Rescue of Stutthof victims in Denmark
Encyclopedia
The rescue of Stutthof victims in Denmark took place on 5 May 1945 at Klintholm Havn
, a small fishing village on the south coast of the island of Møn
, when a barge full of famished Nazi concentration camp prisoners was towed into harbour.
, a barge with 370 starving prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp
near Danzig (now Gdansk) was brought into Klintholm Havn. When Russian forces moved into the areas close to Stutthof on 25 April 1945, those in control of the concentration camp forced the remaining prisoners to march to the coast and then commanded them to board river barges. After a few days, they were taken ashore in Rügen
, Germany, but then were again forced onto another barge on 3 May. This was allowed to drift across the Baltic Sea
until it was finally towed into the harbour at Klintholm Havn by a German tug two days later.
Fortunately the local inhabitants managed to rescue 351 of the prisoners. The other 19 could not be saved and died of disease or starvation during the next few days. Some of them are buried in nearby Magleby churchyard
.
followed by a large number of Russians
. There were also small numbers of Czechoslovakia
ns, Germans
, Estonians
, Latvians
, Lithuanians
, Turks
and Frenchmen
as well as a few citizens from the Free State of Danzig. One of the Poles had a U.S. passport.
, tuberculosis
and the effects of malnutrition
. In addition, they all had fleas. The top priority the first day was to find emergency food supplies for them all. Bread, milk and butter were found in the surrounding area and large quantities of fresh water were provided. A rescue committee was then set up consisting of members of the Red Cross and the Danish resistance movement
. The most critical prisoners were moved to Stege
hospital or to Hotel Søbad, a few hundred meters from the harbour. The remainder stayed on the barge for up to 10 days until accommodation could be found for them in community centres or hostels. The local Red Cross organised the rescue operation assisted by Danish doctors and nurses and by those prisoners who were fit enough to help. Within a few days, the spirits of the prisoners improved as they received nutrition and medical care.
The Danish inscription on the stone reads:
which, roughly translated, means:
The board beside the stone carries explanations in four languages including English. The English reads:
.
She recounts how on 25 April 1945 she and 370 other inmates from Stutthof were pushed out into the Baltic in a derelict barge. For 10 days the barge drifted around the sea north of Germany and south of Denmark. But on the 10th day the vessel was sighted from a little Danish island. It was soon brought into Klitholm Havn harbour on Møn. The date was 5 May 1945, Denmark's liberation day.
"It was unbelievable how they welcomed us. We had lice and fleas and looked like walking skeletons but they came down to the harbour and hugged us. The following day you could read in the local paper: Go down to the harbour and see the floating coffin."
Klintholm Havn
Klintholm Havn is a fishing village and a popular tourist resort on the south coast of Møn, an island in Vordingborg Municipality, southeastern Denmark. As of 1 January 2010, the population is 209.The harbour was built in 1878 by C.S...
, a small fishing village on the south coast of the island of Møn
Møn
-Location:Møn is located just off the south-eastern tip of Zealand from which it is separated by the waters of the Hølen strait between Kalvehave and the island of Nyord, at the northern end of Møn. Further south is Stege Bugt...
, when a barge full of famished Nazi concentration camp prisoners was towed into harbour.
The landing in Klintholm Havn
On 5 May 1945, the day Denmark was liberated from German occupation during 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...
, a barge with 370 starving prisoners from the 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...
near Danzig (now Gdansk) was brought into Klintholm Havn. When Russian forces moved into the areas close to Stutthof on 25 April 1945, those in control of the concentration camp forced the remaining prisoners to march to the coast and then commanded them to board river barges. After a few days, they were taken ashore in Rügen
Rügen
Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.- Geography :Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea...
, Germany, but then were again forced onto another barge on 3 May. This was allowed to drift across the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
until it was finally towed into the harbour at Klintholm Havn by a German tug two days later.
Fortunately the local inhabitants managed to rescue 351 of the prisoners. The other 19 could not be saved and died of disease or starvation during the next few days. Some of them are buried in nearby Magleby churchyard
Magleby Church
Magleby Church is located in the village of Magleby in the east of Møn, an island in south-eastern Denmark.-History:The church was originally built in the Romanesque style in the second half of the 13th century. The rounded tops of bricked-in windows from this period can still be seen on either...
.
Many different nationalities
The prisoners on the barge were nearly all political prisoners, most of whom had been involved in resistance operations. There were also several members of Jehovas Witnesses which had been banned by the Nazi regime. Danish Red Cross archives, which draw on an analysis undertaken by Zygmunt Szatkowski (one of the prisoners), show that the majority of the prisoners were PolesPoles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
followed by a large number of Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
. There were also small numbers of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
ns, Germans
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...
, Estonians
Estonians
Estonians are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns and inhabiting, primarily, the country of Estonia. They speak a Finnic language known as Estonian...
