Stutthof concentration camp
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Stutthof (Sztutowo) was the first concentration camp built by the Nazi regime outside of Germany, on September 2, 1939. It was located in small town of Sztutowo in Danziger-Land County of Freistadt Danzig, 34 km from Danzig city (Gdansk). It was also the last camp liberated by the Allies, on May 9, 1945.
The Nazi authorities of the Free City of Danzig were compiling material about known Jews as early as 1936, and also reviewing suitable places to build concentration camps in their area. The first prisoners were 150 Jewish Danzig citizens. Prisoners from other countries along the Baltic Sea were transported there in 1944. A large number of people have perished of hunger and frost on the roads and by British bombardment of refugee ships, during the Soviet conquest of eastern Germany. Stutthof was not mentioned in the Nuremberg trials.
The inmate population rose to 6,000 in the following two weeks, on September 15 1939
In 1942 the first female prisoners and SS women arrived in Stutthof, including Herta Bothe. A total of over 130 women served in the Stutthof complex of camps spread across the Baltic coast of Poland. Today we know of thirty-four female guards who served in Stutthof, inluding Gerda Steinhoff, Rosy Suess, Ewa Paradies, and Jenny-Wanda Barkmann. Starting in June 1944, the SS in Stutthof began conscripting women from Danzig and the surrounding cities to come to Stutthof and train as camp guards because of a severe guard shortage.
The "old camp" comprised eight barracks for the inmates and a "kommandantur" for the SS guards, totalling 120,000 m². In 1942, a "new camp" was built with 30 new barracks, raising the total area to 1.2 km². A crematory and gas chamber were added in 1943, just in time to start mass executions when Stutthof was included on the "Endlösung" on June 1944. Mobile gas wagons were also used to complement the maximum capacity of the gas chamber (150 people per execution) when needed.
There were 115,000 to 127,000 inmates interned at Stutthof from 1939 until its liberation by the Soviet army, with a total number of dead somewhere between 65,000 and 85,000 people, with 22,500 more that were moved to other camps as the Allied forces approached.
These totals are thought to be conservative, as it is believed that inmates sent for immediate execution were not registered.
The former prisoner of Stutthoff and Lithuanian writer Balys Sruoga wrote afterall a novel Dievų miškas (The Forest of Gods) describing the everyday life of this camp.
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Subcamps and external Kommandos
There were 40 units attached to Stutthof main camp, listed in the List of subcamps of Stutthof.
The Stutthof Trials
After the war, the Soviets and Polish held four trials against former guards and kapos of Stutthof, charging them with crimes of war and crimes against humanity. The First trial was held against 30 ex-officials and kapos of the camp, at Gdansk, from April 25, 1946, to May 31, 1946. The Soviet/Polish Special Criminal Court found all of them guilty of the charges. Eleven of them, including the former commander, Johann Pauls, were sentenced to death. The rest were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.
Some of the sentences of the First trial:
- Johann Pauls: Death Sentence (Executed on July 4 1946)
- Gerda Steinhoff: Death Sentence (Executed on July 4 1946)
- Kapo Josef Reiter: Death Sentence (Executed on July 4 1946)
- Wanda Klaff: Death Sentence (Executed on July 4 1946)
- Erna Beilhardt: 5 Years Imprisonment
- Kapo Waclaw Kozlowski: Death Sentence (Executed on July 4 1946)
- Jenny-Wanda Barkmann: Death Sentence (Executed on July 4 1946)
- Kapo Fanciszek Szopinski: Death Sentence (Executed on July 4 1946)
- Ewa Paradies: Death Sentence (Executed on July 4 1946)
- Kapo Kazimierz Kowalski: 3 Years Imprisonment
- Jan Breit: Death Sentence (Executed on July 4 1946)
- Kapo Tadeusz Kopczynski: Death Sentence (Executed on July 4 1946)
- Elisabeth Becker: Death Sentence (Executed on July 4 1946)
- Werner Hoppe: 9 Years Imprisonment
The Second trial was held from January 8, 1947, to January 31, 1947, at Gdansk, before a Polish Special Criminal Court. Twenty-four ex-officials and guards of the Stutthof concentration camp were judged and found guilty. Ten were sentenced to death.
