After the women who had been imprisoned in the warehouse on Dessauer Ufer were transferred to the Neugraben, Sasel and Wedel satellite camps on 13 September 1944, 2,000 male concentration camp prisoners were taken to the Hamburg-Veddel satellite camp two days later. These men had been selected for work in the Neuengamme main camp, and under the so-called Geilenberg programme – a programme of immediate measures for rescuing Germany’s destroyed petroleum industry – they were forced to carry out construction and clearance work at waterworks, breweries, petroleum companies and the Reich railway company. One commando also had to dig anti-tank ditches near Hittfeld. The prisoners were guarded by customs officers who had been delegated to the SS.
An Allied bombing raid on 25 October 1944 largely destroyed the camp and is reported to have killed 150 prisoners. The SS transported the survivors to the Fuhlsbüttel satellite camp, but the men continued to work in the same places as before.
On 15 February 1945, the SS transferred 800 male concentration camp prisoners from the Fuhlsbüttel satellite camp back to Dessauer Ufer. One commando was deployed to Wilhelmsburg to manufacture fuel for the company Jung-Öl.
On 14 April 1945, the SS finally cleared the satellite camp on Dessauer Ufer and transported the prisoners to the POW camp in Sandbostel.
SS-Obersturmführer Karl Wiedemann was commander of the satellite camp until 25 October 1944.
a) 15 September 1944 to 25 October 1944 b) 15 February 1945 to 14 April 1945
a) 2000 (1944), b) 800 (1945)
Clearance work at refineries and other operations around the port of Hamburg, construction of anti-tank ditches
Geilenberg Programme, Jung-Öl in Wilhelmsburg
Former satellite camp:
Lagerhaus G
Dessauer Straße 4
20457 Hamburg
Germany
Directions by public transportation:
Lagerhaus G: Veddel urban rail station (S-Bahn).
Tours: There are regular harbour cruises on the topic of “Satellite Camps, Sites of Resistance and Persecution in the Port of Hamburg”. Information and registration through the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Tel.: +49 (0) 40 – 4 28 13 15 00
At the end of 1998, the Hamburg Cultural Authority listed the warehouse as a historic building in light of the fact that it “represents the historical form of storage outside of the Speicherstadt [Hamburg’s warehouse district] with brick architecture which is characteristic of the period”. The interior of the building also remained largely unchanged, and traces of the prisoners could be found in the writing and carvings on the walls, making the building an “important witness to the Third Reich” in the port area.
Two plaques were placed on the outer wall of the building (one in German, one in English) by the Hamburg Cultural Authority as part of its "Sites of Persecution and Resistance 1933-1945" programme to explain the history of the Dessauer Ufer satellite camp. In 2020 two more plaques were installed on the building: one of a private initiative for the commemoration of Gestapo-prisoners from Groningen and the other one of the "Lagerhaus G Heritage Foundation" which commemorates the victims who died of the bombing of the Lagerhaus on 25 October 1944. Since 2021, a sculpture on the theme of forced labour by Carsten Bardehle, based on a design by Ella Nora Sloman, has stood in front of the building.
Sti. LAGERHAUS G Heritage FOUNDATION
Güven Polat
Tel: +(00)1. 6179961842
Email: info@lagerhausg.org
www.lagerhausg.org
Initiative Dessauer Ufer
Email: initiative-dessauer-ufer@riseup.net
https://initiativedessauerufer.noblogs.org/