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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 Trier 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 Luxembourg, Lorraine, was concurred by the State Govern- Wallonia and the German-speaking ment and the parliamentary parties of community in Belgium, 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 France, 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 Germany 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.