Extermination and Death
Most of the prisoners at Neuengamme concentration camp died of hunger and cold, insufficient housing and hygiene, maltreatment and overwork. In 1942, the SS introduced public hanging as a punishment measure. The police and the judiciary also took prisoners to the camp for execution. After their gold teeth had been removed, the dead were usually cremated. Initially, this was carried out at the crematorium at Ohlsdorf Cemetery, but from 1942 the camp had its own crematorium. Relatives could buy urns which allegedly contained the ashes of the dead.
Death and Executions
Prisoners were confronted with death every day. They saw their dead and dying fellow prisoners, and they were in constant mortal danger themselves. Prisoners were clubbed to death, drowned, hanged, shot, killed with poison gas or tortured to death. Prisoners also starved or perished because of the insufficient clothing and housing they received or because of the terrible hygienic conditions to which they were subjected. Others lost the will to live and chose to kill themselves.