Soldau concentration camp - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Soldau concentration camp was a concentration camp established by Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

during World War II

World 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...

in Działdowo , which after the occupation of Poland was part of East Prussia

East Prussia

East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

.

With the approval of Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...

, Otto Rasch

Otto Rasch

SS-Brigadeführer Otto Rasch was a high-ranking Nazi official in the occupied Eastern territories, commanding Einsatzgruppe C until October 1941. As a commanding officer, he was a Holocaust perpetrator and mass murderer.-Biography:Rasch was born in Friedrichsruh, northern Germany...

founded the camp in the winter of 1939/40 as a Durchgangslager (Dulag), or transit camp, where political prisoner

Political prisoner

According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....

s could be secretly executed. In accordance with Action T4

Action T4

Action T4 was the name used after World War II for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination"...

, mental patients at sanatoria in East Prussia

East Prussia

and Regierungsbezirk Zichenau were taken to the Soldau camp; 1,558 patients were murdered by the Lange Commando

Herbert Lange

Herbert Lange was a Sturmbannführer in the SS. He was responsible for numerous crimes against humanity related to the murder of mental patients in Poland and in Germany.- Background :...

in a gas van from May 21 to June 8, 1940.

During the summer of 1941, the Soldau camp was reorganized as an Arbeitserziehungslager (literally "work education camp"). The labor camp

Labor camp

A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...

's prisoners, who were divided into separate camps based on gender, were engaged in forced agricultural labor. This camp was closed in January 1945.

13,000 out of 30,000 prisoners were murdered. Known victims include:

Antoni Julian Nowowiejski
Antoni Julian Nowowiejski
Antoni Julian Nowowiejski was a Polish bishop of Płock , titular archbishop of Silyum, first secretary of Polish Episcopal Conference , honorary citizen of Płock and historian...

, Roman Catholic bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

(1858-1941)
Leon Wetmański, bishop (1886-1941)
Mieczysława Kowalska, nun (1902-1941)

See also