Salzwedel

Members of the Boys were slave labourers in the Salzwedel labour camp, a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg, Germany.

Neuengamme concentration camp was operated by Nazi Germany. The camp had 99 subcamps.

The Boys were teenage and child-Holocaust survivors, who were brought to the UK after the war for rest and rehabilitation.

In late July or early August 1944, the only women’s satellite camp of Neuengamme concentration camp was established in Salzwedel.

History

The prisoners were forced to work in the Polte factory, which was based in Magdeburg but had a branch in Salzwedel, which had operated under the name of Draht-und Metallfabrik Salzwedel. The factory began produced infantry and flak ammunition.

Most of the 1,520 Jewish women in the Salzwedel satellite camp came from Hungary, while the rest came from Poland and Greece. The women arrived at Salzwedel on three transports from Auschwitz II-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen in late July/early August, in October and in December 1944. They were forced to work in two 12-hour shifts and were housed in a camp of huts in the grounds of a fertiliser plant on Gardelegener Strasse.

Liberation

In April, women from the evacuated Porta Westfalica-Hausberge and Fallersleben satellite camps arrived at Salzwedel, bringing the number of prisoners to around 3,000. Salzwedel was the only satellite camp of Neuengamme concentration camp not to be evacuated. The prisoners were liberated by members of the Ninth U.S. Army on 14 April 1945.

The name of the commander of the Salzwedel satellite camp for women is not known.

Aftermath

After May 8, 1945, investigations in the British Occupation Zone questioned former SS female subcamp guards but there were no criminal prosecutions against any of the Salzwedel subcamp guards.