Z B L Ä T T E R L BB LL ÄÄTT TT EE RR

EXTRA A ZUM LAND F The Memorial Site of the SS Special

P Camp/Concentration Camp Hinzert

- Place of Remembrance with both of which remind you of a former a European Dimension Nazi concentration camp. If you hadn’t made enquiries beforehand, you would

D When you approach the Hunsrueck hardly notice that more that 13,000 village Hinzert coming from to men from over 20 countries had been Hermeskeil on the Autobahn A1 near imprisoned at this historical site bet- Reinsfeld, you will see signposts for a ween 1939 and 1945. When you first N special historical place. There are signs see the idyll of this countryside you showing that there is a place of memo- rial here. If you follow these signs you

A will see that you have arrived at a cemetery and a modern house, L N I E H R would never think that it was here From the Cemetery of where prisoners were mistreated by the Honour to the Memorial SS, forced to do inhuman work and, in 1945 – 2005 many cases, cruelly murdered. One of the first information papers issued by The documentation and meeting house the Federal State Central Authority for in front of the cemetery, the so-called Political Education in the 1980s bore ”cemetery of honour” was established the justified title ”The Peace of this in 1946 by the French military admini- Location is Deceptive.“ 60 years after stration on the grounds of the former the end of the Second World War and guard accommodation. 217 people are after the liberation of Europe from the buried here who could not be repatria- Nazi tyranny, the documentation and ted in their home countries after the meeting house, under support of the war. It became more and more the Rhineland-Palatinate State Government, beginning of the memorial. Georg was built next to the memorial of the Baldy and later his son, Bernhard SS special camp and the concentration Baldy, have been taking care of the camp at Hinzert. The permanent exhi- graves since 1958. Many of the mean- bition on display in the new building while deceased survivors of the con- provides information on the history of centration camp from different coun- a small concentration camp with docu- tries contacted them whenever they mentation, photos, films and, above all, returned to the place of their imprison- numerous reports from contemporary ment to pay their tributes to their mur- witnesses. With the aid of the exhibiti- dered comrades. Until the 1990s, the on, it is possible for you to form your grounds of the cemetery had a shado- own first image of what happened in wy existence. The character of the fur- Hinzert during the war years. tive place was reinforced by the name The concentration camp received a ”cemetery of honour“ which was used European dimension due to its function until 1994 and actually covered up the within the Nazi system of concentration background of the concentration camp. camps. This international significance An open air information tableau in four allows this memorial to meet its con- languages which was installed at the cerns, primarily by reminding us of the south-east corner of the cemetery in fate of the prisoners from different 1997 briefly explains the historical countries and of the victims who had background of the grounds. On the to die here. It is the second most signi- initiative of the Federal State Central ficant memorial within Rhineland- Authority for Political Education and Palatinate which, besides the Rhineland- the Development Association of the Palatinate Nazi documentation centre in Documentation and Meeting House the memorial in Osthofen, primarily from the former Concentration Camp at reminds us of the former concentration Hinzert, the Rhineland-Palatinate State camp in Osthofen near Worms (1933- Government together with support 34) and provides us with an overview from all four parliamentary parties, of the Nazi period in our region. decided in favour of an architecture

2 bid in 2002 to build a documentation place“. With this building they wanted house. Led by the Civil Engineering to set a ”mark of an irritation“. The Department of the Ministry of Finance exhibition to be integrated in this buil- and under concurrence of the chamber ding was to be marked by the view to of architects for Rhineland-Palatinate, the grounds of the former prisoner’s an international bid was carried out camp. The unanimous vote of the jury and included , Lorraine, was concurred by the State Govern- Wallonia and the German-speaking ment and the parliamentary parties of community in , Saarland and the state. The project was also recog- Rhineland-Palatinate. From 28 drafts nised by the Federal Authority for submitted, an international jury compri- Culture and Media. The mutual imple- sed of architects, historians and former mentation of the project by the Federal deportees from Luxembourg and , and State Governments and with a cost selected the draft by the architect com- of EUR 3.18m faced no more opposi- pany Wandel-Höfer-Lorch & Hirsch tion and the architects were able to from Saarbrücken. In their draft, the begin the preparations with the state leading architects Prof. Wolfgang Lorch company LBB in Trier at the beginning und Nikolaus Hirsch pursued the fun- of 2004. damental thoughts which portray the ambivalence of the present day idyll and the crimes of the past. They wan- The Documentation and ted to build a building ”that Meeting House reveals a fault of the coun- tryside which deceives us After the brief planning and construc- of the idyll of this tion period of two years, the documentation and meeting house will be completed in December 2005. The con- struction is also being

