Nohra Concentration Camp
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Nohra was the first of the early Nazi concentration camps in Germany, established 3 March 1933 in a school at an airfield in
Nohra Nohra () is a village and a former municipality in the Weimarer Land district of Thuringia, Germany. On 1 December 2007, the municipality of Utzberg was incorporated into Nohra. Nohra later became part of Grammetal municipality in December 2019 ...
. The camp was administered by the interior ministry of
Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...
. The inmates were exclusively communists and included half of the Communist party group in the Thuringian state parliament. Prisoners were not forced to work or systematically abused, but had to suffer from poor hygienic conditions and did not have beds. The camp was closed down again after a few months, and the building was demolished in the 1950s. A plaque commemorating the camp was installed in 1988 but taken down in 1990; as of 2023 there is no memorial board for the camp.


Background

The Nazi party had been part of the
Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...
state government since 1930, when
Wilhelm Frick Wilhelm Frick (12 March 1877 – 16 October 1946) was a German prominent politician of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) and convicted war criminal who served as Minister of the Interior in Adolf Hitler's cabinet from 1933 to 1943 and as the last governor ...
was appointed interior minister. In the 1932 state elections, the Nazis won a plurality of the votes and formed a coalition government under
Fritz Sauckel Ernst Friedrich Christoph Sauckel (27 October 1894 – 16 October 1946) was a German Nazi politician and convicted war criminal. As General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment ('' Arbeitseinsatz'') from March 1942 until the end of the Second Wor ...
, who also served as interior minister. On 28 February 1933, a Thuringian (auxiliary police) unit under Sauckel's command was formed, with unit members recruited from SA, SS and the ''
Stahlhelm The ''Stahlhelm'' (German for "''steel helmet''") is a term used to refer to a series of German steel combat helmet designs intended to protect the wearer from common battlefield hazards such as shrapnel. The armies of the great powers began ...
'' veteran association. After the 27 February 1933
Reichstag fire The Reichstag fire (, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday, 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Marinus van der Lubbe, ...
, hundreds of
Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...
members were arrested. To reduce overcrowding in the prisons, the interior ministry of Thuringia decided to open additional camps, called assembly camps (), and the first such camp was opened on 3 March 1933 in
Nohra Nohra () is a village and a former municipality in the Weimarer Land district of Thuringia, Germany. On 1 December 2007, the municipality of Utzberg was incorporated into Nohra. Nohra later became part of Grammetal municipality in December 2019 ...
, close to
Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...
. On the same day, 100 prisoners arrived from various police stations and prisons nearby. Many of the prisoners came from Thuringia's socialist-leaning industrial cities. By the second day the population reached 170 and around 12 March it reached its peak of 220 prisoners. Many additional arrests took place after the election on 5 March. From 8 March 1933, the camp was described as a concentration camp.


Site

The camp was located at the in a World War I era building that consisted of two barracks connected by a low-rise hall for aeroplanes. The building was close enough to the later
Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Nazi Germany, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (pre-1938 ...
that the bell tower of the latter is visible from the site. From 1928, the site was used to house the , a right-wing military school for young men. The school offered mostly holiday camps combining military sports with national-conservative political education. Between 1928 and 1931, 1119 young men, no older than 15, took part in the activities at the school. Additionally on site were a volunteer work camp of the Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst and a military sports camp of the ''
Stahlhelm The ''Stahlhelm'' (German for "''steel helmet''") is a term used to refer to a series of German steel combat helmet designs intended to protect the wearer from common battlefield hazards such as shrapnel. The armies of the great powers began ...
'' association. Advantages of the site were the supportive local ideology, the presence of suitable buildings and the presence of in nearby Weimar. The concentration camp was located on the second floor of one of the buildings, and divided into three large rooms, furnished only with straw and blankets. In particular, there were no beds. There were no fences or barbed wire, and the site was comparatively freely accessible.


Administration and guards

Unlike most of the later concentration camps, Nohra was not administered by the SA or SS, but by the Thuringia interior ministry. Heimatschule students were employed as additional guards. A police station was set up in the school building where newcomers were interrogated. The commander of the station lived in a villa close by, still called locally that was used as a
Gasthaus A Gasthaus (also called ''Gasthof'', ''Landhaus'', or ''Pension'') is a German-style inn or tavern with a bar, a restaurant, banquet facilities and hotel rooms for rent. Gasthäuser are typically found in smaller towns and are often family-own ...
as of 2003.


Prisoners and camp life

All prisoners were Thuringian communists. Half of the Communist party ( KPD) group in the Thuringian state parliament was imprisoned at Nohra, the five politicians , , Fritz Gäbler, and . Other prisoners included the KPO member Werner Klinz and the former KPD member of parliament . The prisoners did not work, but spent the entire day in the halls where they slept, with only interrogations and new arrivals interrupting the monotony. There was no systematic abuse by the guards, but the hygiene conditions were very poor, especially as the camp was sometimes very crowded. The inmate Fritz Koch, a functionary of the paramilitary , died on 17 March 1933 in a Weimar hospital from a tooth infection caught at the camp; his was the only death related to the Nohra concentration camp. Occupancy of the camp averaged at 95, with a maximum of 220. In total, about 250 prisoners were interned at Nohra until the camp was closed. For a short time, some women were also held at the camp. The Nohra inmates were allowed to vote in the
March 1933 German federal election March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20 or 21 ...
, and their presence caused a significant rise in the communist vote in Nohra (172 in March 1933 versus 10 in the December 1932 local elections). Prisoners who were released had to sign a statement that they would refrain from future political engagement.


Closure and legacy

Nohra was among the first concentration camps that were closed down again. The closing date has been reported to be 12 April 1933 or 10 May 1933. Any remaining prisoners were moved to a prison in Ichtershausen. In October 1933, some of them, including Eyermann and Kröber, were moved to in nearby Bad Sulza. The Heimatschule was closed in October 1933. From 1935, the camp site was used by the
Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
, who added some barracks and further buildings. The barracks were used by the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
after the end of World War II. In 1946, the government of Thuringia considered moving their administration offices to the site of the Nohra airfield, but this was not accepted by the Soviet occupying authorities. The building that had housed the camp was demolished in the early 1950s. In 1988, the Weimar district
Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Mar ...
ordered the installation of a memorial plaque for the concentration camp in Nohra. The plaque read ('In this municipality, the imperialist rulers set up the first fascist concentration camp in Thuringia in March 1933') After
German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...
, the plaque was moved to the town hall attic in 1990, and there was no local indication of the existence of the camp in the early 2000s. In the 2010s, a local history club was working on having memorial boards installed. This has not happened as of 2023.


References


Footnotes


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Nazi concentration camps in Germany Buildings and structures in Weimarer Land