The sentences of the Second trial:
- Theodor Meyer: Death Sentence (Executed on October 10, 1947)
- Ewald Foth: The Death Sentence (Executed on October 10, 1947)
- Karl Reger: 8 Years Imprisonment
- Eduard Zerlin: 12 Years Imprisonment
- Emil Wenzel: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Adalbert Wolter: 8 Years Imprisonment
- Karl Eggert: Death Sentence (Executed on October 10, 1947)
- Wilhelm Vogler: 15 Years Imprisonment
- Paul Wellnitz: Death Sentence (Executed on October 10, 1947)
- Kapo Alfred Nikolaysen: Death Sentence (Executed on October 10, 1947)
- Hans Rach: Death Sentence (Executed on October 10, 1947)
- Adolf Grams: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Josef Wennhardt: 8 Years Imprisonment
- Fritz Peters: Death Sentence (Executed on October 10, 1947)
- Kurt Dietrich: Death Sentence (Executed on October 10, 1947)
- Hugo Ziehm: 3 Years Imprisonment
- Erich Thun: Life Imprisonment
- Albert Paulitz: Death Sentence (Executed on October 10, 1947)
- Werner Wöllnitz: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Martin Stage: 8 Years Imprisonment
- Oskar Gottchau: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Karl Zurell: Death Sentence (Executed on October 10, 1947)
- Walter Englert: 3 Years Imprisonment
- Johannes Görtz: 8 Years Imprisonment
The Third trial was held from November 5, 1947, to November 10, 1947, at Gdansk, before a Polish Special Criminal Court. Twenty ex-officials and guards were judged. Nineteen were found guilty, and one was acquitted.
The sentences of the Third trial:
- Karl Meinck: 12 Years Imprisonment
- Gustav Eberle: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Harry Müller: 4 Years Imprisonment
- Alfred Tissler: 5 Years Imprisonment
- Otto Schneider: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Johann Lichtner: 5 Years Imprisonment
- Ernst Thulke: 5 Years Imprisonment
- Otto Welke: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Willy Witt: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Heinz Löwen: 5 Years Imprisonment
- Erich Stampniok: 5 Years Imprisonment
- Richard Timm: 4 Years Imprisonment
- Adolf Klaffke: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Hans Möhrke: 4 Years Imprisonment
- Hans Tolksdorf: Acquitted & Released
- Nikolaus Dirnberger: 4 Years Imprisonment
- Friedrich Tessmer: 4 Years Imprisonment
- Erich Jassen: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Johann Sporer: 4 Years Imprisonment
- Nikolai Klawan: 3 Years Imprisonment
The Fourth and last trial was, as usual, held at Gdansk before a Polish Special Criminal Court, from November 19, 1947, to November 29, 1947. Twenty-seven ex-officials and guards were judged, 26 found guilty and one acquitted.
Sentences of the Fourth trial:
- Christof Schwarz: 3 Years Imprisonment
- Albert Weckmüller: 15 Years Imprisonment
- Kurt Reduhn: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Walter Ringewald: 7 Months Imprisonment
- Hermann Link: 5 Years Imprisonment
- Richard Wohlfeil: 7 Months Imprisonment
- Waldemar Henke: 5 Years Imprisonment
- Anton Kniffke: 3 Years Imprisonment
- Kapo Franz Spillmann: Acquitted & Released
- Gustav Brodowski: 7 Months Imprisonment
- Johann Wrobel: 7 Months Imprisonment
- Ernst Knappert: 7 Months Imprisonment
- Martin Pentz: 5 Years Imprisonment
- Horst Köpke: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Bernard Eckermann: 7 Months Imprisonment
- Rudolf Berg: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Josef Stahl: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Johann Pfister: 5 Years Imprisonment
- Johannes Wall: 5 Years Imprisonment
- Leopold Baumgartner: 7 Months Imprisonment
- Willi Buth: Life Imprisonment
- Richard Akolt: 3 Years Imprisonment
- Fritz Glawe: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Emil Lascheit: 10 Years Imprisonment
- Gustav Kautz: 5 Years Imprisonment
- Emil Paul: 7 Months Imprisonment
- Erich Mertens: 5 Years Imprisonment
See also
External links:
- Stutthof National Museum (http://www.stutthof.pl/)
- KL Stutthof monography (http://www.kki.net.pl/~museum/monografia.htm) (Polish)
- SS personnel serving at Ravensbrück (http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=3682)
- SS personnel serving at Stutthof (http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=3684)