Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel

Between 1933 and 1945, tens of thousands of opponents of the Nazi regime were imprisoned in Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp and the Fuhlsbüttel prison. During this period, nearly 500 men and women died in the Fuhlsbüttel camp and prison. Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, which opened on 4 September 1933 and was known as "KolaFu", quickly became one of the most notorious terror institutions in National-Socialist Germany. Fuhlsbüttel operated as a "police prison" from 1936, and prisoners were sent from there to other concentration camps. The Fuhlsbüttel prison, which was under the control of the judicial authority, was also part of the National-Socialist machinery of persecution.

From 26 October 1944 to 15 February 1945, blocks A and B of Fuhlsbüttel prison were used as a satellite camp of Neuengamme concentration camp to house over 1,300 prisoners. These men had been brought to Fuhlsbüttel after the Hamburg-Veddel satellite camp on Dessauer Ufer was largely destroyed by Allied bombs. In the context of the "Geilenberg programme" – a programme of emergency measures to save the failing mineral oil industry – the prisoners had to carry out clearance work in refineries and other plants in Hamburg’s port. Some of the work commandos were also deployed to dig anti-tank ditches and remove rubble and corpses from the city. In February 1945, the SS moved the concentration camp prisoners back to the Hamburg-Dessauer Ufer camp, but the prisoners continued to work where they had before.

SS-Hauptscharführer Ames was commander of the satellite camp.

Period

25 October 1944 to 15 February 1945

Number of Prisoners

1500 Male Prisoners

Kind of Work

Clearance work in refineries and other plants in Hamburg’s port, construction of anti-tank ditches

Labor on Behalf of

Geilenberg Programme

Location

Directions

Gedenkstätte Fuhlsbüttel
Suhrenkamp 98
Torhaus
22335 Hamburg
Germany 
(take the urban railway [S-Bahn] or underground [U-Bahn] to the "Ohlsdorf" stop)

Memorial

From 1982, various initiatives pressed for the establishment of a memorial in the gatehouse of the penal facilities on Suhrenkamp street. In March 1985, the Hamburg Parliament finally agreed to the foundation of such a memorial, and the Fuhlsbüttel Concentration Camp and Prison 1933-1945 Memorial subsequently opened in November 1987. The exhibition focuses on the different groups of prisoners and includes numerous prisoner biographies. A reconstructed solitary confinement cell and several original artefacts illustrate the conditions the prisoners had to endure. A plaque in the foyer lists the names of the prisoners murdered in Fuhlsbüttel. In September 2003 - 70 years after Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp began operating – the new permanent exhibition opened at the memorial with extensive, in-depth information on the camp. The memorial is a branch of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial.

Contact

Foundation of Hamburg Memorials and Learning Centres
Jean-Dolidier-Weg 75
21039 Hamburg
Germany

Tel.: +49 (0) 40 - 4 28 13 15 00
Fax: +49 (0) 40 - 4 28 13 15 01
Email: stiftung@gedenkstaetten.hamburg.de

Gedenkstätte Fuhlsbüttel
Tel.: +49 (0) 40 - 7 23 74 03 (nur während der Öffnungszeiten).
Homepage: https://fuhlsbuettel.gedenkstaetten-hamburg.de/en/ 

Register for tours through the Museumsdienst Hamburg
Tel.: +49 (0) 40 - 4 28 13 10
Email: info@museumsdienst-hamburg.de
Homepage: www.museumsdienst-hamburg.de