Die Luftaufnahme zeigt das Gelände von Neuengamme sowie die Umgebung. Deutlich zeichnet sich die Struktur der Gebäude des Lagers vor den landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben entlang einer Straße mit dahinterliegenden landwirtschaftlichen Flächen ab.

Aerial photograph taken by the British Army on 16 April 1945 of the Neuengamme concentration camp shortly before its evacuation.

British Home Office (public domain).

Das schwarz-weiße Foto zeigt einen Blick in eine Schlafstätte. Das dreistöckige Bett steht in einem stallartigen Gebäude. Das Bett hat drei dünne Ebenen, teilweise mit Stroh und groben Stoffen belegt. Der Bettrahmen ist aus grob behauenen Holzstämmen gebaut.

The prisoners had to sleep in simple wooden structures, often with two prisoners sharing one bed.

Accommodation in the Wöbbelin satellite camp, after May 1945.

USHMM.

NEUENGAMME CONCENTRATION CAMP

The Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg-Neuengamme was a Nazi German concentration camp. It was established in 1938 as a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. By 1940, it had been expanded into an independent camp. The Neuengamme camp was a main camp with at least 86 subcamps stretching as far as the Danish border. The prisoners were forced to perform hard labour, for example in the armaments industry, in the construction of military installations and in clearing rubble. There was a brickworks on the camp grounds where prisoners were also put to work. Nine out of ten prisoners came from countries occupied by Germany. They came from more than 23 different nations. Of the approximately 100,000 prisoners held in the Neuengamme concentration camp until 1945, at least half died as a result of inhumane working and living conditions, murders and during the evacuation of the camp. Diseases were rampant in the camps and supplies were catastrophic. Prisoners were also murdered with phenol injections. Around 450 prisoners of war were suffocated with poison gas in a gas chamber. Hundreds of prisoners were executed and thousands starved to death.

At the end of the war, the main camp was evacuated. Death marches took place, and around 9,000 prisoners were loaded onto ships. One of these ships sank in Lübeck Bay. The last prisoners were liberated on 10 May 1945.