Follow
Sonnenburg concentration camp was opened on 3 April 1933 on the initiative of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior and Justice in Sonnenburg near Küstrin (Kostrzyn nad Odrą) in the Neumark in a former prison.
History Although the state of hygiene in the building, which had been closed in 1930, was appalling, officials of the Prussian justice ministry recommended it as a suitable site. They estimated the capacity of the building at 941 so-called protective custody prisoners (Schutzhäftlinge), who could be accommodated either in single cells or in communal cells holding up to 20, 30 and 60 people each. The first 200 prisoners along with 60 SA auxiliary police came on 3 April 1933 from the Berlin Police Presidium. Later, on the order of the head of the Prussian Gestapo, prisoners were deported from the penal institution of Gollnow in Pomerania to Sonnenburg, bringing the number of inmates to 1,000.
Sonnenburg concentration camp was closed on 23 April 1934. The prison still exists. Since the beginning of the Second World War in 1939 the concentration camp or punishment camp (Straflager) continued as a concentration and labour camp for alleged anti-German people from the occupied territories until 1945. Amongst its inmates were the resistance fighters, Jean-Baptiste Lebas and Bjørn Egge. The French spy, René Lefebvre, father of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, succumbed in 1944 to the consequences of imprisonment there.
Staff The first commandant was police lieutenant (Polizeioberleutnant) Keßler. After him came:
Police second lieutenant (Polizeileutnant) Bark Police lieutenant Siegmund SA-Sturmführer Jahr SA-Sturmführer Bahr initially commanded the infamous Berlin SA storm troops (Stürme) No. 1 Horst Wessel and No. 33 Mordsturm Maikowski, which were responsible for guarding prisoners. They were reinforced by members of the police. In late April, the Berlin SA men were replaced by others from Frankfurt/Oder. At the end of August the SS took over, as they did in many camps, with 150 men from the 27th SS Regiment (SS-Standarte 27) from Frankfurt/Oder.
Prisoners During the early years of their rule, and long before the start of the war, the Nazi regime mainly imprisoned Communists and Social Democrats in Sonnenburg. These included:
Georg Benjamin, doctor and resistance fighter
Rudolf Bernstein, official of the Communist Party of Germany, the KPD
Erna Gersinski, KPD functionary
Ottomar Geschke, KPD politician
Ernst Grube, amateur sportsman, Reichstag MP
Gerhard Kratzat, KPD
Wilhelm Kasper, KPD functionary
Leo Müffelmann, archivist and freemason
Josef Nawrocki, KPD functionary
Michael Niederkirchner, KPD functionary
Carl von Ossietzky, pacifist
Gustav-Adolf Prinz, KPD functionary
Ernst Schneller, Lehrer, KPD politician
Erich Steinfurth, KPD politician
Walter Stoecker, MdR in the KPD, party chairman
Ernst Oberdörster, member of the Prussian Landtag KPD
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnenburg_concentration_camp