Moringen concentration camp
Encyclopedia
Three concentration camps operated in succession in Moringen
, Lower Saxony
, from April 1933 to April 1945. KZ Moringen, established in the centre of the town on site of former 19th century workhouse
s , originally housed mostly male political inmates. In November 1933 - March 1938 Moringen housed a women's concentration camp; in June 1940 - April 1945 a juvenile prison. A total of 4,300 people were prisoners of Moringen; an estimated ten percent of them died in the camp.
established in 1738 or 1732. In 1818 Kingdom of Hanover
took over the property for a prison. By 1838 it housed a "police workhouse
" for the "depraved and dangerous" men and women - tramps, prostitutes and beggars; by 1885, when Hanover was incorporated into the German Empire
, it was renamed "provincial
workhouse". In 1890 capacity reached 800 inmates although actual headcount fluctuated with economic conditions and unemployment
. A women's wing was set up in 1909. The workhouse operated through the years of the Weimar Republic
although the number of inmates shrank to around one hundred and the workhouse itself gradually became a social welfare facility rather than a prison. By the time of Nazi ascension to power, the place provided shelter to around 150 inmates; all Prussia
n workhouses, hit by the Great Depression
, housed around one thousand.
Educator Hugo Krack (born 1888) became head of Moringen workhouse in 1930, managed it until 1954, and was the chief of KZ Moringen in the 1930s.
, providing temporary asylum to people unfit for work.
This "early" concentration camp in Moringen, one of the first established after Nazi ascension to power, was set up in April 1933 for the internment
of political opposition, mostly communists and social democrats. It was manned by SA
and SS
guards, although initially Krack retained control of the whole facility. The SS took full control in July, following a hunger strike
in June that was broken by shutting down the water supply and force feeding the prisoners. The camp was governed by a mix of workhouse and prison rules; corporal punishment
was prohibited but guards were authorized to shoot escapees on sight.
All prisoners were residents of Lower Saxony (then Province of Hanover
). The first ones appeared in Moringen in April 1933, although many were amnestied
on May 1, 1933, and prisoner turnover remained high through the summer. According to the agreement between workhouse administration and the police, the capacity was set at three hundred, and was quickly filled up, reaching 394 in October. The camp housed primarily men and a few women in a special "protective custody section for women"; The first female prisoners arrived in Moringen in June, and by August their number reached 26.
in November 1933.
Prussian Gestapo
leased the facility from the provincial administration and thus SS assumed formal control over Moringen. However, Hugo Krack retained his managerial position and civilian administration remained responsible for ensuring relatively humane conditions. Life in Moringen was filled not with physical violence and terror but with monotony and depression. Food was "utterly inadequate" but prisoners were allowed to receive money, packages and letters (subject to censorship
; the right was collectively revoked as a penalty); they had time, strength and tools to pursue their hobbies of embroidery
and sewing
and were even permitted to have their personal lockers (subject to searching). They were not issued prison uniforms and did not have to wear identification badges
. Few Jewish prisoners were prohibited from communicating with others, but enforcement proved impossible.
Initially, the camp was filled by members of political opposition , predominantly Communists and Jehovah's Witnesses, but by 1936 the system also "detained" members of other "undesirable" social groups. Moringen absorbed labor union activities, women who returned from emigration (since March 1935), prostitutes and those charged with "defamation of the State". Some were delivered in "utter mental collapse" caused by prior interrogations.
The number of women in Moringen was small until the beginning of 1937: 128 in October 1933, 141 in November, 75 in early 1934. Turnover remained high. In January 1937, the population began rising in line with increased repressions against Jehovah's Witnesses
and "habitual criminals" and reached 446 in November 1937; 227 of them were Jehovah's Witnesses. Of 676 researched female prisoners of Moringen,
Prisoner groups were not defined clearly, for example, women arrested for performing abortion
s were labeled "professional criminals" (for accepting pay for an illegal activity), but later the Gestapo reclassified them as "politicals". Others had multiple "faults" behind them, i.e. a particular person was a Jew as well as a lesbian
, but was actually arrested for gossiping about Hitler's alleged homosexuality
. As a Jew, she was allowed to emigrate.
Every three months Krack reported prisoners' conduct to the Gestapo, collecting information through conversations, interrogations, the guards and his own informants among the prisoners. He defended some prisoners and denied sympathy to others, specifically Jehovah's Witnesses
, considering them "orderly" but "unteachable" or "incurable"; however, in February 1937 he recommended release of a Jehovah's Witness, admitting his long-time failure to reform her. Krack also approved, and, perhaps, prompted compulsory sterilization
of prisoners.
