The Celle massacre (euphemistically called "Celler Hasenjagd", "hare chase of Celle") was a massacre of concentration camp inmates that took place in Celle, Prussian Hanover, in the last weeks of the Second World War. On 8 April 1945 over 3,000 internees being transported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were killed in an Allied air raid and subsequent attacks on survivors by SS guards, Gestapo, and Nazi party officials, as well as members of the public.[1] Some of the perpetrators of the massacre were later tried but all of those convicted for the crime were set free in the early 1950s.
On 8 April 1945, a month before the unconditional surrender of Germany, transports from several concentration camps were hit in an airstrike. 2,862 Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Dutch, and French nationals from the Drütte camp, a subcamp to the Neuengamme concentration camp, were forced into freight cars located at the Celle yard en route to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.[2] This transport had joined others the day before, making the total count around 4,000 men and women. On this transport, many internees died of exhaustion and malnutrition.[3] The freight train carrying the internees stopped next to an ammunition train, which exploded during the air raid. In the ensuing inferno, most of the wagons carrying the internees were destroyed and a number of prisoners lost their lives.[4] The surviving prisoners fled either into the town or westward towards the Neustadt wood while SS troops opened fire on them. As soon as the air raid was over, the SS guards, civilians who were members of the local Nazi party, Gestapo members, the fire-brigade and members of the public pursued the fleeing internees.[2][3][4]
The internees who were caught and survived were detained on the spot near the Neustadt wood. Some 30 persons were executed on suspicion of looting. Most of the surviving internees were marched to Bergen-Belsen, while others were detained at the army's Heide barracks. Of the approximately 4,000 prisoners who had been in Celle on 8 April only 487 survivors reached Bergen-Belsen on the morning of 10 April — the same day British forces entered Celle. Some prisoners may have been shot on the 25km march to the camp, some died at Heidekaserne military barracks nearby, left to die with no food, water or medication. They were discovered by the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division, British 2nd Army, on 10 April. [1][2][3][4]
Aftermath
Memorial and copper beech tree in Triftanlagen Park in Celle (2022)Information board in Triftanlagen Park in Celle (2022)Memorial in CelleMemorial inscription at the foot of the tree in Celle
The British Army liberated Celle on 12 April and launched an investigation into the events of 8 April – 11 April. Their chronicler characterized the Heidekaserne as a "microcosm of Bergen-Belsen". Estimates place the number of "hare hunt" victims at 200–300; the remaining transport prisoners died of other causes.[2]
Only 14 military and police personnel and political leaders were tried in the Celle Massacre Trial, which began in December 1947. Seven were acquitted of murder or accessory to murder because of insufficient evidence, whereas four were found guilty as perpetrators and sentenced to between four and ten years in prison. In addition, three were sentenced to death. One of the death sentences was overturned on appeal and the other two were reduced to 15–20 years' imprisonment as part of a clemency issued by the British military governor. All those imprisoned were released by October 1952 for good behaviour.[2][3]
A memorial was inaugurated in Triftanlagen Park in Celle on 8 April 1992 and a copper beech tree was planted. The German word for copper beech means "Blutbuche" (blood beech).
1 2 3 4 5 Bertram, Mijndert (1989), April 1945: der Luftangriff auf Celle und das Schicksal der KZ-Häftlinge aus Drütte (in German), Celle: City of Celle, ISBN3-925902-09-0
Bergen-Belsen, or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentration camp. Initially this was an "exchange camp", where Jewish hostages were held with the intention of exchanging them for German prisoners of war held overseas. The camp was later expanded to hold Jews from other concentration camps.
Irmgard Ilse Ida Grese was a Nazi concentration camp guard at Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, and served as warden of the women's section of Bergen-Belsen. She was a volunteer member of the SS.
Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, the Neuengamme camp became the largest concentration camp in Northwest Germany. Over 100,000 prisoners came through Neuengamme and its subcamps, 24 of which were for women. The verified death toll is 42,900: 14,000 in the main camp, 12,800 in the subcamps, and 16,100 in the death marches and bombings during the final weeks of World War II. Following Germany's defeat in 1945, the British Army used the site as an internment camp for SS and other Nazi officials. In 1948, the British transferred the land to the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg, which summarily demolished the camp's wooden barracks and built in its stead a prison cell block, converting the former concentration camp site into two state prisons operated by the Hamburg authorities from 1950 to 2004. Following protests by various groups of survivors and allies, the site now serves as a memorial. It is situated 15 km southeast of the centre of Hamburg.
Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Unlike other concentration camps, it was located in a remote area, in the Fichtel Mountains of Bavaria, adjacent to the town of Flossenbürg and near the German border with Czechoslovakia. The camp's initial purpose was to exploit the forced labor of prisoners for the production of granite for Nazi architecture. In 1943, the bulk of prisoners switched to producing Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter planes and other armaments for Germany's war effort. Although originally intended for "criminal" and "asocial" prisoners, after Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, the camp's numbers swelled with political prisoners from outside Germany. It also developed an extensive subcamp system that eventually outgrew the main camp.
