Camp de concentration de Neuengamme (Allemagne), [1945]. - 14 photos - Photo n° 169122
Photo n°
169122
:
New Nazi horror camp discovered (Neuengamme) One of the worst Nazi concentration camp uncovered by Allied troops was liberated at Wobbelin, Germany, a small town five miles north of Ludwigslust and 50 miles northwest of Berlin. Soldiers of three Allied units -- the 82nd U.S. Airborne Division, the Eighth Infantry Division of the Ninth U.S. Army and airborne troops of the Second British Army -- entered the camp and found sick, starving inmates barely surviving under indescribable conditions of filth and squalor. They found hundreds of dead prisoners in one of the builings while outside, in a yard, hundreds more were found hastily buried in huge pits. One mass grave contained 300 emanciated, disfigured corpses. The dead included Poles, Russians, Frenchmen, Belgians, Dutchmen and Germans, all of whom had been working as slave laborers for the nazis. It is estimated that at least 150 of the original 4000 prisoners succumbed daily, mostly from starvation and savage treatment at the hands of Nazi SS troops who operated the camp. Some of the bodies found were burned almost beyond recognition and systematic torture of the inmates was revealed by the physical condition of most of the survivers. Military Government officers immediatly ordered leading citizens of nearby Ludwigslust and other towns to march through the camp and witness the atrocities committed by representatives of the German Government. Most of the civilians disclaimed any knowledge of the camps existence despite the fact that many ot the prisoners worked in the area. The local residents later were made to exhume the bodies from the mass graves at the camp and provide decent, respectable interment for alll dead prisoners. Two hundred were buried in the public square of Ludwigslust May 7, 1945, and an equal number were buried in the garden of the highest Nazi official of Hagenow. Eighty more were laid to rest in the town of Schwerin. Bippa EA 66655 This photo shows : soldiers of the 32nd U.S. Airborne Division view bodies of dead prisoners lying on the floor of a building at the Wobbelin camp. U.S. signal Corps Photo ETO-HQ-45-45530 Serviced by London OWI (inner full) Certified as passed by scheaf censor. [Belgian Military Mission]