Himmler
was not involved in Moringen affairs until his personal visit in May 1937. He initiated a review of women's camps, and in October 1937 made a decision to close Moringen and relocate its prisoners. Shipments to a larger and "incomparably worse" Lichtenburg concentration camp
near Torgau
(a former male camp established in 1933) began as soon as it was converted to a women's camp in December 1937; later, many Lichtenburg prisoners ended up and perished in Ravensbrück
(built in 1939). Of 127 thousand Ravensbrück prisoners, only 30 thousand survived. Krack apparently defended prostitutes and "asocials" from transfer to Lichtenburg, believing that they (unlike political and religious prisoners) belong in the workhouse rather than in the concentration camps. After the first shipments to Lichtenburg the share of Jehovah's Witnesses rose to 89% in December 1937 (249 of 280 prisoners).
In March 1938 Moringen concentration camp was closed; up to 1,350 women had been its prisoners in 1933–1938. The number, for lack of comprehensive records, has been reconstructed based on turnover and average population; only 856 names were identified. Discrepancies in numbers also arise from separate and confusing recordkeeping for the inmates of concentration camp (SS) and the workhouse (Krack).
, concerned about rising juvenile delinquency
, proposed a new system of "youth custody"; in Autumn 1940 it was furthered by the Ministry of Defence. In June 1940 Moringen was repopulated again, this time as a juvenile concentration camp , housing male prisoners from 13 to 22 years of age. Punishable activities ranged from true crime to jazz
music; the Swing Kids
from Hamburg
, in particular, were subject to mass arrests as of June 1942; between 40 and 70 of them ended in concentration camps, including Moringen. One of these kids, Heinz Lord
, later survived the sinking of Cap Arcona, emigrated to the United States
and became Secretary-General of World Medical Association
; he died at the age of 43 of heart failure linked to his captivity and torture.
Camp commander, SS Sturmbannführer
Karl Dieterand reported to RSHA
Reichskriminalpolizeiamt and supervised a force of 85 SS guards. The complete system of "youth custody" was created by Himmler in 1943 and 1944. Other camps set up according to the same model were Uckermark concentration camp
for girls and young women (near Ravensbrück
); Polen-Jugendverwahrlager Litzmannstadt in Łódź for Polish youths (established 1942 to prevent mixing of Poles and Germans in the same camps), where approximately 500 died; Weissensee (Berlin) (September 1943) and Volpriehausen (July 1944).
Moringen became the first juvenile camp where prisoners were assigned to barracks based on their biological characteristics according to Robert Ritter
's theory of race hygiene. The barracks or huts were carefully designed to fit into Ritter's "criminally-biological" scheme of things. Prisoners could hope to be released provided that they progress through the system until reaching the Block der Erziehungsfähigen – a barrack for those "ready for discharge", usually to military service. By October 1943, the first batch were released, 26 of 276 prisoners, including five to Reichsarbeitsdienst
. Those who did not "progress" sufficiently to the authorities' satisfaction were relegated to the barracks for "nuisances" and "the incapable". Most were sterilized
and sent to "ordinary" concentration camps on their eighteenth birthday.
Himmler's system ultimately failed to produce the desired deterrent effect, and "asocial-criminal rather than political-opposition" (in Himmler's words) youth "cliques" or gangs continued to spread. By the time the Allies liberated the camp on April 9, 1945, an estimated 1,400 boys had passed through the camp. The exact number of deaths remains unknown, but 56 are known to have died inside the camp.
for the Polish people, and in 1948 again became a provincial workhouse. Today there is a holocaust memorial house (KZ-Gedenkstätte) in Moringen. Established in 1993, it shows a permanent exhibition.
Moringen
Moringen is a town in the district Northeim, in the southern part of Lower Saxony, Germany. The town consists of the center Moringen and eight surrounding villages.-History:The town and its villages were founded over a thousand years ago....
, Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
, from April 1933 to April 1945. KZ Moringen, established in the centre of the town on site of former 19th century workhouse
Workhouse
In England and Wales a workhouse, colloquially known as a spike, was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment...
s , originally housed mostly male political inmates. In November 1933 - March 1938 Moringen housed a women's concentration camp; in June 1940 - April 1945 a juvenile prison. A total of 4,300 people were prisoners of Moringen; an estimated ten percent of them died in the camp.