Aufseherin was the position title for a female guard in Nazi concentration camps. Of the 50,000 guards who served in the concentration camps, training records indicate that approximately 3,500 were women. In 1942, the first female guards arrived at Auschwitz and Majdanek from Ravensbrück. The year after, the Nazis began conscripting women because of a shortage of male guards. In the context of these camps, the German position title of Aufseherin translates to (female) "overseer" or "attendant". Later female guards were dispersed to Bolzano (1944–1945), Kaiserwald-Riga (1943–44), Mauthausen, Stutthof (1942–1945), Vaivara (1943–1944), Vught (1943–1944), and at Nazi concentration camps, subcamps, work camps, detention camps and other posts.
The Belsen trials were a series of several trials that the Allied occupation forces conducted against former officials and functionaries of Nazi Germany after the end of World War II. British Army and civilian personnel ran the trials and staffed the prosecution and judges.
Mittelbau-Dora was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour from many Eastern countries occupied by Germany, for extending the nearby tunnels in the Kohnstein and for manufacturing the V-2 rocket and the V-1 flying bomb. In the summer of 1944, Mittelbau became an independent concentration camp with numerous subcamps of its own. In 1945, most of the surviving inmates were sent on death marches or crammed in trains of box-cars by the SS. On 11 April 1945, US troops freed the remaining prisoners.
Herta Bothe was a German concentration camp guard during World War II. She was imprisoned for war crimes after the defeat of Nazi Germany, and was subsequently released early from prison on 22 December 1951.
Juana Bormann was a German prison guard at several Nazi concentration camps from 1938. She was executed as a war criminal at Hamelin after a court trial in 1945.
Josef Kramer was a Hauptsturmführer and the Commandant of Auschwitz-Birkenau and of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Dubbed The Beast of Belsen by camp inmates, he was a German Nazi war criminal, directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. He was detained by the British Army after the Second World War, convicted of war crimes, and hanged on the gallows in the prison at Hamelin by British executioner Albert Pierrepoint.
Hambühren is a municipality in the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 7 km (4.3 mi) west of Celle.
Stalag X-B was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp located near Sandbostel in Lower Saxony in north-western Germany. Between 1939 and 1945 several hundred thousand POWs of 55 nations passed through the camp. Due to the bad conditions in which they were housed, thousands died there of hunger, disease, or were killed by the guards. Estimates of the number of dead range from 8,000 to 50,000.
Franz Hößler, also Franz Hössler was a Nazi German SS-Obersturmführer and Schutzhaftlagerführer at the Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dora-Mittelbau and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps during World War II. Captured by the Allies at the end of the war, Hößler was charged with war crimes in the First Bergen-Belsen Trial, found guilty, and sentenced to death. He was executed by hanging at Hameln Prison in 1945.
Franz Stärfl, alias Xaver Stärfel, alias Franz Stofel, was a Nazi German SS-Hauptscharführer and camp commander of the Kleinbodungen subcamp of Mittelbau-Dora during World War II. Arrested by the Allies and convicted of war crimes in the Belsen Trial, Stärfl was executed by hanging at Hamelin prison in 1945.
Ernst Heinrich Schmidt was a German physician and member of the SS, who practised Nazi medicine in a variety of German concentration camps during World War II. He was tried in 1947 and 1975 for complicity in war crimes, but was acquitted both times.
Gertrud Elli Heise was a female guard and later, SS overseer at several concentration camps during the Second World War. Heise was born in Berlin, Germany. She was tried for war crimes in 1946.
Anneliese Kohlmann was a German SS camp guard within the Nazi concentration camp system during World War II, notably, at the Neuengamme concentration camp established by the SS in Hamburg, Germany; and at Bergen-Belsen. She was tried for war crimes at the Belsen Trial in Lüneburg in 1946.
Boelcke-Kaserne concentration camp was a subcamp of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp complex where prisoners were left to die after they became unable to work. It was located inside a former Luftwaffe barracks complex in Nordhausen, Thuringia, Germany, adjacent to several pre-existing forced labor camps. During its three-month existence, about 6,000 prisoners passed through the camp and almost 3,000 died there under "indescribable" conditions. More than a thousand prisoners were killed during the bombing of Nordhausen by the Royal Air Force on 3–4 April 1945. Their corpses were found by the US Army units that liberated the camp on 11 April. Photographs and newsreel footage of the camp were reported internationally and made Nordhausen notorious in many parts of the world.
The Hamburg State Police Headquarters was the central office of the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) in Hamburg during the National Socialist era. Its predecessor was the Hamburg State Police, which was officially called the Secret State Police from December 1935. The Hamburg Gestapo office was later elevated to control center and was ultimately the superior authority of various Gestapo branch offices in northern Germany. Members of the Hamburg Gestapo were significantly involved in the persecution and mistreatment of opponents of the Nazi regime, Jews and other Nazi victim groups. After the British Army marched into Hamburg in early May 1945, former members of the Hamburg Gestapo were for the most part interned and often had to answer for their actions in court. At the former Gestapo headquarters Hamburger Stadthaus, the victims of state police persecution are commemorated today by a memorial plaque and Stolpersteine. The City of Hamburg is planning to set up a documentation site for the memory of the victims of police violence there. There is currently no comprehensive academic study on the Hamburg Gestapo.
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