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Memorial at location of former POW and prisoner reception camp Stalag X B in Sandbostel is being extended.
Historians ask for support in developing the new permanent exhibitions
Since the late 1970s, there have been efforts to throw some light on the history of the POW and prisoner reception camp Sandbostel and the establishment of a memorial at the historic site of the camp. These efforts received essential support through the foundation of the Verein Dokumentations- und Gedenkstätte Sandbostel (Association for a Documentation and Memorial Site at Sandbostel) in 1992 and the Stiftung Lager Sandbostel (Sandbostel Camp Foundation) in 2004.
In the year 2010, the Foundation was awarded grants totaling 1.425 million Euros for the reshaping of the memorial. Aside from the federal government, the state government of Lower Saxony, the county of Rotenburg (Wümme) and the Hermann Reemtsma Foundation in Hamburg participated in the project. The money was used to develop two new permanent exhibits in two buildings remodeled expressly for this purpose, to erect information boards at the site and to avert deterioration of the unique arrangement of former housing shacks.
Since the end of last year, three new research associates have been supporting project coordinator Andreas Ehresmann and Foundation chairman Karl-Heinz Buck. Historian Dr. Jens Binner, religion scholar Dörthe Engels and political scientist Dr. Andrea Genest are searching archives and institutions worldwide for documents, testimonies and artifacts for the two permanent exhibitions scheduled to open at the site of the former camp in Sandbostel in 2013. Dr. Klaus Volland and Werner Borgsen, authors of the groundbreaking 1991 publication “Stalag X B Sandbostel” are providing scientific consultation for the project.
The first permanent exhibition treats the history of the POW and prisoner reception camp Stalag X B Sandbostel in northwestern Germany. Between 1939 and 1945, the camp held hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war from over 70 nations, which were used for forced labor in several hundred external work details. Furthermore, in April 1945, several transports with a total of approximately 9,000 prisoners from the concentration camp at Neuengamme reached the camp at Sandbostel. About 3,000 of those died of exhaustion, starvation or various diseases shortly before or after their liberation.
The second exhibition treats the use of the site after its liberation on April 29, 1945 as the internment camp C.I.C. 2 for members of the Waffen-SS (1945-1948), the Sandbostel penitentiary (1948-1952) and an emergency reception camp for young male refugees from the GDR (1952-1960), as well as the history of the Camp Sandbostel Memorial Site.
The Camp Sandbostel Memorial Site is currently home to one of the most important historical research projects in Lower Saxony. During the past year, the memorial counted 7,500 visitors, including 2,500 adolescents and 450 foreign visitors, which participated in guided tours and lectures, and discovered history and excavated remains in workshops. The goal of everyone involved is to further the research into the history of Camp Sandbostel and keep the memory alive.
For this purpose, testimonies of former prisoners of war and concentration camp prisoners are indispensable. During the period of National Socialism, Stalag X B and its work details held people from all over Europe, America, Asia, Africa and even Oceania; archives and testimonies can therefore be found worldwide. Repeatedly during the past few years, children and grandchildren of former prisoners contacted the memorial and provided it with very significant documents.
The team of historians assumes that many other documents and artifacts that could help show the history of the camp and its post-war use are still in the possession of private individuals or archives. Therefore, the scientists would like to encourage any surviving former prisoners of Camp Sandbostel and their relatives to contact the memorial with their stories, documents, photographs, diaries, letters, drawings or other souvenirs.
The creators of the exhibition intend to present different sample biographies with selected exhibits and witness testimonies. Such exhibits could include a wide range of objects: A talisman or rosary that accompanied someone through their time of imprisonment, letters or photographs that offered consolations, “souvenirs” taken home from Camp Sandbostel, poems or pictures created after the war, as well as everyday items, ID cards or badges, books, games, etc. acquired in the camp or in a work detail.
The presentation of the biographies will include the events during the time of imprisonment but also life after liberation. This will put a focus on questions of remembering history within a family and the individual coping with memories, but also social controversies regarding indemnity payments and relations to Germany. Aside from personal testimonies, the Camp Sandbostel Memorial is interested in newspaper articles, archive material from associations of former prisoners of war and concentration camp prisoners as well as pictures of memorials mentioning Sandbostel all over the world.
You can reach the Camp Sandbostel Memorial at the following address:
Gedenkstätte Lager Sandbostel
Greftstraße 5
27446 Sandbostel
Germany
Email: info@stiftung-lager-sandbostel.de
www.stiftung-lager-sandbostel.de
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