Moringen workhouse, 1730s – 1933
History of forced confinement in Moringen goes back to an orphanageOrphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
established in 1738 or 1732. In 1818 Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
took over the property for a prison. By 1838 it housed a "police workhouse
Workhouse
In England and Wales a workhouse, colloquially known as a spike, was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment...
" for the "depraved and dangerous" men and women - tramps, prostitutes and beggars; by 1885, when Hanover was incorporated into the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
, it was renamed "provincial
Province of Hanover
The Province of Hanover was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946.During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, along with some other member states of the German Confederation...
workhouse". In 1890 capacity reached 800 inmates although actual headcount fluctuated with economic conditions and unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
. A women's wing was set up in 1909. The workhouse operated through the years of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
although the number of inmates shrank to around one hundred and the workhouse itself gradually became a social welfare facility rather than a prison. By the time of Nazi ascension to power, the place provided shelter to around 150 inmates; all Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n workhouses, hit by the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, housed around one thousand.
Educator Hugo Krack (born 1888) became head of Moringen workhouse in 1930, managed it until 1954, and was the chief of KZ Moringen in the 1930s.
Male camp for political opposition, April–November 1933
Arrests of political opposition in the beginning of 1933 and the resulting demand for prison space prompted Hanover administrators to relieve themselves of the costly, under-used Moringen facility. They struck a deal with police and the latter took control of most of Moringen workhouse; former workhouse inmates were confined to a few rooms, sealed off from the main, now "political" facility. This "welfare" section of Moringen facility operated in its original function almost until the end of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, providing temporary asylum to people unfit for work.
This "early" concentration camp in Moringen, one of the first established after Nazi ascension to power, was set up in April 1933 for the internment
Internment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
of political opposition, mostly communists and social democrats. It was manned by SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
and SS
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...
guards, although initially Krack retained control of the whole facility. The SS took full control in July, following a hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
in June that was broken by shutting down the water supply and force feeding the prisoners. The camp was governed by a mix of workhouse and prison rules; corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
was prohibited but guards were authorized to shoot escapees on sight.
All prisoners were residents of Lower Saxony (then Province of Hanover
Province of Hanover
The Province of Hanover was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946.During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, along with some other member states of the German Confederation...
). The first ones appeared in Moringen in April 1933, although many were amnestied
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
on May 1, 1933, and prisoner turnover remained high through the summer. According to the agreement between workhouse administration and the police, the capacity was set at three hundred, and was quickly filled up, reaching 394 in October. The camp housed primarily men and a few women in a special "protective custody section for women"; The first female prisoners arrived in Moringen in June, and by August their number reached 26.
Female camp, October 1933 – March 1938
In October 1933, after another round of negotiation between provincial administration and the Ministry of Interior, Moringen was designated as the sole official concentration camp for the women. Male prisoners were gradually moved to other prisons and camps throughout summer and autumn. Some were released, others transported to different camps; the last men from Moringen left for Oranienburg concentration campOranienburg concentration camp
Oranienburg concentration camp was one of the first detention facilities established by the Nazis when they gained power in 1933. It held the Nazis' political opponents from the Berlin region, mostly members of the Communist Party of Germany and social-democrats, as well as a number of homosexual...
in November 1933.
Prussian Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
leased the facility from the provincial administration and thus SS assumed formal control over Moringen. However, Hugo Krack retained his managerial position and civilian administration remained responsible for ensuring relatively humane conditions. Life in Moringen was filled not with physical violence and terror but with monotony and depression. Food was "utterly inadequate" but prisoners were allowed to receive money, packages and letters (subject to censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
; the right was collectively revoked as a penalty); they had time, strength and tools to pursue their hobbies of embroidery
Embroidery
Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
and sewing
Sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era...
and were even permitted to have their personal lockers (subject to searching). They were not issued prison uniforms and did not have to wear identification badges
Badge of shame
A badge of shame, also a symbol of shame, mark of shame, or simply a stigma, is typically a distinctive symbol required to be worn by a specific group or an individual for the purpose of public humiliation, ostracism, or persecution...
. Few Jewish prisoners were prohibited from communicating with others, but enforcement proved impossible.
Initially, the camp was filled by members of political opposition , predominantly Communists and Jehovah's Witnesses, but by 1936 the system also "detained" members of other "undesirable" social groups. Moringen absorbed labor union activities, women who returned from emigration (since March 1935), prostitutes and those charged with "defamation of the State". Some were delivered in "utter mental collapse" caused by prior interrogations.
