Esterwegen is a municipality in the

Emsland Landkreis Emsland () is a districts of Germany, district in Lower Saxony, Germany named after the river Ems (river), Ems. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Leer (district), Leer, Cloppenburg (district), Cloppenbur ...

district, in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Geography

Esterwegen lies in northwest Germany, less than from the Dutch border and about from the sea.

Demographics

In 2015 the population was 5,280.

Government

The mayor is Hermann Willenborg.

Concentration camp

In 1933 a concentration camp was established in Esterwegen.Official german list
In 1936 the camp was dissolved and used till 1945 as a prisoner camp, for political prisoners and later for prisoners of the decree

Nacht und Nebel ''Nacht und Nebel'' ( German: ), meaning Night and Fog, also known as the Night and Fog Decree, was a directive issued by Adolf Hitler on 7 December 1941 targeting political activists and resistance "helpers" in the territories occupied by Na ...

Notable inmates

* Julius Leber, politician *

Carl von Ossietzky Carl von Ossietzky (; 3 October 1889 – 4 May 1938) was a German journalist and Pacifism, pacifist. He was the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in exposing the clandestine German rearmament. As editor-in-chief of the magazin ...

, journalist and

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

Laureate * Georg Diederichs, later Minister-President of

Karl Germer Karl Johannes Germer (22 January 1885 – 25 October 1962), also known as Frater Saturnus, was a German and American businessman and occultist. He served as the United States representative of Ordo Templi Orientis, and on the death of Aleister ...

, Outer Head of the Order (OHO) of Ordo Templi Orientis

Notes

External links

memorial of Camp Esterwegen and the other 14 Emsland camps (in German, English, Dutch, French)
* :de:KZ Esterwegen
homepage of the memorial (in German)
* United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Concentration Camps, 1933-1939
Emsland {{Holocaust-stub