‘We knew that as long as we still had our strength and were able to work we would live; if not, we were done for.’
(Edmund Radziewski)
Sanitary conditions in the buildings that housed concentration camp prisoners in Hamburg were atrocious. The men and women were undernourished; their thin prisoner uniforms offered no protection from the cold, wet weather; and they were constantly exposed to violence and abuse at the hands of the guards. Exhausted from their hard work, many fell ill. At least 2,300 prisoners died in the Hamburg satellite camps. Records show that a total of 42,900 prisoners died at Neuengamme concentration camp.
‘People went past us, and they ignored us, didn’t look at us; they didn’t want to see us.’
(Edith Kraus)
The concentration camp prisoners would have been more than conspicuous in Hamburg’s city area. In fact, Hamburg’s resident population would have seen the prisoners in the street, on their way to work and at their workplace. The vast majority of the people of Hamburg remained indifferent to these concentration camp prisoners. Very few ever mustered up the courage and the strength to rise up against their treatment.
The exhibition in two languages ‘A City and Its Concentration Camp. Prisoners of the Neuengamme concentration camp in wartime Hamburg 1943-45’ is currently on show at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial. It looks at how prisoners from Neuengamme concentration camp were widely deployed in the city centre and those who initiated those deployments.
The exhibition can also be viewed online:
http://www.offenes-archiv.de/de/WeitereAusstellungen/rathausausstellung_2019_stadt_startseite.xml