The number of women in Moringen was small until the beginning of 1937: 128 in October 1933, 141 in November, 75 in early 1934. Turnover remained high. In January 1937, the population began rising in line with increased repressions against Jehovah's Witnesses
Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany
Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. Members of the religious group refused to serve in the German military or give allegiance to the Nazi government, for which hundreds were executed. An estimated 10,000 were sent to concentration camps where approximately...
and "habitual criminals" and reached 446 in November 1937; 227 of them were Jehovah's Witnesses. Of 676 researched female prisoners of Moringen,
- 310, or 46% were Jehovah's Witnesses from rural Eastern Germany; they were, on average, around 45 years old;
- 22% were Communists;
- 14% were arrested for "derogatory remarks";
- 6%, including survivor Gabriele Herz who wrote memoirs of life in Moringen, were former émigréÉmigréÉmigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....
s; - 4% were arrested for violation of Nuremberg LawsNuremberg LawsThe Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism...
.
Prisoner groups were not defined clearly, for example, women arrested for performing abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
s were labeled "professional criminals" (for accepting pay for an illegal activity), but later the Gestapo reclassified them as "politicals". Others had multiple "faults" behind them, i.e. a particular person was a Jew as well as a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, but was actually arrested for gossiping about Hitler's alleged homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
. As a Jew, she was allowed to emigrate.
Every three months Krack reported prisoners' conduct to the Gestapo, collecting information through conversations, interrogations, the guards and his own informants among the prisoners. He defended some prisoners and denied sympathy to others, specifically Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
, considering them "orderly" but "unteachable" or "incurable"; however, in February 1937 he recommended release of a Jehovah's Witness, admitting his long-time failure to reform her. Krack also approved, and, perhaps, prompted compulsory sterilization
Compulsory sterilization
Compulsory sterilization also known as forced sterilization programs are government policies which attempt to force people to undergo surgical sterilization...
of prisoners.
Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
was not involved in Moringen affairs until his personal visit in May 1937. He initiated a review of women's camps, and in October 1937 made a decision to close Moringen and relocate its prisoners. Shipments to a larger and "incomparably worse" Lichtenburg concentration camp
Lichtenburg (concentration camp)
Lichtenburg was a Nazi concentration camp, housed in a Renaissance castle in Prettin, near Wittenberg in eastern Germany. Along with Sachsenburg, it was among the first to be built by the Nazis, and was operated by the SS from 1933 to 1939. It held as many as 2000 male prisoners from 1933 to 1937...
near Torgau
Torgau
Torgau is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen.Outside Germany, the town is most well known as the place where during the Second World War, United States Army forces coming from the west met with forces of the Soviet Union...
(a former male camp established in 1933) began as soon as it was converted to a women's camp in December 1937; later, many Lichtenburg prisoners ended up and perished in Ravensbrück
Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück ....
(built in 1939). Of 127 thousand Ravensbrück prisoners, only 30 thousand survived. Krack apparently defended prostitutes and "asocials" from transfer to Lichtenburg, believing that they (unlike political and religious prisoners) belong in the workhouse rather than in the concentration camps. After the first shipments to Lichtenburg the share of Jehovah's Witnesses rose to 89% in December 1937 (249 of 280 prisoners).
In March 1938 Moringen concentration camp was closed; up to 1,350 women had been its prisoners in 1933–1938. The number, for lack of comprehensive records, has been reconstructed based on turnover and average population; only 856 names were identified. Discrepancies in numbers also arise from separate and confusing recordkeeping for the inmates of concentration camp (SS) and the workhouse (Krack).
Juvenile camp, June 1940 – April 1945
In March 1940 Heinrich HimmlerHeinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, concerned about rising juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...
, proposed a new system of "youth custody"; in Autumn 1940 it was furthered by the Ministry of Defence. In June 1940 Moringen was repopulated again, this time as a juvenile concentration camp , housing male prisoners from 13 to 22 years of age. Punishable activities ranged from true crime to jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
music; the Swing Kids
Swing Kids
The Swing Kids were a group of jazz and swing lovers in Germany in the 1930s, mainly in Hamburg and Berlin. They were composed of 14- to 18-year-old boys and girls in high school, most of them middle- or upper-class students, but some apprentice workers as well...
from Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, in particular, were subject to mass arrests as of June 1942; between 40 and 70 of them ended in concentration camps, including Moringen. One of these kids, Heinz Lord
Heinz Lord
Heinz Lord was a German-American surgeon. A survivor of Nazi concentration camp, Lord was elected Secretary-General of the World Medical Association shortly before his death in 1961....
