Personal life Benz studied history, political ...

Handbuch des Antisemitismus: Judenfeindschaft in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Volume 1. 2008. S 111.

References

Nazi concentration camps in Estonia Jõelähtme Parish Generalbezirk Estland 1942 in Estonia 1943 in Estonia {{Estonia-hist-stub

See also

References