History of the camp The thought of establishing a camp for "undesirable Polish elements" was born among the Nazi authorities of the Free City of Danzig long before the war broke out. At least since 1936 officials of the police watched and invigilated Polish circles, compiled material which in 1939 served as basis to prepare lists of Poles to be arrested first. In July 1939 a special SS troop was established -"Wachsturmbann Eimann", whose aim was among others to find sites and organize detention camps. In the middle of August 1939 the site for the future concentration camp Stutthof was selected. The moment the Nazis invaded Poland, massive arrests of Poles in the Free City of Danzig started. Only in the first day of the war approx. 1500 people were arrested. The victims of arrests were mainly Poles active in social and economical life, activists and members of polish organisations. Among the arrested Poles a group of 150 persons was selected and, as early as on the 2nd September 1939, they were transported to Stutthof. In this moment the tragic story of this camp, a story that lasted for many years, began. Stutthof served mainly for extermination of the most aware and patriotic Poles, mainly from the educated circles from Danzig and Pomorze Region. Since 1942 transports of Poles arrived and were directed not only by police units from Danzig-West Prussia, but also from other regions of the occupied country. At this time Stutthof became an international camp. In June 1944 it became part of the project "the final solution of the Jewish problem" - "Endloesung". In this way it became a camp of mass- extermination. Within the 5 years of its existance Stutthof grew from a small camp comprising 12ha in area intended for 3500 prisoners at a time (in 1940) to 120ha and 57 000 prisoners (in 1944). In all it comprised 39 Subcamps. Stutthof was the place where 110 000 people were kept: men, women and children; citizens of 25 countries and of 25 nationalities. Among them were Poles, Jews, Russians, Ukrainians, Bielorussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Czechs, Slovaks, Finns, Norwegians, French, Danes, Dutch, Belgs, Germans, Austrians, English, Spanish, Italians, Yugoslavs, Hungarians and Gypsies. During the imprisonment they were exposed to a number of exterminating factors such as slave-like work, malnutrition, terrible sanitation, disease, mental and physical torture. 65 000 people died as a result of exterminating living conditions as well as of executions by shooting, hanging, murdering in gas chambers by means of Cyclone B, killing by means of phenol injections into the heart, beating and torturing, and during evacuation by land and by the sea. Stutthof was liberated on 9th of May by the troops of the Soviet 48th Army of the 3rd Bielorussian Front
Fascinating post. You mention English prisoners...were they Britons living in the continent, POWs, or Channel Islanders?
Fascinating post. You mention English prisoners...were they Britons living in the continent, POWs, or Channel Islanders? I tried to find something more about them, but all I've get is the information that there is a brochure about... American citizens in Stutthof (M. Orski, The Americans in KL Stutthof, National Stutthof Museum)
Fascinating post. You mention English prisoners...were they Britons living in the continent, POWs, or Channel Islanders? A very small number of Jews were living in the Channel Islands when the Nazis arrived. They were eventually deported and, I belive, sent to Auschwitz. I don't think any survived. Islanders convicted of crimes might be sent ot a French prison. I also think that Britons in the Channel Islands at the time who were not islanders were deported at some point during the war and interned, but they were not sent to a KZ as far as I know. Other Britons who got caught by the Nazis were similarly interned as enemy aliens. A small number of British POWs who were persistent escapers were sent to KZs and some of them died there. Plus, of course, there were captured SOE agents, many of whom were executed in the camps, but a few survived.