, later survived the sinking of Cap Arcona, emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and became Secretary-General of World Medical Association
World Medical Association
The World Medical Association is an international and independent confederation of free professional Medical Associations, therefore representing physicians worldwide...
; he died at the age of 43 of heart failure linked to his captivity and torture.
Camp commander, SS Sturmbannführer
Sturmbannführer
Sturmbannführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party equivalent to major, used both in the Sturmabteilung and the Schutzstaffel...
Karl Dieterand reported to RSHA
RSHA
The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt was an organization subordinate to Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacities as Chef der Deutschen Polizei and Reichsführer-SS...
Reichskriminalpolizeiamt and supervised a force of 85 SS guards. The complete system of "youth custody" was created by Himmler in 1943 and 1944. Other camps set up according to the same model were Uckermark concentration camp
Uckermark concentration camp
The Uckermark concentration camp was a small Nazi concentration camp for girls near the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Fürstenberg/Havel, Germany and then an "emergency" extermination camp....
for girls and young women (near Ravensbrück
Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück ....
); Polen-Jugendverwahrlager Litzmannstadt in Łódź for Polish youths (established 1942 to prevent mixing of Poles and Germans in the same camps), where approximately 500 died; Weissensee (Berlin) (September 1943) and Volpriehausen (July 1944).
Moringen became the first juvenile camp where prisoners were assigned to barracks based on their biological characteristics according to Robert Ritter
Robert Ritter
Robert Ritter, Ph. D. was a German psychologist and physician best known for his work related to the Roma people, that contributed to repressive measures against them....
's theory of race hygiene. The barracks or huts were carefully designed to fit into Ritter's "criminally-biological" scheme of things. Prisoners could hope to be released provided that they progress through the system until reaching the Block der Erziehungsfähigen – a barrack for those "ready for discharge", usually to military service. By October 1943, the first batch were released, 26 of 276 prisoners, including five to Reichsarbeitsdienst
Reichsarbeitsdienst
The Reichsarbeitsdienst was an institution established by Nazi Germany as an agency to reduce unemployment, similar to the relief programs in other countries. During the Second World War it was an auxiliary formation which provided support for the Wehrmacht.The RAD was formed during July 1934 as...
. Those who did not "progress" sufficiently to the authorities' satisfaction were relegated to the barracks for "nuisances" and "the incapable". Most were sterilized
Compulsory sterilization
Compulsory sterilization also known as forced sterilization programs are government policies which attempt to force people to undergo surgical sterilization...
and sent to "ordinary" concentration camps on their eighteenth birthday.
Himmler's system ultimately failed to produce the desired deterrent effect, and "asocial-criminal rather than political-opposition" (in Himmler's words) youth "cliques" or gangs continued to spread. By the time the Allies liberated the camp on April 9, 1945, an estimated 1,400 boys had passed through the camp. The exact number of deaths remains unknown, but 56 are known to have died inside the camp.
Later events
In 1945 Moringen site was reused as a displaced persons campDisplaced persons camp
A displaced persons camp or DP camp is a temporary facility for displaced persons coerced into forced migration. The term is mainly used for camps established after World War II in West Germany and in Austria, as well as in the United Kingdom, primarily for refugees from Eastern Europe and for the...
for the Polish people, and in 1948 again became a provincial workhouse. Today there is a holocaust memorial house (KZ-Gedenkstätte) in Moringen. Established in 1993, it shows a permanent exhibition.
See also
- List of Nazi-German concentration camps
- Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi GermanyPersecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi GermanyJehovah's Witnesses were persecuted in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. Members of the religious group refused to serve in the German military or give allegiance to the Nazi government, for which hundreds were executed. An estimated 10,000 were sent to concentration camps where approximately...
- Women's rights in Nazi Germany
- Nazi eugenicsNazi eugenicsNazi eugenics were Nazi Germany's racially-based social policies that placed the improvement of the Aryan race through eugenics at the center of their concerns...
- Compulsory sterilizationCompulsory sterilizationCompulsory sterilization also known as forced sterilization programs are government policies which attempt to force people to undergo surgical sterilization...
- Reichstag Fire DecreeReichstag Fire DecreeThe Reichstag Fire Decree is the common name of the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State issued by German President Paul von Hindenburg in direct response to the Reichstag fire of 27 February 1933. The decree nullified many of the key civil liberties of German...
Sources
, including:- Jurgen Harder, Hans Hesse (2001) Female Jehovah's Witnesses in Moringen Women's Concentration camp, pp. 36–59.