A satellite camp for women was established on Falkenbergsweg in Neugraben on 13 September 1944. The 500 Jewish women from Czechoslovakia who were imprisoned there had been deported via the Theresienstadt ghetto to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, where the SS selected them to work in Hamburg.
The women reached the Hamburg-Dessauer Ufer satellite camp in mid-July 1944 and were taken to Hamburg-Neugraben in late-July. Once there, they were forced to construct makeshift housing, lay water lines and build streets in the “Falkenbergsiedlung” neighbourhood for the companies Prien and Wesseloh. They also produced prefabricated components for makeshift housing for the company Malo. In the final months of the war, some of the prisoners had to carry out clearance work for the petroleum industry in Harburg and dig an anti-tank ditch in Hamburg-Hausbruch.
In February 1945, the SS transferred the women to the Hamburg-Tiefstack satellite camp.
The commander of the Hamburg-Neugraben satellite camp for women was SS-Hauptscharführer Friedrich-Wilhelm Kliem.
13 September 1944 to 8 February 1945
500 Female Prisoners
Construction and clearance work, construction of makeshift housing
Prien, Wesseloh, Malo Brickworks, Hamburg City Council
Site of former camp: Falkenbergsweg/Neugrabener Heideweg, 21149 Hamburg, Germany, on hiking trail (Wanderweg) no. 8.
Bronze plaque on district office: Neugrabener Markt 5, 21149 Hamburg, Germany.
Directions by public transportation:
Site of former camp with memorial stone: from the Neugraben urban rail station (S–Bahn), take bus 240 in the direction of Waldfrieden to the “Neugrabener Heideweg” stop.
District office: Neugraben urban rail station (S–Bahn).
On 16 April 1985, a memorial stone with an information plaque was unveiled at the site of the former satellite camp on Falkenbergsweg/Neugrabener Heideweg. The initiative for the memorial was launched by the SPD (Social Democrats) in Fischbek. After the stone was repeatedly vandalised and the memorial plaque was replaced several times, it was left in its damaged state. The Harburg regional assembly then decided to place a bronze plaque in a busier location in the centre of Neugraben, directly next to the district office. The new memorial was dedicated on 15 April 1992.
The site of the former satellite camp was the subject of public debate in the 1980s when consideration was given to developing the land. But following a decision by the district authorities, the land was incorporated into a nature reserve in 1990, and it now marks the start of a hiking trail.
On the initiative of students from the Süderelbe Secondary School, an information panel and memorial column were erected in 2020 at the bus stop near the former Neugraben satellite camp.
Geschichtswerkstatt Süderelbe
Cuxhavener Straße 400
21149 Hamburg
Tel.: +49 (0) 40 / 790 056 65
Email: info@geschichtswerkstatt-suederelbe.de
Website: geschichtswerkstatt-suederelbe.de