Soldau concentration camp

The Soldau concentration camp was a concentration camp established by Nazi Germany during World War II in Działdowo ( _de. Soldau) in occupied Poland.

With the approval of Reinhard Heydrich, Otto Rasch founded the camp in the winter of 1939/40 as a "Durchgangslager" ("Dulag"), or transit camp, where political prisoners could be secretly executed. [Henry Friedlander. "The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution". The University of North Carolina Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8078-4675-9] In accordance with Action T4, mental patients at sanatoria in East Prussia and Regierungsbezirk Zichenau were taken to the Soldau camp; 1,558 patients were murdered by the Lange Commando in a gas van from May 21 to June 8 1940. ["The Simon Wiesenthal Center". " [http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=gvKVLcMVIuG&b=394667 Responses to Revisionist Arguments] ". Accessed November 28 2006.] ["Jewish Virtual Library". " [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/vans.html The Development of the Gas-Van in the Murdering of the Jews] ".Accessed November 28 2006.]

During the summer of 1941, the Soldau camp was reorganized as an "Arbeitserziehungslager" (literally "work education camp"). The labor camp's prisoners, who were divided into separate camps based on gender, were engaged in forced agricultural labor. This camp was closed in January 1945. ["Keom.de". " [http://www.keom.de/denkmal/suche_lager_anzeig.php?lager_id%5B%5D=1928&lager_id%5B%5D=1929&submit.x=69&submit.y=5&submit=auswaehlen Deutschland – ein Denkmal – ein Forschungsauftrag 1996 bis...] ". Accessed November 28 2006.]

13,000 out of 30,000 prisoners were murdered. Known victims include:
*Antoni Julian Nowowiejski, Roman Catholic bishop (1858-1941)Document 3264-PS. "Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume V". US Government Printing Office, Washington DC: 1946, pp. 1018-1029.]
*Leon Wetmański, bishop (1886-1941)
*Mieczysława Kowalska, nun (1902-1941)

References

ee also

*List of Nazi-German concentration camps