Lichtenburg was a
Nazi concentration camp, housed in a
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
castle in
Prettin
Prettin () is a town and a former municipality in Wittenberg district in Saxony-Anhalt.
Geography and transportation
The town lies about 30 km southeast of Wittenberg and about 12 km north-northwest of Torgau in the lowland on the Elbe' ...
, near
Wittenberg
Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon language, Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the Ri ...
in the
Province of Saxony. Along with
Sachsenburg
Sachsenburg is a market town in the district of Spittal an der Drau in Carinthia, Austria.
Geography
The municipal area stretches along the valley of the Drava river, where it enters the Lurnfeld plain between the Kreuzeck group of the Hohe Tau ...
, it was among the first to be built by the Nazis, and was operated by the
SS from 1933 to 1939.
[Holocaust Papers Pyramid of Persecution](_blank)
/ref> It held as many as 2000 male prisoners from 1933 to 1937 and from 1937 to 1939 held female prisoners.[Lichtenburgprettin Germany](_blank)
/ref> It was closed in May 1939, when the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women was opened, which replaced Lichtenburg as the main camp for female prisoners.
Operation
Details about the operation of Lichtenburg, held by the International Tracing Service
The Arolsen Archives – International Center on Nazi Persecution formerly the International Tracing Service (ITS), in German Internationaler Suchdienst, in French Service International de Recherches in Bad Arolsen, Germany, is an international ...
, only became available to researchers in late 2006. An account of the way the camp was run may be read in Lina Haag's book ''A Handful of Dust'' or ''How Long the Night''. Haag was perhaps the best known survivor of Lichtenburg, having obtained release before it was shut down.
Lichtenburg was among the first concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
s in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
operating from 13 June 1933; it became a kind of model for numerous subsequent establishments. Soon overcrowded, the detention conditions became increasingly aggravated. Most of the inmates were political prisoner
A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...
s, and so-called habitual offender
A habitual offender, repeat offender, or career criminal is a person convicted of a crime who was previously convicted of crimes. Various state and jurisdictions may have laws targeting habitual offenders, and specifically providing for enhanced o ...
s (''Gewohnheitsverbrecher''). From 1937 on it became a camp only for women. In 1939 the SS transferred 900 Lichtenburg prisoners to Ravensbrück, which were its first female prisoners.
The castle today houses a regional museum and exhibit about Lichtenburg's use during the Nazi period.
Personnel[Stefan Hördler, Sigrid Jacobeit (Hrsg.): ''Dokumentations- und Gedenkort KZ Lichtenburg'', Berlin 2009, p. 125ff.]
Camp commandant
* May 1934 – July 1934: SS-Brigadeführer Theodor Eicke
Theodor Eicke (17 October 1892 – 26 February 1943) was a senior SS functionary and Waffen SS divisional commander during the Nazi era. He was one of the key figures in the development of Nazi concentration camps. Eicke served as the sec ...
* July 1934 – March 1935: SS-Obersturmbannführer Bernhard Schmidt
Bernhard Woldemar Schmidt (, Nargen – 1 December 1935, Hamburg) was an Estonian optician. In 1930 he invented the Schmidt telescope which corrected for the optical errors of spherical aberration, coma, and astigmatism, making possible for t ...
* March 1935 – March 1936: SS-Standartenführer Otto Reich
Otto Juan Reich (born ) is an American diplomat and lobbyist who worked in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Reich was born in Cuba; his family moved to North Carolina when he was fifteen. ...
* April 1936 – October 1936: SS-Standartenführer Hermann Baranowski
* November 1936 – July 1937: SS-Standartenführer Hans Helwig
Hans Helwig (25 September 1881 – 24 August 1952) was a German Nazi Party politician, World War I veteran, Schutzstaffel general and Nazi concentration camp commandant. An early member of the Nazi movement he fulfilled a number of roles within ...
* July 1937 – December 1937: Commisar Alexander Piorkowski
Alexander Bernhard Hans Piorkowski (11 October 1904 – 22 October 1948) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era and commandant of Dachau concentration camp. Following the war, he was convicted and executed.
Life
Born in Bremen, Piorkows ...
Protective custody chief
* July 1934 – February 1935: Edgar Entsberger
Edgar is a commonly used English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Eadgar'' (composed of '' ead'' "rich, prosperous" and ''gar'' "spear").
Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the later medieval period; it was, however, rev ...
* February 1935 – April 1935 Karl Otto Koch
Karl-Otto Koch (; 2 August 1897 – 5 April 1945) was a mid-ranking commander in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) of Nazi Germany who was the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. From September 1941 until ...
* April 1935 – October 1936 Heinrich Remmert Heinrich may refer to:
People
* Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
* Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
*Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...
* November 1936 – August 1937 Egon Zill Egon Gustav Adolf Zill (28 March 1906 in Plauen – 23 October 1974 in Dachau) was a German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) ''Sturmbannführer'' and concentration camp commandant.
Zill was born in Plauen. The son of a brewer from Plauen, Zill's father was ...
Director of women's camp
* December 1937 – May 1939 Günther Tamaschke
Günther Tamaschke (26 February 1896, Berlin – 14 October 1959, Uhingen) was a German SS-'' Standartenführer'' and commandant of the Lichtenburg and Ravensbrück concentration camps.
Early life
Günther Tamaschke was born the son of a mercha ...
Deputy director of camp
* December 1937 – August 1938 Alexander Piorkowski
Alexander Bernhard Hans Piorkowski (11 October 1904 – 22 October 1948) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era and commandant of Dachau concentration camp. Following the war, he was convicted and executed.
Life
Born in Bremen, Piorkows ...
