| History
/ Memorial
Place / Historic events |
The
massacre on concentration camp prisoners and deportees in the
"Isenschnibber Feldscheune" in Gardelegen
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A
short overview
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The
memorial place "Isenschnibber
Feldscheune" is in legal sponsorship of the town
Gardelegen. To preserve the memorial place the town is supported
by capital from the budget of the country.
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The
memorial place is a special cemetery for prisoners from national
socialist concentration camps that were massacred here in April
1945. The murdered ones were citizens of different European
countries, especially from Poland, the Soviet Union and France.
Many of those were
Jews. The murdered ones belonged to all categories of the
concentration camp prisoners.
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In
Gardelegen and the surrounding area there was no external camp
or external command of a concentration camp at any time.
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In
the beginning of the month April in 1945 the external camps of
the concentration camp Hamburg-Neuengamme in the north of
Germany and the concentration camp Dora-Nordhausen had to be
evacuated by force. Goal of the evacuation deportation was to
put those prisoners, that were still fit to work, from the
endangered camps to the camps more in the inside of the Reich
because of the situation of the front. The employable workers of
the DORA-camps Rottleberode, Ellrich, Günzerode, Stempeda, Nüxei,
Ilfeld and others of the Harz area were forced to march towards
the concentration camp Sachsenhausen (near Berlin). Those
deportations were supposed to be managed on foot and by
transportations with the help of trains.
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The
rail transport of human beings in Güterloren was attacked when
the American Air Force wanted to paralyse the German lines of
communications. Near Mieste, to the west of Gardelegen, a group
of deportees mainly from DORA-Rottleberode was attacked by air
raids. Numerous prisoners were able to flee. But most of them
were caught in the villages and near the villages.
Thereby it came to a killing of the ones that tried to flee and
the unmanageable ones.
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The
damage of the rail road near Mieste caused afterwards the Stop
of more evacuation transports of concentration camp prisoners,
especially from the medical-section of the camp Hannover-Stöcken
from the concentration camp Hamburg-Neuengamme.
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South-eastern
of Gardelegen there was also a Stop of a train from the
DORA-camp Wieda because of the same reasons. Several prisoners
were also able to escape at first.
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The
escape of the prisoners was at first advantaged by several
desertions of the watchmen of concentration camps.
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The
owner of the police power tried to end the escape and the danger
of an escape of more than 2000 concentration camp prisoners
through hastily drummed search parties consisting of people from
the country, farmers and the Hitler-youth, who were supported by
members of the armed forces from time to time.
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A
lot of prisoners were caught in Mieste and Letzlingen. The
prisoners were lead out town in the northern direction on foot
and in several groups because of a demand of the civil authority.
The prisoners in Letzlingen were supposed to cross the Elbe
eastwards. Thereby the guards killed the
prisoners that were not able to march and that were remarkable.
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The
groups of prisoners that were watched and that started in Mieste
were finally redirected southwards to Gardelegen and were
locked up in a evacuated military object - the Riding- and
driving school (Remonteschule) of the armed forces on the
outskirts. This object became then a collecting point for all
the prisoners and deportees that were caught after escaping.
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Gardelegen
was a distinctive garrison town. In and around Gardelegen were
several units of the armed forces with thousands of soldiers fit
for action. American troops that were rapidly moving forward
towards the Elbe did so far omit Gardelegen so that Gardelegen
was finally closed in in those hours.
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The
concentration camp prisoners that were caught and fed in the
former stables of the Riding- and driving school of the armed
forces were lead out of those stables on the demand of military
authorities in the year 1945 on April 13 because they were not
able to march. Since that time the guards consisted of numerous
prisoners because they were willing to volunteer when the
SS-leader of the transports asked them. For that they got
equipped with German uniforms and firearms.
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Finally
the prisoners were lead to a nearby big solid barn that was
owned by the Manor "Isenschnibbe" of Gardelegen.
