Dessauer Ufer
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''Dessauer Ufer'' was a subcamp of the
Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and List of subcamps of Neuengamme, more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme, Hamburg, N ...
in
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
, located inside the
Port of Hamburg The Port of Hamburg (, ) is a seaport on the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany, from its mouth on the North Sea. Known as Germany's "Gateway to the World" (), it is the country's largest seaport by volume. In terms of TEU throughput, Hambur ...
on the '' Kleiner Grasbrook'' in
Veddel Veddel () is a quarter (''Stadtteil'') in the Hamburg-Mitte borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg on the homonymous island in the Elbe river, in northern Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a count ...
. It was in operation from July 1944 to April 1945. Inmates were mostly used for forced labour at rubble clearing and building in the Hamburg port area.


Location

The subcamp was located in a warehouse (''Lagerhaus G'') in Hamburg
Veddel Veddel () is a quarter (''Stadtteil'') in the Hamburg-Mitte borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg on the homonymous island in the Elbe river, in northern Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a count ...
on the ''Dessauer Ufer'' or ''Dessauer Strasse'' (at the ''Kleiner Grasbrook''). It was built in 1903.


Operation

The camp was the first subcamp for women in the Neuengamme system, opened in mid-July 1944 for 1,000
Czechs The Czechs (, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavs, West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common Bohemia ...
and Hungarian
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
women selected from
Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
. Around one month later, they were joined by 500 more
Polish-Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...
from the
Łódź ghetto The Łódź Ghetto or Litzmannstadt Ghetto (after the Nazi German name for Łódź) was a Nazi ghetto established by the German authorities for Polish Jews and Roma following the Invasion of Poland. It was the second-largest ghetto in all of ...
, previously also at Birkenau. The women were employed under the ''Geilenbergprogramm'' to restore the production of the German petroleum industry. They were forced to do rubble clearing/rebuilding work at refineries like ''Rhenania Ossag'' (
Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...
), ''Ebano-Oehler'' (
Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (from the phon ...
), ''J. Schindler'', '' Jung-Öl'' and other port facilities, such as
Blohm + Voss Blohm is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Hans Blohm C.M. (born 1927), photographer and author * Hermann Blohm (1848–1930), German businessman and co-founder of German company Blohm+Voss * Irma Blohm (1909–1997), German pol ...
. On 13 September 1944, the women were transported to the Hamburg-Sasel,
Wedel Wedel () is a town in the Pinneberg (district), district of Pinneberg, in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Elbe, approximately south of Elmshorn, and west of Hamburg. History Foundation and Mi ...
and Hamburg-Neugraben camps. Two days later, 2,000 male prisoners were transported to Veddel from the central Neuengamme camp. They too were used to do rubble clearing and construction work under the ''Geilenbergprogramm'', at water works, breweries, in the petroleum industry and at the
Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' (), also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the re ...
. One work gang had to dig anti-tank ditches at Hittfeld. The men were guarded by customs officers seconded to the SS. In a 25 October 1944 air raid, the camp was largely destroyed at the reported loss of 150 prisoners' lives. The survivors were transported to the
Fuhlsbüttel is an urban quarter in the north of Hamburg, Germany in the Hamburg-Nord district. It is known as the site of Hamburg's international airport, and as the location of a prison which served as a concentration camp in the Nazi system of repression. ...
subcamp, but they continued to work at the same sites as before. On 15 February 1945, 800 male prisoners were transported back from Fuhlsbüttel to the camp to produce petrol for ''Jung-Öl'' at Wilhelmsburg. On 14 April 1945, the SS permanently evacuated the camp, transporting the inmates to the
Stalag X-B Stalag X-B was a World War II Nazi Germany, German prisoner-of-war camp located near Sandbostel in Lower Saxony in north-western Germany. Between 1939 and 1945 several hundred thousand POWs of 55 nations passed through the camp. Due to the bad co ...
camp at
Sandbostel Sandbostel is a municipality in Lower Saxony (''Niedersachsen'') in northwestern Germany, 43 km north-east of Bremen, 60 km west of Hamburg. It is part of the Samtgemeinde Selsingen. In 2024, it had 799 inhabitants. https://www.statis ...
.


Memorial

The warehouse in which the camp was located has been under
historic preservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK) is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...
since 1998 because it represents a "historic type of warehouses outside the ''
Speicherstadt The Speicherstadt (, literally: 'City of Warehouses', meaning warehouse district) in Hamburg, Germany, is the largest warehouse district in the world where the buildings stand on deep foundation, timber-pile foundations—oak logs, in this parti ...
'' featuring the brick architecture typical at the time". Moreover, the building has not changed much since 1945 and traces of the inmates' presence are still visible inside, making the warehouse "an important witness" of Nazi period activities in the port. At the building today there are two memorial plaques for the inmates (one in German, one in English). The building itself is not open to the public. A mural commemorating the women imprisoned at the subcamp is located in another part of the city. The Mural from 1995 is part of Hamburg’s FrauenFreiluftGalerie (Women’s Open-air Gallery) and depicts the Holocaust survivor
Lucille Eichengreen Lucille Eichengreen (''née'' Cecilie Landau; February 1, 1925 – February 7, 2020)Dessauer Ufer at the official Hamburg memorial website

Guide to Hamburg memorials

Neuengamme Memorial sitePictures of Dessauer Ufer on a personal website

Website for the Neuengamme camp
at Stichting Vriendenkring Neuengamme
'click on' > Gedenkstätte > Kontakt

New owners invest in revitalization (German)
{{coord, 53, 31, 35, N, 10, 0, 42, E, display=title, region:DE-HH_type:landmark Streets in Hamburg Subcamps of Neuengamme Buildings and structures in Hamburg-Mitte