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The Esterwegen concentration camp near
File:Esterweg030412 049schll.jpg, Looking through a narrow gap from the site of the former front gate on to the former Camp Road
File:Esterweg030412 030.jpg, View across the camp road from the main gate
File:KZ Esterwegen - Weg um Moor durch das Gebaeude der Gedenkstaette hindurch.jpg, The way out of the camp to the bog through the building of the memorial
DIZ Emslandlager: "The 15 Emsland camps"Esterwegen Museum Website
{{Authority control Nazi concentration camps in Germany Emsland
The Esterwegen concentration camp near Esterwegen
Esterwegen is a municipality in the Emsland district, in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Geography
Esterwegen lies in northwest Germany, less than from the Dutch border and about from the sea.
Demographics
In 2015 the population was 5,280.
Government ...
was an early Nazi concentration camp
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...
within a series of camps first established in the Emsland
Landkreis Emsland () is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany named after the river Ems. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Leer, Cloppenburg and Osnabrück, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (district of Steinfur ...
district of Germany. It was established in the summer of 1933 as a concentration camp for 2000 so-called political ''Schutzhäftlinge'' (protective custody
Protective custody (PC) is a type of imprisonment (or care) to protect a person from harm, either from outside sources or other prisoners. Many prison administrators believe the level of violence, or the underlying threat of violence within pri ...
prisoners) and was for a time the second largest concentration camp after Dachau
,
, commandant = List of commandants
, known for =
, location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany
, built by = Germany
, operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS)
, original use = Political prison
, construction ...
. The camp was closed in summer of 1936. Thereafter, until 1945 it was used as a prison camp. Political prisoners and so-called ''Nacht und Nebel
''Nacht und Nebel'' (German: ), meaning Night and Fog, was a directive issued by Adolf Hitler on 7 December 1941 targeting political activists and resistance "helpers" in the territories occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, who were to ...
'' prisoners were also held there. After the war ended, Esterwegen served as a British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
internment camp, as a prison, and, until 2000, as a depot for the German Army
The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
.
The most famous prisoner was writer and editor of the weekly magazine, ''Die Weltbühne
''Die Weltbühne'' (‘The World Stage’) was a German weekly magazine for politics, art and the economy. It was founded in Berlin in 1905 as (‘The Theater’) by Siegfried Jacobsohn and was originally a theater magazine only. In 1913 it beg ...
'', Carl von Ossietzky
Carl von Ossietzky (; 3 October 1889 – 4 May 1938) was a German journalist and pacifist. He was the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in exposing the clandestine German re-armament.
As editor-in-chief of the magazine ''Die ...
, who won the Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
in 1935. Comedian Werner Finck
Werner Finck (2 May 1902 – 31 July 1978) was a German ''Kabarett'' comedian, actor and author. Not politically motivated by his own admission but just a "convinced individualist", he became one of Germany's leading cabaret artists under the co ...
was detained in Esterwegen for six weeks.
SS-''Hauptscharführer __NOTOC__
''Hauptscharführer'' ( ) was a Nazi paramilitary rank which was used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between the years of 1934 and 1945. The rank was the highest enlisted rank of the SS, with the exception of the special Waffen-SS rank ...
'' Gustav Sorge
Gustav Hermann Sorge (24 April 1911 – 3 October 1978), nicknamed "''Der eiserne Gustav''" ("Iron Gustav") for his brutality, was an SS senior NCO (''Hauptscharführer''). He was initially a guard at Esterwegen concentration camp in the Emslan ...
, nicknamed "The Iron Gustav" for his brutality, was a guard at Esterwegen prior to being assigned to Sachsenhausen
Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...
. He was convicted of war crimes after the war.
Gallery
See also
*Glossary of Nazi Germany
This is a list of words, terms, concepts and slogans of Nazi Germany used in the historiography covering the Nazi regime.
Some words were coined by Adolf Hitler and other Nazi Party members. Other words and concepts were borrowed and appropriated, ...
* The Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
* List of concentration and internment camps
This is a list of internment and concentration camps, organized by country. In general, a camp or group of camps is designated to the country whose government was responsible for the establishment and/or operation of the camp regardless of the c ...
* List of Nazi concentration camps
According to the ''Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos'', there were 23 main concentration camps (german: Stammlager), of which most had a system of satellite camps. Including the satellite camps, the total number of Nazi concentration camps that ...
* Nazi concentration camps
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...
* Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
* World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
Literature
* Kurt Buck: ''Esterwegen – Das Lager.'' In: Bettina Schmidt-Czaia (Hrsg. im Auftrag der Gemeinde Esterwegen): ''Esterwegen 1223 bis 1999 – "Moor und Heide nur ringsum ...?"'' Esterwegen 1999, S. 205–253. * Kurt Buck: ''Auf der Suche nach den Moorsoldaten. Emslandlager 1933–1945 und die historischen Orte heute.'' 6. Auflage. Papenburg 2008, . *Bernd Faulenbach
Bernd is a Low German short form of the given name Bernhard (English Bernard).
List of persons with given name Bernd
The following people share the name Bernd.
*Bernd Brückler (born 1981), Austrian hockey player
* Bernd Eichinger (1949–2011), ...
, Andrea Kaltofen (Hg.): 'Hölle im Moor'. Die Emslandlager 1933–1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2017, .
* Henning Harpel: ''Die Emslandlager des Dritten Reichs. Formen und Probleme der aktiven Geschichtserinnerung im nördlichen Emsland 1955–1993.'' In: Studiengesellschaft für Emsländische Regionalgeschichte (Hrsg.): ''Emsländische Geschichte.'' Band 12. Haselünne 2005, S. 134–239.
* Hans-Peter Klausch: ''Tätergeschichten. Die SS-Kommandanten der frühen Konzentrationslager im Emsland.'' (= DIZ-Schriften; 13). Bremen 2005, .
* Habbo Knoch: ''Die Emslandlager 1933–1945.'' In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel: ''Der Ort des Terrors. Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager.'' Band II: ''Frühe Lager, Dachau, Emslandlager.'' München 2005, , S. 532–570.
* Erich Kosthorst, Bernd Walter: ''Konzentrations- und Strafgefangenenlager im Dritten Reich. Beispiel Emsland. Dokumentation und Analyse zum Verhältnis von NS-Regime und Justiz.'' Droste, Düsseldorf 1983, .
* Erich Kosthorst: ''Die Lager im Emsland unter dem NS-Regime 1933–1945. Aufgabe und Sinn geschichtlicher Erinnerung.'' In: Karl Dietrich Erdmann, J. Rohlfes (Hrsg.): ''Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht.'' Nr. 6/1984, Seelze 1984, S. 365–379, S. 372–373.
* Wolfgang Langhoff: ''Die Moorsoldaten.'' Verlag Neuer Weg, Stuttgart 1974, . (Erste Auflage. Zürich 1935.)
* Elke Suhr: ''Die Emslandlager. Die politische und wirtschaftliche Bedeutung der emsländischen Konzentrations- und Strafgefangenenlager 1933–1945.'' Donat & Temmen, Bremen 1985, .
* Willy Perk: ''Hölle im Moor. Zur Geschichte der Emslandlager 1933–1945.'' Röderberg, Frankfurt am Main 1979, .
* Dirk Riedel: ''Ordnungshüter und Massenmörder im Dienst der "Volksgemeinschaft": Der KZ-Kommandant Hans Loritz''. Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2010, .
External links
DIZ Emslandlager: "The 15 Emsland camps"
{{Authority control Nazi concentration camps in Germany Emsland