| Natzweiler-Struthof | |
|---|---|
| Nazi concentration camp | |
 View of the camp after liberation | |
| Coordinates | 48°27′17″N 7°15′16″E / 48.45472°N 7.25444°E |
| Known for | Nacht und Nebel resistance fighters, Jewish skull collection |
| Location | Nazi Germany 1941–44 (de facto) (modern-day Bas-Rhin, France) |
| Operated by | the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) |
| Commandant | |
| Operational | May 1941 – September 1944 |
| Number of gas chambers | one from April 1943 |
| Inmates | mainly resistance fighters from occupied European nations |
| Number of inmates | 52,000 estimated[1] |
| Killed | 22,000 estimated[2] |
| Liberated by | French 1st Army, U.S. 6th Army Group, 23 November 1944 |
| Notable inmates | Boris Pahor, Trygve Bratteli, Charles Delestraint, Per Jacobsen, Asbjørn Halvorsen, Diana Rowden, Vera Leigh, Andrée Borrel, Sonya Olschanezky |
| Notable books | Necropolis, The Names of the Numbers, The Nazi Hunters by Damien Lewis |
| Website | www |
Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the villages of Natzweiler and Struthof in the Gau Baden-Alsace of Germany, on territory annexed from France on a de facto basis in 1940. It operated from 21 May 1941 to September 1944, and was the only concentration camp established by the Germans in the territory of pre-war France. The camp was located in a heavily forested and isolated area at an elevation of 800 metres (2,600 ft).
About 52,000 prisoners were estimated to be held there during its time of operation.[1][3] The prisoners were mainly from the resistance movements in German-occupied territories. It was a labor camp, a transit camp and, as the war went on, a place of execution. Some died of exhaustion and starvation – there were an estimated 22,000 deaths at the camp and its network of subcamps.[4] Many prisoners were moved to other camps; in particular, in 1944 the former head of Auschwitz concentration camp was brought in to evacuate the prisoners of Natzweiler-Struthof to Dachau as the Allied armies approached. Only a small staff of Nazi SS personnel remained when the camp was liberated by the French First Army under the command of the U.S. Sixth Army Group on 23 November 1944.[5]
The anatomist August Hirt made a Jewish skull collection, whose purpose was to portray Jews as racially inferior, at the camp. A documentary movie was made about the 86 named men and women who were killed there for that project.[clarification needed] Some of the people responsible for atrocities in this camp were brought to trial after the war ended.
The camp is preserved as a museum in memory of those held or killed there. The European Centre of Deported Resistance Members is located at this museum, focusing on those held. A monument to the departed stands at the site. The present museum was restored in 1980 after damage by neo-Nazis in 1976. Among notable prisoners, the writer Boris Pahor was interned in Natzweiler-Struthof and wrote his novel Necropolis based on his experience.
- ^ a b "The deportees of KL-Na". Struthof – the Site of the former Natzweiler concentration camp. Centre européen du résistant déporté. Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
struthof1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Alsacewas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Struthof: Some data". Centre européen du résistant déporté. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
- ^ "Natzweiler-Struthoff Concentration Camp". Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. Retrieved September 20, 2015.