The chapel on the grounds of the memorial site and the crucifix on the grounds above the graves was consecrated on 4 November 1948. Among those present were the Minister of the Rhineland-Palatinate Peter Altmeier, the French military governor Hettier de Boislambert and the Luxembourg Minister of Education Pierre Frieden (from left to right on the photo) Source: Centre de Documentation et de Recherche sur la Résistance, Luxembourg (Centre for Documentation and Research on the Resistance) 3 completed in concurrence with the fri- Education within the building. The ends of the former deportees of the house is suitable for school classes and concentration camp at Hinzert in youth and adult groups from Luxembourg and France. The ”Amicale and other countries for the purpose of des Anciens de Hinzert Luxembourg“, dealing more closely with the history the French association of the deported of the concentration camp. and detained resistance fighters and patriots FNDIRP in France, the Federal Archive in Berlin, the State Archive in The Permanent Exhibition Rhineland-Palatinate, the Archive of the French occupying forces in Germany In the middle of the exhibition room with headquarters in Colmar, the there is a projection cube for basic museums of the resistance in Besançon information which is transmitted from and Esch-sur-Alzette, many other insti- the ceiling to the cubes by means of a tutions and the scientific professional beamer. Here you can see documen- advisory board under the chairmanship taries on the concentration camp and of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Benz from the also electronic cards can be recalled to Technical University of Berlin support view the position of the SS special the Federal State Central Authority for camp within the Nazi concentration Political Education in preparing the camp system. You can also get an permanent exhibition. The administra- impression of the prisoners’ barracks tive district of Trier-Saarburg, the muni- on the basis of historical photos. When cipality of Hermeskeil and the local entering the building, your view will community of Hinzert-Pölert were take you to the large window which involved with the preparations for the throws light into the room and which building of the house. Next to the large also has a double function for the exhi- exhibition room, which can also be bition. The view to the outside makes used for events, there is a seminar and the present reality of the grounds visi- conference room in which workshops ble on which the former prisoners’ for up to 35 persons can take place. camp was located from 1939 until There is also an office from the Federal closure of the concentration camp in State Central Authority for Political March 1945 and its remain, unused Outside view of the Documentation and Meeting House Source: Rhineland-Palatinate Nazi documentation centre until 1946. You can see meadows and centration camp by the Office for Eco- windmill plants built a few years ago. nomics and Administration as of 1942. However, the view to the outside is A total of more than 13,000 people interrupted by the photography of the suffered from the terror of the SS in barracks on the large window taken in the camp’s six year existence. 1946 at approximately the site of the First commander of the SS Special current memorial. As such, you have a Camp – this title being used from direct view of the former SS special November 1939 on – was Hermann camp/the concentration camp at Hinzert Pister, who assumed the position on and the picture merges into the some- 9 October 1939. His successor as of what idyllic reality of today. You beco- December 1941 was Egon Zill. The me aware of the fact that, while the position of the camp was ‘upgraded’ in camp was in existence, it could be seen 1940, when it was placed under the directly from the road going past it jurisdiction of the Inspector of concen- which connected the towns of Hinzert tration camps on 1 July 1940. Another and Reinsfeld. The accommodation for ‘upgrade’ in the concentration camp the guards was on the other, right-hand system took place on 7 February 1942 side of the road opposite the prisoners’ when the camp was allocated to the camp where the cemetery is now loca- ted. The exhibition itself is grouped into seven subject matters. The intro- ductory texts on the individual focal points give you a first impression of the exhibition:

