Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp
Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the villages of Natzweiler and Struthof in the Gau Baden-Alsace of Germany, on territory annexed from France on a de facto basis in 1940. It operated from 21 May 1941 to September 1944, and was the only concentration camp established by the Germans in the territory of pre-war France. The camp was located in a heavily-forested and isolated area at an elevation of 800 metres (2,600 ft).
| Natzweiler-Struthof | |
|---|---|
| Nazi concentration camp | |
View of the camp after liberation | |
| Coordinates | 48°27′17″N 7°15′16″E |
| Known for | Nacht und Nebel resistance fighters, Jewish skull collection |
| Location | Nazi Germany 1941–44 (de facto) (modern-day Bas-Rhin, France) |
| Operated by | the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) |
| Commandant | |
| Operational | May 1941 – September 1944 |
| Number of gas chambers | one from April 1943 |
| Inmates | mainly resistance fighters from occupied European nations |
| Number of inmates | 52,000 estimated |
| Killed | 22,000 estimated |
| Liberated by | French 1st Army, U.S. 6th Army Group, 23 November 1944 |
| Notable inmates | Boris Pahor, Trygve Bratteli, Charles Delestraint, Per Jacobsen, Asbjørn Halvorsen, Diana Rowden, Vera Leigh, Andrée Borrel, Sonya Olschanezky |
| Notable books | Necropolis, The Names of the Numbers, The Nazi Hunters by Damien Lewis |
| Website | www |
About 52,000 prisoners were estimated to be held there during its time of operation. The prisoners were mainly from the resistance movements in German-occupied territories. It was a labor camp, a transit camp and, as the war went on, a place of execution. Some died of exhaustion and starvation – there were an estimatued 22,000 deaths at the camp and its network of subcamps. Many prisoners were moved to other camps; in particular, in 1944 the former head of Auschwitz concentration camp was brought in to evacuate the prisoners of Natzweiler-Struthof to Dachau as the Allied armies approached. Only a small staff of Nazi SS personnel remained when the camp was liberated by the French First Army under the command of the U.S. Sixth Army Group on 23 November 1944.
The anatomist August Hirt made a Jewish skull collection, whose purpose was to portray Jews as racially inferior, at the camp. A documentary movie was made about the 86 named men and women who were killed there for that project. Some of the people responsible for atrocities in this camp were brought to trial after the war ended. The camp is preserved as a museum in memory of those held or killed there. The European Centre of Deported Resistance Members is located at this museum, focusing on those held. A monument to the departed stands at the site. The present museum was restored in 1980 after damage by neo-Nazis in 1976. Among notable prisoners, the writer Boris Pahor was interned in Natzweiler-Struthof and wrote his novel Necropolis based on his experience.