, Latvians
Latvians
Latvians or Letts are the indigenous Baltic people of Latvia.-History:Latvians occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia...
, Lithuanians
Lithuanians
Lithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,765,600 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland. Their native language...
, Turks
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and Frenchmen
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
as well as a few citizens from the Free State of Danzig. One of the Poles had a U.S. passport.
Danish assistance
Shortly after the barge was towed into the harbour, Rasmus Fenger, the local doctor, boarded the vessel and assessed the health of the prisoners. They were nearly all suffering from diseases such as dysentry, typhusTyphus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
, tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
and the effects of malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
. In addition, they all had fleas. The top priority the first day was to find emergency food supplies for them all. Bread, milk and butter were found in the surrounding area and large quantities of fresh water were provided. A rescue committee was then set up consisting of members of the Red Cross and the Danish resistance movement
Danish resistance movement
The Danish resistance movement was an underground insurgency movement to resist the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. Due to the unusually lenient terms given to Danish people by the Nazi occupation authority, the movement was slower to develop effective tactics on a wide scale...
. The most critical prisoners were moved to Stege
Stege
Strege may refer to:*Stege, Denmark*Richard Stege*Stege Creek an alternate name for Baxter Creek, used especially in the Booker T. Washington Park and Stege Marsh areas.*Stege Marsh a wetlands area in Richmond, California...
hospital or to Hotel Søbad, a few hundred meters from the harbour. The remainder stayed on the barge for up to 10 days until accommodation could be found for them in community centres or hostels. The local Red Cross organised the rescue operation assisted by Danish doctors and nurses and by those prisoners who were fit enough to help. Within a few days, the spirits of the prisoners improved as they received nutrition and medical care.
The memorial stone
A memorial stone now stands on the shore of Klinthom Havn at the point where the barge came in. It was erected on 5 May 1995, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the event.The Danish inscription on the stone reads:
- Fra sult og nød, tortur og død
- De mødte på en fremmed kyst
- I hjælpsom ånd, en udstrakt hånd.
which, roughly translated, means:
- From hunger and peril, torture and death,
- They encountered on a foreign shore
- In helping vein, an outstretched hand.
The board beside the stone carries explanations in four languages including English. The English reads:
- On the day of the Liberation of Denmark, 5 May 1945, a barge was washed up on this spot, carrying 370 prisoners from the Nazi concentration camp of Stutthof near Danzig. Close to death from starvation and illness, they had been ordered by their captors to their fate on the Baltic Sea. On the 50th anniversary of the landing, this memorial was erected to commemorate those people who, with no thought for their own safety, saved the lives of 351 of the prisoners. This memorial also honours the memory of those victims who never reached the outstretched hands of the rescuers of Klintholm.
A personal testimony
In her autobiography Unfettered Joy, Hermine Schmidt, a German woman who had been a prisoner at Stutthof because of her religious beliefs as a member of Jehovah's Witnesses, tells her own story of the desperate voyage across the Baltic SeaBaltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
.
She recounts how on 25 April 1945 she and 370 other inmates from Stutthof were pushed out into the Baltic in a derelict barge. For 10 days the barge drifted around the sea north of Germany and south of Denmark. But on the 10th day the vessel was sighted from a little Danish island. It was soon brought into Klitholm Havn harbour on Møn. The date was 5 May 1945, Denmark's liberation day.
"It was unbelievable how they welcomed us. We had lice and fleas and looked like walking skeletons but they came down to the harbour and hugged us. The following day you could read in the local paper: Go down to the harbour and see the floating coffin."
A word of thanks
The following article, drafted by prisoners Szatkowski, Wysocki and Sister Hilda, appeared in Møn's local newspapers and in one national Danish paper between 25 and 30 May 2009:- "We thank you Danes for our lives. Thank you for the really heartfelt welcome you gave us unfortunate souls from Stutthof when we arrived after months or even years of suffering, culminating in 11 days of extreme peril. As a result of poor sanitation and terrible conditions, there was typhus on our ship. Disease spread terrifyingly among us, claiming many lives. Without food, we were driven through wind and storm until we landed happily on the little Danish island of Møn. Its inhabitants received us as if we were their own. You took care of us with real concern, you took the sick off the ship and did your very best for us. Our story is full of gratitude. Special thanks to the Red Cross which, under Mrs Mortensen's leadership, and all the time and strength she devoted to us, has given us back both spiritually and physically so much of what we missed in Stutthof. Just as warmly, we thank the doctors, especially Dr Fenger, Dr Mortensen and Miss Sønderskov, and all the others in Klintholm and the rest of Møn, even if unfortunately we can no longer remember all their names. This is our word of thanks. But it is in our hearts that our greatest gratitude will always be borne."