Hamburg-Hammerbrook (2nd SS Construction Brigade)

Following Allied air-raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943, the main base of the 2nd SS Construction Brigade (II. SS-Baubrigade) was moved from Bremen to Hamburg on 7 August. Concentration camp prisoners had been used in SS construction brigades since autumn 1942 to clear rubble, recover bodies and defuse bombs after Allied bombing raids on cities in western and north-western Germany. These prisoners were usually under the command of the concentration camp authority closest to their place of deployment.

In Hammerbrook, the men were provisionally housed in a bunker at Süderstraße 301 and later in the primary school at Brackdamm 14/16. Up to 930 prisoners were forced to carry out clearance work for the city council and the Commissioner of Police in the badly bombed districts of Hammerbrook, Hamm-Süd and Rothenburgsort. Many of them were used to recover bodies, and a large commando temporarily worked at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery.

In April 1944, the 2nd SS Construction Brigade was transferred to Berlin and placed under the authority of Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

SS-Hauptsturmführer Weigel was camp commander of the 2nd SS Construction Brigade in Hamburg, and the guards were policemen.

Period

7 August 1943 to April 1944

Number of Prisoners

930 Male Prisoners

Kind of Work

Clearance and recovery work

Labor on Behalf of

Hamburg City Council, Commissioner of Police

Location

Directions

Süderstraße 301; Brackdamm 14/16, between Ausschläger Weg and Heidenkampsweg, 20537 Hamburg, Germany.