Bromberg-Ost
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
concentration camp Stutthof
Stutthof concentration camp
Stutthof was the first Nazi concentration camp built outside of 1937 German borders.Completed on September 2, 1939, it was located in a secluded, wet, and wooded area west of the small town of Sztutowo . The town is located in the former territory of the Free City of Danzig, 34 km east of...
between 1944-1945, in the city of Bydgoszcz.
The direct order to set up subcamp Bromberg-Ost was issued on 12 September 1944, by the superintendent of Stutthof concentration camp
Stutthof concentration camp
Stutthof was the first Nazi concentration camp built outside of 1937 German borders.Completed on September 2, 1939, it was located in a secluded, wet, and wooded area west of the small town of Sztutowo . The town is located in the former territory of the Free City of Danzig, 34 km east of...
, Paul Werner Hoppe
Werner Hoppe (SS-Officer)
Paul Werner Hoppe was an SS Sturmbannführer and was the commandant of Stutthof concentration camp from September 1942 until April 1945....
. The following day the first 300 women prisoners were sent there under the inspection of seven female overseers from Schutzstaffel
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
(Defense Corps). From June 1944 until March 1945 the position of Oberaufseherin in Bromberg-Ost was held by Johanna Wisotzki, while among guards reassigned to Bromberg-Ost from Stutthof were the notoriously cruel aufseherinnen Ewa Paradies
Ewa Paradies
Ewa Paradies was a Nazi concentration camp overseer.Paradies was born in Lauenburg, Pomerania , Neuendorferstrasse 100. She was a Protestant Christian and not married. In 1935 she left school and worked various jobs in Wuppertal, Erfurt and Lauenburg.In August 1944 she went to Stutthof SK-III camp...
, Herta Bothe
Herta Bothe
Herta Bothe was a female Nazi concentration camp guard imprisoned for war crimes, but eventually released.-Early life:Herta Bothe was born in Teterow. In 1938 Bothe helped her father in his small Teterow wood shop, then worked temporarily in a factory, then as a nurse in the hospital industry...
and Gerda Steinhoff
Gerda Steinhoff
Gerda Steinhoff born in Danzig-Langfuhr , was a Nazi concentration camp overseer following the 1939 German invasion of Poland.-SS career:...
who took part in selections of prisoners to be sent to the gas chamber
Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...
s.
A group of thirteen ex-officials and overseers of the Bromberg-Ost and Stutthof concentration camp
Stutthof concentration camp
Stutthof was the first Nazi concentration camp built outside of 1937 German borders.Completed on September 2, 1939, it was located in a secluded, wet, and wooded area west of the small town of Sztutowo . The town is located in the former territory of the Free City of Danzig, 34 km east of...
s were tried and convicted of crimes against humanity at the Stutthof Trial
Stutthof Trial
Stutthof Trial was a war crime tribunal held at Gdańsk, Poland, from April 25, 1946, to May 31, 1946, where the joint Soviet/Polish Special Criminal Court tried and convicted of crimes against humanity a group of thirteen ex-officials and overseers of the Stutthof concentration camp and...
, the war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
tribunal held at Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, from April 25, 1946, to May 31, 1946. Eleven convicts were sentenced to death, while the remainder were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.