Inside of the concentration camps established during the Second World War by the SS, there
was a huge amount of suffering and evil. One of the camps established in the north operated
by the Nazis was Stutthof which was found to the east of the city of Danzig. It was
set up after the Invasion of Poland, and was used to imprison polish leaders and many other
people in society. But then as time went on it became a concentration camp which became
notorious for its evil, and inside were many female and male guards who were known for
being executioners and killers. But the story of Stutthof is one which saw around 65,000
people never make it out of the camp alive, and the conditions there were truly terrible.
Join us today as we look at the horrific evil of Stutthof Concentration Camp, remember to
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Stutthof concentration camp was set up to help with the Nazis purge of the polish elites,
and before the war began there were lists drawn up for people to be arrested. Stutthof
began life as a civil internment camp which was overseen by the Danzig police chief, and
then it expanded heavily. It became a labour education site before it then became a concentration
camp, but the original site was surrounded by a barbed wire fence and it was rather small
to begin with. The first camp had 8 barrack buildings for prisoners and a place for the
SS guards to live. In 1943 a new camp was made alongside the original one, and this
had a high voltage electrified barbed wire fence surrounding it, and it had 30 new barracks.
Also added were a gas chamber and a crematoria, and mass executions and exterminations occurred
inside of these. Mobile Gas vans were also used to execute as many people as the SS could.
Those who worked at the camp, were SS guards from Germany. Later Ukranians were brought
in to help, but amongst the guards were women, or SS Aufsehrinnen. Almost 300 women would
serve inside of Stutthof Concentration Camp and less than 10 were ever brought to justice.
The women were known for their evil, with women such as Jenny Wanda Barkmann being known
as ‘the beautiful spectre,’ for the fact she sent many children and women to their
deaths in the gas chambers. One other female guard that worked at Stutthof was Herta Bothe,
who was a 6 foot 4 woman who was known as the Sadist of Stutthof. She was seen beating
inmates to death, but she was never executed for her war crimes despite the fact the evidence
was very much against her at trial. But the first 150 prisoners were held there the day
after the invasion of Poland was sprung, and many Jews also found themselves imprisoned
there. Within the first few weeks of the war, 6000 people were imprisoned at Stutthof.
As time went on, thousands more people were transferred to Stutthof with many coming from
other concentration camps such as Auschwitz. There were people from many different countries
held there, including Germans, Dutch, Belgians, French, Danes and many other nationalities.
In total 110,000 prisoners passed through the gates, and the conditions at the camp
were very tough and brutal. Because of this thousands died from stavration and disease,
with typhus epidemics causing chaos amongst the prisoner population. Those who were considered
too weak to work were often killed inside the small gas chambers, but executions were
carried out at the site too. There was a firing range and in here dozens of prisoners would
be shot by SS firing squads, and also doctors and nurses would execute inmates using lethal
injections of phenol to the heart. The mud became a weapon around also, and prisoners
were drowned in the mud, and many were clubbed or were beaten to death by the guards.
Lots of inmates were killed ultimately by the forced labour conditions there, and they
worked in SS owned businesses and also armaments factories to help the German war effort. Some
inmates were marched each day outside the camp to go and work in local brickyards or
in agriculture. But Stutthof became a site which became important to the German war effort,
and to armaments production as an aircraft factory was even made there. Subcamps were
created to help the German productions too, and there were actually 105 sub camps established
that fell under the umbrella of Stutthof. One former prisoner wrote, ‘'To the sounds
of striking axes and crashing trees, a huge encampment is taking shape in the forest near
the coast. Columns of emaciated men sag under the weight of bricks and iron bars, huge pine
trunks cut into their shoulders, crushing them down to the ground. Encircled by barbed-wire,
a long row of barracks has grown out of the ground, cleared by the sweat and toil of the
prisoners. The barrels of machine-guns glitter where the frozen guards stand by, in the ice-bound
world around; even their breath forms icicles. Hovering above the camp are pulsating columns
of smoke - as yet, still that normal smoke from burning wood.'
There were two commandants at Stutthof which was not many considering at some sites the
SS swapped their commandants about. This means that they must have been impressed with the
murderous antics of the camp leaders. Max Pauly served as the commandant from 1939 to
1942, and he was succeeded by Paul-Werner Hoppe who took over until the camps evacuation.
But this began on the 25th January 1945. As the Second World War had turned against the
Germans heavily, Heinrich Himmler ordered the SS to ensure that not one single prisoner
of the concentration camps fell into the hands of the enemies or the allies. Because of this,
a large scale evacuation of Stutthof began, and there were around 50,000 prisoners who
needed moving inside the Stutthof site. The death marches were ordered and inmates had
to march long distances, and if they could not keep up they were brutally slaughtered
by SS guards who would shoot them instantly.
Some prisoners were marched towards Lauenberg in the East of Germany, but the Soviet advancement
cut them off, and they were forced back to Stutthof. But three months later the prisoners
that hadn’t been moved were removed by sea as the camp was encircled by the Soviets.
Many prisoners were forced to walk into the sea, and they were then mown down by machine
gun fire. One barge of prisoners who were starving was later towed into harbour in Denmark,
and many of these were cared for inside Denmark. The Soviets would liberate Stutthof on the
9th May 1945, but they came across just roughly around 100 prisoners who managed to hide during
the evacuations. But then as the war came to an end in Europe, the attitudes came to
punishing those men and women who were responsible for the crimes of the concentration camps.
The Nuremberg Trials utilised evidence at sites such as Stutthof, but then other local
and regional trials sought to punish those who worked at different camps. Poland held
four trials against former workers of Stutthof and they were accused of crimes of war and
crimes against humanity.
The first trial occurred between the 25th May and the 31st May 1946, and on trial were
30 former guards including a number of women. All were found guilty and 11 were sentenced
to death for their crimes, with the others getting prison sentences. More trials took
place, and more recently a trial occurred in November 2018 when former guard Johann
Rehbogen was accused of being part of the killing process. At the age of 94 he was brought
to court, but was said to have later been unfit to stand trial. But in 2021 a 96 year
old lady, Armgard Furchener was given a suspended prison sentence for her involvement at Stutthof,
and the fact she was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of more than 10,000
people. But despite the trials there were still very few people who were executed of
imprisoned for their crimes at the camp. Even Herta Bothe who was mentioned earlier was
punished for her crimes at Bergen-Belsen, and her antics at Stutthof were largely discarded
by the courtroom.
But Stutthof Concentration Camp was the place where 110,000 prisoners were sent and around
65,000 would never make it out alive. Disease caused chaos there as did the SS guards who
inflicted such violence and barbarism onto the prisoners on a daily basis. It was a site
which was horrific and it was one which was similar to other camps such as Bergen-Belsen
and Auschwitz, with a huge killing operation in place.
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