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There
the pent-up prisoners were consciously stampeded through
fire-raising. The panic and the tries to escape of the prisoners
were used by the guards to possibly liquidate all the prisoners.
The new-recruited prisoner-guards took also part in the killing.
There also happened to be a ruthless use of grenades and shots
that were able to destroy a tank at once. Survivors of the
massacre were then specifically shot to death.
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Only
a few prisoners were able to flee or to survive injured among the
dead.
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After
the massacre on the military area, which could be noticed in the
nearby housing development because of the shooting for hours,
all male adolescents and men from Gardelegen and the surrounding
area were drummed together on the order of the owner of
the police power. They got to know on the spot that they had to
bury the dead people of the massacre in the "Isenschnibber
Feldscheue". Thereby it came to a killing of the injured
ones.
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Because
of the upcoming handing-over of the town and garrison
Gardelegen to the up-coming American troops it was not possible
to bury the thousands of dead completely.
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In
the evening of April 14 in the year 1945 the fight commandant of
Gardelegen handed over the town and all units of the armed
forces without fighting to the American troops. In the late
forenoon of April 15 in 1945 a patrol of the American troops
discovered the site of murder, the "barn of horror". A
few days later the investigations by special officers of the US
army started in this case of war crime.
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The
American commandant of Gardelegen ordered that all male
"Nazis" of Gardelegen had to bury the dead in common
graves. This action was cancelled after a few hours, instead it
was ordered that all male habitants that were over 16 and
participated in a national socialist organization had to, as a
punishment, transport the bodies with their very hands and bury
them in a deep hole with a white sheet on a new special cemetery
that had to be created.
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The
commandant of the responsible unit of the US army placed on
record that on this special cemetery the bones of 1,016 human
beings were buried. The cemetery was set up from April 21 till
April 25 in 1945. The opening of the cemetery was carried out
with a religious and military ceremonial. The dead of the new
created cemetery were commended to the mercy of the almighty God
after the roman-catholic reformed and Jewish rite. This special
cemetery received the status of a military cemetery. It was
created after the instructions of the American military service
instructions for military common cemeteries and was also
supposed to get such a look.
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The
commanding general of the US division, that had its headquarter
in Gardelegen during the months April and may in 1945, installed
a board on the special cemetery for the victims of the massacre
whose text sounds like this in the German and English language:
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”Gardelegen.
Military Cemetery. Here lie 1016 allied prisoners of war who
were murdered by their captors. They were buried by citizens of
Gardelegen who are charged with responsibility that graves are
for. Ever kept as green as the memory of these unfortunates will
be kept in the hearts of freedom-loving men everywhere.
Established under supervision of 102 D infantry division united
states army. Vandalism will be punished by maximum penalties
under laws of military government. Frank A. Keating Major
General U.S.A. Commanding”
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The
cemetery for graves of the military cemetery was ordered by the
civil administration, that was appointed by the Americans, as a
punishment and as education of male persons who were (real or
supposed) members of national socialist organisations.
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The
barn was supposed to be abandoned to ruin.
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On
July 1 in 1945 Gardelegen became practically part of the soviet
zone of occupation in Germany. The original intentions of the
American occupying power were made irrelevant. On April 14 in
1946 a memorial stone was dedicated to the victims of the
massacre by the survivors of the deportation marches.
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The
war crimes, the massacre of Gardelegen, with its causes,
processes and circumstances was described and interpreted in
many ways in the last decades.
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The
event in April 1945 in Gardelegen has never been evaluated in a
constitutional juristic way. The event in April 1945 and the
activities after 1945 concerning the maintenance of the memorial
of the victims of the massacre are for many years matter of
extensive and very complicated scientific investigations in the
museum of the town Gardelegen.
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Further
information:
Stadtmuseum Gardelegen
Rathausplatz 10
D-39638 Gardelegen
Telefon: +49 (3907) 65 19
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