History of the Camp

The SS special camp / Hinzert concen- tration camp was operated from 1939 to 1945. It was originally set up as a police detention camp, then as a ‘re- training camp’ for workers from the Camp commander Hermann Pister Organisation Todt (OT) who had wor- after his arrest ked on the west wall and had become Source: Memorial site Buchenwald delinquents according to the National SS Central Office for Economics and Socialists’ understanding of delinquen- Administration (WVHA). This remained cy. During the Second World War the under Zill’s jurisdiction until he was camp was turned into a concentration transferred to the Natzweiler concen- camp for deportees from numerous tration camp in Alsace as Deputy countries occupied by the Wehrmacht. Commandant in April 1942. Paul The camp retained its title of ‘SS Special Sporrenberg followed him as the third Camp’ due to the various special func- Commandant of the Hinzert concen- tions the camp assumed over the course tration camp. Formally the SS special of time, although it was run like a con- camp/Hinzert concentration camp retai- 5 Camp commander Egon Zill Camp commander Paul Sporrenberg Source: Rhineland-Palatinate Nazi Source: Rhineland-Palatinate Nazi documentation centre documentation centre ned its autonomy, until it was assigned camp. Research by the Luxembourg to the Buchenwald concentration camp Conseil National de la Résistance has on 21 November 1944. confirmed 321 deaths. One can assume Whether or not the decreed assignment that all the victims could not be found actually took place in practice is howe- after the end of the war. ver unclear. An air raid on 22 February 1945 destroyed parts of the camp. The camp remained in operation until The Prisoners March 1945, when most of the priso- ners were evacuated and sent with German workers who were initially guards to Buchenwald shortly before forced to work on the ‘west wall’ or the arrival of American troops. At least later in various factories were sent to 3 prisoners did not survive the march: the camp as of 1939 on the charge that guards shot one Frenchman, beat a they had insufficient work discipline or Luxembourger to death and killed ano- demonstrated ‘anti social behaviour’. ther Luxembourger with an injection. There they were supposed to be ‘re- The rest of the prisoners who were trained’ according to the National forced to go to Buchenwald were freed Socialists’ understanding of training. in Langendiebach in Hessian. A small The camp in Hinzert operated as a portion of the prisoners did however ‘work training camp’ not only for remain in the camp under the supervi- German workers, but also for forced sion of guards. After the last guards labourers from occupied countries departed, American soldiers liberated during the war. After the armistice them in the middle of March. agreement in 1940, Germans and for- Hitherto it has not been possible to eigners that served in French foreign investigate all the deaths in the SS legions were added. It was in this special camp/Hinzert concentration manner that 437 foreign legions, for 6 example, were transferred from the received no information about the internment camp Fréjus to Hinzert in location of prisoners. ”NN“ prisoners July 1941. were strictly forbidden letter contact. Large groups of prisoners came prima- They generally came to Hinzert via the rily from Luxembourg. The Gestapo Trier prison. From here they were later had most of the resistance fighters from brought to other penal institutions (e.g. this country locked up in the Hinzert Wittlich and Diez), which were close to camp which was close by. Extensive a special court (e.g. Cologne, Wittlich), transports of prisoners also arrived at or to other concentration camps. Hinzert from France, and the In February 1943 the SS regulated the Soviet Union. The prisoners from question of what to do with Polish Western Europe were mostly political forced labourers that had ‘traces of Nor- resistance fighters. The Eastern Euro- dic blood’ and had forbidden relations pean prisoners primarily consisted of with an ‘imperial (reichsdeutsche) Ger- forced labourers deported to Germany. man woman’. Polish men to whom this After the Wehrmacht High Command applied were to be reviewed for their issued the ‘Nacht-und-Nebel’ Decree ‘ability to become German’. The time (Night and Fog Decree) on 7 Decem- frame for such a review was set at six ber 1941, almost 2000 Frenchmen, but months. The instructions issued on also Belgian and Dutch members of 4 June 1943 stated that this group was national resistance groups were depor- to be brought to the SS special camp in ted to Hinzert from May 1942 to Octo- Hinzert for the length of this ‘review’. ber 1943. The ‘Nacht-und-Nebel’ priso- ners (”NN“ prisoners) were supposed to disappear from their homelands Crimes and Criminals without a trace and be deported to Germany in utmost secrecy, so that In the beginning, as of autumn 1939, they could be assigned to a special the guard detail in Hinzert consisted court for sentencing. Family members solely of members of the SS. Starting

