At the end of December 1944, 600 to 700 prisoners from the Bremen-Blumenthal satellite camp were housed in the Schützenhof satellite camp located between the railway embankment and Bromberger Straße. These prisoners had previously been taken each day by ship to Deschimag's "AG Weser" shipyard in Gröpelingen to work.
The historic Schützenhof from 1907 had previously served, among other things, as an assembly point for Sinti and Roma in Bremen prior to their deportation to the east, and as accommodation for forced labourers. In October 1943 it was destroyed by an American air raid. Deschimag used the cleared site at the end of 1944 to build the satellite camp.
The prisoners were initially used exclusively to manufacture submarine parts and construct the "Hornisse" submarine bunker. As the need for workers at the shipyard declined towards the end of the war when materials became scarce, some of the prisoners were deployed to clear rubble in Bremen.
The largest group of prisoners was made up of around 400 Jews from Hungary, though there were also large groups of political prisoners from Belgium, France, Poland and the Soviet Union. According to a report by the SS Garrison Physician in Neuengamme, Dr. Trzebinski, there were still 582 male concentration camp prisoners in the Bremen-Schützenhof satellite camp on 25 March 1945. Over 250 prisoners died as a result of the terrible conditions at the camp.
Between 7 and 9 April, the prisoners were transferred from the Schützenhof camp to the Bremen-Farge satellite camp, which served as an assembly camp for all male concentration camp prisoners in the Bremen region. The prisoners who were "able to march" were forced to walk to Bremervörde, where they were loaded onto cattle cars and taken back to Neuengamme main camp via Winsen/Luhe. Other prisoners were taken on foot or by train directly to the Sandbostel POW camp near Bremervörde. The Jewish prisoners in the Blumenthal camp were transported directly to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
25/26 December 1944 to 7/9 April 1945
700 Male Prisoners
Shipyard and clearance work
Deutsche Schiffs- und Maschinenbau AG (Deschimag), Krupp Group
From Autobahn 27 (motorway) in the direction of Bremerhaven, take the Oslebshausen exit, then follow Ritterhuder Heerstraße, Oslebshauser Heerstraße, Gröpelinger Heerstraße and Morgenlandstraße to Bromberger Straße 117, 28237 Bremen, Germany.
After the war, the Bremen rifle association took over the grounds of the former satellite camp again. In April 2002, following an initiative by the "Association of Victims of Nazi Persecution – League of Anti-Fascists" (Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschisten) in Bremen, a steel plate was mounted on the camp wall next to the rifle association's new clubhouse to commemorate 267 prisoners who died in the camp. The plate was designed by trainees at the Bremen steelworks.
On 29 September 2004, another plaque was mounted with the following inscription: "This plaque commemorates the innocent victims of the town of Meensel-Kiezegem in Belgium. Following SS raids on 1 and 11 August 1944, 61 of the town's 900 residents were deported to Neuengamme concentration camp. 15 of them died at AG Weser as victims of the fascist armaments mania."
In April 2006, a cobblestone was placed at the entrance to the former Schützenhof satellite camp commemorating Hungarian prisoner László Schächter, who was forced to Bergen-Belsen with the other Jewish prisoners on 8 April 1945 but died along the way.
Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten
Landesverband Bremen e. V.
Am Speicher XI/9
28217 Bremen
Germany
Tel.: +49 (0) 421 – 3 82 91 4
Fax: +49 (0) 421 – 3 82 91 8
Email: bremen@vvn-bda.de
Homepage: www.vvn-bda.de/bremen