Hainewalde concentration camp
The KZ Hainewalde was established on 27 March 1933, the SA as a " prison camp " in the grove Ewalder Castle in Saxony.
History
Originally the SA Storm III (Dresden) held the warehouse management under the SA storm leader Ernst Jirka, but in May the line went to the SA -Standarte 102 ( Zittau ) over at SA- Standartenführer Paul Unterstab. Overall, the camp of about 150 men was guarded. Camp commander was SA -Sturmbannführer Müller and his adjutant SA -Sturmbannführer lunch. On April 12, 1933, the camp had 259 prisoners and there were over time almost 400 total, approximately 1000 prisoners sat in Hainewalde one.
A breakdown for Hainewalde revealed that the "protective custody" the regional government of Saxony cost over 130,000 marks. When the camp was disbanded on 10 August 1933, the remaining prisoners were transferred to larger " protective custody " in the castle Hohenstein and the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Castle.
In Hainewalde especially leftist politicians and Jews were imprisoned. In a hut about 150 people were crammed in which the prisoners slept in multi-story bunks on straw mattresses. The prisoners had to attend Protestant church services as well as nightly Nazi teachings. Because of the latter, young and old prisoners were housed separately, we followed the theory that young prisoners when separated from their elders, would be more receptive to the Nazi ideology.
The SA forced the prisoners to detention and tortured under the pretext of interrogation. All wounded and sick, except the heaviest, were transferred without medical treatment to work in the warehouse in the basement of the castle. For interrogation, the SA took an office warehouse management and a special bunker. Prisoners were also forced to procure firewood or clean toilets. Jews and intellectuals were particularly brutalized and humiliated.
The Outlaw German Social Democratic Party supported the prisoners in Hainewalde. The Socialist Workers' Illustrated Newspaper from Prague shows eg a photograph of a grove Ewalder prisoners. A sympathetic SA guard had the image which reveals the cruel detention conditions of prisoners, smuggled out of the camp. The communist underground organization from Zittau also smuggled to let propaganda know the camp to the passengers that they had not been forgotten, " We know that you, have remained faithful despite harassment and terror, the cause of the working class with indomitable courage ... We, as well as the labor movement know very well what Did you have to suffer it. fact that we send you these greetings, despite the difficulties and the illegality in the concentration camp, understood as a manifestation of our undivided solidarity with you! "
The camp authorities ordered strict conditions governing dismissal. Among the pain of arrest, released prisoners signed an explanation which them under oath, forbade the public make the conditions in the camp. According to another document, dated August 5, 1933, promises the dismissed prisoner, not re- engage with the Marxist parties. The journalist and writer Axel Eggebrecht, remembered a rumor that the prisoner would be released on May 1, but it proved to be untenable.
Eggebrechts fellow inmate, a Jewish prisoner named Benno Berg, experienced a rare moment of humor after a re-education lesson. A NSDAP district leader briefed the passengers on the Jewish danger by saying, " The Jews are our misfortune. " The standard expression took advantage. After the speech, he looked at the prisoner, and stopped in front of mountain. Kreisleiter answering questions, gave the mountain the name and place of birth: " Berg, from Reichenberg, Bohemia. " - Not realizing that the prisoner was Jewish, declared the county manager: " A sudetischer comrade Bravo All of you will again belong to us! " Eggebrecht added: "The firebrand 's fat hand knocks the ' non- Aryans ' approvingly on the shoulder ' For me, they are a prime example of a true SA man Heil Hitler! ', His hand raised in the Hitler salute he struts away.. "
Eggebrecht was interrogated but not tortured. In this respect, his experiences from those of other grove Ewalder prisoners differ. Eggelbrecht describes the interest of the questioner figure out is how he, after a childhood in "good home," with the Communists came in contact. His father's intercession with an influential Saxon officials, Professor Apel, led to his dismissal. Eggebrechts father wrote to him from Apel's interest in his case. Some time later, his father visited him in the camp. Exclaiming that the conditions of detention of his son, " unworthy ", the father said, adding that he should be patient, because "it will not last long! " A few days later Eggebrecht was to bring after signing a statement no "abomination stories " circulated dismissed.
1948 condemned the Bautzen district court 39 guards to prison terms for their role in the mistreatment of prisoners in Hainewalde. The hearing was held under the auspices of the Soviet occupying power, further details are unknown.