Portable crates, which the prisoners had to drag while running, were used to transport wood, slates and coal. This is a contrived photo, and originates from an SS guard not known so far. Source: Rhineland-Palatinate Nazi documentation centre

7 in 1943, policemen and soldiers also died in the spring of 1943 as a result worked there. Since supervisors were of mistreatment and the refusal to give repeatedly delegated to war service or them medical care. transferred to another concentration To date it has not been possible to camp, staff at the camp changed quite determine the exact number of victims often. Their number also fluctuated who died at the SS special camp/con- significantly: 197 people, for example, centration camp Hinzert. However, the belonged to them in 1940, while only Luxembourg Conseil National de la 117 were part of it in July 1944. The Résistance has ascertained 321 deaths. number of concentration camp guards It can be assumed that not all victims increased for a time with large waves could be found after the end of the of incoming prisoners and decreased war. again after prisoners were released or sent to another camp. ‘All members of the SS, irrespective of Murder of Soviet Prisoners service level and profession, were boo- of War in 1941 rish, brutal and inherently hard; all this was strengthened by the firm will to The Trier Gestapo ‘picked up’ 70 of become a type of ”Übermensch“ (supe- the 300 Soviet prisoners of war who rior human). All of them hated us, were working in the commando at the although one sensed something like Baumholder troop exercise area and jealousy stemming from their inferiority took them away for ‘special treatment’. complex.’ André Chauvenet, cloak and The reason for this was the so-called dagger deportee from 10. October 1942 ‘Commissary Order’. This order from until March 1943 in Hinzert. Hitler provided for the murder of poli- tical officers (‘commissars’) who were responsible for the communist training Murders in Hinzert of soldiers, after they had been taken prisoners. Prisoners were shot or murdered by deadly injections both individually and Two lorries took 70 prisoners of war to in groups at the SS special camp/ the SS Special Camp/Hinzert concentra- Hinzert concentration camp. Many tion camp just after dusk. The uninfor- other prisoners died from the most med prisoners were told that they had brutal mistreatment. Trial records and to undergo a medical examination and bills of indictment against members be vaccinated before heading out to a of the SS guards detail contain myriad new job. Individually they were led to statements from witnesses of crimes the quarantine barracks, where they of unimaginable brutality and cruelty to were in fact injected with deadly potas- prisoners in the camp. SS guards, for sium cyanide. The murdered prisoners example, tortured the Jewish prisoners were then hastily buried in pre-prepa- Hanau and Baer and drowned them red mass graves that lay hidden in the afterwards in a trough. Seven Flemish forest. citizens that fell sick with dysentery

8 Murder of Luxembourg Citizens after the 1942 Strike

After the German Wehrmacht occupied Luxembourg on 10 May 1940, the Head of Civil Administration, Provincial Leader (Gauleiter) Simon pursued rigo- rous political aims. The goal was to incorporate the Grand Duchy into the German Reich. The focal point of these political efforts at the end of August 1942 was the introduction of compulsory service in the German Wehrmacht for all citizens of Luxembourg born between 1920 and 1926. The general strike that was called as a result took hold of all of Luxembourg and included workers, officials, students and school children. One day later the Germans called a state of emergency and implemented a summary court martial. It was held pri- marily at night in the court building in the city of Esch and in Luxembourg, which was presided over by Fritz Hartmann, the head of the Trier State Police Branch Office and Head of the Task Commando of the Security Police and the SD in Luxembourg. The sum- mary court martial issued twenty death sentences to arbitrarily selected strike participants and the executions were carried out from 2 to 5 September 1942 close to the Hinzert concentration camp.

