Kemna concentration camp

The KZ Kemna was a concentration camp on the Wupper in Wuppertal district Kemna between Beyenburg and Oberbarmen.

History

The camp consisted of July 1933 until 19 January 1934, and was operated by the SA- subgroup Dusseldorf and Wuppertal police president Willi Veller with the backing of the district government Dusseldorf. Commander of the concentration camp was the SA storm leader Hugo Neuhoff for a short time. He was soon replaced by the native of Wuppertal Alfred Hilgers, the same board as personnel in charge of Staff of the SA subgroup Dusseldorf the SA Standarte 258 in the protective custody facility in Coburg Mettmann. In a former cleaning rag factory on the banks of the Wupper Beyenburger street just off the SA- guards herded up to 1,100 prisoners together under catastrophic hygienic conditions. Torture and arbitrary violence were commonplace. The number of prisoners is estimated at 4500.

Arrested were primarily political prisoners from the ranks of the KPD and the SPD from the Bergische Land. But transports and individual prisoners also came from the governmental district belonging cities of Duisburg, Dusseldorf, Krefeld and Essen.

While the guards were composed in the other concentration camps in various parts of Germany, it turned Kemna this regard, a special feature is: inmates and guards often knew each other personally, as the guards of the concentration camp Kemna was composed of parts of the local SA.

Tribute to the victims

On the 50th anniversary of the institution as a memorial (51 ° 15 ' 21 " N, 7 ° 15' 19" O51.2557777777787.2553611111111 ) was built over the factory site in 1983, where every year organized by the members of the Youth Council Wuppertal wreath-laying ceremony takes place. The bronze bas-relief was designed by an art - work of the Wuppertal Community High School On Kothen. The path leading to the memorial carries since 1990 the name of the youngest Kemna prisoner Karl Ibach.

In the past, the memorial was repeatedly raped by rioters from the far-right area, among other protruding parts were cut off. The damage was repaired immediately, for those responsible and prosecuted.

From Langerfelder market labeled with wooden signs Mahnmalweg leads to the memorial. It was established by the youth welfare Wuppertal in collaboration with several urban high schools in the fall of 2001.

In summer 2005, the history of the concentration camp Kemnas been extensively documented in an exhibition in the Museum of Wülfing Radevormwald. Focus of this part of the exhibition were the biographies of the victims Radevormwald, Wermelskirchen and Hückeswagen.

In Radevormwald remember today Mansion memorial plaques with the names of 16 victims on behalf of the approximately 200 Rader citizens who have suffered in 1933 in KZ Kemna.

Known prisoners

• Wilhelm Bökenkrüger
• Heinrich Hirtsiefer
• Oskar Hoffmann
• Karl Ibach
• Max Leven
• Friedrich Senger