* September 1938 – May 1939 Max Koegel
Otto Max Koegel (16 October 1895 – 27 June 1946) was a Nazi officer who served as a commander at Lichtenburg, Ravensbrück, Majdanek and Flossenbürg concentration camps.
Life
Max Koegel was born on 16 October 1895 in Füssen, in the Kingdo ...
Notable inmates
* Olga Benario-Prestes
Olga may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Olga (name), a given name, including a list of people and fictional characters named Olga or Olha
* Michael Algar (born 1962), English singer also known as "Olga"
Places
Russia
* Olga, Russia ...
, German-Brasilian resistance fighter
* Armin T. Wegner
Armin Theophil Wegner (October 16, 1886 – May 17, 1978) was a German soldier and medic in World War I, a prolific author, and a human rights activist. Stationed in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, Wegner was a witness to the Armenian geno ...
* Walter Czollek
* Arthur Dietzsch
Arthur Dietzsch (* October 2, 1901 in Pausa; † August 26, 1974 in Burgdorf (Hannover region), Germany) was a German KZ trustee (Funktionshäftling) and Kapo as well as an inmate nurse (KZ-Häftlingspfleger) in Block 46 of KZ Buchenwald.
...
* Friedrich Ebert junior
Friedrich "Fritz" Ebert Jr. (12 September 1894 – 4 December 1979) was a German politician and East German Communist official, the son of Germany's first president Friedrich Ebert.
Ebert was originally a Social Democrat like his father before ...
, Politician, son of Friedrich Ebert
Friedrich Ebert (; 4 February 187128 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the first president of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925.
Ebert was elected leader of the SPD on t ...
* Philipp Fries
Philipp Fries (9 August 1882 – 7 December 1950) was a German politician (SPD, USPD, KPD). He sat as a member of the national parliament (''"Reichstag"'') between 1920 and 1924.
Life
Philipp Fries was born in Roggendorf (Mechernich), then a ...
* Paul Frölich
Paul Frölich (7 August 1884 – 16 March 1953) was a German journalist and left-wing political activist and author, a founding member of the Communist Party of Germany and founder of the party's paper, ''Die Rote Fahne.'' A Communist Party deputy ...
* Ernst Grube
* Lina Haag,
* Lotti Huber
Lotti Huber (; 16 October 1912 - 31 May 1998) was a German actress. She appeared in more than twenty films from 1978 to 1999. She became famous in Germany for her roles in Rosa von Praunheim
Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky (born Holger Radt ...
, actress
* Erich Knauf
Erich Knauf (21 February 1895 – 2 May 1944) was a German journalist, writer, and songwriter. He was executed for making jokes about the Nazism, Nazi regime.
Biography
Knauf was born in Meerane, Saxony, the son of a tailor and party secretary o ...
* Wolfgang Langhoff
Wolfgang Langhoff (6 October 1901 in Berlin, German Empire – 26 August 1966 in Berlin, German Democratic Republic)The Internet Movie Database"Wolfgang Langhoff" Accessed 17 August 2007. was a German theatre, film and television actor and theat ...
, actor
* Hans Litten
Hans Achim Litten (19 June 1903 – 5 February 1938) was a German lawyer who represented opponents of the Nazis at important political trials between 1929 and 1932, defending the rights of workers during the Weimar Republic.
During one trial i ...
, lawyer
* Wilhelm Leuschner
Wilhelm Leuschner (15 June 1890, in Bayreuth, Bavaria – 29 September 1944, in Berlin-Plötzensee) was a trade unionist and Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic politician. An early opponent of Nazism, he organized underground ...
, unionist
* Hans Lorbeer
Hans Lorbeer (15 August 1901 – 7 September 1973) was a German politician and writer.
Life
Hans Lorbeer was born as the illegitimate child of a worker girl in Lutherstadt Wittenberg in the Province of Saxony and grew up with foster parents in ...
, author
* Karl Mache Karl Mache (9 December 1880 – 19 October 1944) was a German politician ( SPD). Between 1928 and 1930 he served as a member of the national parliament (Reichstag).
Life
Karl Mache was born in Deutsch Lissa, then a small industrial town a short ...
* Charles Regnier, actor
* Ernst Reuter, Social Democrat
* Kurt von Ruffin, actor
* Gotthard Sachsenberg
Gotthard Sachsenberg (6 December 1891 – 23 August 1961) was a German World War I fighter ace with 31 victories who went on to command the world's first naval air wing. In later life, he founded the airline ''Deutscher Aero Lloyd'', became an an ...
,
* Werner Scholem, Communist politician
* Fritz Thurm (1883–1937), Social Democrat
* Lisa Ullrich, Communist politician
* Ilse Unterdörfer missionary
See also
* Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany
Jehovah's Witnesses suffered religious persecution in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945 after refusing to perform military service, join Nazi organizations, or give allegiance to the Hitler regime. An estimated 10,000 Witnesses—half of the num ...
References
External links
Lichtenburg page
Visit to the camp by SS officer Theodor Eicke (image)
Further reading
*Sarah Helm: Ravensbruck: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration camp For Women. 2015 Penguin Random House, pps 4, 17-19, Prisoners sent from Lichtenberg to Ravensbruck 6-21.
*Stefan Hördler: ''Before the Holocaust: Concentration Camp Lichtenburg and the Evolution of the Nazi Camp System.'' Holocaust and Genocide Studies 25, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 100–126.
*Nikolaus Wachsmann: ''KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps.'' 2015 Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
{{Authority control
Lichtenburg concentration camp,
Subcamps of Buchenwald
Buildings and structures in Saxony-Anhalt
Museums in Saxony-Anhalt
World War II museums in Germany