Murder of Luxembourg Resistance Fighters

In 1946 those exhumed dead from the area sur- The German occupying forces arrested rounding the concentration camp were buried at approximately 350 citizens of Luxem- the new cemetery of honour (”cimitière honneur“ – name defined by the French military authorities). bourg during various raids and round Source: Archives de l’occupation francaise en ups in the autumn of 1943 and had Allemagne et en Autriche (Archives of the French them deported to the SS special camp/ occupation in Germany and Austria), Colmar 9 10 Exhibition Layout

11 Hinzert concentration camp. In the sub- at the current time. The investigation sequent hearings the Gestapo assumed was therefore not to be handled by the that there would be 50 death sentences State Prosecutors Office and the num- in the coming trials on the basis of the ber of death sentences was to be re- practises of the Special Court hitherto. duced to 25. The agreement was pre- The Gestapo accused those arrested of sented to the Main Office of Reich Secu- being ‘gang leaders’ of the Luxembourg rity (Reichsicherheitshauptamt), which Resistance. The arrested people were decided that the 25 citizens of Luxem- charged with having helped other citi- bourg were to be shot immediately. zens of Luxembourg who had avoided their compulsory obligation to serve in As a warning to the growing resistance the Wehrmacht, and having provided of the Luxembourg people, SS Major aid to allied pilots. On account of this (Hauptsturmführer) Runge selected report, the Head of Civil Administration, 23 people from the prisoners on Gustav Simon, called a meeting in 25 February 1914 and these prisoners Koblenz at the end of January 1944, were then shot at the SS special which also was attended by the Head camp/Hinzert concentration camp of the Task Commando of the Security without a court sentence. Two other Police and the SD in Luxembourg, prisoners who were supposed to be Walter Runge. At the meeting they shot were not in the camp at the time decided that issuing 50 death sentences of the action and survived. would not be politically advantageous

View of the deserted concentration camp grounds, March 1946 Source: Centre de Documentation et de Recherche sur la Résistance (Centre for Documentation and Research on the Resistance), Luxembourg

12 Memorial for the participants of the general strike in Luxembourg in 1942 Source: Rhineland-Palatinate Nazi documentation centre

Daily Life in the Camp to which they had to react immediately if called. After they were run around Screams and beatings welcomed the the assembly square a few times, all arriving prisoners to the camp. At the their bodily hair was shaved off, they same time the guards informed them were showered and given prison out- that everything in the camp was to be fits. The new arrivals were then sent done at the double. They received pri- to the quarantine for a few days. soner numbers instead of their names Afterwards the guards sent the new

13 View inside an empty barracks inside the concentration camp, March 1946 Source: Photothèque de la Ville de Luxembourg (Picture Library of the City of Luxembourg), collection Tony Krier

14 prisoners to their barracks in the camp Then they would continue working and assigned them to their respective until 6:00 p.m. They were all subse- work group at the morning roll call. quently required to appear for the eve- Fear of arbitrary violence, hunger and ning roll call. At 7 p.m. they had soup hard physical labour defined the priso- again, but often enough only ‘tea’. At ners’ daily life. The prisoners usually around 9:00 p.m. came the room in- had to get up at 5:00 a.m. in the sum- spection, which was followed by bed mer and 6:00 a.m. in the winter. After a time. These times could vary consider- room check, they went to wash and ably depending on the prisoners’ work get dressed, make their beds and then in the work groups. If the workplace to so-called ‘morning sports’. Breakfast was farther away, the prisoners had to which followed consisted of bread, some wake up earlier and returned to the margarine and marmalade as well as a camp later. very thin ‘coffee substitute’. The day continued with a walk on the double to the roll call at the assembly square. Afterwards the prisoners had to go out to work. Those who remained in the camp had a watery soup for lunch at 12:00.

