After the Bremen-Hindenburgkaserne satellite camp was destroyed by Allied bombs, the SS moved the female prisoners of this camp to Bremen-Obernheide on 26 September 1944, where they were housed in three huts. The Jewish women from Poland and Hungary were forced into clearance work in Bremen on behalf of the city's Senator for Construction. Other work commandos had to level the earth for the construction of makeshift homes or manufacture prefabricated concrete slabs for the companies Lüning & Sohn and Rodiek. The women had to walk to the railway station in Stuhr, where they were loaded onto railway cars which took them into Bremen. After the railway tracks had been destroyed, the women were transported on lorries. But when the fuel shortage made this impossible as well, the women had to walk to their places of work, which were often more than 20 kilometres away. At least ten women did not survive these work commandos.
On 4 April 1945, the satellite camp was cleared. The women had to march to Uesen, where they encountered prisoners from the Bremen-Uphusen satellite camp. They continued with these prisoners on foot to an area near Verden on the Aller River, where the SS crammed them into open goods cars. After travelling aimlessly for days, the train arrived at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp probably on 8 April.
The commander of the Bremen-Obernheide satellite camp was SS-Hauptscharführer Johann Hille.
26 September 1944 to 4 April 1945
800 Female Prisoners
Clearance work and construction of makeshift homes
Bremen City Council, Lüning & Sohn, Rodiek
Obernheider Straße
28816 Stuhr
Germany
The camp was torn down immediately after the war ended and nothing of it remains to be seen today. The demolition of the camp caused it to be forgotten in Stuhr. Part of the camp's history was finally reconstructed in the 1980s and 1990s through the efforts of private individuals and, in particular, groups of students from the "Kooperative Gesamtschule Stuhr-Brinkum" (co-operative comprehensive school). In August 1988, the Stuhr town council erected a monument on the grounds of the former satellite camp.
Gemeinde Stuhr
Mrs Melzer-Ahrnken
Blockener Str. 6
28816 Stuhr
Telefon: +49 (0) 421 5695-246
E-Mail: M.Melzer-Ahrnken@Stuhr.de
Homepage: www.stuhr.de
Kooperative Gesamtschule Stuhr-Brinkum
Brunnenweg 2
28816 Stuhr
Tel.: +49 (0) 421 8 09 69 0
Homepage: http://www.stuhr.de/daten/Spurensuche-Obernheide/home.htm