View from the former prisoners' concen- tration camp grounds looking towards the commander's house, November 1945

Source: Photothèque de la Ville de Luxembourg (Picture Library of the City of Luxembourg), collection Tony Krier

15 Artistic Witnesses paintings and sketches from Foni Tissen and also the from Lucien The artistic witnesses have passed on Wercollier were created after the war. unique impressions of daily life in the SS special camp/Hinzert concentration camp for prisoners who recorded their After 1945 horrifying experiences during the time of their incarceration or after the war. The still useable barracks for former Their drawings, sculptures, linocuts prisoners and those for the guards and plastics offer emotional access to camp were sold at the instigation of outsiders trying to understand the life the French military government. The and suffering in concentration camps. terrain of the former prison camp was returned to its owners for agricultural use. The French military government had a cemetery of honour erected in the spring of 1946 on the former pre- mises of the SS guards. A French com- mission exhumed the victims from mass graves and from graves of the ‘camp graveyard’ hidden at the edge of the forest, where the SS would and had hastily buried the dead without identifying them. Identified French and Luxembourg victims were moved to graves in their homelands. The dead who could not be identified or could not be transported to their homeland were laid to rest in a newly designed memorial cemetery. Simultaneously, at the initiative of the Beuren priest Fortuin, work was begun on a chapel that was dedicated to the victims on 4 November 1948.

Jean Daligault, self portrait, March 1944 A bronze plate with the names and Source: Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation (Museum of the Resistance and birthplace of those who died was Deportation), Besançon added to the cemetery in 1960 where the wooden cross was replaced by a The pictures and drawings from Arthur stone cross. Michel and Jean Daligault that were The first commemorative plaque was created during their incarceration in the attached to the cemetery chapel in SS special camp/Hinzert concentration 1982. Over the next few years two camp were concealed by co-prisoners more commemorative plaques were and smuggled out of the camp. added, one from Luxembourg and the The linocuts from Albert Kaiser, the other from France. The memorial from 16 Lucien Wercollier was comemorated on tive from the school. Together with a October 1986 and is the central memo- Luxembourg youth group, a group rial at the cemetery. from the school used their free time to The Förderverein Dokumentations- design the terrain of the former camp und Begegnungsstätte ehemaliges KZ graveyard as a memorial place in a Hinzert e.V. (Association for the Site of symbolic spiral of violence. the Former Hinzert Concentration Camp) was formed in 1989. After the Federal State Central Authority for Political Education, on behalf of the State Government, prepared a concept Memorial Work in Hinzert for the memorial (1991/1992), it instal- led an information system in 1994 Multiple generations of school children which shows the ”Sites of Inhumanity“ at the Hermeskeil Gymnasiuim (upper in the areas surrounding the former school) under the leadership of Mr. concentration camp and explains their Volker Schneider have engaged in pro- historical meaning. ject work related to understanding and In 2002, the Rhineland-Palatinate State confronting the history of the camp. Government made a unanimous deci- The memorial stone erected in 1986 for sion to establish a documentation and the Soviet prisoners of war murdered meeting house next to the memorial. in the SS special camp/Hinzert concen- It will be opened on 10th December tration camp was the result of an initia- 2005.

Visit by schoolboys and schoolgirls from Wiltz in Luxembourg, summer 2004 Source: Rhineland-Palatinate Nazi documentation centre

17 • Former quarzite quarry (shooting site 1942) • Memorial for strike victims 1942 • Luxembourg strike victims 1942 (on the former mass grave) • Murdered Soviet prisoners of war 1941 (information on the memoria) • Mass grave of Soviet prisoners Commemorative plaque for former French of war (in a trench) prisoners, placed in the memorial site chapel on 27 October 1997 • Victims of the cloak-and-dagger Source: Rhineland-Palatinate Nazi documenta- decree 1942/43 (in a trench) tion centre • Memorial for the resistance fighters 1944 The exhibition may be followed in • Luxembourg resistance fighters 1942 English and French with the aid of an (on the former mass grave) audio guide system. Exhibition texts • Former prisoners’ cemetery and explanation of the pictures may be 1942-1944 listened to individually in these langua- • Proposed mass liquidation trenches ges by these audio devices available in 1944 the memorial site.

Part of the nationwide, international Sites of Inhumanity significance of the memorial site and the ”sites of inhumanity“ connected In the area surrounding the memorial with it was underscored by the Rhine- sites of the SS special camp/concentra- land-Palatinate state parliament in Sep- tion camp at Hinzert there are nume- tember 2005 by a national law limiting rous memorials reminding you of the the freedom to meet at these historical suffering of the prisoners of the con- sites. The purpose of this was to pre- centration camp and the many murders vent any disturbances to the memorial committed on groups of prisoners. to the victims by neo-nazi groups. The Information tableaus in four languages sites of inhumanity, along with the provide information on these ”sites of exhibition within the documentation inhumanity“ and what happened and and meeting house and the cemetery arrange it briefly into its historical con- are incorporated into the historical and text. A map of these ”sites of inhuma- political educational activities of the nity“ within a vicinity of approximately Federal State Central Authority for 5 km depicting the routes is available Political Education, in particular under at the memorial site. Groups have the the aspect of remembering the victims possibility of going close to these sites who had to die for freedom and the by bus in good weather conditions. dignity of mankind. To date, the following historical locati- ons are shown as ”sites of inhumanity“:

18 SS-Sonderlager

KZ Hinzert

Text: Dr. Beate Welter, Uwe Bader, Project Management: Dr. Dieter Federal State Central Authority for Schiffmann, Director Federal State Political Education Rhineland- Central Authority for Political Education Palatinate, 1st edition Osthofen 2005. Rhineland-Palatinate 19 Practical tips Further Literature For the history of the SS special camp/ Address: concentration camp Hinzert, please Memorial site for the SS special see:

camp/concentration camp Hinzert bildung-rlp.de An der Gedenkstätte Marcel Engel, André Hohengarten: 54421 Hinzert Hinzert. Das SS-Sonderlager im Hunsrück 1939-1945, Luxemburg, 1983; Tel: 0049/6586/9924 93, Volker Schneider: Fax: 0049/6586/9924 94 Waffen-SS – SS-Sonderlager „Hinzert“. Das Konzentrationslager im Opening hours for the exhibition „Gau Moselland“ 1939-1945, in the documentation and meeting Nonnweiler-Otzenhausen 1998 ; house: Barbara Weiter-Matysiak: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Das SS-Sonderlager/KZ Hinzert im Friday 9 a.m.-1 p.m., 2-5 p.m. Hunsrück. In: Hans-Georg Meyer/Hans Saturday, Sunday, public holidays* Berkessel (Hrsg.): Die Zeit des 2-5 p.m. Nationalsozialismus in Rheinland-Pfalz. Mondays closed Bd. 2, Mainz 2000, S. 116ff.; *please take note of the current regulations: Susanne Urban-Fahr: www.politische-bildung-rlp.de Das SS-Sonderlager/KZ Hinzert.1939- 1945. Hrsg. von der Landeszentrale für The documentation and meeting house politische Bildung Rheinland-Pfalz, is closed at Christmas, New Year and Alzey 2001. Easter Sunday. Uwe Bader: Das SS-Sonderlager/KZ Hinzert The cemetery of the memorial site is 1939-1945. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara opened daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Distel (Hrsg.), Terror im Westen. (until 7 p.m. from April to September). Nationalsozialistische Lager in den Niederlanden, Belgien und Luxemburg 1940-1945. Geschichte der Konzentra- Driving instructions: tionslager 1933-1945, Bd.5, Berlin 2004, In a car or by bus, the best route is S.249ff., from Trier on the B 52 to Hermeskeil Joseph de la Martinière: or via the Autobahn A1 (Trier – Saar- Meine Erinnerung als NN- brücken/Kaiserslautern) via the exit Deportierter.Hrsg. Landeszentrale für Reinsfeld. From here, the memorial site politische Bildung Rheinland-Pfalz, is signposted. Mainz 2005.

Translation: Herausgeberin: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Rheinland-Pfalz, Am Kronberger Hof 6, 55116 Mainz , http://www.politische- Michael C. Sternheimer Translations, Mannheim Gestaltung, WIEHR DESIGN, Mainz 20